Predictive Pulse Pattern Control for a Synchronous Multiphase Buck Converter

Finite control set model predictive control (FCS-MPC) has been proven to be a powerful control strategy in power electronics with very high dynamic performance compared to carrier-based pulse width modulation (PWM) approaches while avoiding unnecessarily high switching frequencies that would increase switching losses. However, the limited time resolution often leads to poor steady-state performance and can only be overcome by increasing the sampling rate, which would involve an infeasibly high computational demand. This paper presents a predictive pulse pattern control (PPPC) strategy for a synchronous multiphase buck converter (SMPB) that achieves both objectives yielding in high performance for transient and steady-state operating conditions with a feasible computational demand. At every time step, a pulse pattern with minimal switching effort is selected whose switching instants are obtained by minimizing an objective function yielding in high tracking accuracy. Simulation results demonstrate the potential of the proposed control strategy to outperform state-of-the art control approaches.