Effective Power Electronics Understanding Using Circuit Simulation

Learning power electronics circuits through simulation is one of the best ways for an Undergraduate and Postgraduate student to understand the subject effectively. This article aims to provide a panoramic view of different software tools used for simulating electrical circuits and enable students to have the best choice among various tools. A simple buck converter is considered for illustration and is realized using multiple approaches using MATLAB, Scilab, and LTspice software tools. As MATLAB and LTSpice software tools provide the open loop characteristics of any physical system, a detailed analysis of frequency response for constant voltage operation (Gvd) and average current operations (Gid) for the converter is carried out. Though Scilab is open-source software it provides the same accuracy as that of a licensed tool, such as MATLAB. However, slowness in simulation is observed while simulating complex systems. For a quick insight into the frequency response, the LTspice software tool provides a high-speed response compared to MATLAB.