Buck/boost simulation with GaN switches.

Power-management design is not captured by one operating point. A useful model needs to show start-up and switching behaviour, small-signal response, steady-state operating conditions and the losses that become important at high frequency.

This project examined Buck/Boost power-management modules using GaN switching devices and magnetic components, with simulation used to compare behaviour across several analysis domains.

Transient analysis shows time-domain behaviour: switching events, settling and responses to changing conditions. AC analysis helps examine frequency response and stability-related behaviour. DC analysis provides operating-point and sweep information that anchors the other interpretations.

Looking at the three together reduces the risk of optimising one attractive waveform while missing a limitation elsewhere in the circuit.

Wide-bandgap switches make faster operation and higher power density possible, but they also increase the importance of parasitics, timing, magnetic behaviour and layout-aware reasoning.

The optimisation focus was therefore not a single headline number. It was the relationship between topology, switching behaviour, conversion efficiency and high-frequency loss under the simulated conditions.

Simulation is most valuable when every plot answers a defined engineering question. A waveform without its conditions, assumptions and comparison point is difficult to use in a design decision.

The project strengthened my preference for multi-view verification: connect time, frequency and operating-point evidence before deciding that a circuit behaviour is understood.