Modelling integrated passive structures for power converters
Date
2015-01-23
Authors
Floor, Adrian
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Abstract
Integrated architectures for power electronic circuits have been a subject of recent interest.
Integration offers several benefits such as reliability, control on parasitic elements related to discrete
components, and ease of manufacture. The main objective of this particular research has been to
contribute towards effective modelling of integrated passive circuits operating in power electronic
circuits.
Integrating passive components in one distributed space can be difficult to understand, and hence to
design. Field electromagnetics is often unwieldy for a power electronics circuit designer, so a
SPICE-like circuit simulator is often an effective design environment. This dissertation closely
examines both lumped and distributed SPICE-compatible models.
Four SPICE-compatible models have been investigated by comparing them with an analytical
distributed solution. This analytical solution is used to thoroughly derive the causes of all resonance
points, as well as impedances at low/high frequencies; which are the important factors that
characterize the integrated passive. This analytical solution is only implemented in a narrow range
of boundary conditions; hence the SPICE-compatible methods must be developed, since SPICE
then handles the algorithmic work of handling the more complicated boundary conditions found in
power electronics.