Robust current observer design for DC-DC converters

In recent years several fast response controllers have been proposed for DC-DC converters. The majority of them rely on a cascade control structure involving the inductor's current in the control function as its faster dynamics, respect to output voltage, allows a significant increase in the regulation performance; the drawback is the need of a proper and expensive current sensor. In this paper a simple and robust formulation for the design of a current observer, based on the output voltage measurement is presented. The formulation is common for the three standard DC-DC converters and the resulting observer is robust to load variation. The observers have been tested in a cascade PI control structure for buck, boost and buck-boost converters and the numerical results show the good performance of the approach.