Robust Sliding Mode Control of Buck-Boost DC-DC Converters

DC-DC converters are an efficient way to convert a source voltage from one to level to another and have found extensive applications in many areas such as portable electronics, solar and wind energy systems. This paper presents a comparison of first order and higher order sliding mode control of buck-boost converters. Sliding mode control is ideal for controlling non-linear systems like switched voltage regulators as a result of its robustness to internal parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. First order sliding mode control is subject to a phenomenon known as chattering, which causes an undesirable oscillation about the desired output. Computer simulation studies are presented and show that the higher order controller reduces this problem.