Suppose you have an ordinary switch mode buck regulator. The input voltage is 100 V, the switch’s duty cycle is exactly 50%, and you measure the output voltage as 70 V. Is this converter operating in continuous conduction mode or discontinuous conduction mode?
How can you tell?
If a switch mode buck converter is operating in continuous conduction mode, then the output voltage is the fraction of the input voltage as defined by the duty cycle. 100 V × 0.5 would equal 50 V. Therefore, this converter is operating in discontinuous conduction mode.
Note that continuous conduction mode includes the case in which synchronous (active) rectification is being used and the current through the coil is allowed to reverse direction when the output is lightly loaded. The output voltage in relation to the input voltage will still be defined by the switch duty cycle.
Therefore, we also know that the regulator in question is not using synchronous rectification, but rather is using a diode instead.
