Through-Hole Buck Converters for Fast Prototyping: A Comparative Study
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The increasing demand for emerging applications like IoT or drones has boosted the interest of industry and academia in DC-DC converters. Due to their high performance, non-isolated buck DC-DC converters have become one of the most common configurations for covering the power demand of portable devices. The current trend focuses on manufacturing these integrated circuits (IC) using surface-mount technology packaging. However, this technology presents disadvantages compared to through-hole devices in pursuing a quick functional circuit. This work aims to guide designers in choosing the most suitable integrated THT buck converter to develop a fast prototype. A comparative market analysis was conducted considering five integrated chip manufacturers to identify the most adequate ICs for this purpose. Then, a comparative experimental study focused on the buck converter LM2576-ADJ by Texas Instruments was carried out. The analysis aims to determine the performance of this IC mounted in a breadboard and stripboard compared to a demonstration board based on SMT technology provided by the manufacturer. Despite their shortcomings, these quick implementations performed remarkably well regarding, among others, line regulation and load regulation (0.37% and –0.33%, respectively), as well as efficiency (up to 79.9%), which indicates that their electrical response was not compromised.
Source: Electronics
Institution: Universidad de Jaén
Language: English
Topic: Advanced DC-DC Converters
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
Funder: Universidad de Jaén
OpenAlex ID: W4408774070