Switching Buck Regulator: from theory, through simulation, to implementation

I had a much longer introduction written up in my draft document of this but now looking back at it, it's a little unnecessary. To summarize my thoughts; in an attempt to provide some motivating direct applications of what I have learned in classes, I want to begin writing about some projects that directly apply the theory from class to something more tangible. Hopefully they can demonstrate real-world issues that one can run into when implementing these concepts for real. This is also a good excuse for me to refresh my memory on many of these topics and provide a good written reference to hold on to.

Any errors/things that are unclear are on me. Hopefully there aren't too many and I'm not saying anything too wrong. 🤷‍♂️

Part 1: Basic Buck Converter Theory 

This is a quick crash course of DC-DC switching buck converters using my knowledge from EE113, Power Electronics, and EE128C, Feedback Control Systems. In my power electronics class, we went over the basics of the most common types of power converters. Hopefully this is a good refresher for me and lets me put theory into practice. [This write up is really mainly for me and kinda but doesn't really begin from the very basics; it also tries to follow a linear progression to the best of my abilities but there many subtopics that loop back on themselves.]

In this design example I want to go through the basics of a buck converter again and then apply some feedback/controls knowledge to making a converter that can deliver a set output for a varying range of inputs. This will also allow us to look at the transient response of the output of the regulator, from startup and changes on the input, to sudden changes to the output load. Everything I write will be from what I remember from EE113/my notes/the textbook Fundamentals of Power Electronics by Robert Erickson. I didn’t look at the textbook that much during class, but as I now reference it for this project it reads very clearly and is an excellent reference.  If anything is unclear here, definitely take a look at that book.

Photos of 2021

Nothing technical about this post; just a recap of some photos I took throughout 2021 that I liked.

Comments: The forest one I like but feel the background should have either been more blurred (would have need a bigger aperture than the f/4 I had) or more in focus; currently it feels half-done both ways and is just a bit mushy. The Christmas one should probably be cropped tighter; the edges are messy. I should have framed the last one a little lower and wish the clouds were a little more dramatic.

I've also been going through some old photos and uploading/backdating a few I like.