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sprunger
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Whilst looking at the possible parts for a boost converter I came across references to making sure that the capacitor could handle the "ripple current".
I looked a bit further and can see 2 possibilities.
1) The ripple in the capacitor current itself ie the difference between the minimum and maximum capacitor current.
2) The other possibility is that there is a ripple current called delta i,L which is mainly affected by the size of the inductor for given input voltage and duty cycle.
I found a capacitor which lists its "ripple current" rating as 0.8A/800 mA. Does this mean it can handle a ripple of 0.8A in the inductor current or can its own current only vary by +/- 0.8A?
The source of my confusion may be misunderstanding a page here - http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/archives/45-09/boost.html
"The current ripple, shown as ΔIL ...The average inductor current flows into the load, while the ripple current flows into the output capacitor"
I looked a bit further and can see 2 possibilities.
1) The ripple in the capacitor current itself ie the difference between the minimum and maximum capacitor current.
2) The other possibility is that there is a ripple current called delta i,L which is mainly affected by the size of the inductor for given input voltage and duty cycle.
I found a capacitor which lists its "ripple current" rating as 0.8A/800 mA. Does this mean it can handle a ripple of 0.8A in the inductor current or can its own current only vary by +/- 0.8A?
The source of my confusion may be misunderstanding a page here - http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/archives/45-09/boost.html
"The current ripple, shown as ΔIL ...The average inductor current flows into the load, while the ripple current flows into the output capacitor"
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