Investigating Deep Saturation Effects in Buck Converters Through Modeling

Deep saturation in buck converters can significantly degrade performance and lead to component failure. A primary cause of this issue is improper inductor core selection. This paper proposes a data-driven modeling approach to capture the non-linear relationship between inductor current and inductance. By incorporating this non-linear model, we can analyze the effects of saturation through simulations and experiments. Our approach facilitates the evaluation of trade-offs between utilizing a smaller, potentially more saturation-prone inductor versus a larger inductor with increased size and cost.