Buck Converter Design

The operation of the buck converter can be in continuous mode or discontinuous mode. In a power electronic circuit, the semiconductors are one of the most significant sources of loss. For a given device, this loss has two components: the conduction loss associated with the forward voltage drop, which occurs as a part of conducting current, and the switching loss, which occurs when a device turns on or off. Switching losses are proportional to the voltage that the semiconductor must block in the off state and the value of current that was or will be conducted following the change in switching state. The chapter considers a passive air‐cooled scenario in which the transistor and diode are each mounted on their own heat sink. It focuses on polypropylene film capacitors, which are very commonly used in power electronics applications. The chapter considers the electrothermal analysis of an operating point.