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A New Soft-Switching Technique for Buck, Boost, and BuckBoost Converters

Yingqi Zhang, Student Member, IEEE, and Paresh C. Sen, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractA new soft-switching technique for buck, boost, and buckboost converters using coupled inductors is proposed in this paper. The principles of operation of these converters are analyzed in detail. An additional winding is added on the same core of the main inductor for the purpose of commutation. By using hysteresis current control, zero-voltage switching conditions are ensured over a wide load range. The main inductor current is kept in continuous conduction mode with small ripple, which allows high output power and small filter parameters. Also, the switching frequency can be kept constant when the load changes. Prototypes of buck, boost, and buckboost converters have been built to verify the proposed concept. The experimental results are presented and they verify the analysis. Index TermsCoupled inductor, hysteresis current control, zero-voltage switched pulsewidth-modulation (ZVS PWM) converters.
Fig. 1. ZVRT buck converter.

I. INTRODUCTION WITCHING-MODE power supplies are widely used in industrial, residential, and aerospace environments. The basic requirements are small size and high efficiency. High-switching-frequency operation is necessary to achieve small size. However, the switching loss will increase as the switching frequency is increased. To solve this problem, soft switching techniques are necessary. The zero-voltage-switched (ZVS) technique and zero-current-switched (ZCS) technique are two commonly used soft switching methods. By adopting these techniques, either voltage or current is zero during switching transitions, which largely reduces the switching loss and also increases the reliability of the power supplies. Quasi-resonant converters (QRCs) [1], [2], were introduced to overcome the disadvantages of PWM converters operating at high switching frequency. In QRCs, switches can be turned on at zero voltage or turned off at zero current so that switching losses are zero and the efficiency is high. However, the switches in QRCs have to withstand high voltage stress or high current stress. Therefore, these techniques can only be used in lowpower applications. In the zero-voltage-transition converter [3], the auxiliary switch is turned on before the main switch is turned on. The
Paper IPCSD 03090, presented at the 2002 Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, October 1318, and approved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. Manuscript submitted for review November 1, 2002 and released for publication July 7, 2003. The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Queens University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada (e-mail: yingqi.zhang@ece.queensu.ca; senp@post.queensu.ca). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2003.818964

Fig. 2. Bidirectional inductor current.

voltage across the main switch reduces to zero so that the body diode conducts before the main switch is applied a gate signal. The main switch achieves ZVS conditions and there is no recovery problem of diode. However, there exists turn-on loss for the auxiliary switch. In the zero-current-transition converter [4], the auxiliary switch is turned on before the main switch is turned off. Resonance occurs in the auxiliary resonant tank so that the main switch current reduces to zero prior to turn-off. However, the auxiliary switch is turned off at high current. Improved zero-current-transition converters [5] enable both the main switch and the auxiliary switch to be turned on and off under zero current conditions. However, the auxiliary switches are triggered twice in one switching cycle and, hence, the control circuit is complicated. A commutation cell [6] was introduced in pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) dc-to-dc converters. Either a transformer or an autotransformer is used to implement the commutation source. ZVS conditions are achieved for the main switch. Also, the proposed converters operate at constant switching frequency. However, the auxiliary switch has turn-on loss. In consequence, they are not suitable for very high switching frequency. A simple solution to soft switching PWM converters is zerovoltage resonant transition (ZVRT) converters [7], [8] where the main inductor is comparatively small. One such ZVRT converter is shown in Fig. 1. To achieve ZVS conditions, the inductor current is controlled so that it is bidirectional (positive and negative). The inductor current is shown in Fig. 2. The drawback of ZVRT converters is large ripple in the inductor current,

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Fig. 3.

ZVS buck converter using coupled inductors. Fig. 4. ZVSboost converter using coupled inductors.

which makes the conduction loss higher compared with the conventional PWM converters. Also, it needs large filter parameters. Since all output filter capacitors have equivalent series resistance (ESR), large ripple current will generate high loss in the capacitors. High ripple current will also cause high magnetic core loss. For the sake of efficiency, the inductor current should have small ripple. This technique is only suitable in low-power applications. The concept of ZVS converters using coupled inductors was proposed [9]. Some preliminary investigations on the buck converter based on simulation were reported. With some modification of ZVRT converters, the switching current can still be bidirectional so that ZVS conditions are retained and at the same time, the main inductor current is in continuous conduction mode with small ripple. The proposed technique helps to overcome the drawbacks of the ZVRT converter discussed above. It allows small filter parameters and high output power. In this paper, the operational modes of the proposed buck, boost and buckboost converters are analyzed in detail. To achieve ZVS conditions in the switches and fast response, hysteresis current control is used in these converters. By using this method, the bidirectional current has the average value determined by the output of the voltage loop, while its minimum value is always less than zero to achieve ZVS conditions. Also, the switching frequency can be kept constant when the load changes. To verify the proposed concept, prototypes of the proposed ZVS buck, boost, and buckboost converters are built. Experimental results are presented in this paper. They agree with the theoretical analysis. ZVS conditions are achieved over a wide load range. II. PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION OF THE PROPOSED SOFTSWITCHING TECHNIQUE The proposed ZVS-buck, ZVS-boost and ZVS-buckboost converters are shown in Figs. 35, respectively. Inductors and are tightly coupled on the same ferrite core. The polarand are marked as in the schematic ities of the inductors circuits to ensure that the voltage across the coupled inductor can be used as the commutation source for soft switching of the MOSFETs. is small while the main inductor is comThe inductor paratively large. The current is controlled to be bidirectional has small (positive and negative) while the output current

Fig. 5.

ZVSbuckboost converter using coupled inductors.

Fig. 6. Waveforms of i and i . (a) Mode 1:S conducts. (b) Mode 2:L , L , C , and C resonant. (c) Mode 3: D conducts. (d) Mode 4: S conducts. (e) Mode 5:L , C , and C resonant. (f) Mode 6: D conducts. (g) Mode 7:S and D conduct.

ripple. The waveforms for and for the buck converter are shown in Fig. 6. These waveforms are similar for boost and buckboost converters. The current is bidirectional, which ensures ZVS conditions allows higher for the two MOSFETs. Small ripple current in output power and lower requirements of the output filter capacitors. A. Operational Modes As an example, the proposed buck converter is analyzed. There are seven modes in one switching cycle. The equivalent circuits for these modes are shown in Fig. 7.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

(g) Fig. 7. Equivalent circuits for each mode.

Mode 1 [ ,Fig. 7(a)]: At , the switch is turned is off. The inductor is in series on and the diode will rise linearly at the slope of with . The current . When the current reaches the that is determined by the output of current reference is turned off. voltage regulation loop, the switch , Fig. 7(b)]: When is turned off at , Mode 2 [ and the resonance occurs between the inductors . During this interval, the casnubber capacitors is charged while is discharged. At , the pacitor becomes zero and begins to convoltage across duct. , Fig. 7(c)]: When conducts, the voltage Mode 3 [ changes its polarity. Beacross the output inductor and are tightly coupled, the voltage cause inductors

is negative. The current in begins to decrease due to is comparatively small, the voltage across . Because its current will decrease much faster than that of . As is on, the gate signal can be applied to so long as can be turned on at zero voltage. that During this mode, (1) where (2) (3)

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(4) (5) (6) By substituting (2)(6) into (1), the current slopes in the three inductors can be derived as follows: (7) (8) (9) rises while Equations (7)(9) show that the current in and decrease. Also, it can be seen that the currents in decreases much faster than Mode 4 [ , Fig. 7(d)]: At , the current reduces is off while continues to carry curto zero so that rent. The current rises in the opposite direction. When reaches the current reference at , the switch is turned off. The value of is set by a controller to is large enough to make sure that the energy stored in charge and discharge the snubber capacitors thoroughly so that ZVS conditions can be satisfied. , Fig. 7(e)]: When is turned off, resMode 5 [ and the snubber onance occurs between the inductor and ). The capacitor is discharged capacitors ( is charged. At , the voltage across becomes while zero. Mode 6 [ , Fig. 7(f)]: The diode begins to conduct. The currents and begin to increase. Conduction of makes it possible for to be turned on at zero voltage. At , the current will be equal to zero. During this mode, (10) Substituting (2)(6) into (10), (11) (12)

Equations (13)(15) show that the current in rises much faster than that in . At the same time, current in will decay. , Fig. 7(g)]: The diode is off and is Mode 7 [ still on. Currents and continue to increase. At , the current will be equal to so that current in inductor becomes zero. B. Main Inductor Current Ripple From the above analysis, the currents and are decreasing during Mode 3 and Mode 4. The duration of these two modes , where is the duty cycle of the gate signal for is and is the switching period. Supposing that the ripple of current is , (16) Since and are tightly coupled on the same core, (17) Substituting (17) into (7), (18) where (16) and (18), and From

(19) The ripple of the current is (20) From (19) and (20), (21) In a conventional buck converter, the inductor current ripple . In the proposed converter, the adis . When is much ditional current ripple is smaller than , the additional ripple is small. III. CONTROL STRATEGY

The current slopes in , the following equations:

, and

can be expressed by

As discussed above, to achieve ZVS conditions, the current should be bidirectional. Since voltage-mode control has slow response and cannot control inductor current directly, it is not suitable in this application. Instead, some kind of current-mode control [10] is necessary. A. Hysteresis Current Control Investigation of current-mode control methods shows that the hysteresis current control [11], [12] is the best choice due to its simple implementation and good performance. The control scheme used is shown in Fig. 8. The output voltage is sensed and compared with the reference voltage. The error voltage is then compensated by a propor-

(13)

(14) (15)

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Fig. 8.

Hysteresis current control.

Fig. 10.

Current sensing.

C. ZVS Conditions To achieve ZVS conditions, two conditions have to be met. First, the inductor current is bidirectional and the energy in the should be large enough to charge and discharge the inductor snubber capacitors thoroughly. Secondly, appropriate deadtime between two gate signals is required so that gate signal is applied when the antiparallel diode is carrying current. reaches its maxUnder full load, the voltage loop output imum value. From (23), the amplitude of the negative threshold reaches its minimum. To achieve ZVS conditions, (24) where and the deadtime (25) Here, we assure that during switching transitions, the current is constant. From (24), (26) The above requirement can be met by a proper design of the hysteresis comparator. decreases. Hence, For other load conditions, the voltage and will increase. Therefore, the the amplitudes of inequalities (24) and (26) are satisfied over the full load range. D. Current Sensing In the buck converter, it is very easy to use a resistor to sense the current . The obtained signal will have the same ground with the power stage. However, in the boost and buckboost converters, this is not the case. The current can be obtained . The current can be sensed by a resistor indirectly from while can be sensed by a current transformer. Fig. 10 shows an indirect current sensing scheme. The differential amplifier realizes the function of subtraction to obtain . IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS To verify the above analysis, prototypes of the proposed buck, boost and buckboost converters have been built:

Fig. 9. Constant f operation during load change.

tionalintegral (PI) controller. The output of the PI controller is fed to the noninverting input of the hysteresis comparator while the sensed is fed to the inverting input as . Two threshold values for the comparator are given as follows: (22) (23) reaches , the When the sensed inductor current signal . The switch is turned off output of comparator will be and is turned on so that the inductor current decreases until reaches the negative threshold value . its sensed signal reaches , the output of the hysteresis comparator beAs . The switch is turned off and is comes positive, turned on so that inductor current increases. By using hysis exactly conteresis current control, the inductor current trolled by two threshold values. B. Power Regulation changes accordingly When the load changes, the value of so that the average value of can be regulated to maintain the output voltage at the reference value. In Fig. 9, the waveforms of , , , and are shown for two different loads. From the analysis in Section II, the slopes of the inductor current are only determined by the input voltage and output voltage and changes, the difference the values of inductors. Although between two threshold values is fixed, . The waveform of shifts up or down when the load changes. The switching frequency is fixed during power regulation.

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Fig. 11. Switching waveform for S , P 48 W Upper: current A/div); lower: voltage V (20 V/div). Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

(2

Fig. 14. Switching waveforms for S , p = 48 W. Current voltage v (20 V/div). Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

(2 A/div);

Fig. 12.

Turn-on waveforms for S , P = 48 W. Time scale: 500 ns/div.

Fig. 15. Current scale: 2.5 s/div.

and voltage

P = 48 W 5 A/div, 20 V/div. Time

Fig. 13.

Turn-off waveform for S , P = 48 W. Time scale: 100 ns/div.

Fig. 16. Current scale: 2.5 s/div.

and voltage

P = 84 W 5 A/div, 20 V/div. Time

buck converter: V, V; V, V; boost converter: V, V. buckboost converter: The switching frequency is 100 kHz. The maximum output power is 90 W. Hysteresis current control method is adopted to ensure ZVS conditions. The design of the inductor parameters in these converters is given in the Appendix. A. Buck Converter Fig. 11 shows the switching waveforms for . The turn-on and turn-off transitions are shown in Figs. 12 and 13, respectively. ZVS conditions are achieved for both turn-on and off transitions. Fig. 14 shows the switching waveforms for . Figs. 15 and 16 show that the current is bidirectional when the load changes. Fig. 17 shows the main inductor current at two different load conditions. The switching frequency is fixed when the load changes.
Fig. 17. Main inductor current i under P = 84 W and P = 36 W 2 A/div. Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

B. Boost Converter Figs. 18 and 19 show the switching waveforms for respectively. ZVS conditions are achieved. C. BuckBoost Converter Figs. 20 and 21 show the switching waveforms for and , respectively. ZVS conditions are achieved for both switches. and ,

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Fig. 18. Switching waveforms for S , P 85 W. Upper: current, 5 A/div; lower: voltage, 20 V/div. Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

Fig. 22. Efficiency comparison of the proposed buck converter, ZVT converter, ZVRT converter, and hard-switching converter.

the ZVT converter [3], ZVRT converter, and hard-switching converter is shown in Fig. 22. V. CONCLUSION
Fig. 19. Switching waveforms for S , P = 85 W. Upper: current, 5 A/div; lower: voltage, 20 V/div. Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

Fig. 20. Switching waveforms for S , P = 90 W. Upper: current, 5 A/div; lower: voltage, 50 V/div. Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

In this paper, a new soft-switching technique for buck, boost and buckboost converters has been proposed. This technique allows the main inductor current to operate in CCM with small ripple current and at the same time ensures the ZVS conditions for the switches. The modes of operation were analyzed in detail. The control strategy and circuit implementation were also discussed. Hysteresis current control is used in these converters to achieve ZVS conditions. Prototypes of the proposed buck, boost, and buckboost converters have been built to verify the proposed concept. Experimental results for these converters were presented in the paper and agree with the analysis. Because of soft-switching conditions, high efficiency is obtained in these converters. Continuous main inductor current allows the proposed converters to be used in high-power applications and reduces filter capacitor size. Future investigation is underway for use of the proposed boost converter topology to other applications, such as power-factor-correction (PFC) circuits. APPENDIX DESIGN OF INDUCTORS During Modes 3 and 4, the voltage across is (A1) The current decreases at the slope of (A2) When the ripple of is , the fall time is (A3) Also, the fall time of is (A4)

Fig. 21. Switching waveforms for S , P = 90 W. Upper: current, 5 A/div; lower: voltage, 50 V/div. Time scale: 2.5 s/div.

The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed converters can achieve ZVS conditions under a wide range of load. The results also show that the main inductor current is continuous with small ripple. The proposed buck converter achieved an efficiency of 96% at full load. The comparison between the proposed buck converter,

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From (A3) and (A4), (A5) Since the values of , , , and are known, the relationand is known. ship between should To achieve ZVS conditions, the energy stored in be large enough to charge and discharge the snubber capacitors thoroughly (A6) from (A6). As long as is selected, the We can select can be calculated from (A5). value of , we can determine the value of From . Since , (A7) (A8) and are obtained. The values of The parameters used in the prototypes are as follows: H, H, ZVS-buck converter: H; H, H, ZVS-boost converter: H; H, ZVS-buckboost converter: H. REFERENCES
[1] T. Zheng, D. Y. Cheng, and F. C. Lee, Variation of quasi resonant DC/DC converter topologies, in Proc. IEEE PESC86, 1986, pp. 381392. [2] K. H. Liu and F. C. Lee, Zero voltage switching technique in DC/DC converters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 5, pp. 293304, July 1990. [3] G. Hua, C. S. Leu, and F. C. Lee, Novel zero-voltage- transition PWM converters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 9, pp. 213219, Mar. 1994. [4] G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, Novel zero- current-transition PWM converters, in Proc. IEEE PESC93, 1993, pp. 538544. [5] H. Mao, F. C. Lee, X. Zhou, H. Dai, M. Cosan, and D. Boroyevich, Improved zero-current transition converters for high power applications, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. 33, pp. 1220-1232, Sept./Oct. 1997. [6] D. C. Martins, F. J. M. de Seixas, J. A. Brilhante, and I. Barbi, A family of DC-to-DC PWM converters using a new ZVS commutation cell, in Proc. IEEE PESC93, 1993, pp. 524530.

[7] C. P. Henze, H. C. Martin, and D. W. Parsley, Zero voltage switching in high frequency power converter using pulse width modultation, in Proc. IEEE APEC88, 1988, pp. 33-40. [8] X. Zhou et al., Investigate of candidate VRM topologies for future microprocessors, in Proc. IEEE APEC98, 1998, pp. 145150. [9] Y. Zhang, P. C. Sen, and Y.-F. Liu, A novel zero voltage switched (ZVS) buck converter using coupled inductor, in Proc. IEEE Canadian Conf. Electrical and Computer Engineering, 2001, pp. 357362. [10] R. W. Erickson and D. Maksimovic, Fundamentals of Power Electronics. Nowell, MA: Kluwer, 2001. [11] L. Malesani, P. Mattavelli, and P. Tomasin, HighPerformance hysteresis modulation technique for active filters, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 12, pp. 876884, Sept. 1997. [12] J. S. Batchvarov, J. L. Duarte, and M. A. M. Hendrix, Interleaved converters based on hysteresis current control, in Proc. IEEE PESC, 2000, pp. 655661.

Yingqi Zhang (S01) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1993 and 1996, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada, in 2003, all in electrical engineering. His research interests include soft-switching techniques and modeling of power converters.

H,

Paresh C. Sen (M67SM74F89) was born in Chittagong, Bangladesh. He received the B.Sc degree (with honors) in physics and the M.Sc. (Tech.) degree in applied physics from the University of Calcutta, Calcutta, India, in 1958 and 1961, respectively, and the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, in 1965 and 1967, respectively. He is a Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Queens University, Kingston, ON, Canada. He has written more than 140 research papers in the general area of power electronics and drives. He is the author of two books: Thyristor DC Drives (New York: Wiley, 1981) and Principles of Electric Machines and Power Electronics (New York: Wiley, 1989, 2nd ed., 1997). His fields of interest include power electronics, electric drive systems, modern control techniques for high-performance drive systems, applications of fuzzy logic control and neural network control in power electronics and drive systems, switching power supplies, and power-factor-correction circuits. Dr. Sen received the Prize Paper Award from the Industrial Drives Committee for technical excellence at the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) Annual Meeting in 1986. He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS and as Chairman of the Technical Committees on Power Electronics (19791980) and Energy Systems (19801982) of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. At present, he is an active member of the Industrial Drives and Industrial Power Converter Committees of the IAS.