Understanding Buck And Boost Converters And The Capacitors Behind Them

Product designers working on critical applications requiring electrical power must carefully select components that not only supply the appropriate amount of voltage at the right time, but also help mitigate issues such as voltage ripple, ensure system longevity, and improve component reliability.

Buck and boost converters, which are the two most basic DC-to-DC converter topologies used in power supplies, are critical power supply building blocks that require careful component consideration. While a buck converter steps down a system’s main power supply for use in lower voltage components, boost converters conversely ramp up voltage to a higher value than the input. Buck and boost converters are increasingly being used in switch-mode power supplies (SMPS) for a wide range of important applications such as power delivery networks for military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and drones, solar panels, electric vehicles, and X-Ray machines.