Controlling Temperature of DC-DC Converter Using Switching Frequency Adjustment

As DC-DC converter operates under different load conditions, the amount of loss within the converter varies accordingly. Consequently the temperature of the DC-DC converter will also change based on the load demand. For PWM based DC-DC converters, one factor that contributes to the loss; thus, the increase in temperature is the switching frequency at which the converter operates. The higher the switching frequency used, the bigger the switching loss and in turn the hotter the converter. In this project, the temperature of a DC-DC converter is controlled by changing the switching frequency used by the converter. The hardware investigation used the LM63635 Evaluation Module from Texas Instruments from which we found that the converter is best to operate at 400 kHz for temperatures below 25°C and 800 kHz at temperatures above 50°C. Further results demonstrate that by changing switching frequency, our design could improve efficiency when the converter was tested under load current from ten percent to full load and for temperatures of 25°C, 35°C, 50°C, 75°C, and 100°C