2021 6th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)

Pune, India. Apr 02-04, 2021

Design, Simulation and Hardware Implementation

of Soft Switching based Induction Heating System
Santosh Panchal R.D.Kulkarni Kumar Raja M.
Scientific Officer 'C' Senior Member, IEEE & SO 'H' Scientific Officer 'F'
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Mysore, India Mumbai, India Mysore, India
sbpanchal@barc.gov.in rdk@barc.gov.in rajamk@barc.gov.in

J. Nataraj
Scientific Officer 'H'
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
Mysore, India
natarajj@barc.gov.in
Abstract—Induction heaters are being used widely for improved process quality as uniform heating is produced,
heating magnetic materials in various industrial and research cleanliness as no gases or solid waste is produced and control
2021 6th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT) | 978-1-7281-8876-8/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/I2CT51068.2021.9418170

applications particularly for controlled precision heating
requirements. Induction heating has advantages like non-
contact type heating, high efficiency, surface hardening, clean
heating, etc. compared to other methods of heating. The power
circuit configuration used for induction heating system in
several applications is inverter circuit based on hard switching
which increases losses in the inverter bridge particularly for
high current, high frequency switching applications. The soft
switching type induction heaters have advantages of lower
switching power loss and high frequency operation and hence
can be used for heating in various process applications. In this
paper, different soft switching methods like load resonance soft
switching, zero voltage switching, zero current switching have
been described. Analyzing the results of various soft switching
methods, parallel load resonance method has an advantage if
operated near resonance where all reactive current required
by induction coil need not be supplied by source. Considering
parallel load resonance method, soft switching is achieved at
both turn ON and turn OFF incidences of solid state switches
used in inverter circuit. The paper presents design, modeling,
simulation and hardware implementation of soft switching
technique based induction heater focusing reduced switching
losses in the switching devices.
is easy as normal electrical power is used to produce the
heat.
In the circuit configuration of induction heating, with
increase in frequency, use of smaller size filters and energy
storage elements is possible allowing stronger magnetic
fields for induction heating which results in higher power
density and better dynamic performance. However, with
higher frequency, switching losses also increases. In case of
switching devices, switching loss at the time of turn ON is
mainly due to sudden change of energy stored in parasitic
capacitance. Energy stored in capacitor dissipates in
switching device when switch is turned ON. When the active
switch is turned OFF, voltage spike is induced due to sharp
di/dt across leakage inductance. Due to high di/dt and high
dv/dt in conventional hard switching, excessive Electro-
Magnetic Interference (EMI) will be induced. This EMI
affects the operation of other equipment if not controlled.
Turn ON transient of both hard switching and soft switching
is shown in Fig.1 whereas Fig.2 highlights the hard
switching and soft switching loci.

Keywords—Induction heating; soft-switching; load

resonance soft switching; zero voltage switching; zero current
switching

I. INTRODUCTION
Induction heating is a form of electrical heating which
has been widely used in industrial, medical, nuclear research
and domestic applications. Induction heating is based on the
principle of electromagnetic induction. When an alternating Fig. 1. Turn on transient of both hard switching and soft switching
voltage is applied to an induction coil, it results in an
alternating current flow in the induction coil circuit. A time-
varying magnetic field, having the same frequency as the coil
current is produced in the surroundings of the coil due to this
alternating coil current. This magnetic field induces eddy
currents in the work piece located inside the coil. The
induced eddy currents will have the same frequency as that
of coil current, but will have a direction opposite to that of
coil current. These eddy currents produce heat due to Joule
Effect i.e. resistive heating. Induction heating has many
advantages over other conventional heating methods like
faster rate of heating, increased overall efficiency as heat is Fig. 2. Hard switching and soft switching loci
directly produced in object or work piece to be heated,

978-1-7281-8876-8/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE 1

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 With increase in frequency magnitude, size and weight of
transformer and filter components get reduced and hence is
an techno-economical design. The switching frequency can
be increased to high value only if the issue of switching
stresses, switching losses and the EMI associated with the
switch mode operation can be overcome. The switching
stresses can be reduced by connecting simple dissipative
snubber circuits in series and parallel with switching device.
Such snubber circuits can reduce switching stress. But these
snubber circuits shift the switching power loss from switch to
the snubber circuit and therefore do not provide reduction in
overall switching power loss. Instead of using dissipative
snubber if one can use proper converter topologies and
switching strategies, it can overcome problem like switching
stress, switching power loss and EMI by turning ON and
turning OFF each of converter switches when either switch
voltage or the switch current is zero. Ideally both the
switching voltage and switching current should be zero when
switching transition occurs.
II. DESIGN CONSIDETATIONS OF SWITCHING STRATEGY
Various switching strategies and converter topologies can
results in Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) or Zero Current
Switching (ZCS) and they are classified as follows.
A. Load Resonant Converters:
In these converter, LC resonant is obtained on the load.
Due to LC resonance, oscillating voltage and current are
applied to load, and the converter switches can be switched
at zero voltage and/or zero current. Either a series LC or
parallel LC circuit can be used. As the impedance of the
circuit changes with frequency, thus by changing the
switching frequency, one can change power flow through
load [1].
B. Resonant-switch Converters:
The LC resonance is used to shape the switch voltage and
current to provide zero voltage and/or zero current switching.
In such resonant converters, during on switching time period,
there are resonant as well as non-resonant operating
intervals. Therefore these converters have also been termed
as quasi-resonant converters [1]. These can be sub classified
as follows;
a) Zero voltage switching: Topologies where switch turns
ON and turns OFF at zero voltage. Peak resonant voltage
appears across switch.
b) Zero current switching: Topologies where switch turns
ON and turns OFF at zero current. Peak resonant current
flows through switch.
C. Resonant DC Link Converters:
In this converter, voltage to the inverter is made to be
oscillating with help of LC resonance. Thus, input voltage
remains zero for some finite duration, during this time status
of switching devices changed.
D. High Frequency Link Integral-Half-Cycle Converters:
This type of converter can be used where high frequency
supply is readily available. Thus, by using bidirectional
switches, it is possible to synthesize a low frequency ac of
adjustable magnitude and frequency, where switches are
turned OFF and ON at zero crossing of input voltage.
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Even with soft switching, if heavy currents flows through
switching device switching stress becomes severe. In case of
induction heating, for temperatures more than curie
temperature, load parameter changes. Thus, if we operate
converter in ZCS mode then switching stress will reduce but
converter current also reduces and hence output power also
reduces. In conventional ZVS mode, it has been observed
that for temperatures more than curie temperature output
current increased greatly compared to current for temperature
less than curie temperature. Thus, switching current also
increased, this results in high switching stress and switching
device will get damaged. Thus, both ZVS and ZCS have
merits and demerits [2].
In low power application such as cooking and small
forging systems, the half-bridge inverter is preferable due to
less number of switches required. However, the half-bridge
current source inverter suffers losses at the high frequency
inductors used in series with switches and a risk of saturation
on inductors [3].
Full bridge inverter has advantage that its output power
can be increased even beyond 5 KHz. Compared to half
bridge full bridge inverter can give four times more power
output. Also for half bridge inverter requires three-wire DC
supply which becomes somewhat difficult during hardware
implementation [4].
In order to control the electrical power, the
semiconductor devices are usually working in a Pulse Width
Modulation (PWM) method. As PWM method works on
high frequency switching, this will increase not only losses
but also the EMI noise. In some cases, to make sure reliable
operation and to meet noise requirement, switching
frequency need to be reduced. In order to overcome the
above mentioned losses and noise issue, soft-switching
technique could be an option. The soft switching ZVS is able
to achieve a switching transient with almost zero switching
loss. Meanwhile, because of the less energy stored during the
switching transient, the dv/dt slope and voltage ringing can
also be potentially reduced compared with hard switching
[5].
III. EXISTING SWITCHING STRATEGY SYSTEM
For controlling the power output, Silicon Controlled
Rectifier (SCR) based rectifier is used which gives variable
dc at input of inverter. All switches in controlled rectifier are
line commutated. The LC filter is used after controlled
rectifier to reduce ripples and to limit it to 5%. In this
system, half bridge Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT)
based inverter is used and operated at 4 kHz. For controlling
inverter, Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) method is
used. Output of inverter is fed to transformer, which serves
two power purposes. First is to isolates power supply circuit
from load and second is step down to get higher current in
load. Capacitor is used in parallel with heating coil for power
factor improvement. Fig. 3 shows the existing induction
heater circuit configuration.
Fig.4 shows inverter output voltage whereas Fig.5 shows
current output of inverter. It can be observed that at time of
switching of device, high frequency oscillation occures.
Magnitude of current at time of switching is nearly peak
value of current. That results in higher switching loss and can
be improved with proper converter topology.
Fig. 3. Simulation Diagram of Existing System Fig. 6. Simulation diagram of series load resonant converter

Series resonance is formed by inductance and series

capacitance. As shown in Fig.6, capacitor connected in series
with load is calculated such that load is resonated at 4 KHz.
It is operated at two different frequencies just below the
resonance frequency of load and above the resonance
frequency. For frequencies below resonance, switch is turned
ON at fixed value of current and voltage. The switch is
turned OFF at zero voltage and current, so switching loss
only takes place during turning ON. Reverse recovery
characteristic of diode must be great to avoid large reverse
current spikes flowing through switch as there is some finite
magnitude of current flowing through diode at the time of
switching of next IGBT device.
Fig. 4. Inverter Output Voltage
For frequencies above resonance frequency of load, the
switch is turned ON at zero voltage and zero current so no
turn ON loss is present in this mode. Switches are turned ON
at zero voltage and current so it is possible to use lossless
snubber for switches. Here no need of fast reverse recovery
diodes as diode current drops before switching of IGBT
takes place. As switches are turned OFF forcefully at peak of
current through it, so large turn off losses takes place. Fig.7
indicates voltage and current through switch when operated
below resonance frequency whereas Fig.8 shows voltage and
current through switch when operated above resonance
frequency. Fig.9 highlights load voltage and current.

Fig. 5. Inverter Output Current

IV. STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF SOFT-SWITCHING METHODS

In this section, assuming load coil inductance 273 μH,
load power factor 0.3 lagging & accordingly load resistance
is calculated and is equivalent of induction heating coil,
keeping load frequency 4 kHz such that it would be easy to
compare their performances. All switches used in different
configurations are ideal IGBT. In all circuit simulations, Fig. 7. Voltage and current through switch when operated below
single PWM technique is used to trigger the IGBT's. resonance frequency

A. Load Resonance Converter:

In this method, the LC tank circuit is used results in
oscillating voltage and current thus provide zero voltage and
zero current. Load current depends on impedance offered by
load and changes with frequency. Thus, to control output
current one can change switching frequency. However, this
will lead to compromise with soft switching. Fig.6 shows the
simulation diagram of series load resonant converter.
1) Series Load Resonance Converter:

Fig. 8. Voltage and current through switch when operated above

resonance frequency

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig. 12. Load voltage and current

Parallel load resonant converter has certain advantages,

Fig. 9. Load voltage and current all current required by load is not supplied by source as large
circulating currents are present in parallel resonance circuit.
Series load resonance configuration has certain By controlling the frequency, one can control output as
advantages. As series resonance circuit impedance depends parallel load impedance changes with frequency. However,
on frequency for given voltage input output voltage and unlike series load resonance converter, the parallel load
current can be controlled by changing frequency. Series converters do not possess inherent short circuit protection
resonance circuit can step up or step down the output capability.
voltage. As load is in series with resonance tank it possess
inherent short circuit protection capability. But all current
B. Resonant Switch Converter:
required by load is to be supplied by source itself, which is
very high in case of induction heating. One need capacitor of 1) Zero Voltage Switching:
high voltage and current carrying capacity. As shown in Fig.13, the circuit capacitor connected
across the switch and inductor in series with parallel
2) Parallel Load Resonance Converter: combination of both switch and capacitor. This LC forms
Parallel load resonance converter appears as voltage resonance, which results in oscillating voltage across switch
source and hence better suited for multiple outlets. In this and at zero voltage switches are operated.
case, capacitor connected in parallel with load coil is
calculated by using parallel LC resonance formula such that
load is resonated at 4 KHz frequency. As shown in Fig.10,
induction heating coil is equivalent to resistance and
inductance series circuit. Thus, by connecting capacitor in
parallel with R-L it is forming parallel tank circuit.
Switching frequency of IGBT is kept at 4 KHz.

Fig. 13. Simulation diagram of zero voltage switching

As shown in Fig.14, switch is turned ON and OFF at zero

Fig. 10. Simulation diagram of parallel load resonant converter
voltage. The switch required to withstand a forward voltage
that is higher than input voltage. For zero-voltage turn ON of
As shown in Fig.11 very small amount of current at turn switch the load current must be greater than Vdc/Zo.
ON transition and switch is turned OFF at zero voltage and Therefore, if load current varies in wide range, then ZVS
current. Hence, no turn off losses are there. Also as it can be technique is not suitable. Fig.15 shows load voltage and
seen in Fig.11, diode current also reaches near zero at time of current.
switching next switch. As shown in Fig.12, load voltage and
current are pure sinusoidal and load current is much higher
than source current, as circulating currents in parallel
resonance are present there.

Fig. 14. Voltage and current through switch

Fig. 11. Voltage and current through switch

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

Fig. 15. Load voltage and current
Zero voltage switching method has certain advantages, as
voltage across the switch is zero at both turn ON and turn
OFF switching loss is negligible. As zero voltage is zero near
switching incident, so no discharge of internal capacitances
of the switches through switch, which is very significant at
higher frequency. But this configuration dependent on load
current for getting zero voltage switching. Thus, this
configuration cannot be used where load current varies in
large range.
2) Zero Current Switching:
Zero current switching means current through the switch
during turn ON and turn OFF should be zero. As shown in
Fig.16, the circuit inductor is connected in series with the
switch and capacitor is connected in parallel with series
combination of switch and inductor. This LC combination
form resonance across the switch. Current through switch is
oscillated because of resonance across switch and switches
are operated during zero crossing of current through switch.
Fig. 16. Simulation Diagram of Zero voltage switching
As shown in Fig.17, peak voltage across switch is higher
than source voltage. Current is zero at the time of switch is
turned ON and OFF also. For natural turn OFF of the switch
at zero current, load current should not exceed Vdc/Z0. At
given frequency of operation output voltage declines with
increasing load. Therefore, switching frequency is must be
increased to regulate output voltage and vice versa. Fig.18
shows load voltage and current.
Zero current switching has certain advantages, output
voltage can be controlled by controlling switching frequency,
but results in compromising switching loss. No di/dt loss as
zero current switching takes place. EMI losses will be
reduced with respect to di/dt with this method. But peak
resonance voltage appears across switch which is higher than
source voltage.
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Fig. 17. Voltage and current through switch
Fig. 18. Load voltage and current
From all above study and analysis, one can say that for
ZCS, charge stored in internal capacitance of switch
discharges in switch is because presence of voltage across
the switch at time of switching. This effect is very significant
at high frequency. In ZVS circuits, the effectiveness is
dependent on load current. But in case of induction heating
the load current varied as temperature changes, so this
configurations are not suitable for our application. In case of
load resonance converters, one can operate inverter switch at
either zero turn on loss or zero turn off loss. Also in case of
series load resonance configuration all load current required,
to be supplied by source itself. In case of induction heating
load current is very high, so series load resonance
configuration is also not suitable. So one can go for parallel
load resonance configuration for our application as in
parallel tank circuits has higher circuit circulating current.
Thus, all current should not be supplied by source. This is
biggest advantage of parallel load resonance circuit.
V. DESIGN OF PROPOSED SOFT SWITCHING METHOD
Fig.19 shows the power circuit block diagram of
proposed system. Uncontrolled bridge rectifier is used to
convert three phase AC in to uncontrolled DC. Chopper is
used to convert fixed DC voltage in to controlled DC
voltage. This control of DC voltage is required to control the
power output in load. Filter is required to get smooth DC
output. The High frequency inverter is used to convert DC
into AC required for induction heating load. High frequency
transformer is used for both isolation and step down purpose
to get required high current in the load. Here in simulation as
well as in practice, IGBTs are triggered by single PWM at
4.05 KHz frequency keeping 3.2 micro-seconds dead band.
Design values of proposed system
Load inductance – 31.26 μH
Power factor improvement capacitance = 55 μF
DC Filter inductance – 1.5 mH
DC Filter capacitance - 3300 μF
Transformer equivalent inductance ref. to primary–456 μH
Transformer equivalent resistance ref. to primary-33.2 mΩ
Fig. 19. Simulation Diagram of proposed parallel load resonance converter

VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Fig. 22. Load current

Parallel load resonance inverter has been tested for
different frequency and achieved soft switching at all As shown in Fig.20, current at time of both turn ON and
frequency by varying the capacitance value connected in turn OFF of device is nearly zero and so both turn ON and
parallel with induction coil. Table I shows the experimental turn OFF loss of switching device will be negligible. Also as
results. current through diode at time of switching transition is nearly
zero, no need of fast recovery diode to be connected in
antiparallel with IGBT. This will also increase the reliability
TABLE I. TABLE I EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
of the device. The load current and load voltage is nearly
Sr. Capacitor value to be connected Frequency at which soft- sinusoidal. Table II shows the comparative results obtained
No. in parallel with load coil (μF) switching is achieved (KHz) from hardware configuration showing parametric values for
1 40 4.85 hard switching and soft switching. The parameters during
2 50 4.25 soft switching like DC input to inverter, inverter output, coil
3 55 4.1 power and power loss of inverter have been found superior
4 60 3.9 compared to hard switching.

From the above results, selected 55 μF capacitance to be TABLE II. COMPARISON BETWEEN HARD SWITCHING AND SOFT
connected in parallel with load coil so that results can be SWITCHING
compared with existing setup results at nearly same
Method of DC input to Inverter Coil power Power loss
frequency. Fig.20, Fig.21 and Fig.22 shows the results switching the Inverter output power output of inverter
captured on oscilloscope indicating inverter output (Watts) (Watts) (Watts) (Watts)
voltage/current, load voltage and load current respectively. Hard switching 2277 1886 1431 391
The operating frequency is 4.05 KHz. Soft switching 2142 2084 1592 58

VII. CONCLUSION
From above study and analysis, one can say that for ZCS,
charge stored in internal capacitance of switch discharges in
switch is because presence of voltage across the switch at
time of switching. This effect is very significant at high
frequency. In ZVS circuits, effectiveness is dependent on
load current. But in case of induction heating the load current
varied as temperature changes thus, this configurations are
not suitable for heating application. In case of load resonance
converters, one can operate inverter switch at either zero turn
Fig. 20. Inverter output voltage and current
on loss or zero turn off loss. Also in case of series load
resonance configuration, all load current required, to be
supplied by source itself. In case of induction heating, load
current is very high, hence, series load resonance
configuration is also not suitable. Hence, it is proposed
parallel load resonance configuration for induction heating
application. As in parallel load resonance, tank circuits has
higher circuit circulating current. So, all current should not
be supplied by source. This is biggest advantage of parallel
load resonance circuit. From circuit hardware
implementation, it has been found that total loss in inverter is
reduced from 17 to 2.87%. Also it has been observed that by
experimental setup in parallel load resonance method, fast
reverse recovery diode are not required to be connected in
Fig. 21. Load voltage anti-parallel with IGBT as current drop to nearly zero in
diodes also at the time of switching of other devices. The
comparative analysis obtained from experimental results
showed the merits of soft switching as compared with hard

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
switching. The load inductance varies with temperature in [2] Sachio Kubota, Muneo Sato “Soft switching PWM inverter for
case of induction heating application. In further study, Induction heating Applied to heating of Ferromagnetic Metal” IEEE
2008.
automatic resonance tracing circuit for parallel load
[3] A. Polsripim, S. Chudjuarjeen “A Soft Switching Class D Current
resonance configuration can be done. This will help in source Inverter for Induction heating with Ferromagnetic Load”
getting soft switching in full temperature range of load. PEDES 2009.
[4] Lakshmi S. P. “Power tracking of Resonant Inverter with Soft-
REFERENCES switching over Full Load range for induction heating applications”
IEEE 2015.
[1] Mohan, Undeland, Robbins “Power electronics converters,
[5] Ruxi Wang, Juan Sabate “Phase-shift Soft-switching power amplifier
Applications, and Design” Third edition, Wiley publications.
with lower EMI Noise” IEEE 2014.

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Kwazulu Natal Library. Downloaded on March 15,2023 at 00:42:42 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.