2.0 Buck Converter Inductor Design

In this section of the tutorial, you will design the inductor for the output filter of a 12V-to-1.2V, 10A output, 500kHz switching frequency Buck DC/DC converter. This circuit is based on the example created by going through the SIMPLIS Tutorial. Therefore, if you are new to or inexperienced with SIMetrix/SIMPLIS, going through the SIMPLIS Tutorial will prepare you well for this section of the SIMPLIS MDM Tutorial, in which you will do the following:

  • Learn about the new Level 2 model of the Multi-Level Lossy PWL Inductor (Version 8.0+) in SIMPLIS.
  • Learn how to generate a Level 2 inductor model by building a physical model of the inductor using MDM.
  • Learn how to activate MDM post-processing after a circuit simulation to obtain a detailed inductor loss break-down.
  • Analyze the post-processing results to refine the inductor design.
  • Modify the thermal properties of the inductor and observe the performance impact of doing so.