Buck Converter with Thermal Model

This demonstration shows a simple buck converter including a basic thermal model. It serves as an example for using thermal descriptions, heat sinks and the thermal chain.

Electrical model

This schematic shows a simple buck converter using an IGBT. The circuit is clocked with a fixed frequency of 10 kHz.

Thermal model

A thermal description is assigned to both the IGBT and the free wheeling diode. You can view and edit the thermal description by selecting "Edit..." from the parameter menu of the "Thermal description" parameter. The thermal parameters were obtained from measurements of commonly available semiconducters.

A Thermal Chain component is used to model the thermal transitions of the cases of the semiconductor to the heat sink and from the heat sink to the ambient temperature of the environment.

The thermal descriptions are stored in a private thermal library in the directory plThermal_plecs.

Simulation

The Scope shows the output voltage, the source current and the heat sink temperature. The final temperature of the heatsink can be calculated with the Steady-State Analysis block in the Simulink model.