DC/DC buck Converter Prototype for Educational Nanosatellite Power Sub-System

Nanosatellites, originally developed for educational purposes, are now being used for increasingly commercial applications. To meet the new challenges, nanosatellites equipment must be improved to provide better performance. This necessitates the use of DC-DC Buck converters of +3.3V, +5V and +12V to step down the high-level DC voltages to a low-level. Current trends in DC-DC buck converter development focus on low losses, high power density, and high efficiency. This paper proposes a +12V DC-DC Buck converter and conducts a comparative study between DC/DC Buck converters to select an appropriate one for our requirements. The results show a good efficiency of 88 %, with an output voltage of ll.93V and an output current of 2.1A.