Effective power electronics understanding using circuit simulation

Learning power electronic circuits through simulation is one of the effective methods available for students and researchers to understand the subject effectively. This article aims at providing a panoramic view of different software tools used for simulating electrical circuits, enabling students to make an appropriate choice among various tools for a specific application. In this regard, a simple buck converter operating in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) is considered and realized using two different approaches, viz., coding and modeling using the Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB), Scientific Laboratory (Scilab), and LTspice (by Linear Technology) software tools. Symbolic object function (syms) and ordinary differential equation (ODE) solvers are used to solve coupled ODEs in MATLAB. Detailed analyses of the frequency response for constant voltage
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and average current operations
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are carried out. Although Scilab is open source software, it provides the same accuracy as that of a licensed tool, such as MATLAB. Furthermore, the LTspice software tool is observed to provide a quicker frequency response when compared to MATLAB.