Resonant and Soft-Switching Techniques in Power

Electronics ECEN 5817

Instructors: Mariko Shirazi

Professor Robert Erickson
ECEE 1B65A
303-492-1661
mariko.shirazi@colorado.edu

Course web site: http://ece.colorado.edu/~ecen5817

• Lecture schedule
• Lecture slides and supplementary materials
• Homework assignments and solutions
• Announcements
Textbook:
Erickson and Maksimovic, Fundamentals of Power Electronics, second edition,
Chapters 19 and 20
Extensive supplementary notes and chapters on course web site

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
1 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Preliminaries

Prerequisites
• ECEN 5797 Introduction to Power Electronics is a required prerequisite
to this course
• Note that ECEN 5807 is not a prerequisite
Grading
• Homework 50%
– Approximately 12 weekly assignments
– Assignments posted each week on course web page
• Midterm exam 17%
– One-week take-home exam
• Final exam 33%
– One-week take-home exam

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
2 Lecture 1: Introduction
 For off-campus students

Delivery options
• Web: lectures posted on web site within 24 hours. High resolution.
Students electing this option will typically run 1-2 days behind the on-
campus students.
• VHS or DVD: lectures mailed to off-campus students. Low resolution
(NTSC: conventional analog TV). Students electing this option will
typically run one week behind the on-campus students.
With either approach: set a schedule for yourself — a regular time when you will
watch the lectures, that is a fixed time behind the on-campus schedule. You
will be expected to mail or fax your homework on the day that you would
normally watch the lecture where the homework of the on-campus students is
collected. Ditto for exams.
Final grades for off-campus students are due 7-10 days after the on-campus
grades.
If you decide to quit the course, please submit the paperwork to formally drop.

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
3 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Homework: off-campus students

On the day you would normally watch the lecture in which the homework
assignment is due, mail or fax your completed homework to:
Mariko Shirazi
ECE Department
Campus Box 425
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0425
Fax: 303-492-2758
(cover page should list Mariko Shirazi as the recipient)
Please don’t scan and email your homework.
Homework solutions will be posted on the course web site, and solution
passwords will be sent to you with your graded homework (if you put an email
address on the first page of your homework, we will email the password when
we receive your homework).

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
4 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Office hours

Thursdays, 12:00 - 2:00 pm

ECEE 1B65

Telephone office hour: Thursdays, 2:00 to 3:00 pm Mountain time

Off-campus students are welcome to call at this time or at other times; I’ll at least
be there to answer the phone at the above time.

Questions via email are also encouraged. I will try to respond to them within a
day.

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
5 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Acknowledgement

Most of the material for this class has been developed by Professor
Robert Erickson and/or taken directly from the course textbook
Fundamentals of Power Electronics by Professor Erickson and
Professor Dragan Maksimovic.

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
6 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Introduction to Resonant Conversion

Resonant power converters contain resonant L-C networks whose

voltage and current waveforms vary sinusoidally during one or more
subintervals of each switching period. These sinusoidal variations are
large in magnitude, and the small ripple approximation does not apply.
Some types of resonant converters:
• Dc-to-high-frequency-ac inverters
• Resonant dc-dc converters
Another application of resonant techniques: Soft-switched PWM
converters
• Resonant switch converters
• Other soft-switching converters

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
7 Lecture 1: Introduction
 A basic class of resonant inverters

NS NT
is(t) i(t)
Basic circuit +
L Cs +
dc Resistive
source + vs(t) Cp v(t) load
–
vg (t) R
– –

Switch network Resonant tank network

Several resonant tank networks

L Cs L L Cs

Cp Cp

Series tank network Parallel tank network LCC tank network

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching
Techniques in Power Electronics
8 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Input impedance

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
9 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Tank network responds only to fundamental
component of switched waveforms

Switch
output
voltage Tank current and output
spectrum voltage are essentially
fs 3fs 5fs
sinusoids at the switching
f
frequency fs.
Resonant
tank
Output can be controlled
response by variation of switching
frequency, closer to or
fs
away from the tank
3fs 5fs f
resonant frequency
Tank
current
spectrum

fs 3fs 5fs f

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
10 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Derivation of a resonant dc-dc converter

Rectify and filter the output of a dc-high-frequency-ac inverter

Transfer function
H(s)

is (t) iR(t) i(t)

+
+ L Cs +
dc
source + – vs (t) vR(t) v(t) R
vg (t)
–
–
–
NS NT NR NF
Switch network Resonant tank network Rectifier network Low-pass dc
filter load
network
The series resonant dc-dc converter

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
11 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Quasi-resonant converters

Buck converter example

In a conventional PWM
converter, replace the i1 (t) L
i2 (t) i(t)
PWM switch network + + +
with a switch network Switch
containing resonant vg (t) +
–
v1 (t) network v2 (t) C R v(t)
elements.
– – –

ZCS quasi-resonant
PWM switch network switch network
i1(t) i2(t) i1(t) i2 (t)
Two + + + +
Lr
switch
networks: v1(t) v2(t) v1 (t) Cr v2 (t)

– – – –

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
12 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Applications of resonant and
soft-switching converters

Electronic ballasts for gas-discharge lamps

• Produce high-frequency ac
Other high-frequency ac applications
• Electrosurgical generators
• Induction heaters
• Piezoelectric transformers
High-frequency high-density dc–dc converters
• Reduce switching loss and improve efficiency
High-voltage and other specialized converters
• Transformer nonidealities lead to ringing waveforms
Converters using IGBTs
• Mitigate switching loss caused by current tailing
Low-harmonic rectifiers
• Mitigate switching loss caused by diode stored charge

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
13 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Resonant inverter: An electronic ballast

• Must produce
controllable high-
frequency (50 kHz)
ac to drive gas +
–
discharge lamp
• DC input is
typically produced
by a low-harmonic
rectifier
• Similar to resonant Half-bridge, driving LCC tank circuit and gas
dc-dc converter, discharge lamp
but output-side
rectifier is omitted

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
14 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Motivation for resonant DC-DC converters
and soft-switching techniques

• Increasing switching frequency reduces value and size of

filter inductances and capacitances
• Up to a point, increasing switching frequency reduces
transformer size
• Increasing switching frequency increases switching loss
• Much R&D effort has been devoted to increasing the
switching frequency and reducing the loss in high-density
power supplies
• Approaches to achieve these goals include use of resonant
converters and soft switching techniques

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
15 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Reducing the size of a dc-dc converter

Reduce size of filter elements and transformer by

increasing switching frequency
+

v(t)
+
– –

Integrate
controller and Isolated
power switch in transistor
gate driver
hybrid or ASIC Pulse-width v c
modulator
vref

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
16 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Effect of switching frequency on transformer size
Ferrite core for Cuk converter example

4226

3622 0.1

0.08
2616 2616
2213 2213
0.06
1811 1811
0.04

0.02

0
25 kHz 50 kHz 100 kHz 200 kHz 250 kHz 400 kHz 500 kHz 1000 kHz

Switching frequency
• As switching frequency is • As switching frequency is
increased from 25 kHz to increased from 400 kHz to
250 kHz, core size is 1 MHz, core size
dramatically reduced increases
ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching
Techniques in Power Electronics
17 Lecture 1: Introduction
 High power density requires high efficiency

Pin Pout
Converter

A goal of current converter technology is to construct converters of small size and weight,
which process substantial power at high efficiency
High density power conversion

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
18 Lecture 1: Introduction
 4.3. Switching loss

• Energy is lost during the semiconductor switching transitions,

via several mechanisms:
• Transistor switching times
• Diode stored charge
• Energy stored in device capacitances and parasitic
inductances
• Semiconductor devices are charge controlled – controlling
charge must be inserted or removed to switch a device

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
19 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Classical but misleading example: Transistor switching
with clamped inductive load (4.3.1)

Buck converter example

transistor turn-off
transition

Loss:

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
20 Lecture 1: Introduction
 4.3.4. Efficiency vs. switching frequency

Add up all of the energies lost during the switching transitions of one
switching period:

Average switching power loss is

Total converter loss can be expressed as

where Pfixed = fixed losses (independent of load and fsw)

Pcond = conduction losses

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
21 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Efficiency vs. switching frequency

Switching losses are equal to

the other converter losses at the
critical frequency

This can be taken as a rough

upper limit on the switching
frequency of a practical
converter. For fsw > fcrit, the
efficiency decreases rapidly
with frequency.

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
22 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Soft switching:
Zero-voltage
vs1 (t) and zero-current switching
Vg

vs(t)
Soft switching can mitigate some
t of the mechanisms of switching loss and
possibly reduce the generation of EMI
Semiconductor devices are switched on or off at the zero crossing of their
–voltage
V g
or current waveforms
+
is(t) Q1 Q3 L C
vds1(t) D1 D3
+
iQ1 (t) –
Vg +
– vs (t)
t t
– is (t)
Q2 Q4
D2 D4

Conducting D 1 Q1 D2 Q2
devices: D
4 Q4 D3 Q3 Conduction sequence: D1–Q1–D2–Q2
“Soft” “Hard” “Soft” “Hard” Q1 is turned on during D1 conduction
turn-on of turn-off of turn-on of turn-off of
Q 1, Q 4 Q 1, Q 4 Q 2, Q 3 Q2, Q3 interval, without loss
ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching
Techniques in Power Electronics
23 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Soft switching in a PWM converter
Example: forward converter with active clamp circuit

Vg +
– –
Q2

Q1 Forward converter
Switching transitions are resonant, remainder
of switching period is not resonant
Transistors operate with zero voltage
switching
Beware of patent issues

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
24 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Classical but misleading example: Transistor switching
with clamped inductive load (4.3.1)

Buck converter example

transistor turn-off
transition

Loss:

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
25 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Analysis of resonant converters

Series resonant dc-dc converter example

1 Q = 0.2
• Complex!
0.9
Q = 0.2 • Small ripple
0.8
0.35
approximation
0.7 is not valid
0.5
0.35
0.6 Need new
0.5
0.75 approaches:
1
0.4
0.5 • Sinusoidal
0.75
0.3
1 1.5 approximation
1.5
2
0.2 2 • State plane
3.5
5
3.5 analysis
0.1 5
10 10
Q = 20 Q = 20
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
F = fs/ f0
ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching
Techniques in Power Electronics
26 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Outline of course

1. Analysis of resonant converters using the sinusoidal approximation

• Classical series, parallel, LCC, and other topologies
• Sinusoidal model
• Zero voltage and zero current switching
• Resonant converter design techniques based on frequency response
2. Sinusoidal analysis: small-signal ac behavior with frequency modulation
• Spectra and envelope response
• Phasor transform method
3. State-plane analysis of resonant converters
• Fundamentals of state-plane and averaged modeling of resonant circuits
• Exact analysis of the series and parallel resonant dc-dc converters

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
27 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Outline, p. 2

4. State plane analysis of resonant switch and other soft-switching converters

• Quasi-resonant topologies and their analysis via state-plane approach
• Quasi-square wave converters
• Zero voltage transition converter
• Soft switching in forward and flyback converters
• Multiresonant and class E converter
5. Server systems, portable power, and green power issues (time permitting)
• Modeling efficiency vs. load, origins of loss
• Variable frequency approaches to improving light-load efficiency
– DCM
– Burst mode
• Effects of parallel modules
• DC transformers

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
28 Lecture 1: Introduction
 Upcoming Assignments

Preparation for next lecture:

Read Section 19.1, Sinusoidal analysis of resonant converters
Preparation for Lecture 3:
Read Section 19.2, Examples
Homework assignment, due Lecture 5:
Homework set #1, Review

ECEN 5817 Resonant and Soft-Switching

Techniques in Power Electronics
29 Lecture 1: Introduction