Sensorless Current Control: An Experimental Validation Applied to a DC-DC Buck Converter

The dependence of power electronics converters is increasingly unquestionable, where a vast majority of topologies can be used supported by digital control algorithms. Normally, control requires the use of sensors, however, although less considered, sensorless techniques can also be applied, offering the possibility of reducing the hardware necessities, while increasing the control requirements. This paper proposes a sensorless current control applied to a DC-DC buck converter. The mathematical formulation of the sensorless technique is presented for contextualization with the DC-DC buck converter but, it is also illustrated how it can be derived for other voltage-source converters, controlled by current. The validation is performed by computer validation and corroborated by experimental results of a fully developed laboratorial prototype of a DC-DC buck converter. The results confirm the applicability of the proposed sensorless current control for different requirements of load operation.