Control Strategies Overview for LLC Resonant
Converter with Fixed Frequency Operation
Yuqi Wei Dereje Woldegiorgis
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Arkansas University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR, USA Fayetteville, AR, USA
yuqiwei@uark.edu
Abstract—For the LLC resonant converter, pulse frequency
modulation (PFM) is the most frequently used control strategy.
However, for wide input or output operation range, a wide
switching frequency range is required, which causes efficiency
loss. Therefore, some fixed frequency control strategies are
proposed for the LLC resonant converter, including phase shift
modulation (PSM), pulse width modulation (PWN), and
resonant frequency modulation (RFM). In this paper, a
comprehensive comparisons of different control strategies are
implemented. The operational principles and system control
diagram for each control strategy are discussed. Then,
comparisons among different fixed switching frequency control
strategies are presented. Finally, the VIC LLC is selected as an
example to demonstrate its operation and effectiveness.
Keywords—LLC resonant converter, magnetic control,
variable inductor, variable transformer
I. INTRODUCTION
LLC converters are widely used in different industrial
applications [1]-[5]. LLC converters with pulse frequency
modulation (PFM) are not favored in wide voltage gain range
applications due to the following reasons: 1) large switching
frequency variation is required, which degrades the converter
electro-magnetic interference (EMI) performance; 2)
challenge exists for magnetic components design and
optimization; 3) converter efficiency degradation due to
increased circulating current and conduction losses; 4) power
density reduction due to the large size of magnetic
components.
Thus, LLC converters with fixed switching frequency
operation are advantageous in wide voltage gain range
applications, and the above-mentioned issues can be
effectiveness addressed. Based on the existing literature,
there exist three groups of control strategies feature fixed
switching frequency operation for LLC converter: 1) phase
shift modulation (PSM) [6, 7]; 2) pulse width modulation
(PWM) [8, 9]; 3) resonant frequency modulation (RFM) [10]-
[19].
The PSM can be applied either in primary side (PSPSM)
or secondary side (SSPSM). For full-bridge LLC converter,
the PSM can be adopted in the primary side [6], which adjusts
the phase shift between two switching legs. The relationship
between the phase shift angle and the voltage gain is
monotonic. However, the soft switching operation for
primary switch is tricky to be satisfied with large phase shift
angle. For the LLC converters with full-bridge rectifier, if the
bottom two rectifier diodes are replaced with MOSFET, the
978-1-7281-6990-3/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
Alan Mantooth
Department of Electrical Engineering
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR, USA
phase shift angle can be introduced on the transformer
secondary side [7]. The control stability issue can be avoided
since the relationship between the control variable and output
voltage is monotonic.
LLC converters with PWM control strategy can also
achieve fixed switching frequency operation. In [8], a
primary side PWM (PSPWM) control strategy is proposed
for LLC converter, where the output voltage is regulated by
controlling the additional bi-directional switch added on the
converter primary side. The converter operation can be
adjusted from full-bridge to asymmetric half-bridge simply
by turning on and off of bi-directional switch. In [9], an
additional switch is added on the transformer secondary side,
then the converter rectifier has two operation modes: full-
bridge rectifier mode and voltage doubler rectifier mode. By
regulating the duty ratio on the secondary side, the converter
output can be regulated. However, additional components are
required.
Instead of controlling switching frequency, some control
strategies based on the resonant tank components are
proposed, where the resonant frequency is adjusted. For
resonant inductor, the variable inductor structure can be used
to construct resonant inductor, and the inductance value can
be adjusted to regulate the converter output voltage or current
[10]-[15]. For resonant capacitor, there are two approaches to
achieve variable resonant capacitor operation. One approach
is to use the variable resonant capacitor [16, 17]. Due to the
characteristics of ferroelectric ceramic capacitors, it can be
used as a variable resonant capacitor. Another approach is to
use switch controlled capacitor (SCC), where the output
voltage is regulated by the duty ratio of auxiliary switch [18,
19].
Although many fixed switching frequency control
strategies for LLC converters have been proposed, the
comparative analysis of these strategies are missing. The
main purpose of this paper is to summarize the state-of-the-
art fixed switching frequency control strategies for LLC
converters, and make comprehensive comparisons among
different control strategies. Then, the advantages and
disadvantages for each control strategy can be summarized,
which can provide guidance for engineers when designing an
LLC converter with fixed switching frequency operation.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Brief
introductions of each control strategy are presented in Section
II. Then, Section III compares different control strategies
from topology complexity, control complexity, voltage gain
63
range, and efficiency perspectives. The LLC converter with
variable inductor control is selected to demonstrate the
theoretical analysis in Section IV. Finally, conclusions are
drawn.
II. INTRODUCTIONS TO DIFFERENT FIXED SWITCHING
FREQUENCY CONTROL STRATEGIES
In this Section, brief introductions to different fixed
switching control strategies for LLC converters are presented.
The full-bridge LLC converter as shown in Fig. 1 is selected
to demonstrate the operation of each control strategy. Please Fig. 3. Control diagram for PSPSM LLC.
note that modifications on the topology may exist for some
control strategies. 2) Secondary Side PSM (SSPSM)
To achieve phase shift control on the secondary side, the
two bottom secondary unregulated rectifier diodes are
replaced with controllable MOSFETs as shown in Fig. 4. And
the gating signal is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 1. Full-bridge LLC resonant converter with full-bridge rectifier.

A. PSM
1) Primary Side PSM (PSPSM) Fig. 4. Topology for the SSPWM LLC.
Fig. 2 shows the gating sequence for LLC with PSPSM.
By adjusting the phase shift angle, the inverter output voltage
waveform Vab can be modified, and ultimately regulate the
output voltage.

Fig. 5. Gate driving signal for the SSPSM LLC.

According to [7], the voltage gain for SSPWM LLC can be

derived as
π QSSPSM + −2(cos φ )2 + π QSSPSM + 2
M SSPSM = (1)
Fig. 2. Operation principle for the PSPSM LLC. π QSSPSM (1 + cos φ )
where QSSPSM is defined as
Obviously, the converter output voltage reaches its Lr / Cr
maximum value when the phase shift angle is zero, while the QSSPSM = (2)
output voltage is zero when the phase shift angle is 180 n 2 RL
The control diagram for SSPSM is shown in Fig. 6.
degrees, where no inverter output voltage is generated. Since
the relationship between the control variable and output
voltage is negative, to form the closed-loop control, the sign
for the feedback voltage and voltage reference is different
from other control strategies as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 6. Control diagram for SSPSM LLC.

64
 The topology of the SSPWM LLC is shown in Fig. 9. The
rectifier has two operation modes: 1) full-bridge rectifier; 2)
B. PWM
voltage doubler rectifier. The control diagram of SSPWM
1) Primary Side PWM (PSPWM) LLC is shown in Fig. 10.
Fig. 7(a) shows the circuit diagram of PSPWM LLC. As
shown in Fig. 7(b) and Fig. 7(c), the converter has two
operation modes: 1) full-bridge operation mode; 2)
symmetric half-bridge operation mode. By controlling the
duty ratio of the additional bi-directional switch, the output
voltage can be regulated.

Fig. 9. Topology for SSPWM LLC.

(a)

Fig. 10. Topology for SSPWM LLC.

C. RFM
(b)
1) Variable Inductor Control (VIC)
From the above analysis, the essence of the PFM is to
adjust the impedance of the resonant tank elements. Thus, the
voltage distribution is adjusted. From this point of view,
another control strategy-variable inductor control (VIC) is
proposed. For VIC LLC, the switching frequency and duty
cycle are kept constant, the resonant inductance value is
(c)
directly adjusted. Fig. 11(a) shows a typical variable inductor
structure with double E core. Please note that other shapes of
Fig. 7. (a) Topology for PSPWM LLC; (b) equivalent circuit when converter core, like toroidal, can also be used to construct a variable
operating in full-bridge mode; (c) half-bridge mode;
inductor. Fig. 11(b) shows the operational principles of the
Based on FHA, the voltage gain for the PSPWM can be variable inductor. The control diagram is shown in Fig. 12.
derived as Eq. (4) can be derived based on the voltage divider law.

M PSPWM = 10 − 6cos(2π D ) / 4 (3)

Clearly, from Eq. (4), we can observe that the converter

voltage gain is determined solely by the duty ratio, while the
load has no influence on the voltage gain, which would
benefit the controller design. Fig. 8 shows the control block
diagram for the converter.

(a)

ΔB 2
ΔH
ΔB1
ΔH

Fig. 8. control diagram of the PSPWM LLC.

2) Secondary Side (SSPWM) H1 H2

H

65
 (b) The control diagram for SCC LLC is shown in Fig. 14.
Fig. 11. Structure and operational principle of variable inductor.
1
MVIC = (4)
2π fs −1 1 LmCr (2π fs)2 − 1 2
( Lr + )2 + ( Lr + )
Rac CrRac(2π fs) Lm LmCr (2π fs) 2

Fig. 14. Control diagram for LLC converter with switch controlled
capacitor.

The voltage gain for SCC LLC can be derived as

K
M SCC = (6)
2 2
 fr 2  π ( fs)2 ( Lm)2
6
 fr 2 
( fs ) − K − 1 + ( fs ) − 1
  16 N 4 ( RL)2  
Fig. 12. Control diagram for LLC converter with variable inductor.
3) Variable Capacitor Control (VCC)
In addition to variable inductor, the resonant capacitor
2) Switch Controlled Capacitor (SCC) can also be constructed to regulate the LLC converter. Due to
In this part, the full-wave SCC as shown in Fig. 13(a) is the characteristics of ferroelectric ceramic capacitors, it can
selected as an example to analyze the system operation be used as a variable resonant capacitor [16, 17]. Fig. 15
principle. Fig. 13(b) shows the key operation waveform of the shows the relationship between the DC bias voltage and
full-wave SCC. The gate driving signals are synchronous capacitance value for variable capacitor, which is very similar
with the resonant inductor current zero-crossing point, and to the variable inductor.
there is 180 degree phase shift between these two auxiliary
switches. Therefore, the current detection and corresponding
circuit are required. The equivalent capacitance of the SCC
unit can be expressed as
CSCC=Ca/(2-(2α-sin2α)/π) (5)

(a) Fig. 15. Variable capacitor with DC bias voltage.

Fig. 16 shows the control diagram for LLC converter

with variable resonant capacitor.

Fig. 16. Control diagram for VCC LLC.

(b)
Fig. 13. (a) Full-wave SCC; (b) key operation waveform of the full-wave
SCC.

66
III. COMPREHENSIVE COMPARISONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT
CONTROL STRATEGIES
In this Section, comparisons between different control
strategies are made from different perspectives.
Comparison of topology complexity: Fig. 17 shows the
comparison results of different LLC topologies with fixed
switching frequency operation. The number of
semiconductor and passive elements are compared. Clearly,
the switch controlled capacitor is the most complex strategy
since it requires additional resonant capacitor, switch. In
addition, the PSPWM and SSPWM LLC topologies require
additional switches to modify the operation modes of
traditional LLC converter. Although variable inductor and
variable capacitor control strategies require no additional
circuit components, the controllable voltage gain range is
reduced significantly due to the material limitation that the
capacitance or inductance variation ranges are restricted.
Thus, in practice, both VCC and VIC are used together with
other control strategies. Fig. 17. Topology complexity comparison.

Comparison of control complexity: From the control

complexity point of view, switch controlled capacitor
strategy is the most complex one due to the requirements of
resonant current detection and synchronization. In addition,
additional gate drivers are required for the additional switches.
The simplest control strategy is PSPSM, VIC, and VCC,
where only a simple voltage controlled current source (VCCS)
block, voltage controlled voltage source (VCVS), or phase
shift generation block is required.
Table 1 summarizes the pros and cons for these different
fixed switching frequency control strategies for LLC
converter.

Table I. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT CONTROL STRATEGIES

67
 IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this article, brief introductions to different fixed
switching frequency control strategies for LLC converters are
presented. Their operational principles and control diagrams
are discussed. Then, the comparisons between different
control strategies are made. To provide guidance for
engineers when analyze and design an LLC converter with
fixed switching frequency operation, the pros and cons for
different control strategies are summarized.
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