CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Switched Mode Power Supplies [SMPS], have become the natural choice for most of
the power supply problems, owing to their higher efficiency and increased power
density. Most of the present commercial SMPS, operate with a switching frequency of
around 50 - 100 kHz, using hard switching PWM topologies. The constant demand in
SMPS is towards higher efciency and higher power density. These twin objectives
demand high switching frequency and low losses. As the switching frequency
increases, the switching losses of the switching devices in the converter become more
signicant. To reduce switching losses, we can use resonant topologies. Push-pull
converter are popular power converters at medium power levels.

Push-pull converter is derived form of forward converter. In forward

converter when switch turned off the energy stored in magnetizing inductance delivered
to source. But in push-pull converter this energy is also delivered to load with another
primary winding and another switch. These two switches operated in complimented
manner. This utilizes the core of the transformer much more efficiently than the fly
back or forward converters. On the other hand, only half of the primary winding used
at a time, thereby increasing the copper losses significantly in a similar sized
transformer. For similar power levels the push-pull converter will have smaller filters
compared to the forward converter. However, the advantage that push-pull converter
has over fly back and forward converters is that they can be scaled up to higher powers.

Push-Pull converters are used in aerospace applications. Aerospace

application insists stiff regulation on the output voltage. Out of all DC-DC converters
push-pull converter has stiff regulation on the output voltage. The push-pull converter
is one of the prior circuit for the front-end dc-dc converter because of its simpler
construct. In this Mini project, I designed Push-Pull converter having output voltage
12V and power 18W. I used Arduino to generate gate pulses to the switches.

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 CHAPTER 2

PUSH-PULL CONVERTER
2.1 Circuit operation

The basic Push-Pull converter circuit shown in figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 Push-Pull Converter

In this circuit, Switches S1 and S2 conducted in two different half cycles. Here we
give a gating signal of width less than Fifty percent to avoid simultaneous conduction
of switches. When we give a gate pulse to Switch S2 through the control circuit in first
half cycle, input dc voltage gets applied across the Transformer. With this
Transformer dot polarity becomes positive so the diode 1 gets forward biased. The
scaled voltage gets applied to the inductor through the diode 1 Current flows through
the Transformer, 1 , Inductor L and Load. Current through the inductor rises. In this
period, the voltage applied across the Switch S1 and Diode 2 is 2 (turns ratio = 1).
When both switches are off the stored energy in inductor transferred to the load through
the conduction of 1 , 2 . Here the inductor current divided between the two windings,
flows through two diodes and in one winding Current enters the dot end and in other
winding current leaves the dot end. So, these two currents magnetic effects nullify each
other so no current in primary windings. Current through the inductor decays. In the
next half cycle, the switch S1 will be on and dot polarity becomes negative So the diode
2 becomes forward biased. Transformer core magnetized in opposite direction. The
scaled voltage applied to the inductor through the diode 2 . Current through the

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inductor rises in this period. The voltage applied across the Switch S2 and Diode 1 is
2 (turns ratio = 1). In Push-Pull converter, we are exciting the transformer core
bidirectionally. So, flux density in Transformer core can be varied from to .
With this the required volume of the core becomes half compared to that of forward
converter.

The voltage applied across each component and current flowing through each
component shown in Figure 2.2.

Figure 2.2 Push-Pull Converter Voltage and Current waveforms

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 CHAPTER 3

DESIGN OF PUSH-PULL CONVERTER COMPONENTS

The Push-pull converter specifications

= 15 to 20 V = 12 V = 18 W = 10 KHZ

The peak to peak ripple current in the inductor < 0.25 A

The percentage of ripple voltage across load < 5 % of output voltage

2
= -------------------------- 3.1

We are taking turns ratio of transformer as = 1

For maximum duty cycle we must consider minimum input voltage

2 . = ------------------------- 3.2
12
= 215
= 0.4 -------------------------- 3.3

In this design, we are taking output voltage as constant always so we can write

. = . ---------------------- 3.4
0.415
= 20
= 0.3 ---------------------- 3.5

Design of Inductor

The peak to peak ripple current in the inductor = 0.5 A

() = ( 0.5 ). ----------------- 3.6

12 (0.50.3 )
= 0.310000
----------------- 3.7

= 0.8 ----------------- 3.8

The value of inductance L 0.8 mH

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Design of Capacitor

The percentage ripple voltage across load = 5% of Output voltage

At higher values of switching frequencies, capacitor acts like short so under this
condition effective series resistance (ESR) determines the ripple voltage across
capacitor.

() = 0.05 12 ----------------- 3.9

. () = 0.6 ----------------- 3.10

0.6
= 0.25 = 2.4 ----------------- 3.11

We are taking capacitor from 40s family so the value of C we can write as

= 40 106 /2.4 ----------------- 3.12

= 16.66 ----------------- 3.13

The required value of capacitance C 16.66

Design of Transformer

Transformer core selection can be done by calculating the required core cross sectional
area and window cross-sectional area

. = 2
+ 2
----------------- 3.14

Turns ratio = 1 So = =

= 0.4 = 2.5 2
2
0.4 = (1 + 1) ----------------- 3.15
2.5

= 3.937 ----------------- 3.16

. . = . ----------------- 3.17
200.3
= 0.2106 10000 ----------------- 3.18
3000
=
----------------- 3.19

The value of = ----------------- 3.20

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 3000
=
3.937 ----------------- 3.21

= 11790 4 ----------------- 3.22

The chosen value of core must be greater than 11790 4

I have taken E 42/21/15 core and its = 178 2, = 175 2

The number of turns N can be found by

. . = . ----------------- 3.23
200.3
= 0.2106 10000178 ----------------- 3.24

= 16.85

Approximately We can take N = 17 T.

Voltage, Current ratings of Switches and Diodes

The voltage across switches may rise to 2 to 2. 5

The voltage rating of switches = 2.5 20 = 50

The diode voltage ratings given by

2 20
1 , 2 = =2 = 40
1

The current rating of switches =

1.5
= 0.4 = 0.9486
1

Approximately we can take as 1 A

The current rating of diodes given by

1,2 = 1 + 2
2

1.5
1,2 = 1.8 = 1.006
2

Approximately we can take as 1 A

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 CHAPTER 4

SIMULATION OF PUSH-PULL CONVERTER

Figure 4.1 Simulation circuit diagram

The Output voltage across load

Figure 4.2 Output voltage waveform

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 Figure 4.3 Inductor current

Figure 4.4 Currents flowing through Switches

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Figure 4.5 Currents flowing through D1 and D2

Figure 4.6 Voltage applied across Switches

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Figure 4.7 Voltage applied across primary windings

Figure 4.8 Voltage across D1 and D2

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 CHAPTER 5

HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF CONVERTER

The components used for Push-pull converter listed below

1. DC Voltage Source

2. Two IRF 540 MOSFETs

3. Arduino-UNO

4. Transformer

5. Inductor (0.86mH)

6. Capacitor (22F)

7. Load resistance (8)

8. Two Diodes (MUR860)

The open loop circuit has been implemented with help of Arduino-Uno for the
generation of the gate pulses which is then isolated using the optocoupler(TLP250) and
then given to the MOSFET as shown in the Figure 5.1 below:

Figure 5.1 Push-pull converter open loop circuit

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In Hardware implementation of circuit, I used Arduino for the generation of gate
pulses. Arduino code is written below

void setup() {

// put your setup code here, to run once:

pinMode(5,OUTPUT);

pinMode(6,OUTPUT);

void loop() {

// put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

digitalWrite(5,HIGH);

digitalWrite(6,LOW);

delayMicroseconds(26);

digitalWrite(5,LOW);

delayMicroseconds(14);

digitalWrite(6,HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(26);

digitalWrite(6,LOW);

delayMicroseconds(14);

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The gating signals for two MOSFETs are generated by Arduino are shown in Figure
5.2.

Figure 5.2 Gate pulses for Two Switches

Output voltage across Load

Figure 5.3 Output voltage across load

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 CONCLUSION

Push-Pull converter circuit operation and design of its components explained in this
Mini project. I did open loop simulation of Push-Pull converter and voltage, current of
all components used in this converter are shown. These waveforms matched with the
theoretical waveforms. In the hardware implementation of Push-Pull converter, I used
Arduino for the generation of triggering pulses to the switches.

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 REFERENCES
1. Abraham I Pressman, Switching Power Supply Design. McGraw Hill Publishing
Company,2001.

2. V. Ramanarayanan Course Material on Switched Mode Power Conversion.

3. Deepa. K, Padmaja. J, Vijay Kumar PWM Closed Loop Controlled Multi-Output

Push-Pull Converter 2013 International Conference on Control Communication and
Computing (ICCC)

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