Half-bridge Induction Cooker

Half-bridge Induction Cooker

D/N: WAS-2291EN

Introduction
In recent years, the environmental awareness of low-carbon kitchens has become increasingly
important, resulting in induction cookers gradually replacing traditional gas stoves. At present, the
common induction cooker technology on the market is divided into single IGBT induction cooker
technology and half-bridge technology. Single IGBT induction cookers usually operate at a power
level below 2000W and possess the advantages of a simple circuit architecture and low cost.
However their disadvantage is that their heating output is not continuous when operating at low
power levels, which means that they essentially cannot attain a low-power operating state. Half-
bridge induction cooker technology however can be used for applications with both high and low
continuous power heating requirements.

Holtek’s half-bridge induction cooker solution uses a dual-board design, which includes a power
heating board and a display control board. The display control board uses an HT66F3185 MCU for
its main control, which provides the HMI (human-machine interface) control and communicates
with the power heating board using an I2C interface. The power heating board uses a highly-
integrated half-bridge induction cooker MCU, the HT45F0074, for its main control. It adopts an
LC half-bridge resonant architecture to achieve a wide linear power output range. It has a lower
IGBT reverse voltage and higher circuit reliability than single IGBT solutions. The HT45F0074
includes a set of complementary PWM outputs with dead band control for easy adaption to different
IGBTs. The device also has a 12-bit ADC and seven OVP (over-voltage protection) circuits for
hardware protection and detection, providing complete hardware protection mechanisms.

Figure 1. System Block Diagram

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Application Areas
Commercial/household induction cookers, high-power heating products.

Solution Features
1. Half-bridge architecture design: high reliability, high power, wide continuous power output range
and low loss.

The half-bridge architecture uses dual IGBT inverter modules to convert the positive and
negative half-cycle alternating current sine waves which can generate a complete, clear and
stable high-frequency current waveform. This in turn ensures the high reliability of the inverter
circuit, high current conversion efficiency, large output power and lower IGBT losses.

2. Highly-integrated MCU: integrated 12-bit PWM complementary outputs and multiple OVP circuits.

The 12-bit complementary PWM generator supports dead band control which can be separately
setup to be compatible with various IGBT specifications. An OPA circuit is provided to measure
the AC current for power calculations. There are seven sets of OVP circuits. These include two
sets for AC surge protection and over-current protection, two sets for LC resonance over-current
protection, two sets for positive and negative half-cycle LC resonance current phase detection
and one set for AC voltage zero-crossing detection.

Operating Principles
By using a rectifier circuit in the induction cooker, a 50/60Hz alternating current can be converted
to direct current. This will pass through an LC resonance circuit and the IGBT switching circuit and
then be converted to a 20~50kHz high-frequency alternating current. This results in a high-speed
varying current in the induction cooker coil which then produces a high-frequency varying magnetic
field around it. The magnetic field lines pass through the metal cookware on the cooktop surface
and induce eddy currents on the bottom of the metal cookware due to electromagnetic induction. It
is this effect which implements the heating function. The principle diagram is shown in Figure 2.

Cookware

Eddy current

Cooktop Surface

Magnetic field line Heating coil

Figure 2. Induction Cooker Heating Principle Diagram

Half-bridge LC series resonance circuit: As shown in Figure 3, the LC resonance inverter circuit is
mainly composed of a bridge rectifier, an LC filter, an electromagnetic coil L, capacitors C1 and
C2, as well as switches S1 and S2 which are formed from IGBTs. The main operating principle is
that the HT45F0074 internal complementary PWM driver has a half-period positive bias in one
cycle and a half-cycle reverse bias (S1 and S2 are complementary to each other). The current in the
electromagnetic coil, L, generates a magnetic field at a certain frequency thereby generating heat

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due to eddy currents in the metal cookware. The heating power can be controlled by controlling the
PWM frequency.

Figure 3. Half-bridge Induction Cooker Architecture

Functional Description

Solution Characteristics
 Heating power range: 300W~3500W - can be extended to 15000W by redesign

 Operating voltage range: AC 170V~260V

 Half-bridge LC series resonance architecture, dual IGBTs

 Standby power: 1W

 Protection functions: mains supply over/under-voltage protection, mains supply over-current

protection, resonance current protection, surge protection, current phase protection

 Communication interface: I2C

Solution Functions
This half-bridge induction cooker solution supports a heating power range of 300W~3500W and
low power (<1000W) continuous heating. The half-bridge resonance architecture is able to provide
a higher heating power and conversion efficiency while effectively reducing IGBT losses making
it suitable for general household and commercial induction cookers. This solution provides a range
of functions which includes mains supply over-voltage and over-current protection, cookware
removal detection, resonance current phase detection and software power tracking. Developers can
refer to this solution to design their own hardware and software and can also expand the power level
to 15000W. The main internal structure of the prototype is shown below.
Heating coil Heat sinks Mains supply connector
connector Programming port

Display control board connector

5µF filter capacitor

Fan connector

Inductor coil

Figure 4. Power Heating Board Front Side

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Main control MCU

HT45F0074

Figure 5. Power Heating Board Back Side

Segment Programming Main control MCU
LED indicators
display panel port HT66F3185 Rotary encoder
button

Power heating
board connector

Power/temp. key Timing key

Figure 6. Display Control Board

Operation Description
This induction cooker solution uses a rotary encoder button to control the operating power and
provides the cookware detection and power tracking functions. After the power cord is plugged in,
the induction cooker enters the standby mode where the fan first operates for one minute and the
buzzer sounds once, the segment display panel and LED indicators are on and flash once after which
the segment display panel displays ‘---’ after pressing the rotary encoder button. When an error
occurs, the corresponding error code will be displayed on the segment display panel.
Error Code Description Error Code Description
E00 No cookware E01 IGBT overheating
E02 Cooktop surface overheating E03 Mains supply over-voltage
E04 Mains supply under-voltage E07 Over-current protection
E09 I2C communication failure E12 Phase error
E13 Surge protection —
Table 1. Induction Cooker Error Code Description

 Key and button description

 Power/temp. key: Press this key once after power-on to enter the power adjustment mode.
The heating power has an adjustable range of 1~10 levels by rotating the encoder button.
The power level will be displayed on the segment display panel in real time. Press the key
again to enter the constant temperature mode, which is a reserved function which has not
yet been implemented. Users can design this for themselves.

 Timing key: After pressing this key the segment display panel will switch to display the
time setting. The timing period can be set by adjusting the rotary encoder button.

 Indicator description

There are three LED indicators on the display board, which are timing, constant temperature
and power state indicators.

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Solution Design Description

Induction cookers mainly contain a power heating board and a display control board. The power
heating board contains the complete system power supply for the induction cooker as well as the
heating power control. The heating power adjustment and power on/off state of the power heating
board are controlled by the display control board. The power heating board obtains the current
heating power setting and other settings from the display control board through the I2C interface to
implement adjustment. The display control board includes a rotary encoder button, keys and LED
display functions to provide the HMI control. The keys are used to select the operating mode, the
rotary encoder button is used to adjust the power setting, the segment display panel is used to
display the power level or timing period and the LED indicators are used to indicate the operating
state. In addition, when the induction cooker functions abnormally, the error code of the current
abnormal situation is also displayed by the display control board.

Hardware Description

Figure 7. Power Heating Board Schematic Diagram

1. EMI circuit: Two common-mode inductors are paired with an X capacitor and two Y capacitors
to filter the alternating current. If users do not have special EMI requirements, the common-mode
inductors may not be required.

2. Half-bridge driving circuit: The MCU outputs PWM signals to the driver device, which in turn
controls a pair of IGBTs to switch on and off alternately to achieve an LC oscillation effect. This
then makes the heating coil generate a high-frequency magnetic field which generates heat in the
cookware.

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3. Current sampling circuit: The current in the constantan wire dual parallel sampling resistors is
sampled by the A/D converter. The sampled current value is used to calculate the overall
operating current, which is then used for the power calculation and current detection.

4. Phase detection circuit: The coil AC current signal is acquired through the current transformer,
achieving isolation so as to protect the low current circuit. The acquired current signal is
transferred to the MCU to capture the current phase.

5. Switch mode power supply circuit: The 220V AC power is rectified and then converted to 18V
and 5V through the switch mode power supply circuit. The +18V voltage is supplied to the fan,
and also regulated to 15V which is supplied to the IGBT driving circuit. The +5V voltage is
supplied to the HT45F0074 MCU, buzzer and display control board. Some peripheral circuits
such as the cooktop surface overheating protection and the IGBT overheating protection circuits
also use this 5V power supply.

Figure 8. Display Control Board Schematic Diagram

Display control board: The power heating board provides a +5V voltage to the display control board
through the communication port(4). This voltage source is regulated and filtered before being supplied
to the main power supply of the display control board. The display control board uses three segment
LEDs(2) to display the current power level of the induction cooker. Here, the corresponding LED
indicator remains on, indicating that it is currently in the power heating or time setting state. The
rotary encoder button circuit(3) provides a human-machine interface. Rotating the encoder button can
adjust the power while pressing the encoder button can turn the system off and on. In addition, there
is a timing key and a power/temperature key which are pressed to execute the corresponding
functional command. The buzzer position is reserved for the user’s free use.

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Layout and Hardware Considerations

The following are some important considerations for the power heating board.

1. The filter capacitors next to the MCU should be placed as close as possible to the VDD and
VSS pins. The peripheral circuit ground should be a single point grounded to the source
capacitor ground. The resonance circuit ground must be separated from other peripherals to
avoid IGBT switch interference signals affecting other peripherals. Also ensure that the routings
go through the voltage regulation filter capacitors to filter out any noise.

2. Routings from the bridge rectifier to the resonance circuit should be as wide as possible as these
routes carry larger currents. The resonance capacitors should be as close as possible to the
induction cooker resonance coil.

3. Routings which are close to the high power area and the low power zone should be separated
via a KEEPOUT layer.

4. The IGBT E pin and the routings of the bridge rectifier IC should be as wide as possible with
special attention given to high power safety spacing.

Figure 9. Power Heating Board PCB

Figure 10. Display Control Board PCB

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PCB BOM Lists

Table 2. Power Heating Board BOM List

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Table 3. Display Control Board BOM List

Software Description

Power Heating Board Main Program Flowchart Description

As shown in Figure 11, the main program of the power heating board first executes an initialisation
program which includes related I/O port settings, various interrupt registers and power calculation
curves, etc. After initialisation, the voltage, current, IGBT temperature and cooktop surface
temperature are measured using the A/D function. Protection mechanisms will be triggered if the
measurement results exceed or fall below the limit values. After the protection mechanisms have
been processed, the corresponding flags will be set high, then the corresponding error codes will be
stored into the communication memory and then sent to the display control board in the next
communication cycle. After this, the main program executes cookware detection and power control.

After the system initialisation has completed, the mains supply voltage and temperature
measurements are executed first. Using the CTM2 timing interrupt to perform A/D sampling every
1ms, 20 voltage samples, 20 current samples and 1 NTC sample are measured. After the above data
acquisition has completed, determine whether the measurement results are greater than the
corresponding protection thresholds. When the IGBT temperature exceeds 80°C, the IGBTs will be
switched off to avoid damage to the induction cooker components. The IGBT overheating flag will
not be cleared until the IGBT temperature falls below 60°C. When the temperature of the cooktop
surface is greater than 280°C, the IGBTs will be turned off and a prompt is generated indicating a
cooktop surface overheating situation. The cooktop surface overheating flag will not be cleared
until the cooktop surface NTC temperature falls below 120°C. When the measured voltage is greater
than 270V, the induction cooker will stop operation and display the over-voltage error code. After
the voltage returns to normal, it needs to power on again to clear the over-voltage flag. When the
measured voltage is lower than 160V, the induction cooker will stop operation and display the
under-voltage error code. After the voltage returns to normal, it needs to power on again to clear
the under-voltage flag.

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 Hardware protection interrupt: The voltage surge protection and resonance over-current
protection are implemented in hardware to provide a faster response speed. When any of these
protection functions are triggered, the system will turn off the heating function or reduce the
heating power using software and execute further processing. If a voltage surge or resonance
over-current situation occurs, the PWM will be turned off to stop the IGBT operation so as to
protect the induction cooker from component damage.

 Timer interrupt: The CTM0 is used for basic timing. The cookware removal detection is
executed every 100ms. Finding out whether there is cookware present is determined by the
sampled current value.

Start

System setting
initialisation

Hardware protection
I2C slave interrupt
interrupt
Measure voltage (mains supply) /
current / IGBT temp. / cooktop
surface temp.
Voltage surge / Receive master control
resonance over-current / command / return temp.
current phase detection parameter, error code
Set protection flags high / Yes Measurement results trigger
store error code into
protection mechanism ?
communication data

No

Set target power

Power adjustment functions:

Cookware Power_Add();
Power_CutDown();
detection/power control

Figure 11. Power Heating Board Main Program Flowchart

 I2C communication: The power heating board acts as a slave which transmits the current IGBT
temperature and cooktop surface temperature A/D measurement values as well as the induction
cooker status code to the display control board. It also receives the current selected induction
cooker function from the display control board. When an I2C communication time-out situation
occurs, the heating function will be turned off.

 Power control: The HT45F0074 includes a 12-bit complementary PWM generator, which can
output two complementary PWM signals to control the upper and lower sides of the half-bridge
circuit. The PWM period and duty are controlled by setting the PWMP and PWMD registers
respectively. After receiving the heating function command, the software will drive the IGBTs
using a default PWM frequency. In the heating state, the voltage and current values are sampled
using the A/D function and used to calculate the actual operating power, which is then compared
with the target power sent from the display control board. If the actual power is higher or lower
than the target power, the PWM frequency will be increased or decreased accordingly to obtain
a power value close to the target power.

 Cookware detection: The system sends several pulse signals to the coil panel through the IGBTs
and detects the oscillation decay time by detecting the resonance current phase OVP0 and OVP1
signals. The internal TMC module is configured to the Timer/Counter Mode with its clock source

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coming from the TMCCKO. Then the TMCCCRA register value is read and compared with a pre-
determined value. If the TMCCCRA register value is less than the pre-determined value, this is
taken as proof that there is cookware present, otherwise it will be taken as proof that no cookware
is present. This is also used for cookware removal detection during the operating state.

Display Control Board Main Program Flowchart Description

As shown in Figure 12, the display control board main program flowchart starts by executing
system setting initialisation. Then the main program determines which key is currently pressed. If
it is determined to be encoder button rotation, clockwise rotation will increase the power and
counterclockwise rotation will decrease the power. As shown in Table 4, the system executes the
relevant key function according to the value of the pressed key and updates the data to be
transmitted to the power heating board for the next I2C communication. The display control board
also updates the LED display. The “Error code processing” procedure determines if there is an error
on the power heating board according to the present data acquired from the power heating board
and modifies the value on the LED display panel in the next display cycle. If no error code is
received, the current state value is updated and a control command is transmitted.

Function Power On/Off Tem./Power Switching +Power/Time -Power/Time

Value 0x02 0x04 0x10 0x08
Table 4. Function Returned Value Corresponding Key Function

Start

System setting initialisation

Yes Detect encoder rotation Update control

Power/Timing key
direction and set command and
Pressed ?
power/time value LED display

No

No Time counting reaches

100ms ?

Yes
2
I C master transmits
command and receives state
value returned from slave

Yes Error code

Error code received ?
processing
No

Update status value and

transmit command

Figure 12. Display Control Board Main Program Flowchart

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Function Library Description

Two library functions are provided for power adjustment. Their input/output and functions are
described below.

Name Power_Add(unsigned int MinFrequency)

Function Power increase function
Input MinFrequency: PWM minimum frequency
Output N/A
If the actual power of the induction cooker is lower than the target power, the power needs
to be increased. When the PWM frequency decreases, the actual power of the induction
Description
cooker increases, which is implemented using this function. When reducing the PWM
frequency, i.e. PWM_F, its minimum value is limited to MinFrequency.
Table 5. Power Increase Function
Name Power_CutDown(unsigned int MaxFrequency)
Function Power decrease function
Input MaxFrequency: PWM maximum frequency
Output N/A
If the actual power of the induction cooker is higher than the target power, the power needs
to be decreased. When the PWM frequency increases, the actual power of the induction
Description
cooker decreases, which is implemented using this function. When increasing the PWM
frequency, i.e. PWM_F, its maximum value is limited to MaxFrequency.
Table 6. Power Decrease Function

Solution Communication Description

The power heating board and display control board communicate with each other using the I2C
protocol. The power heating board is the hardware slave side, the display control board simulates
the I2C master side in the I/O mode, and the communication occurs every 100ms. Table 7 shows
the communication formats between the power heating board and the display control board. The
“S” indicates the I2C start bit, the “Address & R/W bit” is 1-byte data, in which bits [7:1] is the I2C
communication address and bit[0] is the R/W bit. Values in the Data Field are all in 1-byte format.
The “Checksum” is the sum of the data values in the Data Filed. The “P” indicates the I2C stop bit.

Table 8 shows the data format in the power heating board data field. The “IGBT NTC” and “BOT
NTC” are temperature A/D values, the “TOP NTC” is reserved for temperature A/D value, and the
“DEBUG_DATA” is reserved for debug. The “PowerRx_H” and “PowerRx_L” are the actual
power values returned. The “un_IHapp_data” includes the cookware detection condition and
induction cooker operating state error codes. Data correctness is determined by checking whether
the Checksum is equal to the sum of the data in the data field.

Table 9 shows the data format in the display control board data field. When the power heating board
transmission data is received, the display control board will return its current settings which include
the induction cooker on/off state, buzzer setting, fan setting, target heating power, etc. Data
correctness is determined by checking whether the Checksum is equal to the sum of the data in the
data field.

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Power Heating Board Transmission Data Format (I2C Slave)

Address & Data Field Checksum P
S
R/W bit IGBT NTC BOT NTC TOP NTC DEBUG_DATA PowerRx_H PowerRx_L un_IHapp _data Checksum P
Display Control Board Transmission Data Format (I2C Master)
Address & Data Field Checksum P
S R/W bit ControlSet PowerSetH PowerSetL Checksum P

Table 7. Solution Communication Format

Operating State Transmitted by the Power Heating Board
Data Field Parameter Data Content
IGBT NTC IGBT temperature A/D value
BOT NTC Cooktop surface temperature A/D value
TOP NTC Reserved, fill in 0
DEBUG_DATA Reserved, fill in 0
PowerRx_H Higher 8 bits of actual power value
PowerRx_L Lower 8 bits of actual power value
Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0
Induction
Unused PWM On/Off Cookware detection Power heating board operating state error code
Cooker On/Off
0: Off -- 0: Off 0: Cookware present 0000: Normal operation
1: On 1: On 1: No cookware present 0001: Mains supply under-voltage
un_IHapp_data
0010: Over-current protection
(Operating state)
0011: Mains supply over-voltage
0101: IGBT overheating
0110: Cooktop surface overheating
1000: Phase protection
1001: Surge protection

Table 8. Power Heating Board Data Field Format

Induction Cooker Control Settings Transmitted by the Display Control Board
Data Field Parameter Data Content
Bit 7 Bit 6 Bit 5 Bit 4 Bit 3 Bit 2 Bit 1 Bit 0
Unused PW-CH Induction Cooker On/Off Buzzer Unused Fan control
ControlSet -- 0: Off 0: Off 00: No sound -- 0: Off
1: On 1: On 01: Sounds for 200ms 1: On
10: Sounds twice
11: Sounds for 1s
PowerSetH Higher 8 bits of target power value
PowerSetL Lower 8 bits of target power value

Table 9. Display Control Board Data Field Format

Test Data
Test Power Actual Power Error
3500W 3357W 143W
2000W 2123W 123W
300W 356W 56W
Table 10. Power Test Data
Test Item Test Condition Test Result
EFT test ±3500V / 5kHz & 100kHz Pass
Dynamic state: 3V / 150kHz~80MHz
CS test Pass
Static state: 10V / 150kHz~80MHz
Direct contact discharge: 8kV
ESD test Pass
Air discharge: 12kV
Table 11. EMC Test Data

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Solution Comparison
Compared with other general single IGBT induction cooker solutions, the half-bridge solution has
higher operating power and higher stability.

Half-bridge Induction Single IGBT

Parameter
Cooker Induction Cooker
IGBT quantity 2 1
IGBT rated voltage range 600~650V 1200~1350V
Inverter circuit stability Stable Less stable
3500W
Rated power <2000W
(can be redesigned to 15000W)
Heat sink and PCB size Larger Smaller
Price Higher Lower
Market Household/Commercial Household

Conclusion
This document has introduced a half-bridge induction cooker solution using the HT45F0074 as the
master control MCU. It has provided the operating principles for the power heating board and the
display control board, hardware description and communication protocol. The HT45F0074
provides four functions for power control, phase detection, protection mechanisms and power
measurement which are required by half-bridge induction cookers. This can reduce the amount of
peripheral control components, reduce the PCB area and therefore reduce production costs. With a
wide range of continuous heating power levels, this solution provides better heating effects than
traditional heating methods when operating at lower power levels. In addition, this method can
reduce IGBT thermal losses, extend the service life and greatly improve the user experience.

Reference Material
Reference files: HT45F0074 and HT66F3185 Datasheet.

For more details, refer to the Holtek website: www.holtek.com.cn.

Versions and Modification Information

Date Author Release Description
2023.01.12 曾進 V1.00 First version

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