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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998
A Review of Soft-Switched DCAC Converters
Maria D. Bellar, Student Member, IEEE, Tzong-Shiann Wu, Member, IEEE, Aristide Tchamdjou, Student Member, IEEE,
Javad Mahdavi, Senior Member, IEEE, and M. Ehsani, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractSoft-switching techniques have recently been applied
in the design of dcac converters, in order to achieve better
performance, higher efficiency, and higher power density. A
substantial number of new topologies for different applications
has been developed, however, the amount of work that has
been done in this field is not widely known. This paper is an
attempt to classify the soft-switched dcac topologies in a simple
and generic way. The topology classifications are based on the
location of the resonant network (load, inverter bridge, and bus),
the characteristic of switching waveforms (zero-voltage switching
or zero-current switching), and the type of resonance (series or
parallel). Operating principles, performance, and design limi-
tations are discussed. Some possible industrial applications of
soft-switched dcac converters are addressed.
Index TermsResonant dcac converters, soft-switched dcac
converters, zero-voltage switching, zero-current switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
T HE pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) dcac converter has
been the main choice in power electronics for decades,
because of its circuit simplicity and rugged control scheme.
Typical applications for PWM dcac converters can be found
in uninterruptible power systems (UPSs), motor drives, in-
duction heating, etc. Due to the switching losses and the
limitations of semiconductor devices that are currently avail-
able, the switching frequency of PWM converters is usually
around a few kilohertz when the power rating is tens of
kilowatts. However, power density and circuit performance are
improved with higher switching frequencies. Higher switching
frequencies in PWM converters are limited by the following:
switching stresses (high voltage and current peaks) on the
power devices during the turn-on and turnoff transients,
which result in oversizing the safe operating area (SOA);
Paper IPCSD 9812, presented at the 1996 Industry Applications Society
Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, October 610, and approved for publication
in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power
Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. The work
of M. D. Bellar was supported by CNPq of Brazil. Manuscript released for
publication February 6, 1998.
M. D. Bellar is with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA, on leave from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio
de Janeiro 20559, Brazil.
T.-S. Wu and A. Tchamdjou were with the Power Electronics Laboratory,
Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Sta-
tion, TX 77843-3128 USA. They are now with International Rectifier, El
Segundo, CA 90245 USA.
J. Mahdavi was with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA. He is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sharif
University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
M. Ehsani is with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(98)04921-4.
00939994/98$10.00 1998 IEEE
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847
switching losses;
severe and which produce electromagnetic
interference (EMI).
Various soft-switched dcac converters using either zero-
voltage switching (ZVS) or zero-current switching (ZCS) have
been proposed in the literature, and the basic issue is to achieve
high-frequency operation with reduced switching losses and
EMI. When the switching frequency becomes higher, the
harmonics filtering is easier and the audible noise (below 18
kHz) can be reduced. This is a very desirable enhancement in
motor drive systems, for example. However, these features are
sometimes accomplished at the expense of producing higher
voltage or current stresses and circuit complexities which
prevent implementation of the well-known PWM techniques.
However, more recently, some modified topologies have been
presented in order to solve these problems.
II. TOPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF SOFT-SWITCHED
DCAC CONVERTERS
A systematic classification of the dcac converters is pre-
sented in Fig. 1. In general, dcac converter topologies can be
classified as hard-switching and soft-switching converters, ac-
cording to their switching characteristics. In the hard-switching
dcac PWM converters, the power devices are connected either
to a stiff voltage source, as in a voltage-source inverter (VSI),
or to a stiff current source, as in a current-source inverter (CSI).
Sudden changes in switch voltage and current waveforms
cause severe switching losses and EMI problems [1], [2].
High voltage and/or current peaks can also be observed during
switching transients, because of parasitic capacitances and
stray inductances around power devices.
In the soft-switched topologies, a high-frequency resonant
network is added to the conventional hard-switching PWM
topology. The resonant network can be composed of only
passive elements and or it can also have additional
auxiliary diode(s) and/or switch(es). As a result, the switch
voltage or current swings and crosses zero points and, thus,
creates the soft-switching conditions for the power devices.
Therefore, the switch waveforms are shaped by the resonant
network such that the switching losses can be minimized, the
switch stresses can be reduced, and EMI can be prevented.
Therefore, depending on the chosen resonant network scheme,
different shapes of voltage and current waveforms in the
converter can be obtained. This can lead to a different way
of topology classification, as will be referred to later.
In this paper, the classification of soft-switching converters,
presented in Fig. 1, is based upon the location of the resonant
network (load, inverter bridge, and dc bus) in the converter
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848 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998
Fig. 1. A classification of the dcac converters.
system, characteristic of switching waveforms (ZVS or ZCS),
and the type of resonance (series or parallel). These can be
further explained as follows.
1) Load resonant dcac converterAn LC resonant tank
is added at the load side in a series, parallel, or in a
combination of series and parallel LC schemes. Hence,
the ZVS or ZCS condition can be produced for the active
switches on the inverter bridge. The dc-bus waveform
of the load resonant dcac converter is unaltered.
2) Resonant transition dcac converterA resonant net-
work is added to the inverter bridge, thereby creating the
ZVS or ZCS conditions. The parasitics of the switches
can also be part of the resonant scheme. The input dc
bus is not altered.
3) Resonant link dcac converterThe resonant network
is connected between the input dc source and the in-
verter bridge. Thus, the input bus is oscillating in order
to create the soft-switching conditions for the power
devices. Therefore, the input buses of these resonant
link converters are different from the conventional PWM
system.
In the following sections, the basic features of each soft-
switched converter type will be explained.
III. LOAD RESONANT DCAC CONVERTERS
In these converters, a resonant network is connected to the
load and oscillates with resonant frequency along the entire
switching period where is the converter
switching frequency). The oscillating load voltage and current
waveforms create the ZVS and/or ZCS conditions for the main
devices. The inverter bridge can appear in half-bridge or in
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full-bridge configurations. These converters can be generally
classified as series resonant converters and parallel resonant
converters. In series resonant topologies, the inverter bridge
supplies a square-wave voltage to a resonant network that is
connected in series with the inverter bridge. The load can be
connected to the resonant network in series [3], parallel [4], or
in a hybrid resonant configuration, such as series/parallel [5],
[6], parallel/series [7], and multiresonant [8]. In the parallel
resonant converter, the inverter supplies a square-wave current
into a resonant network that is connected in parallel with the
inverter. In this case, the load can also appear in series [9],
[10], or in parallel [5], [11] with the resonant tank. Next, two
examples of load resonant converters are presented, followed
by some general comments.
A. Series Resonant Parallel-Load DCAC Converter (SRPLC)
Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows a half-bridge SRPLC and the
corresponding waveforms, when (typically
1.11.3) [4]. In this case, the output impedance
becomes capacitive, and the switches and diodes are turned
on and off at zero-current condition (ZCS). So, SCRs can
be used. Each active switch is parallel connected with a
diode, which is necessary when the load current flows in the
opposite direction. During the turnoff period, the antiparallel
diode shares the load current with the incoming active switch
and improves the reverse blocking capability of the outgoing
device. The turn-on time of active switches is determined
by the control signal, and their turnoff time is dependent
only on the power circuit behavior (natural commutation).
The resonant capacitor is in parallel with the load,
in order to reduce the output voltage distortion. However,
variable-frequency control of the SRPLC is limited and is
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BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS
(a)
(b)
Fig. 2. SRPLC, with resonant frequency fo =1 p
= Lo Co .
constrained by the output distortion. A poor output regulation
can be expected when the resonant frequency drifts away from
the switching frequency due to parameter variation in time
or in manufacturing. In practice, two inductances, are
connected in series with the switches, respectively, at points
and in Fig. 2(a), in order to limit the shoot-through
current [4]. Advantages, such as low-distortion sinusoidal
output waveform and good efficiency, have made the series
resonant converter, either parallel loaded [11] or series loaded
[3], [12], attractive for high-power applications (20 kHz/10
KVA), such as in induction heating and in space power
conversion applications.
The SRPLC can also operate with ZVS during turn-on and
turnoff if and, instead of SCRs, higher frequency
switches (such as BJTs and power MOSFETs) are employed.
In this case, a capacitor should be connected in parallel with
each switch [5], [6], in order to avoid turnoff losses, as a dual
of connecting series inductances [Fig. 2(a)] in the ZCS case.
In this case, when full-bridge configuration is used, phase-
shift modulation (fixed switching frequency) can be applied
to control the output [14]. This configuration offers some
particular features. The resonant mode of operation occurs at a
time interval much shorter than the switching period, and the
parasitics of switches and leakage inductance of an isolation
transformer can be combined to the series resonant network
in the inverter side. Due to these features, this configuration
has been particularly popular for high-frequency power supply
applications [15].
Another way of obtaining ZVS operation in a series resonant
converter is by using the partial series resonant technique [16].
Here, the condition is and the resonance occurs only
during part of the switching period. This technique, initially
proposed to dcdc conversion, was also applied to induction
heating application [17].
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849
(a)
(b)
p
Fig. 3. The parallel resonant series-load dcac converter, with resonant
frequency fo = 1= Lo Co :
Moreover, it has been shown in [6] and [18] that the
series resonant converter performance is better when the load
is connected into a hybrid series/parallel or parallel/series
resonant network. This type of circuit configuration has also
recently been considered for applications on the utility line
[19].
B. Parallel Resonant Series-Load DCAC Converter (PRSLC)
Fig. 3(a) shows a PRSLC, which is the dual transformation
[9] of the SRPLC in Fig. 2(a). Alternatively, an isolation
transformer can be used in place of the input source induc-
tances [11]. In the PRSLC circuit of Fig. 3(a), the resonant
inductor is series connected with load to provide regulated
load current. When , the output impedance becomes
inductive, hence, the circuit behavior determines the turn-on
time of the switches, and the control signal determines their
turnoff time. For example, the switch is not fully turned
on until the switch voltage swings back to zero, as shown in
Fig. 3(b). However, can be turned off at any time, and
resonant capacitor takes over the load current. In the
PRSLC, the switches can be turned on and off at zero-voltage
condition (ZVS) because of the parallel resonant capacitor
A practical example is shown in [9], where two capacitances
are placed each in parallel with each of the switches,
composed of diode and transistor.
Because the switch voltages of Fig. 3(b) are alternating,
the main switches must be capable of reverse blocking. If
fast-switching-type devices are used, such as power bipolar
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850 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998
transistors, MOSFETs, and IGBTs, reverse-blocking diodes
must be series connected with these devices to prevent reverse
breakthrough. When a thyristor bridge is used, the parallel
resonant circuit must be started up prior to the inverter
operation. An analysis of a starting process is presented in
[10]. In thyristor bridge configuration, fixed-frequency control
can also be used [5]. This converter can be found in industrial
applications for induction heating and metal melting up to
levels of 10 kHz/1000 kW [10].
C. General Comments
Load resonant converters are more suitable for constant
load applications. In these converters, the resonant mode of
operation occurs during the entire switching period. In order
to reduce the output distortion and to achieve a wide output
voltage range with only a small change in the quality factor
of the resonant tank must be as high as possible. Moreover,
the definition of in (1) shows that, since the denominator
is proportional to the load power, the peak energy storage
requirements of the LC resonant tank has to be increased when
is higher. Hence, the reactive components will be bigger:
peak energy storage
(1)
energy dissipated per cycle
Since the resonant elements are connected in the main power
transfer path, these converters suffer from high voltage and
current ratings in every component. Because of this, series
resonant converters have limitations at high power levels (at
the 20-kHz/100-kW level, for example), due to the difficulty of
implementing a compact, high-efficieny high-power resonant
inductor [15]. However, load resonant converters can provide
excellent output regulation by tuning the load closely to
the resonant frequency. In this case, the load power factor
approaches one, and the voltage and current ratings of the
power devices can be minimized, when compared to the
untuned load case using PWM. However, if one is interested in
extracting low-frequency ac from a high-frequency switched
signal at the output of a dcac converter, it is convenient that
the resonant network does not take part in the main power
flow, and it is activated only as a means of creating the soft-
switching conditions during the switch state changes. This
approach, which contrasts with the continuous resonant mode
of operation (predominantly used in load resonant converters),
is explained in the next section, as resonant transition dcac
converters.
IV. RESONANT TRANSITION DCAC CONVERTERS
In resonant transition dcac converters, the input bus voltage
(VSI) or current (CSI) is fixed. The soft-switching condition
is implemented by resonating the voltage and/or current of
the inverter switches. Ideally, the resonant network should
be activated only during the switching transition intervals
and should make the resonance circulating energy be as
minimum as possible and completely decoupled from the main
power transfer to the load. Frequently, the parasitics of the
devices can be part of the resonant scheme. However, the
resonance energy should be enough to create the soft-switching
conditions (ZVS or ZCS), irrespective of the variations in
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the load. Also, the resonant network should operate accord-
ing to the controller commanding signals, which are usually
provided by a PWM-type controller. In this section, it is
shown that resonant switch, resonant pole, quasi-resonant,
resonant snubber, and soft-transition PWM conversion [zero-
voltage transition (ZVT) and zero-current transition (ZCT)] are
all concepts closely related, that can be generally termed as
resonant transition when they are applied to dcac conversion.
Some representative examples of these concepts are presented
next.
A. Resonant Pole Inverter (RPI) or Quasi-Resonant
ZVS DCAC Converter
Previously, the resonant switch concept [20] has been
defined by considering each converter switch as a main switch
combined with a resonant network. This resonant network
is used only to shape the switch voltage and/or current,
yielding soft-switching conditions, either through ZVS or ZCS.
The converters are frequently called quasi-resonant converters
when the resonant mode of operation occurs only during part
of the switching cycle, while PWM operation takes place
during the rest of the switching period. This concept has
been extensively and succesfully applied to PWM dcdc con-
verter topologies [21], where many different types of resonant
switches were conceived as the elementary cells, which gave
way to a wide variety of topologies. However, when this
concept was directly applied to dcac conversion [22], the
resulting topologies were very complex, apparently due to the
required number of switches. The resonant pole technique [23],
although it was first proposed for dcdc conversion, turned out
to be very convenient for dcac conversion [24]. The main
idea is to connect the resonant network across the inverter
pole, in order to provide the soft-switching conditions for
both switches of an inverter leg. In this way, for a three-
phase system, each inverter leg will have its corresponding
pole assisted by a resonant network.
Fig. 4(a) shows the single-phase version of the RPI [24],
[25]. The resonant element can be the output capacitance
of active switches, or extra capacitor parallel connected with
power devices. The resonant inductor is at load side to
provide both output filtering and waveform shaping operations.
In practice, it is recommended that a filter capacitor should
be connected in series with and the load is connected
across
The circuit operation is described as follows. In Fig. 4(b),
the pole voltage is PWM. The voltage rating on the active
switch is which is the same as that of A conventional
PWM converter. The resonant inductor is charged and dis-
charged by this pole voltage and provides alternating current
to the load. A parallel resonant mode occurs between the
inductor and the capacitors whenever the pole voltage
changes its polarity. For example, in Fig. 4(b), switch
is fully turned on and is at off state before To
activate the RPI mechanism, is turned off at zero voltage
level (ZVS). A parallel resonance between and two output
capacitors resets the capacitive energy from to Due
to the fact that the resonant operation takes place only during
a small part of the switching period, this topology can also be
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BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 4. The RPI or quasi-resonant zero-voltage switching dcac converter.
called quasi-resonant ZVS. Thereafter, the switch voltage of
is clamped to zero at and diode is conducting
the load current. Now, the resonant inductor is charged by dc
voltage and can be turned on any time
Because the antiparallel diode is conducting first, the active
switch is ensured to have ZVS turn on. When load current
becomes positive, is conducting and can be turned off by
control logic to start the next parallel resonance operation.
A current-mode delta modulation scheme [Fig. 4(c)] is used
in this quasi-resonant ZVS (QR-ZVS) topology, in order to
synthesize the desired low-frequency output. Because of this,
this converter has been also termed a quasi-resonant current-
mode inverter (QRCMI) [24]. A major hurdle of the RPI
converter is the switch current stresses. The inductor current
must be sufficiently large, in order to reset capacitive energy
during parallel resonance and create ZVS conditions for the
active switches. As a result, the peak and rms current ratings of
the active switch are at least twice and 1.2 times the rated load
current, respectively. Hence, the conduction losses of power
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851
Fig. 5. The auxiliary resonant commutated pole inverter.
devices can be much higher than those of the conventional
PWM converters. This results in a higher component cost
and a very poor switch utilization. On the other hand, at
light load, the inductor current may not be sufficient to create
the ZVS condition. This restricts the load range capability of
the converter. Moreover, since the resonant inductor is series
connected with load, RPI topology does not seem suitable
for motor drive applications because of the redundancy in
stator inductance [24], [25]. However, active power filter
implemented with RPI has been reported up to 10 kVA [26].
Many modified inverter pole resonant schemes have been
presented in order to reduce the current ratings, as well as
to improve the load range and control capabilities [27][34].
B. Resonant Snubber-Based DCAC Converters
In [28], a voltage-source inverter with a resonant circuit
assisted by auxiliary switches (resonant snubber) is presented
(Fig. 5). This idea can also be extended to current-source
inverters. The main switches are self-turnoff devices (such
as GTOs, IGBTs) operating with ZVS, and the auxiliary
switches operate with ZCS. In [28], the auxiliary switches are
thyristors, and in [29], the auxiliary switches are -channel
MCT with an antiparallel diode. In this case, the topology
was termed an auxiliary resonant commutated pole inverter
(ARCPI). The main idea here is that the resonant inductor
is shifted away from the main power flow in Fig. 5),
and the auxiliary switches and are series connected
to the resonant inductor to control the direction of resonant
energy transfer. The control scheme must assure that, at light
load, the auxiliary devices are activated and, at full load, they
are not activated [29], [15], thereby reducing the conduction
losses. Since the auxiliary switches are not associated with
the main load energy transfer, their power ratings are much
smaller than the main power devices and The main
switch current rating is 1 p.u. of the load current in this ARCPI
circuit. However, the antiparallel diodes need to process both
the load and resonant currents when the resonant inductor is
discharged. Since the discharging period is only a fraction
of the entire switching cycle, the power ratings of diodes are
very small. Moreover, the commutation process and the system
performance still depend upon the load current. Current zero-
crossing detection is very critical for the auxiliary switches,
due to the reverse recovery process of the devices. Also, the
conduction times of these auxiliary switches are varied in
each switching cycle and, hence, this makes the control of
ARCPI more complicated. An alternative configuration, using
only thyristors as switches, is proposed in [30], where a good
description of the current zero-crossing detection problem is
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852 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

Fig. 6. Nonlinear commutated resonant pole inverter (NLRPI).

(a)
presented. Other improvements for the ARCP topology can
be found in [31][34]. In [31] and [32], the resonant circuit
is placed between phase outputs, instead of using a center-
tapped dc link for commutation. IGBTs and MCTs were
used, respectively, in [31] and [32], as auxiliary switches. In
these proposed arrangements, called Y-configured and Delta-
configured resonant snubber inverters, the number of devices
in the resonant network was reduced when compared to the
ARCPI.
Fig. 6 shows the nonlinear commutated resonant pole in-
verter (NLRPI) [33], [34], where a saturable nonlinear inductor
(b)
replaces the auxiliary commutation circuit in the ARCPI. The
benefits of the saturable inductor in the NLRPI are smaller
voltampere ratings on the resonant inductor, smaller current
ratings, and shorter conduction duration with the diodes of
active switches. The control difficulty of the NLRPI comes
from the volt-second energy balance in the nonlinear inductor.
If the volt-second balance of the nonlinear inductor is not equal
to zero over each switching cycle, a residue energy will build (c)
up and the NLRPI becomes unstable. A controlled current
Fig. 7. (a) QR-ZCS dcac converter. (b) The relevant waveforms. (c)
source can be injected into the center-tapped source capacitor, Bang-bang control scheme.
in order to compensate for this residue energy [34].
Although there is the added complexity resulting from
additional devices and the difficulty in selecting a proper
auxiliary switch, the resonant snubber-based topology has inductive energy from the outgoing device to the incoming
shown attractive features, such as possibility of operation with one and, hence, the power switch can be turned off at zero
PWM with independent control of the phase legs, and good current. The resonant inductors also ensure the zero-
efficiency. Indeed, topology comparison studies presented in current turn-on of switches. In case of a low-frequency output
[35] and [15] have shown that this topology is highly efficient. waveform, a bang-bang control scheme [36] can be applied
These aspects have made this topology be considered for to this QR-ZCS circuit, as shown in Fig. 7(c). The capacitor
high-power applications, such as motor drives. voltage is compared with the boundaries of reference volt-
ages and and determines the corresponding switching
C. Quasi-Resonant ZCS (QR-ZCS) DCAC Converter sequence.
The QR-ZCS dcac converter of Fig. 7(a), or the so-called A favorable switch current rating is an attractive feature
capacitive coupled dcac inverter (CCI) [36], [37], is the of this QR-ZCS topology. The ac output is fed from current
duality transformation of the QR-ZVS topology (Fig. 4). The sources in the QR-ZCS converter. The peak and rms current
current-fed topologies have been well known for low current of active switches are 1 p.u. and 0.5 p.u. of the input current,
ratings on the active switches, and this is also true in the QR- respectively, in this converter. This implies the applicability of
ZCS converter. The two source inductors are in continuous high-current high-power devices, such as SCRs and GTOs.
conduction mode and charge the output capacitor in
Although the switch voltage ratings are much higher (the dual
opposite directions. Two small resonant inductors are
case of high switch current in the QR-ZVS/RPI topology), it
series connected to the active switches and circulate capacitive
energy of in order to create zero-current turn-on and usually costs less to implement with power devices of high
turnoff conditions for and The switching sequence of voltage ratings than high current ratings.
the QR-ZCS converter is such that, whenever an active switch The resonant capacitor of the QR-ZCS converter provides
needs to be turned off, the complementary switch should an alternating voltage waveform to inductive loads. Therefore,
be turned on first. A series resonance between the output QR-ZCS is more suitable for motion control and induction
capacitor and the two resonant inductors releases the heating applications.
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BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. ZVT dcac converter [39].
D. Soft-Transition PWM DCAC Converters
The elementary soft-transition PWM switching cell (as
opposed to the elementary PWM switching cell) is defined [38]
as the main building block of the class of soft-transition PWM
converters. Initially, these concepts were applied to acdc and
dcdc conversion, but they were extended to dcac conversion
[39][42].
These soft-transition schemes are a compromise between
PWM and soft-switching techniques. In these cases, the dc bus
is fixed, the inverter bridge operates as a conventional PWM
type, and an auxiliary resonant circuit is connected into the
system, as shown in Figs. 810. Therefore, the auxiliary circuit
is used to achieve soft-switching operation only during the
switching transition periods of the inverter switches, while the
PWM feature is preserved to reduce the switching ratings. The
operation of the auxiliary switches needs to be synchronized
with the PWM control scheme [frequently based on space
vector modulation (SVM)], in order to activate the resonant
transition mechanism for the inverter switches. The soft-
transition switching techniques have been referred to in the
literature as ZVT and ZCT. In this section, some representative
examples using these techniques are described.
1) ZVT DCAC Converter: The ZVT dcac converter is
proposed in [39] as an improvement to the ARCPI, where
is the only auxiliary switch.
A small power level diode bridge is used as an auxiliary
commutation circuit in a conventional PWM topology, as
shown in Fig. 8(a) [39]. The auxiliary switch activates the
ZVT commutation of the main switches, and the diode
feeds back extra inductive energy to the dc side. All of the
diodes are subjected to zero-current turn-on and turnoff, while
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853
the main switches are switched at zero-voltage conditions.
Therefore, the switching losses can be dramatically reduced.
This ZVT-PWM topology is suitable for implementation with
MOSFETs and IGBTs, where the output capacitances of the
switches can be used as part of the auxiliary resonant network.
Hence, this ZVT-PWM circuit is expected to operate at a very
high switching frequency. The operation of the ZVT-PWM
converter is basically the same as that of its conventional
PWM counterpart, except during switching transient periods.
Assuming that and are conducting and phase is
the most positive terminal, the phase current is flowing out
of the converter while and are in the inbound directions.
The ZVT-PWM operation of and starts with turning
off all these active switches at zero-voltage conditions. This
ZVS operation is due to the QR-ZVS mechanism produced
by and load inductances. Therefore, the load must be
inductive to provide this ZVS operation. The phase currents
are conducting through diodes and at
Auxiliary switch is activated to initiate the ZVT mechanism
at Thereafter, diode currents are shifted into the auxiliary
circuit and charge the resonant inductors Then, all the
diodes can be turned off at zero-current condition at
as shown in Fig. 8(b). After and are turned
off, active switches and take over the charging
currents to secure sufficient inductive energy stored in the
auxiliary circuit. At the devices and are
turned off with zero voltage conditions. To achieve zero-
voltage switching of active switches, the resonant inductors
resonate with switch capacitors of the inverter bridge.
Then, and are turned on again under zero-voltage
conditions by an energy reset mechanism, due to the parallel
resonance of and
It is evident that the PWM operation of every single switch
results in a ZVT switching of all active devices in this
ZVT-PWM converter. Therefore, more switching sequence is
required in ZVT topology than in the conventional PWM cir-
cuit. Switching timing is the other problem for implementing
ZVT technique in the PWM converter [40]. Since ZVT is not
available for all switching combinations, for example, when
and are all in on states, a modified SVM scheme
is incorporated with ZVT operation to prevent commutation
failure [40], [41]. This ZVT-PWM converter can be used for
motor drive applications because the load inductance is not
part of the ZVS operation of inverter switches.
2) ZCT DCAC Converter: The ZCT dcac conveter [42]
can also be viewed as a modification of the current-pulse
forced commutation circuit which has been used in SCR-
type inverters for high-power applications. In the current-
pulse forced commutation circuit of Fig. 9, also known as a
McMurray inverter [43], resonant tank and provides
impulse current to turn off the active switches at zero-current
conditions. However, the auxiliary switches in the commuta-
tion circuit must be capable of reverse blocking, and their
voltage ratings are higher than dc-bus voltage. Also, two
auxiliary switches, two regenerative diodes, and resistor
are necessary to achieve ZCS of the active switches on each
phase leg of the inverter bridge. This increases the number of
components and complexity of the circuit operation.
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854 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

blocks the diode on The advantage of this ZCT-PWM

converter is the minimized voltage and current ratings on
active switches and all diodes. Since all the active switches are
ZCS turned on and turned off, power switches with long-tailed
turnoff currents, such as power transistors, GTOs, and SCRs,
might be good candidates for ZCT topology. The energy
circulating in the auxiliary circuit is adjusted adaptively to the
Fig. 9. The current-impulse forced commutation circuit [43]. load current [42] and not dissipated, which is an improvement
from the current-pulse forced commutation circuit (Fig. 9).
Therefore, the current peak is around 1.1 times that of the
load current, and the conduction losses can be reduced in the
auxiliary circuit. However, the diodes of the inverter bridge
and the auxiliary switches are not subjected to soft-switching
turnoff. In fact, these devices are turned off at load current
and, hence, the turnoff losses can be a serious problem due to
hard reverse recovery.
3) General Comments: In the ZVT-PWM converter, when
the auxiliary network is activated, both the dc bus and the
(a)
load see a parallel resonant network, whereas in the case of
the ZCT-PWM converter, the dc bus and the load see a series
resonant network. Nevertheless, the ZCT-PWM is not the dual
of the ZVT-PWM. The switches of the inverter bridge in
the ZVT-PWM and in the ZCT-PWM converters turn on and
off with ZVS and ZCS, respectively. However, the auxiliary
switch and all diodes in the ZVT-PWM topology are subjected
to ZCS turn-on and turnoff, while in the case of the ZCT-PWM
converter, the auxiliary switches and the diodes in the inverter
bridge are hard switched off at the load current level. Another
point to observe is that, in both topologies, the devices of the
resonant network are placed similarly to the resonant snubber
topologies referred to in section IV-B. Research work has
been continuously carried out for improvements of these soft-
(b) transition techniques, where one of the main goals is to make
the converter operate as closely as possible to a conventional
Fig. 10. The ZCT dcac converter.
PWM counterpart.
A ZCT-PWM topology, shown in Fig. 10(a) [42], consists
V. RESONANT LINK DCAC CONVERTERS
of a conventional PWM converter and an auxiliary bridge with
series resonant tanks and Each switch of the auxiliary The resonant link dcac converters shift the resonant net-
circuit provides ZCT operation of the active switch on the work from the inverter bridge to the dc bus. Depending on the
corresponding phase leg. The ZCT turnoff of for example, resonant network configuration and the switching scheme, the
is activated by turning on in the auxiliary circuit. In resonant link dcac converters can be divided into two types.
Fig. 10(b), the resonant capacitor of phase is precharged 1) Resonant ac-link dcac converter (RACLC)The link
to After turn-on of a series resonance between waveform can be either an alternating voltage or alter-
and increases the inductor current and diverts the nating current, in order to create ZVS or ZCS conditions
phase current into the auxiliary circuit. for the inverter bridge. Hence, bidirectional switches
The active switch is turned off at zero-current condition, should be used.
and the diode circulates the remaining inductor current. At 2) Resonant dc-link dcac converter (RDCLC)The link
starts to conduct current, while is at off state, is a dc-biased oscillating waveform, whereby unidirec-
as in the conventional PWM case. Auxiliary switch can tional switches can be implemented in the inverter bridge
be turned off any time , and then, the diode of and with ZVS or ZCS conditions.
takes over the resonant current. The resonant capacitor is
discharged to at and the circulating energy A. RACLCs
is stored in the auxiliary circuit after resonant current High-frequency link-based power conversion systems were
decreases to zero. The active switch can be turned on at proposed as a different approach for power conversion dis-
zero current by the PWM control signal. The capacitive energy tribution systems [44]. In this category, a high-frequency LC
in the auxiliary circuit is released through and the diode of resonant tank circuit is inserted into the input dc bus.
However, does not conduct the load current until Fig. 11(a) and (b) shows the series resonant ac-link con-
the capacitor voltage swings back to and reversibly verter (SRACLC) and the parallel resonant ac-link converter
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BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS
(a)
(b)
Fig. 11. (a) SRACLC. (b) PRACLC. (c) Corresponding link and output waveforms.
(PRACLC) topologies, respectively. Their corresponding
waveforms are shown in Fig. 11(c) [44][46]. In the SRACLC,
the series and resonant elements produce a sinusoidal
current waveform in the link, while in the PRACLC, the
parallel resonant tank produces a sinusoidal voltage-link
waveform. In both cases, the waveform frequency is given
by . the switching sequence control circuit activates the switches
1) SRACLC: In Fig. 11(a), the input source is a rectified
dc voltage. Normally, the link current is controlled through this
input rectifier. However, another topology using a battery as
voltage source with a current control stage can also be used
[47]. The reactive elements of the series ac-link converter are
chosen small, in order to create a high link frequency. Since
the link current is alternating, the active switches must be capa-
ble of carrying bidirectional currents. Therefore, the inverter
bridge operates in a cycloconverter mode. The link current
goes through natural zero points twice, and the switches of
the inverter bridge are activated only at these zero crossings.
The active switches operate with ZCS conditions. Therefore,
high-power devices, such as SCRs, can be implemented in
this topology.
2) PRACLC: In the PRACLC, the resonant network is
connected between the current-source dc bus and the inverter
bridge. These reactive elements and are connected in
parallel and provide alternating link voltage to the inverter
bridge. The switches of the inverter bridge are turned on
and turned off only at those zero-voltage instants to reduce
switching losses. Bidirectional voltage switches are necessary
in the PRACLC circuit to withstand alternating link voltage,
as shown in Fig. 11(b). Power devices, such as transistors and
IGBTs, can be used in this PRACLC topology.
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855
(c)
3) Control of the RACLCs: The link current (SRACLC)
or the link voltage (PRACLC) is a sinusoidal waveform that
goes through natural zeros twice in each switching cycle.
The switches on the inverter bridge are activated only at
those zero-crossing instants and, therefore, the basic mode
of control is discrete pulse modulation (DPM). In this case,
such that selected half-cycle and/or full-cycle pulses of the
high-frequency link are transferred to the output, as shown
in Fig. 11(c). In fact, this switching sequence control scheme
is exactly the same as in the cycloconverter converter [45].
The number of pulses at the output is determined by the link
frequency, amplitude of fundamental output component, and
the desired output frequency. Therefore, the fundamental com-
ponents of output voltage (PRACLC) or current (SRACLC)
can be synthesized by this DPM scheme.
B. RDCLCs
Like the previous case, here, a series or parallel resonant
network is connected in the input dc bus and makes the
link oscillate. Nevertheless, a dc-bias voltage (parallel) or
current (series) level is also added to the oscillating waveform.
Therefore, unidirectional switches can be used in the output
bridge, which operates in an inverter mode.
1) Parallel Resonant DC-Link Converter (PRDCLC):
Fig. 12(a) shows a dc-to-three-phase parallel resonant dc-
link inverter [48]. In this circuit, the inverter input voltage
is pulsating by applying a parallel resonant
network between the dc voltage source and the inverter
bridge. Therefore, the link voltage has zero crossings
which create the ZVS soft-switching conditions for the power
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856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

and is the capacitor initial current which

guarantees will have a zero-crossing point.
In practice, zero-crossing failures and overshoots in the bus
voltage may occur because the circuit initial conditions
change during each resonant cycle. A special control strategy
should be applied, in order to establish the same initial
condition at the beginning of each switching cycle. The crucial
(a) factor to solve both voltage overshoots and zero-crossing
problems is the control of the capacitor initial current ,
which varies from one switching cycle to another, due to the
variations of the input inductor initial condition and on
the inverter input current [49]. Moreover, the output voltage
of Fig. 12(c) is obtained by using a DPM control type (such
as delta modulation). This control technique has not shown a
good resolution in terms of harmonic components distribution
(b) when it is compared with the PWM type [50]. However, it
was shown that delta-modulated RDCL inverters switching
34 times faster than PWM systems can realize comparable
harmonic levels and are as efficient as the ARCP inverter
topology [35].
In order to overcome the problems in the RDCLC, the
bus resonant network has been frequently modified to reduce
the clamping factor, thus reducing the switch stresses, and to
introduce the PWM capability. Therefore, new topologies have
been proposed where the following concepts can be commonly
found: passively clamped, actively clamped, quasi-resonant,
(c) and notch commutated.
Fig. 12. (a) Parallel resonant dc link converter, (b) equivalent circuit, (c) a) Passively clamped dc link: An auxiliary circuit, basi-
resonant dc bus voltage vd and output line-to-line voltage. cally composed of a passive element (coupled inductor) and a
diode is introduced in the bus [24]. The idea is to extract
energy from the LC resonant tank to create the clamping
devices. The input voltage introduces the dc bias level in level. This extracted tank energy is fed back to the input dc
the voltage source. However, sufficient excess energy must still be stored
For analysis of this converter, the equivalent circuit of the in the inductor to ensure the zero-crossing point in the
resonant dc link is used, as shown in Fig. 12(b). In this figure, dc-link voltage. Therefore with this technique the link peak
defines the factor of the resonant tank, and the inverter voltage stress reduction is restricted to more than [24].
input current is a function of the phase currents (the load The topology in [24] operates with DPM control.
can be an induction motor, for example) and of the inverter b) Actively clamped dc link: In Fig. 13(a) and (b), the
switching function. In this analysis, is assumed constant actively clamped resonant dc-link inverter [24] and the cor-
during the resonant cycle. To ensure that will return responding waveforms are shown. An auxiliary switch
to zero, is turned on until stores sufficient energy, and a stored-voltage clamp capacitor (electrolytic) are added
determined by Then, when is turned off, the energy in the conventional parallel resonant dc link. The voltage
stored in should guarantee that returns to zero value. in the clamp capacitor is In this case, a better
At the beginning of the turnoff interval at , the initial clamping level can be achieved 1.21.4, where is
conditions are the clamping factor). However, the precharging problem of
the voltage clamping capacitor and the operation with DPM
control have restricted the utilization of this circuit.
c) Quasi-resonant PWM dc link: Several attempts have
been made to introduce the PWM capability in the original
Assuming that the system is highly underdamped, that is, resonant dc-link topology [50][55]. Sometimes, the PWM
, then it can be shown that capability does not result in low switch stresses [50]. Improve-
(2) ment has usually been obtained at the expense of increasing
the number of devices in the auxiliary bus network. Thus,
(3) the conduction losses may increase. Also, the application
where of the PWM technique may impose some restrictions to
load range capability and to the operating frequecy [52]. An
(4) example of quasi-resonant technique applied to an RDCL
three-phase inverter is presented in [54]. In this circuit, the
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BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13. (a) Actively clamped resonant dc-link inverter. (b) DC-bus voltage
and line-to-line output voltage waveforms.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 14. (a) Notch-commutated three-phase PWM ZVS inverter and (b) the
dc-bus voltage.
link voltage is clamped by using coupled inductors, and an
auxiliary switch is included in the resonant network to provide
the quasi-resonant mode of operation. A three-phase sine-
triangle PWM controller is used, and the resonant network
is only activated after detecting the state change of the
PWM command signal. The inverter switches change state
only at zero-voltage conditions. However, the quasi-resonant
operation imposes a minimum link pulse requirement that does
not match those state changes in the PWM controller that will
occur in shorter time intervals. A solution to this problem
has been recently investigated by using space vector PWM
modulation [57].
d) Notch-commutated PWM dc link: In an attempt to
improve the PWM capability and reduce the switch stresses,
the notch-commutated PWM inverter topology [Fig. 14(a)]
has been proposed [55], based on the dc-side commutation
concept [56], [51]. Similarly to the previous case [54], the
bus voltage is normally constant, and the inverter bridge is
operating as a conventional PWM type. The auxiliary bus
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857
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 15. (a) SRDCLC. (b) Equivalent circuit. (c) Resonant dc-bus current
id ; output phase current ia , and equivalent switch voltage VSW :
commutating network is activated to provide notches in the
bus (short zero-voltage intervals) only when it is required
by the PWM inverter. During the notch interval, the soft-
switching condition is created, so that the inverter switches
can change their status. Fig. 14(b) shows the bus voltage
A high-frequency resonance process occurs between
and the switch parasitic capacitances on the bus. Therefore,
an oscillation appears in the bus-voltage waveform. As in
the previous case, special care is taken to assure that the
auxiliary commutating circuit operation is synchronized with
the respective PWM scheme.
2) Series Resonant DC-Link Converter (SRDCLC): The se-
ries resonant dc-link converter [58], [59], which is the dual of
the parallel resonant dc-link type [Fig. 12(a)], has been studied
in different applications [59][62], [68]. Fig. 15(a) shows the
SRDCLC in the case of a three-phase load. In this circuit, a
large inductance provides the dc bias current of the
link. The high-frequency resonant tank is connected in
series with the main power flow. It creates the ZCS feature in
the link current [Fig. 15(c)], which allows the use of SCRs.
Therefore, the converter can operate at higher power levels.
An equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 15(b), where is the
output voltage of the input rectifier in Fig. 15(a). Hence, the
thyristor represents the operation of two devices from the
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858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

input rectifier and two from the output inverter. The current
and the voltage are assumed constant during the resonant
period, since and are large. From Fig. 15(b), the current
can be obtained as follows:
(5)
where
(a)
(6)

where the initial thyristor voltage

and is the initial voltage of
The current pulse is initiated when is turned on. The
thyristor voltage starts to increase when and
is turned off. The thyristor is turned on again when it reaches
the level. During the turnoff, the remaining current in
charges In order to obtain a uniform current pulse
train, the initial conditions at the beginning of each pulse
should be the same. It must be noted that, if becomes greater
than the desired level, the circuit will lose the ZCS condition
and will become unstable. Moreover, highly irregular peaks in
may occur, due to changes according to the output load
demands. Therefore, regulation of is necessary, as well as
The input bridge has been employed to control by
controlling and a saturable core has been used for
[63] to clamp the peak. Similarly to the parallel topology
[Fig. 12(c)], the output current is a high-frequency signal
modulated by an integral cycle control strategy called pulse
density modulation (PDM). Here, also, the PWM technique
cannot be applied.
The main problems with this topology, such as high link
current peaks (regular and irregular) and control complexity,
are the dual of the problems in the PRDCLC of Fig. 12(a).
In both circuits, the resonant elements have to continuously
store the same amount of energy in each resonant cycle, and
then, oscillations may occur due to the input and/or output
load variations.
In order to improve the link current clamping level and
to synchronize with a PWM control strategy, many modified
SRDCL topologies have been proposed [64][67]. In these
modified SRDCL topologies, the continuous resonant current
pulses can be evolved to quasi-resonant PWM [65] or notch-
commutated PWM types [66], similarly to what was done in
the PRDCL case.
a) Modified series resonant dc-link topologies: Improve-
ment in the clamping factor is a crucial issue, because even
the regular resonant current peaks can reach 67 times the
load current [67]. Fig. 16(a) shows an example of a quasi-
resonant type of topology, where the link current peak of
Fig. 16(b) is passively clamped by a saturable core [67].
The auxiliary thyristor and the diode are used for
the PWM operation. The clamping level is equal to
where is the winding ratio. In this circuit, the
clamping factor can be improved to A better clamping
performance with a quasi-square waveform has been obtained
[65], although by using four additional thyristors.
b) General comments: The output of the SRDCLC must
be capacitive. If the load is inductive, then capacitors should be
(b)
Fig. 16. (a) Series quasi-resonant PWM dc-link topology. (b) Bus current.
added at the output. In the SRDCLC, the inverter switches turn
on and off with ZCS. In this case, it is possible to use SCRs
switching at higher frequencies than in the forced commutation
PWM case. This feature makes SRDCLC attractive for high-
power/high-performance applications, such as motor drives.
VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a systematic overview and generic classifica-
tion of soft-switched converters for dcac power conversion
have been presented. The basic principles of each topology
were shown, and some applications were also addressed. The
benefit from reducing the switching losses and increasing the
power density can be achieved. However, in some topologies,
drawbacks such as switch stresses and control complexities
may occur, which can make them difficult for immediate
commercial utilization. Nevertheless, in these cases, many
modified topologies have been proposed, in order to overcome
these drawbacks and improve the system performance. These
improvements are still an interesting research topic, and the
wide use of this technology in many industrial applications
will be in the near future.
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Maria D. Bellar (S90M91) was born in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil. She received the B.S. degree
in electronics and the M.S. degree in electrical
engineering from the Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1986 and 1989,
respectively. She is currently on leave from the State
University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, working towards the Ph.D. degree at Texas
A&M University, College Station.
In 1990, she joined the State University of Rio de
Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she
teaches power electronics. Her current research interests include soft-switched
power conversion, converter modeling and analysis, and motor drives.
Tzong-Shiann (Thomas) Wu (S90M97) re-
ceived the B.S. degree from Chung-Yuan Christian
University, Chungli, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1985 and
the M.S. degree from National Taiwan University,
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1987, both in electrical
engineering. He is currently working towards the
Ph.D. degree at Texas A&M University, College
Station.
From 1990 to 1995, he was a Research Assistant
in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas
A&M University, responsible for the design and
simulation of soft-switching dcdc and dcac power supplies in a NASA
project. In 1995, he was with Lynntech, Inc., College Station, TX, involved
in MCT-based soft-switching motor drives. In 1996, he joined International
Rectifier, El Segundo, CA, where he is currently with the Battery Management
Group, engaged in the development of dcdc converters and MOSFET devices
for portable electronics applications.
Aristide Tchamdjou (S95M96) received the
B.S. degree from the Technische Universitaet Berlin
(TUB), Berlin, Germany, and the M.S. degree from
Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1992
and 1996, respectively.
In 1996, he joined International Rectifier, El
Segundo, CA, as a Rotation Engineer and developed
testing procedures for MOSFETs and high-
voltage gate drivers for IGBTs. He is currently
a Development Engineer in the Power Integrated
Circuits Group.
http://www.itrans24.com/landing1.html
Javad Mahdavi (M95SM97) received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from Sharif Univer-
sity of Technology, Tehran, Iran, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the Institut National Polytech-
nique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, in 1979, 1981,
and 1985, respectively.
During 1981 and 1985, he was with the Research
Department of Merlin Gerin Company, Grenoble,
France. In 1986, he joined the Department of Elec-
trical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology,
where he is currently an Associate Professor. He
also cooperates with Niroo Research Institute, Tehran, Iran. During 1996, he
was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas
A&M University, College Station, and also was a Consultant Engineer with
Magna Power Electronics, Inc., Boonton, NJ. His areas of interest are static
power converters, power electronic converter modeling, static var control,
and EMI in power electronics.
M. Ehsani (S73M75SM84F96) received the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1981.
Since 1981, he has been with Texas A&M Uni-
versity, College Station, where he is currently a
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director
of the Texas Applied Power Electronics Center
(TAPC). He is the author of over 100 publications
concerning pulsed-power supplies, high-voltage en-
gineering, power electronics, and motor drives. He
is the coauthor of a book on converter circuits for
superconductive magnetic energy storage and a contributor to an IEEE Guide
for self-commutated converters, as well as other monographs. He holds seven
U.S. patents. His current research work is in the areas of power electronics,
motor drives, and hybrid vehicles and their control systems.
Dr. Ehsani has been a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society
AdCom and is past Chairman of the PELS Educational Affairs Committee,
past Chairman of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Industrial Power
Converter Committee, and past Chairman of the IEEE Myron Zucker Stu-
dentFaculty Grant Program. He was the General Chair of the 1990 IEEE
Power Electronics Specialist Conference and is an IEEE Industrial Electronics
Society Distinguished Speaker. He was the recipient of the Prize Paper Award
in static power converters and motor drives at the IEEE Industry Applications
Society Annual Meetings in 1985, 1987, and 1992. In 1984, he was named the
Outstanding Engineer of the Year by the Brazos Chapter of the Texas Society
of Professional Engineers. In 1992, he was named the Halliburton Professor
in the College of Engineering, Texas A&M University. In 1994, he was also
named the Dresser Industries Professor at the same college. He is a Registered
Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.