Application of Spread Spectrum technique for EMI reduction in boost converter - A case study

Size and weight power density are important for power converters used in aerospace applications. Several attempts have been made by power electronics engineers to improve power density. Designers are often compelled to work with trade-offs while using conventional methods to improve power density like increasing the switching frequency, optimizing the heat sink design for small size and optimizing the switching device for particular power rating. This paper presents a case study that demonstrates the Spread Spectrum technique to reduce the size of the EMI filter used in boost converter resulting in improved power density. This technique can render significant reduction in size of EMI filter without any tradeoffs.