Reference Designs

This reference design is a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) solar charge controller for 12-V and 24-V solar panels. This compact reference design targets small and medium power solar charger solutions and is capable of operating with 15- to 60-V solar panel modules: 12- or 24-V batteries and providing upwards of 20 A output current. The design uses a two-phase interleaved buck converter to step down the panel voltage to the battery voltage. The buck converter and its connected gate drivers are controlled by a microcontroller unit (MCU): which calculates the maximum power point using the perturb and observe method. The solar MPPT charge controller is created with real-world considerations: including reverse battery protection: software programmable alarms and indications: and surge and ESD protection.