APPLICATION NOTE

Designing a More Efficient

Power Converter Using Soft
Switching Technique
Fine tune your design with simulation
Table of Contents

Designing a More Efficient Power Converter Using Soft Switching Technique ............................................ 3

Overview of the Soft Switching Concept ....................................................................................................... 5

Obtaining Soft Switching in Power Converters ............................................................................................. 9

Quasi Square Wave Zero Voltage Switching (QSW ZVS) Boost Converter ............................................... 9

Simulating the Converter ............................................................................................................................ 11

Using the Tuner in ADS .............................................................................................................................. 17

Tuning the Soft Switching Converter to Simulate ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 26

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Designing a More Efficient Power Converter
Using Soft Switching Technique
Switched-mode power supply (SMPS) design is gaining a lot of attention with the growing demand for
renewable energy. Electric vehicles (EV) are at the forefront of this trend. The demand for faster and
more efficient ways to charge EV batteries is driving designers to come up with more efficient SMPS
topologies. With SMPS moving towards higher operating frequencies, designers need to be more wary of
the switching losses in the SMPS. Switching losses are directly proportional to the operating frequency. In
general, switching losses can be divided into 3 categories:

1. Turn on / turn off losses.

2. Switch node diode reverse recovery loss

3. Conduction loss

The reverse recovery of the diode is main factor in the overall switching loss in an SMPS. Switching loss
is defined as a loss that occurs when there is voltage and current across a switch simultaneously. In the
next section, we will explain each type of losses in a switch.

1. Turn on / turn off losses.

The waveforms below shown in Figure 1 shows how power loss occurs in a MOSFET during turn on
and turn off. During a typical hard turn-on as the gating signal 𝑉𝑉𝐺𝐺𝐺𝐺 is applied to the gate of the
MOSFET, the drain current 𝐼𝐼𝐷𝐷 starts increasing linearly while the drain to source voltage 𝑉𝑉𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷
remains the same. As the current reaches its nominal value, 𝑉𝑉𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷 starts decreasing linearly and
reaches a value close to zero. Through this transition, we can see that there is a period when the
switches have voltage and current across them simultaneously. This indicates there is power loss
across the switch every time it turns on and off. In switching devices this loss manifests itself in the
form of heat. The power loss is directly proportional to the switching frequency. This topic has been
very well described in further detail in [1], [2].

Figure 1. References: Fundamentals of power electronics by Robert Erickson, Dragan Maksimovic.

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2. Switch node diode reverse recovery loss.
This is the major loss mechanism when it comes to switching losses in power converters. Diode
reverse recovery happens when a diode at the switching node gets turned off when the MOSFET is
turned on. This process of turning off a diode essentially causes a huge flow of current through the
diode in the reverse direction. This phenomenon is called “reverse recovery”. The reason reverse
recovery occurs is because when a diode conducting current in the forward direction gets reverse
biased, there is a minority career charge stored in the p-n junction. This charge must be extracted for
the diode to turn off. As the diode is reverse biased, this stored charge flows in the reverse direction
as quickly as possible to turn off the diode, causing a huge current spike. A detailed explanation of
reverse recovery loss can be found in sections 4.3.2 and 4.3.3 in [1 (fundamentals of PE)].
To briefly explain this phenomenon, let us look at a basic boost converter. In the boost converter
shown below, we can see that as the switch M1 is turned on, the diode D1 is reverse biased and is
thus turned off. Figure 3 below shows how the switch and diode voltage and current waveforms look
when the MOSFET M1 is turned on. 𝑄𝑄𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 in figure 3 below is the area under the current vs time curve
when the current surge flows in the reverse direction through the diode. During this period, as shown
from the figure 3 below, the switch M1 has a voltage equal to the output voltage V across it. This
indicates we have a high amount of energy loss during this interval. The voltage across the diode D1
when it conducts in the reverse direction is still close to zero.Thus, even though it is the diode D1
that reverse recovers, the loss occurs across the MOSFET M1.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

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 Reverse recovery loss is a major factor in the overall power loss on a switch during operation. A
common way of dealing with these losses is using a Schottky diode. Schottky diodes have a much
faster reverse recovery. However, Schottky diodes do not completely eliminate losses.

Conduction loss
This type of loss occurs when the MOSFET M1 is conducting current through it. This loss occurs
due to the on-resistance of a MOSFET. Figure 4 shows the table of characteristics for a typical
silicon MOSFET. As current flows through it, the on resistance of the MOSFET, 𝑅𝑅𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 , causes in
voltage drop. This drop causes the conduction loss in a MOSFET.

Figure 4.
The conduction losses in a MOSFET can be quantified mathematically with a simple equation.

𝑃𝑃𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙𝑙 = 𝐼𝐼𝐷𝐷2 ∗ 𝑅𝑅𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜

Where 𝐼𝐼𝐷𝐷 is the MOSFET drain current.

Overview of the Soft Switching Concept

The concept of soft switching has been around for a long time. The most uncomplicated occurrence of
soft switching can be observed in a basic buck converter when it operates borderline at the discontinuous
conduction mode. Figure 5 shows the current waveforms in a buck converter, where IL is the inductor
current, ID is the diode current, and IM is the current through the MOSFET M1. During the time period
when the MOSFET M1 is turned off, the diode current goes to zero along with the inductor current. As the
MOSFET M1 is turned on, there is no reverse recovery losses at the MOSFET as the diode current is
already brought down to zero by the circuit characteristics.

5
Figure 5.

Figure 6.

This increases the converter efficiency significantly by nullifying the most major switching loss
mechanisms in power converters.

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Switching in power converters can be subdivided into 3 parts as shown in the chart below.

Switching

Hard Zero voltage Zero current

switching switching switching

Soft switching
Figure 7.

As shown in figure 7, soft switching can be further categorized into two parts: Zero voltage switching
(ZVS) and Zero current switching (ZCS). ZVS occurs is when the voltage across a switch goes to 0 before
it is switched on or off. ZCS occurs when the switch current goes to zero before switching on or off.

When trying to achieve soft switching in a power converter, a designer needs to analyze whether ZVS or
ZCS is better suited for the switching transition of a switch. Per the explanation given in section 23.1 of
[1], as a rule, ZVS is a preferred way of switching for diode turn-off and MOSFET turn-on transitions,
while ZCS is a preferred way of switching for MOSFET turn-off transitions. Figure 8 & 9 show how the
current and voltage waveforms look for a typical ZVS and ZCS switching transition.

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Figure 8.

Figure 9.

In the previous example, it is easy to get soft switching at lower load currents. However, at higher load
currents, we need to increase the percentage current ripple in the inductor to induce a discontinuous
current. Note that achieving soft switching in a converter can significantly increase the conduction losses
while minimizing the reverse recovery losses. Aa designer has to account for this tradeoff to achieve
higher overall efficiency in the power converter.

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Obtaining Soft Switching in Power Converters
Obtaining soft switching in power converters generally relies upon adding resonant inductors and
capacitors to the circuit. The resonance between these components is drives the switch current and/or
voltage to zero before the actual switching happens. The reference below explain a few of the widely
used soft switching techniques and topologies in greater detail.

Reference: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=264900

Reference: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4677473

Quasi Square Wave Zero Voltage Switching

(QSW ZVS) Boost Converter
In this application note, we will simulate a soft switching topology called the Zero Voltage Switching,
Quasi Square Wave Boost converter, or ZVS-QSW Boost converter on Keysight’s Pathwave ADS
platform. Figure 10 shows the circuit diagram of this converter.

Figure 10.

In this converter, Lr and Cr are the comparatively small resonant inductor and capacitor respectively. Cf is
the output filter capacitor.

Quasi square wave (QSW) is a family of topologies in soft switching converters. The high-frequency or
AC equivalent circuit of the QSW converter has the resonant inductor and capacitor in series with the
switches (for ZCS) or in parallel with the switches (for ZVS). Figure 11 shows the high-frequency
equivalent circuit of the QSW converters.

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Figure 11.

The operation of a soft switching converters is much more complex than a normal hard switched
converter. In a normal hard switched converter, factors that play a significant role int the overall
performance of the converter are the duty cycle of the PWM, like the operational frequency, load current,
and dead time. In a soft switching converter, there are more factors that dictate the overall performance.
The mathematical tool generally used to analyze soft switching is called the state plane analysis. State
plane analysis of soft switching converters is out of the scope of this application note but is described in
detail in the reference given below.

Reference: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=24911

All the analysis of soft switching converters is done using normalized variables. Figure 12 shows the
switch conversion factor (mu) against the normalized frequency F characteristics. (This figure is obtained
from section 23.32 of the reference given below)

Reference: Fundamentals of Power Electronics by Dr. Robert Erickson and Dr. Dragan Maksimovic.

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Figure 12.

For the boost converter under discussion, the conversion ratio comes out to be:
𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉 1
𝑀𝑀 = =
𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉𝑉 1 − 𝜇𝜇

Where
𝑓𝑓 1
F = 𝑠𝑠 ; where 𝑓𝑓0 = , fs is the switching frequency and J is the normalized load current.
𝑓𝑓0 2𝜋𝜋�𝐿𝐿𝑟𝑟 𝐶𝐶𝑟𝑟

To get soft switching in this converter, the value of 𝜇𝜇 needs to be greater than 0.5.

Simulating the Converter

Designing the converter
The previous section shows that the output voltage is highly dependent on the load. So, it is important to
design the converter to enable soft switch in the entire region of operation. The time/duty cycle of the
MOSFET is another important factor to take into when designing a soft switching converter. This has a
direct correlation with the overall performance. Switching too softly could result in too long of a switch-on
time. This leads to hard switching as an end result as the resonant components do not have enough time
to pull down the switch voltage. On the other hand, if the on time of the switch is too small, the switch
voltage and inductor current will start ringing with sinusoidal currents flowing through them. This means
an increased conduction loss.

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Designing a soft switching converter includes deciding the output voltage, input voltage, conversion ratio,
load variation and more. We also have to solve for the values of resonant components Lr, Cr. Once we
have the values for the resonant components, we solve for the values of the switching frequency and the
switch-on time. All these variables are interdependent with complex equations that can only be solved
using iterative numerical methods, which are out of the scope of this application note.

In this application note, we have already done the design steps for the converter considering the following
ratings.

Input voltage: 12 V

Output voltage: 48 ± 1 V

Maximum load: 100 W

Minimum load: 10 W

The operational frequency at maximum load: 250 kHz.

Considering a value of normalized current (described in

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=24911) J = 2 for maximum load, we got the
following values for our resonating components Lr and Cr.

Lr = 1.5uH

Cr = 11.3nF.

These values will remain constant and the control parameters we have are the switching frequency and
the switch-on time. Referring to the 𝜇𝜇 𝑣𝑣𝑣𝑣 𝐹𝐹 characteristics given in the figure 12 above and iteratively
solving for the on time (ton) of the switch using the state plane analysis
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=24911], gives us the values for the F and
ton.

For maximum load:

F = 0.204, which is equivalent to a switching frequency of 250 kHz

Ton = 3usec

Similarly for the minimum load:

F = 0.54, which is equivalent to a switching frequency of 667 kHz (see equations given in the previous
section)

Ton = 1usec

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Challenges of simulating a soft switching converter
design
Soft switching converters are very sensitive to factors like the frequency of operation, the values of
resonant components Lr and Cr, and the turn-on time/duty cycle of the switch. As we calculate the values
for these circuit components, we consider the diode and MOSFET to be ideal. This creates a problem
when we try to verify the circuit performance with simulation. The problem is the difficulty in analyzing
multiple performance factors simultaneously. We need the converter output to be very close to 48V while
ensuring soft switching for its complete region of operation. Thus, the overall circuit parameters will need
constant tweaking as we deduce the optimal combination of values that yield the highest performance
factors. The values in this example are Lr, Cr, frequency, and the switch turn-on time/duty cycle.

In traditional circuit simulators, this tweaking is very time intensive. It typically require dozen of iterations,
at least, before we get the circuit to converge at the right operating point. There are multiple reasons for
this.

1. All the parameters above are highly interrelated sometimes with non-linear mathematical equations.
This makes it very hard to estimate the net result of changing just one parameter on the whole
circuit performance.

2. We need to analyze the circuit behavior at steady state. This means running transient analysis over
milliseconds, which can take a few minutes for a single simulation run.

3. To fine-tune circuits, we usually only change one parameter at a time for every simulation run and it
can be time-consuming to find the right permutation of all the control parameters we have at hand.

All these factors make circuit simulation very tedious and time-consuming when using basic power
electronics software simulation tools

Test requirements
To demonstrate how to go forward with designing and simulating this circuit, figure 13 shows the
converter schematic. In this section, we will simulate the circuit on Keysight’s Pathwave ADS platform. To
get simulation results in the steady state, we run the transient simulation for 2ms.

13
Figure 13.

Figure 14 shows the data display window when we simulate the circuit with the displayed parameter
values in ADS. The waveform on the left shows the switch node voltage and the MOSFET gate voltage.
Whereas the one on the right shows the MOSFET and diode current waveforms.

Figure 14.

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Figure 15 shows the data display with zoomed-in current and voltage waveforms. The red trace in the
voltage waveform towards the left is the switch node voltage in the circuit. The blue trace however shows
the gate voltage to the switch. It is clearly visible from the plot that the switch node voltage goes to zero
after we turn on or gate the switch. This means that the switch is not soft switching. Now if we look at the
current waveform at this very instant, we see that the switch current has a huge spike. This spike is a
result of the reverse recovery of the diode.

Figure 15.

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Figure 16 also shows the output voltage waveform at the load, and we see that the output voltage is
averaging around 43 V, which we had designed to be 48 V.

Figure 16.

Thus, it is very evident that we need to tune the circuit to get the required performance and output.

As we further tweak the parameters in this simulation, we see that the waveforms change. Figure 17
below shows the circuit waveforms when we increase the operating frequency to 255kHz. We see that
the average output voltage increases by a small amount and even though we are hard switching, the Lr
Cr resonance is visible to a greater extent.

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Figure 17.

However, this process is not so simple. As we tweak the frequency values, we see that tweaking the
values of Lr and Cr becomes important.

ADS offers a perfect tool called the tuner to optimize circuits with multiple control parameters. In this
specific case, parameters like the frequency, are dynamically controllable. Realistically in a converter
circuit, Lr and Cr values once finalized, need to stay the same for all regions of operation. It thus makes
the most sense to tune Lr and Cr as the very first step in fine-tuning this circuit.

Using the Tuner in ADS

The tuner feature in ADS gives the user a lot of power when designing circuits. This feature is a time
saver when it comes to designing power converters in ADS. The following section talks about the steps
involved in using the tuner in ADS. In this application note, we will follow these steps to tune our soft
switching converter so that we actually get it to soft switch.

Using the tuner in ADS:

1. The minimum requirement to use the tuner is to have a circuit simulation on the simulation
window, and some waveforms on the data display window that you want to tune with the
tuner. Looking at the figure 17 above, we see that we already have this in order.

2. The second step is to set up the variable we want to tune. The tuner in ADS can tune one or
multiple variables at the same time. To set up which variables we want to tune, we go to the
simulation tab at the top and select the simulation variable setup option. As shown in figure 18
below.

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Figure 18.

Figure 19 below shows the variable setup I have done for the tuner in this simulation. As we set up a
variable to tune, the software automatically puts the maximum, minimum, and step value for the variables
we select. These values can also be changed manually according to one’s liking.

Figure 19.

3. Once this is done, press the “OK” button and run the tuner by pressing the tune button on the
schematic window as shown in figure 20 below.

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Figure 20.

4. Once we do this, ADS runs one iteration of the simulation, and the “tune parameters” window
appears along with the data-display window to tune the variable we set up to tune in the previous
step.

5. This is where we change and tune the variables. Figure 21 shows the tuner window with the data
display. As one moves the knobs on the tuner, the plots on the data display change.

Figure 21.

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Tuning the Soft Switching Converter to Simulate
To tune the converter displayed in this application note, we will follow the same steps as mentioned
above. In the figures above, we see that for the designed parameter values the converter is hard
switching. Taking a closer look at the waveforms, we see that the LC resonance starts to bring down the
voltage, but the switch gets gated before it hits zero. So, to make the switch soft switch, we need the
switch voltage to go down to zero faster or to gate the switch later. To do this, we would need to tweak
the values of the resonant components Lr and Cr first. This makes even more sense when we realize that
once Lr and Cr are decided, they cannot be changed in the circuit, the on-time/duty cycle of the switch
can however be changed as we wish with minimal effort.

So, in the simulation above, as we decrease the inductance, we see that the switching waveform starts
moving and the switch node voltage comes down to zero faster and faster. This happens because what
essentially brings down the switching node voltage to zero is the sinusoidal LC resonance between Lr
and Cr.

The frequency of this resonance can be quantified by the equation(xx) below.

1
𝑓𝑓𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 =
2𝜋𝜋�𝐿𝐿𝑟𝑟 𝐶𝐶𝑟𝑟

Thus, as Lr decreases, the value of the LC resonance frequency increases, meaning that the time taken
by the switch node voltage to come down to zero reduces.

Figure 22 below shows how the waveforms on the data display look when we bring down the value of
inductance Lr to 1.365uH from the 1.5uH initial value, keeping everything else the same.

Figure 22.

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Figure 23.

We see that even though we are hard switching, the Lr-Cr resonance is bringing down the switch node
voltage much faster as compared to what we had before. As we go down reducing the value of Lr, we
start seeing zero voltage turn-on of the MOSFET. Figure 24 below, shows how the circuit waveforms look
along with the “Tune Parameters” window.

21
Figure 24.

Figure 25.

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We see that at an Lr value of 1.172uH the converter starts soft switching. However, we see that the
output voltage is not stable. So, we try to tweak the Lr and Cr values further until we get the appropriate
waveforms. Figure 26 below shows all the waveforms when we have tuned the values of both Lr and Cr
to get zero voltage switching and the right output voltage at 250 kHz operating frequency.

Figure 26.

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Figure 27.

Once this is done, we can close the “Tune parameters” window, and the simulator asks if we want to save
the tuned parameters. Click “yes” and the circuit is tuned!

Now for the minimum load case, the only tuning parameters we have at hand are frequency and the turn-
on time/duty cycle of the switch. For both parameters, we have a ballpark figure that we already
calculated mathematically in the previous section. However, it is totally possible to get different
combinations of these parameters that give us the required results. Using the tuner to tweak these
values, we get the results shown in figure 28 below, where we can also see the tuner parameters window.
Another thing worth noting is that the results being observed here are in the 8ms timeframe unlike the
ones before, which were in the 2ms timeframe. This is because the converter takes more time to reach
steady state at lower load currents.

24
Figure 28.

Figure 29.

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Conclusion
We see that the tuner functionality in Keysight’s Pathwave ADS makes it very easy to tune soft switching
converter circuits and we can get the required results much faster as compared to traditional simulation
software.

Keysight enables innovators to push the boundaries of engineering by quickly solving

design, emulation, and test challenges to create the best product experiences. Start your
innovation journey at www.keysight.com.

This information is subject to change without notice. © Keysight Technologies, 2023,

Published in USA, February 7, 2023, 3123-1052.EN