Soft-Switching Buck Boost Converter using

Passive Snubber Composed of Pulse Current

Regenerative Resonant Circuit
Yoshihiro Konishi, Yung-Fu Huang
Power Conversion Laboratory, Industrial Technology Research Institute 195, Sec.4, Chung Hsing Rd., Chutung, Hsinchu,
Taiwan 310, R.O.C. y.konishi@itri.org.tw, yfhuang@itri.org.tw

Abstract - This paper presents a novel soft-switching buck

II. CIRCUIT CONFIGURATION AND SWITCH OPERATION
boost converter using a passive snubber composed of a pulse
current regenerative snubber circuit. The proposed soft- The conventional buck boost converter circuit is shown in
switching circuit consists of passive components which configure Fig. 1. Fig. 2 illustrates the circuit configuration of the
CD (capacitor and diode) snubber circuit and regenerative proposed soft-switching buck boost converter which uses the
resonant circuit assisted with an auxiliary winding of a main
passive snubber with energy regenerative function, and which
inductor. The paper indicates the effective converter operation
region of the soft-switching action and its efficiency improvement can be operated under the principle of low dv/dt turn-off and
results on the basis of experimental evaluations using 3.5kW simple PWM action. The main power converter circuit
prototype. consists of one active switch (Q) and the auxiliary passive
snubber circuit. The passive snubber circuit with
Index Terms – Buck boost converter, regenerative resonant
circuit, passive snubber.
Vin iL
I. INTRODUCTION
Cd
Recently, DC-DC converter circuits are widely used for the
DC power generation stage of a renewable energy system, such vQ L Vout
as a fuel cell system and a photovoltaic system, and so on. In
these applications, the power conversion efficiency Q D
improvement is one of the most important issues to achieve the
high efficiency performance of the whole generation system. iQ
To realize high conversion efficiency, a soft switching circuit
is useful and effective technologies. And many soft- switching Figure 1: Conventional buck boost converter
circuits applied to buck boost converter have been proposed
[1]-[3]. Among of these technologies, the soft-switching
topologies using an auxiliary active switch method have
disadvantages, such as low reliability and complexity of both
the power circuit and control circuit compared to the passive
Vin iL
soft-switching ones. The passive regenerative snubber has the 1:n Cd
simple circuit configuration and wide operation region of the
soft-switching action [4], [5]. vQ L Vout
This paper presents the pulse current regenerative snubber
circuit which consists of the passive components applied to
Q D
the buck boost converter. Due to its simple circuit
configuration, this proposed converter is able to be controlled iCs Cs iQ ir
by a single PWM signal, establishing high reliable circuit. To
verify the effectiveness of the proposed soft-switching buck Ds Lr
boost converter, the breadboard set-up of 3.5kW output vCs
capacity and 20kHz switching frequency operation using Dr Regenerative snubber
IGBT device is implemented and evaluated. Moreover its
operating performances are also compared to the hard-
Figure 2: Proposed soft-switching buck boost converter
switching converter operation.

978-1-4244-1628-8/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE 886

 Mode 1 Mode 1-1
Vin iL Vin iL
1:n 1:n
Cd vCs = 0, ir > 0 Cd
vQ L Vout vQ L Vout
Q D Q D
iCs C iQ iCs iQ
s ir vCs > 0, ir = 0 Cs ir
Ds Lr Ds Lr
vCs vCs
Dr nVin Dr nVin
ir = 0

Mode 4 Mode 3 Mode 2

Vin iL 1:n Vin iL Vin iL 1:n

Cd 1:n Cd Cd
vQ vQ L vQ L
L Vout Vout Vout
Q D Q D Q D
iCs Cs iQ iCs Cs iQ ir iCs Cs iQ ir
Lr ir Lr
Ds Lr Ds
Ds vCs vCs
vCs
Dr nVout Dr n(Vin-vCs) Dr nVin
Figure 3: Operation mode

current regeneration for energy recovery is composed of a

snubber diode (Ds), a snubber capacitor (Cs), an auxiliary
diode (Dr), a secondary winding of a main inductor (L) on
which has the winding turn ratio (n) and a resonant inductor Gate pulse
(Lr).
Fig. 3 indicates operation mode transition diagram of the iL
proposed soft-switching buck boost converter. In Fig. 4,
typical voltage and current operating waveforms of the Inductor
proposed converter are illustrated. As shown in Fig. 4, there current vQ
are typical four modes in one switching period. Operation of Vin+Vout
the proposed buck boost converter circuit is as follows:
A. Mode 1: Snubber Energy Regenerative mode ( t0  t  t1 ) iQ
At mode 1, the active switch Q is turned on and a voltage
nVin is reflected across the secondary winding of the main Switch Q
inductor. As a result, resonance based on Lr and Cs starts vcs
Vin+Vout
partially. The snubber capacitor voltage is discharged toward
to low level. The equations about the capacitor voltage (vCs)
and the regeneration current (ir) for this mode are
ics
represented as follows. (1-2n)Vin+Vout
Vin Vout nVin cos Ȧr t t0 1
v
Cs (1) Snubber
capacitor t0 t1 t2 t3 t4
nVin
ir sin Ȧr t t0 (2)
Zs
Mode 4 1 2 3 4 1 2
Where Zs Lr Cs is the characteristics impedance and
Figure 4: Typical voltage and current waveforms
Ȧr 1 Lr Cs is the resonance angular frequency.

887
 From equation (1), the snubber capacitor voltage becomes
minimum voltage at Ȧr t t0 ʌ and the following
equation can be obtained as the discharged voltage.
V V V 2nV
in outCs1 in (3)
When the regeneration current becomes zero, mode 2 starts.
So the condition of n  0.5 Vout 2Vin is satisfied, the
snubber capacitor voltage is fully discharged to zero. At this
time, the additional operation mode of mode 1-1 is started,
and the regeneration current decreases linearly to release the
resonant inductor energy. When the regeneration current
becomes zero, mode 2 starts.
B. Mode 2: Main Inductor Energy Charging Mode ( t1  t  t2 )
The main inductor energy is stored from the input side in
this mode. When the active switch is turned off by the
controller gate off signal of duty ratio (  ), mode 3 starts.
Since the regeneration current ir is not to flow continuously
at mode 2, the additional condition of nVin Vin Vout should be
considered and the conditions to determine the turn ratio of
the auxiliary winding is
rearranged as 0 n 1 considering worst case output voltage of
Vout 0 .
C. Mode 3: Snubber Capacitor Charging Mode ( t2  t  t3 )
At this mode, the turn-off voltage applied to the active
switch is suppressed by the snubber capacitor, and then the
turn-off loss of the active switch becomes small. When the
capacitor voltage reaches to Vin Vout , mode 4 starts.
D. Mode 4: Main Inductor Energy Releasing Mode ( t3  t  t4 )
The energy stored in the main inductor is released to the
output side in this mode.
In Fig. 5, the relationship between the snubber capacitor
discharge voltage rate VCs1 VinVoutand the auxiliary
winding turn ratio n is described calculating equation (3) in
t)
relation to the ratio of the input voltage and the output voltage
Vout Vin . Since deep discharge of the snubber
capacitor can be obtained at the condition of small value of
Vout Vin , the large reduction of the turn-off loss of the active
switch can be achieved. For example, at the condition of n
0.75 and Vout Vin 2 , the capacitor discharge voltage
becomes a half of the initial value. On the contrary, at the
condition of n 0.75 and Vout Vin 0.5 , the capacitor discharge
voltage reaches to zero. This means that the higher input
voltage at the output constant voltage control condition grants
the larger effectiveness of the efficiency improvement.
III. OPERATING PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS
The operation principle and the performance characteristics
of the proposed soft-switching buck boost converter are
verified by the prototype of 3.5kW and 20kHz switching
operation using IGBT device. The main design specification
and circuit parameters are listed in Table.1. The resonant
frequency based on Lr and Cs is 67kHz. Then the snubber
energy regeneration time becomes around 7.5µS.
Fig. 6 shows the experimental waveforms of active switch
voltage and main inductor primary current at Vin=300V. The
rising rate of the switch turn- off voltage is decreased by the
snubber action. The resonant current is superimposed in the
main inductor primary current at the beginning of switch turn-
on state. The experimental waveforms of the snubber
capacitor voltage and the regeneration current at Vin=300V are
indicated in Fig. 7. It is verified that the capacitor voltage is
discharged from 680V to around 230V following at the
condition of Vout Vin 1.267 The peak current of
regenerative period is around 9A, and its resonant period is
around 8µs, which is 16% of one switching period.
Fig. 8 shows the turn-off switching waveforms of the active
switch at both soft -switching and hard-switching operation
respectively. From these figures, the switching loss of the soft-
switching circuit becomes smaller than that of the hard -
switching circuit thanks to reduction of turn- off dv/dt. The

1.0
o
u

effect of turn-off loss reduction is 25% at input voltage

nV
i
+
/(V

0.8 n = 0.75 TABLE I

MAIN DESIGN SPECIFICATION AND CIRCUIT PARAMETERS
1
c
s
rate V

0.6 Input voltage Vin 150 – 450V

V Output voltage Vout 380V
cha
rge
dis

out
0.4 Output capacity Po 3.5kW
0.5 1. 0 1. 5 2. 0 2.5
V Switching frequency f 20kHz
in
Inductor L 1.5mH
Capacitor

0.2 Inductor aux. winding turn ratio n 0.75

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 Leakage inductance referred from
aux. winding l 11µH
0.0
Snubber capacitor Cs 0.12µF
Regenerative winding turn ratio n Resonant inductor Lr 47µH
IGBT Q 1200V, 100A
Figure 5: Snubber capacitor discharge voltage rate vs. turn ratio n

888
 vQ vCs

iL

ir

Figure 6: Switch voltage and main inductor primary current waveforms Figure 7: Snubber capacitor voltage and regeneration current waveforms
(vQ: 200V/div, iL: 10A/div, time: 10µs/div) (vCs: 200V/div, ir: 10A/div, time: 10µs/div)

vQ
iQ vQ vQ
iQ
iQ

(a) Hard-switching at Vin=150V (b) Hard-switching at Vin=300V (c) Hard-switching at Vin=450V

iQ
vQ iQ iQ
vQ vQ

(d) Soft-switching at Vin=150V (e) Soft-switching at Vin=300V (f) Soft-switching at Vin=450V

Figure 8: Turn-off switching waveforms of active switch
(vQ: 200V/div, iQ: 10A/div, time: 0.1µs/div)

of 150V. However, the higher input voltage as 450V has the 96 Vin = 450V
larger reduction loss of 75% by the effect of deep capacitor 94 Soft-switching
voltage discharge. In Fig. 9, the power conversion efficiency 92 Hard-switching
Efficiency [%]

in relation to the output power is represented for the proposed 96 Vin = 300V
soft-switching and the hard-switching circuit varying input
94
voltage Vin. From these results, it is verified that the maximum
92
efficiency obtained from the proposed soft-switching
96 Vin = 150V
converter is 95.9% at Vin=450V and full output power
94
condition, and the efficiency increases approximately 0.7% to
1.3% in relation to the hard -switching converter at full output 92
power condition. And the large efficiency improvement is 0 20 40 60 80 100 [%]
obtained at high input voltage operation of 450V by the effect Output power (3.5kW)
of the passive snubber. Figure 9: Efficiency characteristics

889
 IV. CONCLUSION
A soft-switching buck boost converter using the pulse
current regenerative snubber circuit has been proposed. The
operation principle of the proposed circuit, its design
consideration and efficiency characteristic are described on
the basis of theoretical and experimental point of view. It is
verified that the efficiency of the proposed new soft-switching
converter increases when the passive snubber circuit is
implemented compared to the hard-switching operation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are indebted to the project of development of
Interconnection technologies for distributed generation
foundation funding from the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of
Economic Affairs for supporting this study.
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