26 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO.

1, JANUARY 1998

A Boost PWM Soft-Single-Switched Converter

with Low Voltage and Current Stresses
Jose Antonio Lambert, Joao Batista Vieira, Jr., Member, IEEE, Luiz Carlos de Freitas, Member, IEEE,
Lucio dos Reis Barbosa, and Valdeir Jose Farias

AbstractThis paper is an improved version of a previous one

that describes a boost pulse-width-modulated (PWM) soft-single-
switched converter, which, having only a single active switch,
is able to operate with soft switching in a PWM way without
high voltage and current stresses. In addition, such a converter
can work at high-switching frequencies for a wide load range.
In order to illustrate the operating principles of this converter,
a detailed study, including simulations and experimental tests, is
carried out. The validity of this converter is guaranteed by the
obtained results.
Index Terms Boost converter, nondissipative snubber, soft
switching. Fig. 1. Boost PWM soft-single-switched converter.

Trying to get PWM soft-switching converters by using a

I. INTRODUCTION
single active switch, after a lot of research, the converter

H IGH-switching frequencies are necessary to reduce the

size and weight of dcdc converters. However, this
yields high-switching losses and, consequently, low efficiency
described in [9] was obtained.
Although this converter contains just a single active switch,
it presents switch current and voltage stresses. To overcome
in hard-switching converters. this inconvenience, additional research has been done, and the
To solve this problem, quasi-resonant converters (QRCs) converter described in [10] has been developed.
were proposed in [1]. However, some of their characteristics This paper is a more elaborate version of one from [10],
such as load limitations, current or voltage stress, and control which describes the main characteristics of a boost PWM soft-
difficulties due to variable frequency operation restrict the single-switched converter without high current and voltage
practical use of these converters. stresses.
Since the pulse-width-modulated (PWM) QRCs operate
with fixed-switching frequency, they do not present the control II. OPERATION PRINCIPLES AND MAIN CHARACTERISTICS
problem like the QRCs [2]. On the other hand, they present
Fig. 1 shows the boost PWM soft-single-switched converter.
all the other disadvantages of the QRCs, which limits their
The inductor is used to provide zero-current switching
applications.
(ZCS) turning on of the switch is magnetically coupled
Now, there are many soft-switching converters which do
with The turns ratio between and must be large
not present the limitations described above. Examples of such
enough to induce voltage in , making null the current of
converters are found in references [3][8]. Although these
before the next turning on of the switch , when
converters present several advantages, they are not perfect, and
is conducting.
each one of them has one or more of the following drawbacks:
The branch composed by and is used to
1) current or voltage stresses; charge with voltage before the switch is turned off.
2) duty-cycle limitations; Thus, this switch will be turned off in a zero-voltage switching
3) hard turn on or turn off for main or auxiliary switch; (ZVS) way.
4) the sources of main and auxiliary switch do not share Since the capacitor charges due to resonance between
the same node; and , the maximum voltage that appears in the terminals
5) excessive number of components. is twice the input voltage This limits the output voltage at
Besides, all converters from [3][8] have two active the same value when soft switching is desired.
switches like the majority of PWM soft-switched converters. The operating stages are shown in Fig. 2 and described as
follows.
Manuscript received May 17, 1996; revised May 21, 1997. Recommended
by Associate Editor, K. D. T. Ngo. A. First Stage Power Transfer Stage
The authors are with the Departamento de Engenharia Eletrica, Universi-
dade Federal de Uberlandia, 38400-902, Uberlandia-MG, Brazil. During this stage, transference of energy from source to
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(98)00492-X. load occurs through diode
08858993/98$10.00 1998 IEEE
LAMBERT et al.: BOOST PWM CONVERTER WITH LOW VOLTAGE AND CURRENT STRESSES 27

Fig. 2. Stages of operation of the boost PWM soft-single-switched converter.

B. Second Stage Linear Variation D. Fourth Stage Linear Variation

Stage of Current in Stage of Current in
When the switch is turned on, the current increases This stage begins when diode is turned on. This occurs
linearly and begins to charge through the circuit with when the voltage in becomes equal to the output voltage.
and In this stage, the current decreases linearly until it
becomes zero.

C. Third Stage Resonant Stage E. Fifth Stage Magnetization Stage

This stage begins when diode is turned off. During this At time , the current through becomes null and the
stage, resonance between and occurs and goes diodes and are turned off. The duration of this stage
up to depends on the converter static gain.
28 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 1, JANUARY 1998

Fig. 3. Main waveforms for circuit in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4. Minimum duty cycle.

F. Sixth Stage Linear Variation Stage of Voltage H. Eighth Stage Linear Variation
Stage of Current in the
The switch is turned off with null voltage and current
flows through and In this stage, the capacitor When the capacitor voltage becomes zero, diode is
discharges linearly. turned on. The current goes down linearly due to induced
voltage in
This stage finishes when the current becomes zero,
G. Seventh Stage Resonant Stage
starting another switching cycle.
When the capacitor voltage becomes smaller than The main theoretical waveforms are shown in Fig. 3.
induced voltage in the , the diode is turned on. In this At time , the current becomes equal to the current,
stage, the induced voltage is fixed at and which is given by the expression [(4)], where
current goes down due to the resonance between and is the source current, which corresponds to the medium value
LAMBERT et al.: BOOST PWM CONVERTER WITH LOW VOLTAGE AND CURRENT STRESSES 29

Fig. 5. Maximum active-switch current.

Fig. 6. LR2 discharge time.

Fig. 7. Maximum switching frequency.

of , and is the turn ratio between and As it can increases with Thus, value must be chosen as small as
be observed from Figs. 3 and 5, the current in the switch possible in order to obtain low active-switch current stress.
30 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 1, JANUARY 1998

Fig. 9. Boost converter model for static-gain determination.

Fig. 8. Converter operating regions.

Furthermore, the following definitions were used:

The resonant current between and can be reduced

by increasing the value of without disturbing the other
circuit parameters. Since the branch composed by and
does not belong to the principal branch, the capacitor
can be charged during all intervala that the switch is
on. However, the value affects the minimum duty cycle
(Fig. 4) and the maximum switching frequency as it will be
seen afterwards.
From Fig. 3, we can see the maximum active-switch voltage
is The current peak through is
, which is plotted in Fig. 5 for 0.1.
This figure shows that becomes greater when
increases.
While a reduction favors the active-switch current
stress, it provokes a increasing (Fig. 6), limiting where
as shown in Fig. 7. Thus, there is a tradeoff
between active-switch current stress and discharge turns
time. turns
Fig. 8 shows four different regions of the plane
In Regions 3 and 4, the converter operates hard and in the 1) Interval :
other two regions it works as a soft switch. In Regions 2 and
3, the current becomes zero before the resonant capacitor
depends on duty cycle and
discharges completely, as indicated at in Fig. 3. Despite
this, the converter operates soft in Region 2. switching frequency. (1)
Since it is not difficult to conclude that the output current
2) Interval :
varies in the same sense of input current variations ,
which is the normalized input current, can be seen as load (2)
parameter. Thus, from Fig. 8 we can conclude there is just a (3)
little theoretical load limitation for this converter to operate
as a soft switch. (4)
Although this converter contains a high number of compo-
nents, we believe its maximum power density is close to one (5)
of the converters presented in [6] since both converters have
a similar composition. (6)

where

III. VOLTAGE-GAIN DETERMINATION

Fig. 9 shows the model used to determine the voltage gain Using the definitions of and (6) becomes
of the PWM boost converter presented in this paper. For that,
the following considerations have been made. (7)
1) The current and voltage are ripple free.
2) All the components and switches are ideal.
LAMBERT et al.: BOOST PWM CONVERTER WITH LOW VOLTAGE AND CURRENT STRESSES 31

3) Interval : 7) Interval :

(8)
(26)
(9) (27)

(10) (28)
(11)
(12)
(13) (29)

(14)
(30)
where

(31)
4) Interval : (32)

(15) (33)

(16)
where
(17)

where
8) Interval :

(34)
5) Interval :
(35)
(18)
(36)
(19)
(20)

where

(37)
6) Interval :
where
(21)
(22)
(23)
9) Interval :

(24) (38)
(39)
where
(40)
(41)
Using the definitions of and it obtains
From the preceding equations, we can determine the static
gain, which is given by
(25)
(42)
32 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 1, JANUARY 1998

Fig. 10. Converter static gain versus normalized current with duty-cycle parameter.

where

Fig. 11. Graphic representations of A and B.

and 2) Choose , observing the tradeoff among

From (42), it can be observed that the converter static gain discharge time and , using Figs. 57.
depends on the turn ratio between and , duty cycle 3) Determine for desired load by expression
, resonant frequency , normalized current , and
the period of switching frequency. Fig. 10 shows the converter
voltage gain as a function of the normalized current and 4) Determine and from Fig. 10.
the duty cycle As it can be observed, except for light load, 5) Determine by expression
that voltage gain is very close to the one of the conventional
PWM boost converter. This means the terms A and B have a
little contribution as shown in Fig. 11 for 6) Determine and values using the two following
expressions:

IV. DESIGN GUIDELINES

The following steps can be used to design the proposed
boost converter. 7) Choose , observing the tradeoff between
(Fig. 5) and (Fig. 4), using value determined
1) Specify the converter choosing:
in item 2).
a) switching frequency 8) Determine using definition.
9) Determine and by expressions
b) output power
c) output voltage
d) input voltage
e) resonance frequency
LAMBERT et al.: BOOST PWM CONVERTER WITH LOW VOLTAGE AND CURRENT STRESSES 33

Fig. 13. Waveforms of voltage in the resonant capacitor CR (upper trace)

and current in the resonant inductor LR1 (lower trace), respectively, vCR (20
V/div) and iLR1 (1 A/div); 2 s/div:

Fig. 12. Simulation results for the PWM soft-single-switched converter.

All the parameters used in this work are according to design

guidelines, and they are specified in the next section.

V. SIMULATION RESULTS
In order to illustrate the feasibility and operation, the
proposed circuit shown in Fig. 1 has been simulated with the
following parameters:
V input voltage
H input inductor filter
Fig. 14. Waveforms of voltage in the resonant capacitor CR (upper trace)
H coupled inductor and current in the resonant inductor LR2 (lower trace), respectively, vCR (20
H resonant inductor 1 V/div) and iLR2 (1 A/div); 2 s/div:

H resonant inductor 2
F output capacitor filter Fig. 13 shows the waveforms of voltage in the resonant
nF resonant capacitor capacitor and current in the resonant inductor As
seen in this photograph, the voltage waveform reaches 60 V,
load resistance
which is twice that of input voltage value.
kHz switching frequency Fig. 14 shows again the voltage in the resonant capacitor
The active switch and diodes are considered ideals. The together with the current in the resonant inductor The
waveforms obtained by simulation are shown in Fig. 12. discrepancy between theoretical and practical values, observed
As it is observed from this figure, switch is turned around zero of , is due to parasitic oscillations, which
on under zero current and turned off with zero voltage. The were not considered in the data acquisition.
maximum voltage in the active switch is equal to the output Fig. 15 shows the active-switch voltage and current wave-
voltage, which must be, at most, twice the input voltage. forms. As it is observed, the switch is turned on under zero
current and turned off with zero voltage.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The efficiency versus output power is show in Fig. 16. The
measured converter efficiency is between 92%97%.
A prototype circuit was constructed to verify the waveforms
predicted above. The values of
and used experimentally are the same as those speci- VII. CONCLUSION
fied in the simulation. The switching frequency is 100 kHz. A new boost PWM soft-single-switched converter has been
The used switch was the MOSFET IRF640, and the diodes presented. This converter, with just a single active switch, can
and were the MUR 1620. operate with high frequency in a soft-switching way for a wide
34
Fig. 15. Voltage (upper trace) and current (lower trace) waveforms in the
active switch, respectively, vS (20 V/div) and iS (2 A/div); 2 s/div:
Fig. 16. Experimental efficiency results versus output power.
load range without high voltage and current stresses. However,
it requires a high number of component and magnetic coupling
to propitiate the discharge of , assuring soft turning
on for the active switch. Furthermore, the maximum output
voltage is 2 if the active switch is desired to turn off
soft.
As the charge of resonant capacitor is independent of the
load, the current stress can be made low by using adequate
values.
The experimental results obtained validate the new proposed
converter.
REFERENCES
[1] F. C. Lee, High frequency quasiresonant converter technologies, Proc.
IEEE, vol. 76 no. 4, pp. 377390, 1988.
[2] I. Barbi, J. C. Bolacel, D. C. Martins, and F. B. Libano, Buck quasires-
onant converter operating at constant frequency: Analysis, design and
experimentation, in IEEE-PESC89 Rec., pp. 873880.
[3] G. Hua, C. S. Liu, and F. C. Lee, Novel zero-voltage transition PWM
converter, in IEEE-PESC92 Rec., pp. 5561.
[4] L. C. de Freitas, N. P. Filho, and V. J. Farias, A novel family of
DCDC PWM converters using the self-resonant principle, in IEEE
PESC94 Rec., pp. 13851391.
[5] L. Yang and C. Q. Lee, Analysis and design of boost zero-voltage-
transition PWM converter, in Conf. Proc.IEEE Applied Power Elec-
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[6] J. P. Gegner and C. Q. Lee, Zero-voltage-transition converter using
an inductor feedback technique, in Conf. Proc.IEEE Applied Power
Electronics Conf. and Exposition, vol. 2, 1994, pp. 862868.
[7] G. Moschopoulos, P. Jain, and G. Goos, Novel zero-voltage switched
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[8] C. A. Canesin and I. Barbi, Comparison of experimental losses among
six different topologies for a 1.6 kW boost converter using IGBTs, in
Proc. PESC95, vol. 2, pp. 12651271.
[9] V. J. Farias, M. S. Vilela, and E. G. Silva, A buck PWM soft-switching
converter using a single active switch, in IEEJ-IPEC95 Rec., vol. 2,
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[10] J. A. Lambert, J. B. Vieira, Jr., L. C. de Freitas, M. S. Vilela, and V. J.
Farias, Boost PWM soft-single-switched converter without high stress
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Jose Antonio Lambert was born in Ipua, Sao
Paulo, Brazil, in 1954. He received the B.Sc. degree
in electrical engineering from the Federal Univer-
sity of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil, in 1978 and
the M.S. degree from the Federal University of
Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, in 1983. He
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at the
Federal University of Uberlandia.
He is a Senior Lecturer at the Federal University
of Mato Grosso and Federal Technique School of
Mato Grosso, Cuiaba, Brazil. His research interest
is power electronics, especially soft-switching converters.
Mr. Lambert is a Member of the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics
(SOBRAEP).
Joao Batista Vieira, Jr. (M87) was born in
Panama, Goias, Brazil, in 1955. He received the
B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the Fed-
eral University of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil,
in 1980 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the
Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis,
Brazil, in 1984 and 1991, respectively.
He began work as an Instructor at the Electrical
Engineering Department, Federal University of
Uberlandia, in 1980. Presently, he is a Titular
Professor of the Electrical Engineering Department
at the same university. He has published about 80 papers. His research
interest areas include high-frequency power conversion, modeling and control
of converters, power-factor-correction circuits, and new converters topologies.
Dr. Vieira, Jr. is currently Coordinator of the Power Electronics Committee
of the Brazilian Society of Automatic Control (SBA), General Chairman of
the XII Brazilian Automatic Control Conference (XII CBA), and a Member
of the SBA and Brazilian Society of Power Electronics (SOBRAEP).
Luiz Carlos de Freitas (M92) was born in
Monte Alegre, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1952. He
received the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering
from the Federal University of Uberlandia,
Uberlandia, Brazil, in 1975 and the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees from the Federal University of Santa
Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil, in 1985 and 1992,
respectively.
Presently, he is a Professor of the Electrical
Engineering Department, Federal University of
Uberlandia. He has published about 80 papers
and has two Brazilian patents pending. His research interests include
high-frequency power-conversion modeling and control of converters, power-
factor-correction circuits, and new converter topologies.
Dr. de Freitas is a Member of the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics
(SOBRAEP).
LAMBERT et al.: BOOST PWM CONVERTER WITH LOW VOLTAGE AND CURRENT STRESSES 35

Lucio
dos Reis Barbosa was born in Patos de Valdeir Jose Farias was born in Araguari, Minas
Minas, Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 1969. He received Gerais, Brazil, in 1947. He received the B.Sc. degree
the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engi- in electrical engineering from the Federal University
neering from the Federal University of Uberlandia, of Uberlandia, Uberlandia, Brazil, the M.S. degree
Uberlandia, Brazil, in 1993 and 1996, respectively. in power electronics from the Federal University of
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at Minas Gerais, Minas Gerais, and the Ph.D. degree
the Federal University of Uberlandia. from the State University of Campinas, Campinas,
His research interest area is power electronics, Brazil, in 1975, 1981, and 1989, respectively.
especially soft-switching converters. He is a Titular Professor at the Federal University
of Uberlandia, where he has been since 1976. His re-
search interest area is power electronics, especially
soft-switching converters and active power filters. He has published about 80
papers.
Dr. Farias is a Member of the Brazilian Society of Power Electronics
(SOBRAEP).