A very important characteristic that dc-dc converters require is the ability to efficiently regulate an output voltage with a wide ranging value of input voltages. A recently developed solution to this requirement is a synchronous 4-Switch Buck-Boost controller developed by Linear Technology. The Linear Technology's LTC3780 controller chip enables the adoption of a 4-Switch switching topology as opposed to the traditional single-switch Buck-Boost topology. In this paper, the LTC3780's 4-Switch Buck-Boost topology is analyzed and its performance is compared against those of the regular single-switch Buck-Boost topology. Results from computer simulations demonstrate the benefits of using the 4-switch approach than the conventional buck-boost method.

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