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CHAPTER 3

DC-DC CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES

3.1 INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, much research efforts are directed towards finding

an isolated DC-DC converter with high volumetric power density, low electro
magnetic interference and low cost for effectively processing the energy. In
order to process the energy efficiently, different types of DC-DC converters
are proposed. This chapter consists of different converter topologies with its
advantages and limitations.

3.2 HARD SWITCHING CONVERTERS

Hard switching converters obey the conventional switching

phenomenon. While the switch is turned ON, the voltage across the switch
decrease and the current through the switch tend to increases. This results in
switching losses. Similarly, when the switch is turned OFF, the current
through the switch tends to decrease and the voltage across its terminals
increases. This too results in switching losses.

Hard switching PWM converters such as two switch forward

converters received a lot of interest and appreciations because of its
robustness. For half bridge and full bridge converters, the primary switches
are connected in a totem pole structure. Whenever the two switches are turned
ON at the same time due to electromagnetic noise or radiation, it will be a
destructive failure.
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This problem is solved in two switch forward converter which is very

critical for aerospace power supplies exposed to high energy radiation. The
schematic of two switch forward converter is shown in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1 Two switch forward converter

The major disadvantages of two switch forward converters are hard

switching and the need of large filter inductor. Hard switching leads to high
switching losses for high frequency operation. In addition, the voltage on the
output inductor is much higher in two switch forward converters than in half
bridge converters. Two switch forward converters are not desirable for
meeting higher efficiency and high power density requirements because of
these penalties.

3.3 SOFT SWITCHING CONVERTERS

Conventional PWM converters operate on hard switching phenomenon

where voltage and current pulses, during their transition from high to low
values or low to high values, interact with each other and cause power losses
called switching losses and generate a substantial amount of electromagnetic
interference.
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Switching losses arise because of output capacitance of transistor,

capacitance of diode and the diode reverse recovery. It is observed that
switching losses are proportional to switching frequency. So, higher switching
losses lead to the limitation in switching frequency. Because of the presence
of wide spectral range of harmonics in PWM waveform, a high Electro
Magnetic Interference (EMI) occurs. EMI also results from high current
spikes caused by diode recovery.

Switching losses and EMI can be reduced by using soft switching

techniques at the expense of stress on the device. If the semiconductor device
is made to turn OFF or turn ON when current or voltage is zero, then the
product of voltage and current during transition is zero which leads to zero
power loss. Thus switching losses are eliminated and the device can be made
to operate at high switching frequencies.

Size and weight of the device also reduces because of non-requirement

of heat sink. Soft switching techniques can also be a valuable option to
enhance the converter’s efficiency. The soft switching techniques are widely
categorized into two types namely Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) and Zero
Current Switching (ZCS).

The technique in which the MOSFET turns ON at zero voltage is

called Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS). During turn ON, the voltage is made as
zero across the switch and current begins to rise after the voltage becomes
zero. This is called ZVS. Conventional switching and Zero Voltage Switching
are shown in Figure 3.2 and 3.3 respectively.

The technique in which the semiconductor switch turns OFF at zero

current is called Zero Current Switching (ZCS). Initially the device is
conducting. So the current passing through the device is not zero and the
voltage across the device is zero. In the ZCS condition, current is made as
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zero. Thus there is no power loss during turn OFF of the device. Two soft
switching techniques are inherently available for half bridge converters
without any additional components.

Figure 3.2 Characteristics of conventional switching

Figure 3.3 Characteristics of zero voltage switching

3.4 PHASE SHIFT FULL BRIDGE PWM CONVERTER

The phase shift full bridge PWM converter is widely used for DC-DC
conversion. The topology is shown in Figure 3.4 and bulky capacitors are
used to provide energy during the holdup time.
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Figure 3.4 Phase shift full bridge PWM converter

The bulky holdup time of the capacitor becomes the bottleneck to

increase power density because the size of the capacitor is determined by the
energy required during this time and the conducting current. Enlarging the
operation range of the DC-DC stage could reduce the holdup time of the
capacitors. In this way more energy stored in the capacitor could be utilized.

However, conventional PWM converters have to sacrifice normal

operation efficiency to extend their operation range. It is difficult to design a
PWM converter for wide range of current with high efficiency. The smaller
transformer turns ratio leads to high primary side current. So the conduction
and switching losses increase. Consequently, efficiency suffers at normal
operation conditions.

For phase shift full bridge converters, the major problems are the high
circulating current during normal operation, hard switching on the secondary
side and efficiency at light loads. During each switching cycle there are
freewheeling periods and high current circulates in the converter.

To satisfy the holdup requirement, the duty cycle is selected relatively

small. Thus, it leads to relatively high circulating current and a large amount
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of conduction loss. More conduction loss reduces the efficiency. On the other
hand, although the soft switching is achieved at the primary side, hard
switching problems still remain for the secondary side devices. Switching loss
and voltage stress of secondary side devices are severe issues. At light load
conditions ZVS may be lost. Thus the efficiency under light load is another
concern.

3.5 DIRECT COUPLING CONVERTER

The well known Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique is widely

used by which the width of a fixed amplitude pulse is modulated to obtain
converter regulation. The other popular modulation technique is frequency
modulation by which the frequency of a pulse is modulated to obtain
converter regulation. In direct coupling converter the amplitude of a pulse
train is modulated in order to obtain regulation. Such amplitude control is
obtained by controlling the duty cycle of switches.

The advantage of modulating the amplitude is that the output is

directly coupled and controlled without the need of an output filter. This
enables fast response, lower component count, lower cost and size. A
significant inherent advantage of this converter is its soft switching nature. It
enables zero voltage switching of the switching devices and greatly reduces
switching losses. Efficiency over 90% is achieved. This results in compact
converter design without the need of heat sinks.

Figure 3.5 shows the direct coupling converter. It is assumed that there
is an antiparallel body diode embedded in each of the two MOSFETs S1 and
S2 which enable reverse current conduction through the switch. At the
moment, when the current flowing through inductor L1 is positive, switch S1
which is under OFF state will now turn ON the antiparallel diode of S2 in
order to sustain the current through L1.
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Figure 3.5 Direct coupling converter

This will reverse the voltage across L1, since the capacitor C1 has a
value high enough, so that the voltage change across it is concerned as
insignificant. The output diode D1 will be reverse biased and the inductor
current will decrease and tend towards a negative value. However, as long as
the antiparallel diode of S2 is turned ON, there is a zero voltage condition for
S2 which is then turned ON and zero voltage switching is obtained.

When S2 is turned OFF and current flow through the inductor L1 is

negative, S1 can be programmed to turn ON. When current is directed
through its antiparallel diode, ZVS is obtained as same as that of S2. When the
load current is increased, the average DC current level in the inductor L1 will
increase towards the negative side.

Hence, there is no chance to form a loop current flowing through the

body diode of S2 and in this case only S1 can have ZVS. Unlike conventional
converters, this direct coupling converter modulates the output waveform
amplitude. Inherent zero voltage switching accompanies this converter and
makes this converter highly efficient. Thus compact size can be achieved. The
operating load range of this converter is exceptionally high from full load to
no load.
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3.6 RESONANT CONVERTERS

Resonant converter can achieve very low switching loss and enables
resonant topologies to operate at high switching frequency. In resonant
topologies, Series resonant converter, Parallel resonant converter, Series
parallel resonant converter and LCC resonant converter are the most popular
topologies. The characteristics and limitations of these topologies are
presented in the following section.

3.6.1 Series Resonant Converter

The circuit diagram of a half bridge series resonant converter is shown

in Figure 3.6. The resonant inductor Lr and resonant capacitor Cr are
connected in series. They form a series resonant tank. The resonant tank will
then be in series with the load. From this configuration, the resonant tank and
the load act as a voltage divider. By changing the frequency of input voltage,
the impedance of resonant tank will change.

Figure 3.6 Half bridge series resonant converter

This impedance will divide the input voltage with load. Since it is a
voltage divider, the DC gain of series resonant converter is always less than
one. At resonant frequency, the impedance of series resonant tank will be very
small and all the input voltage will drop on the load. So, for a series resonant
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converter, the maximum gain happens at resonant frequency. Operating

region is on the right side of resonant frequency fr.

When switching frequency is lesser than the resonant frequency, the

converter will work under zero current switching condition. In fact, the rule is
that when the DC gain slope is negative, the converter is working under zero
voltage switching condition and when the DC gain slope is positive, the
converter will work under zero current switching condition. For power
MOSFET, zero voltage switching is preferred.

At light load, the switching frequency needs to be increased to keep the

regulated output voltage. This is a big problem for series resonant converter.
To regulate the output voltage at light load, some other control method has to
be added. With the above analysis, it can be concluded that the series resonant
converter has the major problems of light load regulation, high circulating
energy and turn OFF current at high input voltage condition.

3.6.2 Parallel Resonant Converter

The schematic of parallel resonant converter is shown in Figure 3.7.

For parallel resonant converter, the resonant tank is still in series but the load
is in parallel with the resonant capacitor.

Figure 3.7 Half bridge parallel resonant converter

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More accurately, this converter should be called as series resonant

converter with parallel load. Since transformer primary side is a capacitor, an
inductor is added on the secondary side to match the impedance. At light load,
there is no need to change the frequency to keep the regulated output voltage.
So light load regulation problem does not exist in parallel resonant converter.
At high input voltage, the converter is working at higher frequency far away
from resonant frequency. With the above analysis, it is concluded that parallel
resonant converter has the major problems of high circulating energy and high
turn OFF current at high input voltage condition.

3.6.3 Series Parallel Resonant Converter

The resonant tank of series parallel resonant converter can be looked as

the combination of series and parallel resonant converter. The resonant tank
consists of three resonant components Lr, Csr and Cpr. Output filter inductor is
added on secondary side to match the impedance. It combines the good
characteristics of series and parallel converter. With load in series with series
tank Lr and Csr the circulating energy is smaller compared with parallel
converter. The schematic of series parallel resonant converter is shown in
Figure 3.8.

Figure 3.8 Half bridge series parallel resonant converter

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With the parallel capacitor Cpr, series parallel converter can regulate
the output voltage at no load condition. Similar to series and parallel, the
operating region of series parallel resonant converter is also designed on the
right hand side of resonant frequency to achieve zero voltage switching.

The input current is much smaller than parallel converter and little
larger than series converter. This means that for series parallel converter, the
circulating energy is reduced compared with parallel converter. In this series
parallel resonant converter circulating energy is small and it is not sensitive to
load changes. Unfortunately it has a big penalty of a wide input range design.
With this, the conduction loss and switching loss will increase at high input
voltage.

3.6.4 LLC Resonant Converter

LLC resonant converter has two resonant frequencies. Low resonant

frequency is determined by series resonant tank Lr, Cr and high resonant
frequency is determined by Cr and equivalent inductance of Lr and Lm in
series. For resonant converter, it is normally true that the converter could
reach high efficiency at resonant frequency. The LLC resonant converter is
shown in Figure 3.9.

Figure 3.9 Half bridge LLC resonant converter

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For LLC resonant converter although it has two resonant frequencies,

unfortunately, the lower resonant frequency is in ZCS region. Now the higher
resonant frequency is in the ZVS region which means that the converter could
be designed to operate around this frequency. It is designed to operate at a
switching frequency higher than resonant frequency of the series resonant
tank of Lr and Cr.

3.7 MODIFIED ASYMMETRIC DC-DC CONVERTER

The advantage of complementary driven converter topologies and the

asymmetrical half bridge is their inherent ZVS capability. Asymmetrical half
bridge is suitable for high frequency operation and therefore it is used for high
power density applications. However ZVS capable topology is suitable for a
particular application that depends on how well its properties match the
application requirements and how easy it is to realize these requirements with
minimal expense.

It is to be noted that the word expense here connotes not only the cost
of components, but also efficiency, volumetric efficiency and other
parameters which affect the competitiveness of commercial products. The
well known asymmetrical half bridge topology and its modification are shown
in Figure 3.10 and 3.11 respectively.

Figure 3.10 Conventional asymmetric DC-DC converter

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Figure 3.11 Modified asymmetric DC-DC converter

The advantages of modified asymmetric DC-DC converter are listed

below.

The voltage across the switches in the half bridge is Vs that

allows the use of more efficient and relatively less expensive
lower voltage MOSFETs.

Attainment of ZVS is easier in the half bridge because the load

current reflected to the primary flows in both directions.

Lower voltage across the transformer primary allows a smaller

number of primary turns. This results in lower leakage
inductance and makes construction of transformer easy.

Amidst of all the above said advantages, it has the following

disadvantages too.

The distribution of voltage stress between the output rectifiers is

more uneven.

The tapping in the transformer secondary may cause extra loss

at high frequencies.
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Presence of DC component in the magnetizing current requires

a gapped transformer core.

In a modified asymmetric half bridge converter, the power train

permits extension of the allowable duty cycle to D > 0.5 while changing the
shape of the converters static transfer function. This change permits
optimization of the stress distribution among the components. Comparison of
asymmetric half bridge converter topologies shows that for relatively high
input voltage applications, it offers important advantages of lower voltage
across switches and easier attainment of ZVS.

However, these advantages come with some drawbacks such as

substantially uneven stress on the output rectifiers. The given modified
asymmetric half bridge converter is a deliberate choice of uneven turns ratios
in the two transformer converter circuit and mitigates this drawback while
retaining the original advantageous features of the topology. As a result,
lower voltage and more efficient rectifiers can be utilized.

3.8 FLYBACK CONVERTER

Flyback derived converters are attractive because of their simple

capacitive output filter when compared with the other converters used in cost
sensitive applications. Nevertheless, hard switching operation of the power
switch results in high switching loss, high EMI noises and high switch voltage
stresses. Various kinds of soft switching techniques were proposed for
flyback converters.

Among them, the resonant converter, the active clamp circuit and the
asymmetrical half bridge converter are probably the most well known
converters. Resonant converter can reduce the switching losses and EMI
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noise. However, the voltage and current stresses increase and result in high
conduction losses.

Incorporation of active clamp network provides the benefit of ZVS

operation of the power switches in the active clamp flyback converter, but the
high voltage stress on the power switch is the drawback. The asymmetrical
half bridge flyback converter which can achieve ZVS operation of the power
switches is gaining popularity. The switch voltage stresses not more than the
input voltage can be achieved. The simplified circuit diagram of the
asymmetrical half bridge flyback converter is shown in Figure 3.12. The
inductor Lm denotes the combination of the leakage inductance of Tx and the
external inductor.

Figure 3.12 Asymmetric half bridge flyback converter

The ZVS conditions for the power switches S1 and S2 are quite
different. One of them is just a linear charging process. The ZVS operation of
the power switch S2 can be maintained simply when there is a sufficiently
long dead time between S1 and S2. However, the ZVS operation of the other
switch S1 is achieved only when the energy stored in the resonant inductor is
greater than that of the output capacitors of these power switches.
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Not only the magnetizing inductor of the transformer and the resonant
inductor, but also the blocking capacitor also stores energy when the output
rectifier is OFF. When the duty cycle increases, the energy stored in the
blocking capacitor will also increase.

3.9 SUMMARY

The asymmetrical half bridge converter is desired to operate with 50%

duty cycle and achieve maximum efficiency. The switch voltage stress will
never be more than the input voltage. By analyzing the features of existing
converters, this work focuses on half bridge isolated DC-DC converter
because of its advantages like,

Low switching loss due to zero voltage switching capability of

primary side switches.

Low voltage stress in secondary side rectifier due to its zero

current switching.

Considerable reduction in the number of bulky capacitors due to

high voltage gain.