Induction Heater Tutorial

10kw and 3kw

Disclaimer: The topics discussed use high voltage and heat. They can cause
property damage as well as hurt and kill. This site and author have made this
information public for educational purposes only. Anyone who reads this and
attempts to make a device based on any part of it does so at his/her own risk.
This is disavows any responsibility, and does not encourage anyone to do this.

An induction heater is an interesting device, allowing one to rapidly heat a
metal object !ith enough power, one can even melt metal The induction heater
works without the need "or "ossil "uels, and can anneal and heat objects o"
various shapes I set out to make an induction heater that could melt steel and
aluminum #o "ar I have been able to "eed an input power o" over 3 kilowatts$ %ow
that I have done this I would like to share how it works, and how you can build
one At the end o" the tutorial I will discuss and show you how to build a
levitation coil that will allow you to boil metals while suspended in mid air$
The first part of this tutorial will go through my development of a 3kw inverter.
y initial goal was to rapidly heat metals. y ne!t goal was to levitate metals.
" succeeded, but reali#ed that " could not levitate solid copper and steel. Their
density was too great for the magnetic field. This was my final goal: to levitate
and suspend molten copper and steel. At the end of this tutorial " will go into
the development of a $%kw unit that reali#ed this goal. " will also elaborate on
the problems that had to be overcome in order to achieve this.
&et's start.
y induction heater is an inverter. An inverter takes a D( power source and
converts it into A( power. The A( power drives a transformer which is coupled to
a series &( tank. The inverter fre)uency is set to the tank's resonant fre)uency,
allowing the generation of very high currents within the tank's coil. The coil is
coupled to the workpiece and sets up eddy currents. These currents, traveling
through a conductive, but slightly resistive workpiece, heat the piece. *emember,
+ower , -eat , *."/0. The workpiece is like a one1turn coil2 the work coils has
several turns. Thus, we have a step1down transformer, so even higher currents are
generated in the workpiece.
" would like to acknowledge the invaluable help from 3ohn Dearmond, Tim 4illiams,
*ichie 5urnett and other members of the 6hv forum for helping me understand this
topic. 7ow, before we talk more, let's see some pictures of what it can do:
&ater, " will give a link to a video showing it running. -ere is the inverter:
4hat " will now do is go over each part. Then, " will give the schematics, go
over them and how you can build this device.
Induction Heater &omponents
4e will talk about each component making up the induction heater. 8irst, there
is the workcoil. This is what heats the workpiece. The workcoil will get very hot
from the high current going through it and the radiation of heat from the
workpiece.
The workcoil is attached to the &( tank. This can either be a series or parallel
resonant tank. The tank and coil need to be cool, so " implemented a plumbing1
type design that allows me to pump water through the coil using a fountain pump.
The resonant tank is coupled to the power source with a coupling transformer. The
transformer is connected to the inverter.
The inverter chops the D( power source at a particular fre)uency. This is the
resonant fre)uency of the tank. 7ow, as the workpiece heats and goes through its
curie point 1 the temperature when the metal is no longer ferromagnetic 1 the
resonant fre)uency changes. The inverter needs to stay locked on as closely as
possible to the current resonant fre)uency to achieve the fullest power. 9ome
will do this manually, using an oscilloscope to monitor the waveforms, or using a
voltmeter on the tank and tuning the fre)uency to the highest tank voltage.
Another method is using a phase locked loop :+&&; to monitor the phase
relationship of the inverter voltage and tank voltage. This is the method " use
and " will discuss this in detail later on.
&et's start with how to easily make a workcoil. 4e will be using fre)uencies in
the $%s to $%%s of kilohert# :k-#;, so metals will conduct the current only
slightly below the surface. This is the skin effect. The current depth in mm is
Depth :mm; , <=/>:8;
9o, the wider the tubing, the lower the resistance. 4e also want to use tubing so
we can water1cool the coil. " purchased some refrigerator 3/?@ copper tubing from
-ome Depot. Aou will also need some $/0@ copper pipe and the necessary fittings
so you can feed water through one end, have it circulate through the coil, and
come out the other end. " have brass fittings with nipples so " can attach some
tubing to my fountain pump, and a return tube to my ice water bath.
This is the tubing " got from -ome Depot.
" want to mention a few points about the workcoil:
ore turns allows you to heat a bigger piece of metal. The coil should allow you
to easily heat your workpiece, or to do so with small movements in and out of the
field. The more turns, the less induced voltage, and less induced current in the
workpiece. "f the induced current is too low you may never achieve a high enough
temperature to get beyond the (urie point, where you will then get a significant
boost in heating. " believe this occurs, because of the change in the workpiece
molecular arrangement, reducing the )uenching effect on the coil.
Aou will also have a lower 8res for the same tank capacitance. This results in
deeper current penetration into the workpiece, which may or may not be desired
depending on your application. All this means it will take longer to heat the
metal for the same input power. To compensate you will need a higher voltage
going to the workcoil if you want to maintain the same rate of heating. Aou can
compensate for more turns on your workcoil with fewer turns on your coupling
transformer. -owever, you will still be faced with the issue of needing more
input power to achieve the higher e!citation voltage on the workpiece. Aou can
get more input power by having a higher input voltage or drawing more current
'& Tank( )olypropylene *ilm &apacitor +ank
8or my first capacitor bank " purchased my caps from "llinois (apacitor. Aou
can also purchase them from 7ewark Blectronics.
The induction heater uses a workcoil as a step1down transformer. This transformer
steps the voltage down, but increases the available current to the workpiece,
which is the one1turn coil that completes the transformer. The magnetic flu! is
coupled to our workpiece. The better the coupling, the more efficient is our
workcoil. The closer the workpiece is to the coil the better the energy transfer.
This is the workcoil and tank. The capacitors are high voltage metalli#ed power
film snubbers.
The workcoil is made from shaping the 3/?@ copper tubing. " use brass compression
fittings to attach it to the &( tank. The tank is made from two $@ ! 3/$=@ thick
copper bars. " drill holes in the bars to accommodate the capacitors. 4e need a
capacitor that can handle several hundreds of amps of current. " purchased some
pulse capacitors with current ratings of $6A, 3%%%vdc, <C%vac. 4ith 0% capacitors
this is close to 3%%A average current. The coupling transformer fits over the
copper tubing. "f you look closely, you will see the fountain pump submerged in
water. This pumps ice water through the tank and back out into the bucket. 4ater
flows in from the bottom left, through the copper pipe soldered to the bus bar,
through the coil, over the bank to the upper left, and through the tubing
connected to the other bus bar, and out on the upper right. Aou should also take
note where the workcoil connects with the capacitor bank. "t does not connect
both leads at the front end2 instead, the coil connects to opposite ends. This
ensures that the capacitors share an e)ual current load. Dtherwise, if both end
connected to the front, the capacitors closest to the coil would handle the brunt
of current because the resistance would be the least. 4hen you are dealing with
hundreds of amps, small changes in * are significant.
These are the bars with the holes drilled in them. The tank uses 0%
capacitors, but you can use any number that gives you the capacitance and current
handling capacity that you re)uire.
8irst, you need to determine what operating fre)uency you will use. -igher
fre)uencies have greater skin effect :less penetration; and are good for smaller
obEects. &ower fre)uencies are better for larger obEects and have greater
penetration. -igher fre)uencies have greater switching losses, but there is less
current going through the tank. " choose a fre)uency near <%kh# and wound up with
about ==kh#. y capacitor bank is 6.6uf and can handle over 3%%A. y coil is near
$u-. The capacitors are from "llinois (apacitors. ine are %.00uf/3%%%vdc. The
model number is 006++A3%0F9.
8res , $/0G>:&(;
Dnce you wind your coil you can get an idea of its value by making a simple *&(
circuit with it and connect it to a function generator and scope. " used a $*
resistor and a C%%pf capacitor. " increased my function generator sine wave and
measured the voltage across *. At resonance the &( impedance drops and the
voltage drop across * peaks. This gave me a ballpark figure, but you can Eust go
by the calculation.
7ow, as far as the workcoil goes you can form the workcoil by driving a piece of
+H( tubing into the ground. " used a $@ pipe :$.C@ DD;. Take the copper tubing
and fill it with sand or salt. ake sure it is completely filled. This way it
will act like a solid tube and will not collapse when you bend it. 8i! one end
with something like a heavy vice and work the tubing around your +H( tube until
you have your desired number of turns. 8our to five turns at $.C10@ will give you
a coil with an inductance between %.? 1 $.3 u-.
Aou can see how nicely the coil forms around the pipe. Dnce you are happy with
the turns and shape you can blow the sand out with an air compressor.
)ower #upply( ,oltage double and regulated source
" need to talk about two power supplies for the unit. Dne is the high voltage
D( that the inverter converts to A( for feeding the tank. Aou need an
unregulated, smoothed source. Aou can use $$%vac through a rectifier and smoothed
with a $%%%uf1$C%%uf capacitor for a supply of $<%vdc. " used a voltage
multiplier to convert it to 30%vdc. 5elow are some basic schematics for a voltage
doubler. " used the third variation for mine. ake sure you have your rectifier
on a large heat sink because it will be conducting a lot of amperes. y rectifier
is rated for 0CA/C%%vac.
4hen " transitioned to my $%kw unit " increased the si#e of my high voltage
supply. Bach capacitor is rated for 6C%vdc, so " can go up to I%%vdc between both
ends. " use two C%A rectifiers giving me $%%A.
The second power supply you will need will be a $Cvdc regulated source. "t is
imperitive that it is regulated because the +&& has a voltage controlled
oscillator. The H(D determines the output fre)uency based on input voltage it
receives. The fre)uency range it can generate is based on its supply voltage,
Hss. "f the supply voltage wanders, the oscillator fre)uency will wander and this
will definitely throw you out of resonance.
7ow, when " made the $%kw unit it uses four mosfets instead of two. This is twice
the amount of gate charging. Aou need to make sure your $Cvdc supply can supply
the amps to rapidly charge the gates. "t should also have a robust transformer
and capacitor on the end to make sure there is plenty of charge available. " plan
on adding an outboard pass transistor. Dne problem that plagued me for the
longest time was a Eittery inverter current when " reached modest power levels.
The current would Eump back and forth when compared to the inverter voltage. "t
appeared as if two currents were competing. At first " thought this was B"
affecting my gate drive and " spent the longest time trying to fi! it. " noticed
that when " disconnected any one of the four mosfets the current tracing was
perfect. This led me to believe that " was falling short on charging all the
gates rapidly enough, and the mosfets were not all conducting identically.
*emember, you need to fully turn the mosfets on in the shortest time possible. "
put a scope on the gates and noticed that the slopes changed when " added the
fourth gate. " solved the problem by adding a 3I%%%uf capacitor to my power
supply. This was with a $.=A transformer and a 0A $Cv regulator. The tracing was
perfect. " plan on changing the transformer to 3A and adding adding the outboard
pass transistor Eust to play it safe.
*errite Toroids, -&' Theory and Trans"ormer &oupling
" guess the best way to understand what is going on is to start with the
workcoil and work backwards. *emember from earlier " said that the workcoil is
the primary end of a step1down transformer. 4e have hundreds of amps flowing
through here and this creates a voltage in the workpiece. 4e achieve these high
currents because the *(& tank is at resonance. This means that the inductive
reactance and capacitive reactance cancel out, and all we are left with is the
small, real resistance.
5elow we have a *(& circuit with a resistance of 6*, Jl , 6ohms and (l , 3ohms.
The reactive impedance cancels to $ohm, giving us a phase shift of $?degrees
leading. The inductor wins and the inductor voltage leads the current. There is
only one current running through the series circuit. Aou can also say the
inductor voltage leads the voltage across the resistor, because the voltage and
current of the resistor are in phase. *emember, the voltage drop across an
inductor is a reaction against a change in current through it. The instantaneous
voltage is #ero when the current is at a peak because the change in current is
#ero, manifested by the #ero slope.
"f the inductive and capacitive reactance cancel out the phase shift is #ero. The
current in the circuit is in phase with the voltage.
7ow here is an important point. The ma!imum power transfer will occur when the
current is in phase with the voltage.
9o, at resonance, the current in the series circuit is in phase with the
voltage source. "f we are out of resonance the current phase is shifted from #ero
with respect to the voltage. "f there is more inductive reactance the current
lags the voltage2 if there is more capacitive reactance the current leads the
voltage. Aou can also say the capacitor voltage lags the current.
4hat is the voltage source for the series tankK "t is our coupling transformer. "
am e!perimenting with different materials and turns, but right now " am using an
iron powered core from Amidon (orp made from Type 3 material. This material is
good from fre)uencies between %.%Ch# and %.Ch#. " used two toroids. Bach is
0.0C@ in diameter and %.C=C@ thick. " wound $6g wire around for 0%10= turns. " am
still trying to figure out the optimum turns and the best material. The lower the
turns the greater greater the e!citing voltage to the tank. -owever,
magneti#ation current goes up as does the load on the inverter.
5elow are the two toroids. " use two to prevent saturation. " wonder how three
would doK
-ere " have wound $6g wire around. The transformer does not impart a phase shift
if place on the tank correctly. "f you flip it around you will introduce a $?%
degree shift which will prevent the +&& from locking onto the fre)uency. 3ust
turn it around. 4hich way is the right wayK Lse the right1hand rule.

-ere is a solenoid with the current flowing in the direction shown. +ut your
right thumb in the direction of the current and your fingers curl in the
direction of the 5 field. The field outside of the coil is not important to us2
the field inside the solenoid sums to one large field going from right to left.
"f we had a metal bar or part of the toroid's arc inside, the field would travel
through it.
9o here is a mock1up of the coupling transformer. The current travels to the
positive terminal of our toroid transformer output. Lsing the right hand rule we
can reali#e the direction of the 5 field for each turn. The black arrow on the
toroid shows the direction the field travels in the core. Lsing the right1hand
rule again we see that the current travels through the copper tubing from left to
right towards the positive terminal of our *&( tank. 4e will use this as the
positive lead for monitoring our tank capacitor voltage later. "f you are unsure
which end is which you can wind a few turns of wire as a secondary and scope the
ends. The voltages in and out should be in phase.
*errite Trans"ormer
4hen " started this proEect " didn't understand how one determined the number
of turns to put on the primary coupling transformer. There are several factors to
consider. 8irst, the wire needs to be able to handle the current. "f you are
dealing with high fre)uencies, the maEority of the current is conducted on the
surface. This is the skin effect. Aou will need to have several insulated strands
to increase the surface area2 these strands will need to be twisted in order to
reduce eddy currents. As you pack more wire into the space, heating becomes more
significant. "f your wire is not robust enough you might need a cooling system.
The power to your system has a voltage and a current. "f you have the means to
run high voltages, you can adEust your windings to keep the primary current low
enough to reduce the heating of your transformer and switches. "f " want to keep
the primary current low " need more turns on the primary. As long as " have
enough voltage, the same primary current will yield a much larger secondary
current. &et's go over an e!ample:

y transformer has $% turns on the primary and one on the secondary :this is the
resonant tank;. &et's assume that the load across the secondary is $ ohm. "f "
have $%%v on the primary, a $%:$ transformer gives us $%v on the secondary. $%A
of secondary current re)uires $A of primary current. The power draw is $%%4. "f "
want to draw less current " can wind a 0%:$ transformer. 7ow, 0%%v on the primary
results in $%v on the secondary. The current is still $%A on the secondary, but
it is %.CA on the primary. This means that as long as " have a higher voltage
supply, " can reduce the current my inverter re)uires, and still maintain the
same power to my workpiece. "f " have 6%%v available, " can draw the same $A on
the primary, but have 0%A available on the secondary.
4hen heating small pieces of metal with small coils, the current demand will go
up )uickly as there is little material to )uench the tank. Aou want a lot of
turns on the primary in order to keep the current draw low while still supplying
a lot of current to the tank. "f you plan on heating large pieces of metal, the
tank gets )uenched and the current draw will be too low for effective heating.
Aou need less turns on the primary in order to provide a higher e!citation
voltage to the tank.
&et's look at another e!ample where the workpiece is )uenching the tank. "n this
case you don't have enough voltage to get an ade)uate current to flow in the
tank. "f you have 0%%v on a 0%:$ transformer you will have $%v on the secondary.
"f the load is $* you will have $%A on the secondary and %.CA in the primary. "f
our ma!imum voltage is 0%%v we need to draw more current, making sure our
switches can handle this of course. 5y changing to a $%:$ transformer we get 0%v
M 0%A on the secondary2 the primary we have 0%%v M 0A. 4e are drawing more power
and we have doubled the output current at the e!pense of needing to deal with
four times the primary current. As long as the primary circuit can handle this we
have solved the problem. As you go lower on the turns you need to make sure you
do not saturate the core. Also remember that a small amount of the total primary
current is magneti#ation current.
.scilloscope Tracings
The inverter outputs a drive voltage to the coupling transformer. The current
in is in phase with the current out. 4hen the tank is at resonance, the tank
current is in phase with the drive current of the coupling transformer, and is in
phase with the inverter input voltage. "f anything, you want the current to
slightly lag the voltage because the mosfets behave better when facing an
inductive, rather than a capacitive, load. This has to do with the mosfets
conducting in the reverse direction. The tracing below is clean and allows me to
reach very high power levels while maintaining relatively cool mosfets.

7ow, if the tanks is above resonance we have more inductive reactance. The tank's
net current will lag the driving voltage from the coupling transformer. 9ince the
input and output current of the coupling transformer are in phase, the tank's
current is lagging the inverter driving voltage. 5elow you can see the dominating
inductive reactance results in the inverter current :triangle1looking wave; is
almost I% degrees lagging the inverter voltage :s)uare wave;.
"f we are below the resonant fre)uency capacitive reactance results in the
current leading the inverter voltage. Also, there is ringing in the current
waveform and at the inverter voltage transitions. This noise gets worse with
higher power levels and can result in mosfet failure.

5elow is another e!ample of ringing. Aou can see ringing on the voltage at the
transition and on the current waveform. " have positioned them apart for easier
viewing. This is due to high inductance on the gate. -eavy current on the gate
causes a large &di/dt. The problem can usually be solved by either increasing the
gate resistance :increase the resistor value;, or decrease the stray inductance
by shortening the gate lead. " was able to almost eliminate the ringing by
shortening the gate lead, but then " did not have enough length for connecting
two in parallel. 9o " changed the value of * from C ohms to $% ohms. The first
image is with the C ohm gate resistor. " was still able to charge the gate with
$% ohms in a sufficiently short amount of time at $Cv.
These images show the waveform after the fi!: shortening the gate leads as much
as possible to still allow room for paralleling two of them and increasing the
gate resistor from C* to $%*. 7otice the clean voltage s)uare wave and the smooth
current curve. The second image is a blow1up of the first.


5elow is a basic sketch of the half1bridge inverter. The coil in the middle is
the coupling transformer to the resonant tank. The arrows show the paths the
current takes as the switches alternate between closed1open and open1closed.
5elow are two sketches. 9ketch " shows ringing if there is too long of a delay
during switching. "f the ne!t switch does not close in time, the inductive kick
will drive the voltage too high, causing an overshoot, followed by a large dip
when it finally closes. 9ketch "" shows profound voltage sagging in the middle of
the waveform. " had this happen when the decoupling capacitors went bad, shorting
the current path. The capacitors are needed to remove any D( component from the
pulse.
" would like Eust mention that the inductive waveforms is really an e!ponential
curve. "f we can appro!imate the tank above resonane as a *& circuit responding
to a step response
The solution to
is
Analysis of a capacitor dominant *( circuit will yield something similar. 4hen
dealing with a *(& step response one has
and the 0nd order differential e)uation is
and the general solution is
"f the system is underdamped the solution has the form:
H:t; , e1Nt:5cos: t ; O 5sin: t ;;
.scilloscope Tracings II
&et's continue our discussion of oscilloscope tracings so we can better
understand how the inverter is going to work and lock onto resonance. 8rom the
last page " mentioned that voltage across the tank capacitor lags the current by
I% degrees. At resonance, the tank current has a #ero phase shift with respect to
source :inverter; tank voltage because the inductive and capacitive reactance
cancel out. "f you display the inverter voltage and capacitor voltage together,
you can see the sinusoidal capacitor voltage lags the inverter voltage by I%
degrees. The s)uare wave is the inverter voltage, but you would get the same
relationship if you scoped the voltage output of the toroid transformer.

4e will monitor this relationship. 4e are at resonance when our +&& chip keeps Hc
ninety degrees lagging behind Hinverter. 7ow, we can easily e!ceed the chips
ma!imum input voltage, so we need to clip the top and bottom the the capacitor
voltage, and keep it to a ma!imum of $Cv. 4e do this with some clamping diodes
yeilding this waveform, which will be the signalin input on pin $6 of the
-B86%6=.
5elow is a diagram of the scoped voltages. Lsing a differential probe, the
positive lead goes to the positive inverter lead going to the toroid and the
negative to the negative lead. Lsing a second differential probe we scope the O
and 1 ends of the capacitor tank. Hc will lag Hinv or Htank. 4e will have to
invert the Hc waveform, that is shift it $?% degrees, in order for the +&& to
work, which " will discuss shortly.
7ow, we are ready to talk about the phase locked loop chip 1 the -B86%6=. After
this discussion, we will have enough information to understand the workings of
the inverter and how it maintains a lock on the resonance.
.scilloscope Tracings III
" have to share some bad waveforms " got one day. " hadn't used my heater all
summer and wanted to try it out before giving it to a friend. 5elow are the
voltage/current waveform. Lnderneath is a tracing of the gate drive signal and
the inverter voltage from another run. 7otice how the current is no longer a nice
sinusoid. The negative current prematurely starts to rise and then go back down
before resuming its normal cycle.

-ere is another image. The waveform is different from above, but still bi#arre
and not a good sinusoid.

This is the inverter voltage :yellow; and gate drive :blue;. 7otice how the
voltage heavily sags and the gate signal is no longer a clean s)uare wave.

-ere is another gate wave that is abnormal taken at a different time.

As you can see, " was getting strange waveforms and " did not know why.
At first " thought it was the mosfets so " swapped them out. 4hen that failed to
fi! the problem " redid the gate resistors and shielding. Then, " pulled out the
inverter capacitors and replaced them. 9till no good. 8rustrated, " took out the
board and replaced the gate drive capacitors. 4hen this failed " redid the entire
circuit board thinking " was getting some type of cross1talk or a failed
component. " saved myself from buying another tank capacitor by connecting the
coupling transformer to another &( tank. Again, " had the same problem.

" thought " checked everything and " couldn't understand how the waveform had
deteriorated. 9ometimes, the current appeared to go at twice the fre)uency of the
inverter voltage. Then, " had a final thought. " started looking at my high
voltage D( supply. " must have reconnected the -H wires to the inverter early in
the summer. 7otice in the picture how they are not together.
They should be together to cancel out any stray inductance as shown below.
Ama#ingly, after days of racking my brain, this simple solution was all that was
needed. " twisted the -H wires close :as " had done in the past; and made sure
they were close on my inverter board before splitting to each of the -H rails. At
the fre)uency " am driving my coil, stray inductance and capacitance on the -H
lines is significant and clearly affected my waveforms. 7ot only did this affect
the &( tank, but it affected the gate signal and the voltage supply signal to the
circuitry, making things even worse. -opefully, my e!perience will make someone's
life easier if these symptoms appear.
5elow are the waveforms for the inverter voltage and current immediately after
this repair. " have the fre)uency deliberately higher than resonance to prevent
reverse currents.
5elow is the gate signal after this repair.
)hase 'ocked 'oop /)''0 +asics
4hen you read about induction heaters and inverters you will probably come
across the term phase locked loop. The people writing the tutorials will assume
you know all about these. " will make the opposite assumption and give you a
brief understanding of the concept so you can understand how this will help
maintain resonance with our induction heater.
A +&& consists of three parts: a voltage controlled oscillator :H(D;, a loop
filter and a phase detector. The H(Dout drives the device, or inverter gate in
our case. "t also closes the loop by feeding itself back into the phase detector
so it can get compared with a reference signal.
The H(D generates a C%P duty cycle s)uare wave2 the fre)uency depends on the
input voltage to the H(D. The higher the H(Dinput :pin I; voltage the higher the
H(Doutput fre)uency2 the lower the voltage the lower the fre)uency. The +&& phase
detector compares the phases of two inputs: the reference signal on pin $6 and
the H(Dout fre)uency. The phase detector has two options for outputs: +(A$ and
+(A0. 4e use the former, which is a QD* gate.
8igure 0
The logic is high if one of the two inputs is high2 otherwise it is low. "t will
generate a s)uare wave whose width is based on the phase difference of the two
signals. "f the two waves are I% degrees out of phase the average value of Hphi
is Hdd/0. The loop filter takes the phase detector output and converts this to
the input voltage to the H(D. The simplest filter is a *( low1pass filter. The
cut1off fre)uency will determine how sensitive the +&& is to phase changes, and
how well it stays locked on the reference signal.
9o what happensK At resonance the tank current is real and in phase with the
coupler transformer voltage, which is in phase with the inverter voltage. The
tank capacitor voltage lags the tank current by I% degrees2 therefore, it lags
the inverter voltage by I% degrees. 7ow as the workpiece heats its ferromagnetic
properties change. The workcoil becomes a variable inductor and affects the
resonant fre)uency of the tank. "f the effective resonance goes down, it seems to
the circuit that we increased on drive fre)uency to the tank. This makes the tank
more inductive. "nductance causes the source voltage lead the tank current. That
is, the tank current is forced to lag the inverter voltage. The capacitor voltage
initially lagged the current by I% degrees. This means the capacitor voltage lags
the inverter voltage even more as shown below.
8igure 3
5elow we can see the relationships with Hinv, Hcap and Hphi. Hphi is high Hinv or
Hcap is high, but not both.
8igure 6
The top shows Hinv and Hc. An increase in inductive reactance is the same as if
we increased our inverter drive fre)uency. 4e lower it by decreasing the voltage
to H(Din. 4e see in the top pair that as Hc shifts more to the right of Hinv the
QD* region increases. -owever, we need it to decrease in order to yield a lower
voltage for H(D. 4e achieve this by inverting Hc to HcRinverted. 7ow as
HcRinverted shifts to the right, Hphi decreases. 4e integrate this to a voltage
value and use this for H(Din. A smaller H(Din results in a lower fre)uency and we
stay in resonance. The fre)uency range is determined by resistors on pins $$ and
$0 of the +&&. 4hen, H(Din is at ground the fre)uency is at the low1end of the
range2 when it is at the supply voltage it is at the high end.
4hen we are at resonance 1 inverter voltage and current are in phase 1 the
inverter voltage leads the tank capacitor voltage by I% degrees. Hphi is half of
half a pulse width :see 8igure 0 and 6;. The average voltage is Hdd/0, or <.Cv if
our supply is $Cv. 9o, <.Cv at H(Din will keep us close to resonance if our
center fre)uency is 8res. The problem is that 8res changes with different
workpieces and during heating. -owever, the +&& will adEust itselft to maintain a
lock on the phase relationship.
The scope images below show these waveforms. The first picture is at a lower
fre)uency than the bottom picture. 9hown are HcapRinverted, Hinv, and Hphi. The
capacitor voltage is clipped to protect the +&& chip.
The capacitor voltage is a clean signal, and was distorted when " tried to show
three signals. 5elow is Eust the inverter and tank capacitor voltage.
4e need to discuss a few more things about the +&& ne!t.


)hase 'ocked 'oop /)''0 +asics II
"f you will recall, here is a block diagram of the +&& device.
There are several filters one can use for the feedback loop. The simplest is the
passive low1pass *( filter. " used the active integrator, which use a * and (
element. To ensure a D( bias does not work itself into the capacitor, " put a
discharge resistor in parallel with (. The active filter has more gain than the
passive filter. The phase shift in the beginning is 1I%. " don't know if this
helps keep our signals at 1I% or not. " scoped both the passive and active filter
action by monitoring the relationship of the inverter voltage and current, and "
can say that the latter maintained a tighter lock on a 1I% phase difference
during changes in the tank's resonant fre)uency. 5elow is a table of some
filters. " used one similar to the second. " add a variable voltge input to H1 on
the op1amp, which allows me to fine tune the fre)uency. " usually tune it
slightly above resonance, using a voltage monitor on the tank voltage for the
near1high point. Dne other thing: you need a gain of 1$ after the active filter
because it inverts the signal. The 1$ gain op1amp will restore the proper
polarity.
&et's talk about how we set the free1running +&& fre)uency and the range it can
capture. "f the resonant fre)uency falls with the +&& capture range, the +&& will
be able to find the fre)uency that maintains the I% degree shift that we want,
and maintain this phase lock as the fre)uency re)uired for this phase difference
changes over a wider range of fre)uencies.
-ere is the chip

These forumulas can be off and re)uire constants as shown below:
Aou can also use graphs on the manufacturer datasheets to get you in the ballpark
for the values you need. The first step is to determine the capacitor value that
will get you near your 8res at a given Hdd voltage. Determine the * value you
need for 8min, and then determine the * you need for 8ma!.
&et's do a )uick e!ample. y 8res is =Ck-# and my supply is $Cv. Actually, my
supply is $6.6v, because " have a diode to protect from hooking up the pos and
neg in reverse. " go up the left hand side to the =%kh# row and across to the $Cv
supply line. " go straigtht down and get a ($ of 3%%pf. This will be my starting
point for my e)uations. Lsing ($ , 33%pf, " will pick some * values and measure
the actual fre)uency in order to determine the values of the constants F$ and F0.
4e want to have the center fre)uency, :8min O 8ma!;/0, e)ual our resonant
fre)uency, and we want about $%1$Ck-# on either side. 7ow, the chips can vary
from the e)uation by a factor of 6, so you need to multiply each e)uation by a
constant. Take a $%%k resistor for *0 and *$. Sround pin I and measure 8min.
7e!t, connect pin I to Hdd and measure 8ma!. This will give you F$ and F0. "
measured C%k-# for 8min, giving me a F$ of $.?$. " then connected pin I to Hdd
and got $C6kh#. 9ubtracing 8min, C%kh#, " was able to dedue that F0 e)uals 3.<?.
y fre)uency is =Ck-#, so " want something between C%1?%k-#. " will use a 33%pf
capacitor, as determined from the graph, and values of F$ , $.?$ and F0 , 3.<?. "
now use these values to determine the true values of *$ and *0 that " need, which
is $%%k and 36?k. The calculations are below. Df course, you need to verify this
with your scope.
8min , C%kh# , $.?$/:$%%,%%% ! 3=0e1$0;
8ma! , ?%kh# , C%kh# O 3.<?/:36?,%%% ! 3=0e1$0;

Dn my circuit " add a trim pot and another resistor in parallel to *0 with an
optional Eumper. This gives me a selection of resonant fre)uency ranges.
9o, how does our circuit come togetherK &et's see.

Induction Heater Inverter #chematic
ost of the electronics components on the schematic are from Digikey (orp and
ouser Blectronics.
+&& DHB*H"B4
The +&& receives two inputs through pins $6 and I. +in $6 is the clamped
capacitor tank voltage. "t is inverter :shifted $?% degrees; in order for the
feedback to work properly. The high voltages are kept down with *$. All inverter
grounds are isolated from earth ground. (< and resistors on pins $$ and $0 set
the capture range. 3umper 3+$ converts pin $0's resistor from $%%k to =%k. *C
affords you the ability to vary the capture range even more for tuning the center
fre)uency to the tank resonant fre)uency. 4e will discuss this at the end.
+(Aout goes through the active integrator filter, which is made up of a )uad op1
amp. The integrator output then goes through a filter with a gain of 1$ to
restore the polarity of the signal. During use, Eumper 3+0 is open and 3+3 is
closed to allow the feedback to get to pin I. The drive fre)uency leaves pin 6
and drives a non1inverting and inverting gate drive. These chips drive the
primary of a $:$:$ gate drive transformer, T$. ($ removes D( bias. Diodes DC and
D= offer some delay so both mosfets are not on at the same time. These series
diodes have nothing to do with reverse currents, like the one's you are used to
seeing across the D9 Euntion. Again, they are "or timing. Aour tracings should be
short to the gate drive on the mosfet. " have connectors on my board going to
wires which run to the chips on large heat sinks. The wire acts like an antenna
and you can get noise which will induce wild oscillations in your mosfets,
destroying them. " put a ferrite bead that attenutes fre)uencies above 3%%kh#
right before the lead to the gate drive. This works perfectly. 5elow are the
tracings going to the gates and then showing the tracing from one of the gates
and the inverter output.
T""7S DB&AA 8D* D98BT9
These are the gates drive signals going to the mosfets. The signals are
superimposed. The small slope is part of the delay imparted by the series diodes
DC and D=.

This is the inverter tracing on top, and one of the gate drive signals on the
bottom. 4ith this mosfet, when the gate is high the D9 Eunction grounds the
power, so the voltage drops to #ero.
5elow is the timing showing JH9. The voltage goes through #ero volts e!actly when
the current is #ero.
5elow, one of the series diodes is shorted, so we can compare the timing of the
signal going to both gates. The bottom tracing has the transformer gate drive
going directly to the gate. The tracing above it goes through the diode The
temporal difference between the gate drive with and without the series diode is
close to $%%ns.
5elow are the gate drive waveforms with both series diodes working.
5elow, both series diodes are shorted, and we can see the time to reach the same
voltage is delayed by about 0%%ns.

D+1A+ "7TBS*ATD*
The op1amp is centered around Hdd/0. *$% moves the center point on the integrator
allowing you to fine tune +&& fre)uency. Aou can force it to stay a little above
resonance by adEusting it. 4hen connecting it to the circuit, set it up so
clockwise motion increases the +&& fre)uency.
D98BT9, JB*D HD&T 94"T(-"7S, and (L**B7T D7"TD*"7S
osfets L$ and L0 have ultra1fast diodes across the source and drain to protect
the slower acting intrinsic drain diodes. There are no series isolation diodes
with the mosfets for two reasons. 4e are doing #ero volt/current switching which
is guarenteed when the circuit is in tune by the +&&. 4hen we switch the mosfet
there is no current or voltage on the device. 9econdly, the present day mosfets
have very fast intrinsic diodes, rated for flywheel service. (apacitors ($ and (0
set a point half1way above ground, which gets charged when L$ is open, and
discharges to ground when L$ closes and L0 opens. The current transformer T0 uses
a $:$%%T ratio to monitor the inverter current. The $%%* resistor means that
every $H on the oscilloscope is $A of current going to the coupling transformer.
7ow, let's look at the tank circuit schematic. The inverter output is coupled to
the tank through T3, which is a 0%:$ toroid transformer. The 0% turn primary is
connected to the inverter output. The coper tubing which form the connects for
workcoil and capacitor serves as a one1turn primary. Aou can e!periment with
different toroid materials and turn1ratios. The resonant fre)uency will changes
as the material goes through its curie point.
5elow is a picture of the current conduction through the inverter during
different phases of the power transfer cycle. "t shows how the free1wheeling
diodes come into play to divert the reverse current around the mosfet.
During ode $, the upper mosfet is conducting and transfering power to the
resonant tank through the coupling transformer in our circuit. "n ode 0, the
mosfets are transitioning, and the upper mosfet turns off slightly before the
bottom one turns on. -ere, current is conducted through the free1wheeling diode
of the lower mosfet. "n ode 3, the lower mosfet turns on, and the resonant tank
throws the power back through mosfet. "n ode 3, both mosfets are off during the
transition, and the upper mosfet's free1wheeling diode conducts the current.

TL7"7S
Aou will have to tune the +&& to your tank's resonant fre)uency. To do this Eust
connect Eumper 3+0. &eave Eumper 3+3 open, which goes to the integrator. 4ith a
volt meter, measure the voltage at pin I and the inverter ground. Trim *= until
you have one half of your supply voltage. Accounting for the diode voltage drop
on the regulated $Cvdc supply, this should be around <.0v. Aou will need a
differential set of oscilloscope probes to do this ne!t part right. +ut one probe
pair across the current transformer, which would be across *$C. +ut another probe
pair across the inverter output at 30. This will monitor inverter voltage and
current. Lsing a variac, set the voltage input to your inverter high voltage
supply to a low value like 3%16%vac. Trim *C until you have the current and
voltage in phase. A cruder method uses an unregulated rectifier with a smoothing
capacitor with the voltage input being the tank capacitor. onitor the voltage
for a ma!imum.
Dnce you are confident that the +&&'s center fre)uency is close to the resonant
fre)uency, open Eumper 3+0 and close Eumper 3+3. Turn on the inverter first and
then turn on the variac to the voltage doubler, which provides the high voltage
for the inverter. 9lowly increase the voltage while monitoring the inverter
voltage and current waveforms. After 0% or 3%v you should see it lock onto 8res.
The inverter output will be a nice s)uare wave and the current will be close to a
smooth sinusoidal tracing. "f all you see is a triangle1looking wave for the
current you probably have the polarity wrong on your capacitor voltage input to
pin $6. The )uickest fi! is to swap the connections going to the coupling
transformer. Try it again and it should work.
+&BA9B 7DTB T-B*B A*B D*B 9(-BAT"(9 AT T-B B7D D8 T-"9 TLTD*"A& :ADL -AHB D*B
4B5 +ASB9 TD SD;

Aou can watch a video of it working here.
"f you have read this much, you might want to read a bit more. These two other
sites are well worth the reading and e!plain things from their perspective with
regards to the theory and construction of an induction heater.
7eon13ohn's "nduction -eating 9ite
Tim 4illiams "nde! &ink
(omments should go to EonathanRatRhouseofficer.com
The ne!t page shows images of the actual circuit.
+( +rofessor (omputer Training, 9ervice T 9upport
7DTB: There are more schematics for a higher powered unit at the end of this
tutorial using microprocessor1controlled resonance locking.
This unit includes plans for levitating metals using high1powered magnetism.
1aking a circuit board and components
Bverything starts with making my own circuit board. " got positive photoresist
boards and made my own with a fluorescent light. Aou need a positive developer,
such as sodium metasilicate pentahydrate. Then, " used Ammonium +ersulfate in an
etching tank and agitator. The result is below. "f you need electronic parts,
Digikey and ouser are good sources. There is always Bbay.
Induction Heater 'evitation Tutorial
"nduction heating and levitation is pretty cool. Lsing a levitation coil, you
levitate a conductive obEect in the magnetic field and heat within that field.
Depending on the metal and power setting you can even boil it mid1air. Aluminum
will levitate and melt easily at $1$.Ckw of input power. Aou can levitate copper
and steel balls. Aou can even melt them2 however, solid balls were too dense at
my 0.Ckw power level. "n order to melt solid copper and steel you need near ?kw
of power2 suspending molten copper and steel re)uires over $%kw of power.
(omponent heating can be an issue so you need to make sure you have a robust
cooling system for the mosfets, igbts, diodes, transformer and coil.
(urrent going through the coil sets up a magnetic field. This field, according to
&en#'s law, sets up an opposite magnetic field in the workpiece. This magnetic
field opposes the one inducing it, and repels the obEect upwards. The picture
below shows a snapshot in time. The field alternates. The coil also increases in
diameter as one moves upwards. This results in there being a magnetic force
underneath the obEect, but nothing directly above it. This results in an upwards
force. The obEect moves up until the distance of the workpiece to the inner
surface of the coil is such that the magnetic field is too weak to drive it up
any more. The bucking plate at the top turns in the opposite direction. The two
fields cancel out so there is no upward driving force at this point. "t is a null
#one.
7ow, the magnetic field created in the workpiece creates circulating eddy
currents. These currents heat the workpiece. The closer the workpiece gets to the
coil the better the coupling, which creates more heating. Aou will find if you
gently push the obEect down with a )uart# rod it will heat up very )uickly.
5elow are some diagrams showing what was Eust discussed.
5elow are the pictures of the levitation coil. The turns are tight, so you will
need to use sand or salt so you can bend it without deforming the tubular shape.
The coil is a conical heli!. The bottom has a smaller inner diameter than the
top. ake a bow to reverse the direction and turn $10.C coils in the opposite
direction for the bucking plate. Feep the coil tight, but make sure the coils
don't short. Aou will need a )uart# rod to hold the obEect in place until it
levitates, or while it is heating. This is one levitation coil that " made. "
made another one that is slightly larger. 4hen " am levitating dense metals "
keep the bucking plate further from the main coil to minimi#e the downward forces
on the workpiece.

I23# )ower 1os"ets and microprocessor tracking
The mosfets are from "QA9 (orp, which can be purchased from Digikey
(orporation. The microcontroller is from Arduino.
Ten kilowatts is a lot of power, and this is what is needed to levitate molten
copper and steel. At this power level high currents cause oscillations on the
gate and the +&& topology is not good enough to maintain a tight resonant lock. "
wanted something that could find the resonant fre)uency with any coil and lock
onto it without any manual adEustment.
+recise resonant locking and tracking was accomplished with a microprocessor1+&&
circuit. " use the +&& to find the phase difference between the inverter and tank
capacitor. 7inety degrees is the correct phase difference. " use the
microprocessor to monitor the +&& output and develop a D( voltage that
corresponds to the phase difference. " use this D( voltage as the input to the
+&&'s H(D in order to maintain the correct fre)uency. -ere is an important point:
tune to a slightly higher fre)uency so the current slightly lags the voltage. "f
you are too close, or the current leads the voltage, the mosfets will heat up. "
got my mosfets to get hot with small currents if " had the tuning too close to
JH9. 4hen " tuned the current to slightly lag " had $%! the current going through
them and they still remained cool :with forced air convection;.
7e!t, " had to move to a 06% vac line M 3%1C%A. At this power level heating
becomes a very real issue. " have two $%% cfm fans blowing on each C@!C@ heatsink
for the mosfets. " switched to mosfets because they work a better at the $%% kh#
fre)uency range, and they have less switching losses. " am currently using the
"QA9 +olar -i+er8BT series "Q87C=7I%+ mosfets. " am using two in parallel for
each leg of the half1bridge. At 0Cc each mosfet can handle C=A. " am figuring
that " should keep each under 3%A, which is why " have two of them. They are
rated for I%%v.
*unning mosfets in parallel can be tricky. 8irst, you want to make sure they all
come from the same lot. The problem with running more than one device is une)ual
heating and oscillations on the gate. 8ortunately, because these mosfets have
positive thermal coefficients, the hotter they get the less current they conduct.
This way, one mosfet does not run away and carry more and more current as it gets
hotter than its partner. ake sure the mosfets for each leg are on the same heat
sink. 9econd, you need the have enough resistance on the gate to prevent
oscillations. 8ive ohms is enough. " used $% ohms because the &di/dt was too high
with the former, resulting in ringing during the transitions. " originally had
ferrite beads on the gate leads, but " eliminated them in order to shorten the
lead length. This resulted in even less ringing to the point of it almost being
non1e!istant. The gate resistor was sufficient to prevent oscillations on the
parallel devices.

AT1ega 1icroprocessor and the Arduino
The key to having the driver being able to find, track and maintain a perfect
resonance lock is the ATega30? microprocessor. Df course, one can choose another
microprocessor. Aou will need to be able to easily program it. " used the Arduino
Duemilanove. This board allowed me to easily interface with my computer and
upload code. A L95 cable connects from the computer to the board. The D"+ chip
fits into the socket and that is all. Arduino offers some solutions to mount the
chip with all the necessary hardware into your proEect2 " found it very easy to
Eust put in a socket with the minimal connections on my own to get it working.
'it4 wire, magnet wire, "errite toroids
" then found that the coupling transformer was getting hot. "t got so hot the
wire started melting though the insulation. " switched the toroid from the
powered iron to a 3(I% ferrite toroid core. " use 6 $@ thick ! 0.C@ DD ! $.C@ "D
toroids. " got them from 8erro!cube. The part number for the 3(I% material is
T(0C$C$. The high permeability ferrite and the number of them assures me there
will be no core heating or saturation. The wire is U$% and " use about 0% turns.
" found that at lower turns the primary current was too high. 5y adding more
turns, " needed more primary voltage, but " used less current. " then mounted a
dedicated $%%cfm fan for cooling the transformer.
*ight now " am trying ferrite toroids that are larger to accomodate a thicker
gauge of wire. " am using the J+6?=$3T( toroids from agnetics. They are about 6@
! 3@ ! $/0@. " am using seven of them to reduce the flu! density. They are coated
so " don't need to worry about shorting the wire. The wire is made from 03g
magnet wire. " have =6 strands :good for 6=A of D( current; twisted and braided.
This took a little time, but " got it down to make 0C' cord in a short period.
$%%kh# should use 0=g, but " think the 03g will work out well enough. " don't
want to braid several hundred strands. " will go over some flu! calculations on
the ne!t page.
The original primary used $%g wire. This was unable to handle the current, and
despite forced convection cooling, overheated and melted the vinyl wire coating.
5elow is the braided lit# wire that " made from magnet wire
5elow is the ferrite toroid wrapped with 0= turns of the magnet wire braid

*errite Toroid
Dne needs to make sure the ma!imum flu! density of the core is not e!ceeded. "f
one e!ceeds this value the permeability will go towards one :the permeability of
air; and the transformer will no longer function as a transformer. That is, it
will cease transfering power.
9o, let's calculate the flu! density of our ferrite coupling transformer. This is
a agnetics, "nc + material core. +lease refer to the chart below provided by
this company.
According to this chart, the ma!imum flu! density is C%%% gauss at 0C(. At $%%(
this number will be closer to 3%%% gauss.
7ow, we need to calculate the flu! density of our core. The cross1sectional area
of the J+6?=$3T( is $.?cm
0
. 4e have ? of them for a total cross1sectional area of
$6.6cm
0
. 4e are using between $I106 turns depending on the heating application.
4e'll use 0% for convenience. The voltage is close to a pure s)uare wave with a
slight ripple voltage, and the *9 value is near 3C%H. 4ith use a multiplication
factor of 6 for a s)uare1wave2 we would use 6.66 for a sine wave.
The formula is 5
ma!
, B ! $%
?
/ :6 ! 7 ! 8 ! A;
This yields: 3C% ! $%
?
/ :6 ! 0% ! $%%,%%% ! $6.=; , 3%% gauss
9o, in a worse1case scenario, we still have a $%! safety margin.
Tinned &opper +raided #hielding, 51I, &elem &apacitor
Tinned copper braid, or copper braided shielding wire is essential to keep the
emi out of the gate leads. agnetic noise is a big problem, and it gets worse at
the power levels needed for levitation. The tinned copper resists corrosion.
Depending on your leads you will need anywhere from $/6 to $/0 inch copper braid.
This envelops the gate leads and is connected to the ground.
Dne not only needs to worry about how the emi affects the gate drive on the
inverter, but how it affects the +&& feedback loop on the driver. The solution
begins by separating the drive circuitry from the high powered inverter section.
" now have two boards. Dne board tracks and generates the drive signal. All of
the critical signals are shielded with a grounding plane. The signal e!its in a
shielded wire that is connected to ground. This goes to the second board. Dn this
board the gate drive lead is shielded with the shield connected to ground. The
mosfet modules are electrically isolated from the heat sink. "f they are
connected the heat sink will broadcast the inverter waveform and interfere with
the feedback signals. The gate drive signal goes through a damping resistor. "
originally had a ferrite bead, but found this was not necessary. " have copper
shielding completely covering the gate drive lead. "nside the shielding " have
the lead going to a $% ohm resistor. "t is important that each switch has its own
resistor as close to the gate as possible to reduce oscillations. 9o far this has
worked out well. " have seen what happens with poor shielding, and it isn't
pretty.
5elow is a picture of the inverter with the shielded leads.
" also had to modify the feedback control loops. " use *( networks to filter the
pulse1waves from the +&& to create a D( feedback signal. " then use *( networks
to take the +4 output and convert it into a steady D( signal for the +&&'s H(D
input. The better my filtering for a smooth signal, the longer the delay. "f the
delay is too long the system oscillates. "f the filtering is not sufficient, the
drive signal is course. The trick was to find the right balance.
The tank capacitor was another issue. A rough calculation showed that " was
already ma!ing out the capability of my capacitor bank. " had 0% capacitors that
were each rated for a ma!imum of $6A. " must have had between 0%%13%%A going
through them with my 0kw unit. " switched to a water1cooled (elem capacitor that
was rated for $%%%A. The connections were made so that every contact point shared
current e)ually. "f you make the connections incorrectly, all the current will go
through the closest point and rapidly overheat the copper. " witnessed this and
it was not pretty.
" will start elaborating on the modified drive circuit and the inverter on the
following pages :to come shortly;.

-ere is the $%kw unit in action
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-ere are some links to the levitation coil in action for the 0kw unit
&evitating and melting aluminum
&evitating and melting copper scrap
&evitating copper tubing
10kw Induction Heater Inverter #chematic
" got most of my components from Digikey (orp and ouser Blectronics. The
microprocessor is from Arduino

icroprocessor/+&& controlled driver


$%kw "nverter for use with levitation and iron forging

Lseful "nformation for this +roEect