# Boost SMPS getting very hot. Why?

I tried to experiment with boost SMPS with multiple supply rails and I almost burned myself when touching parts when running.

Here is the circuit and the part getting hot:

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

I am trying to kick the 8.8V from my regulator to 15V. The PWM comes from Arduino, assuming near perfect regulation from the regulator powering this experiment.

In my first experiment with 600Hz PWM and 10mH the inductor is very noisy and gets hot. I get 10V across R1.

In my 2nd attempt running 31.5kHz PWM and 100uH inductor at L1 the MOSFET start to get extremely hot. I am also getting 53V (!!!) across R1. I probably damaged the diode.

Can anyone tell me what did I do wrong in this?

Your circuit topology looks basically right.

However, my first guess is that L1 isn't really a 10 mH inductor. If it were 10 µH, that could explain things. You are switching at 31.5 kHz, which has a period of 31.8 µs. You show a square wave, so the switch on and off times are half that, or 16 µs. Even with the inductor current starting at 0, at the end of one pulse you'd get (8.8 V)(16 µs)/(10 µH) = 14 A. You didn't provide any datasheets, but that's quite likely well past the saturation of L1, and possible the current capability of M1 and the supply.

Another possibility is that M1 isn't turning fully on. Again, since you didn't provide any datasheet, I can't comment further. Check what gate voltage M1 is specified for, then compare that to whatever you are driving it at. If the PWM is only a 5 V or 3.3 V digital signal, then quite likely M1 isn't turning fully on when the signal is high.

The next possibility is that the gate isn't being driven with enough current when switching. That is easily determined just by looking at the gate signal. Is it a nice and sharp square wave, or does it take it's time getting from one state to the other. If the latter, then the FET is spending too much time in between full on and full off. One possible solution is to use a FET driver chip.

• @JohnD IRL540 cost me twice as much so I don't think I would be able to afford using them in experiments. I do have IR2110 driver chip though Jan 19, 2015 at 18:22