Simulation on Soft-Switching PWM Converter with High Power Factor

A new PWM converter based on soft switching is introduced. The converter uses a minimum number of devices, and requires less switching operations than conventional techniques. Switching is realized solely in a ZVS (zero voltage switching) mode, therefore the loss is reduced and EMI (electromagnetic interference) is suppressed. The paper analyzes the operation of ZVS, and discusses the methods for maintaining a unit power factor and constant DC voltage. Changing the modulation index M and the phase angle θ keeps the input current in phase with the voltage. It also keeps the current sinusoidal, and ensures a constant output voltage.

Analysis of Light Load Efficiency Characteristics of a Dual Active Bridge Converter Using Wide Band-Gap Devices

In this paper, the zero voltage switching (ZVS) region of a dual active bridge (DAB) converter with wide band-gap (WBG) power semiconductor device is analyzed. The ZVS region of a DAB converter varies depending on output power and voltage ratio. The DAB converters operate with hard switching at light loads, it is difficult to achieve high efficiency. Fortunately, WBG power semiconductor devices have excellent hard switching characteristics and can increase efficiency compared to silicon (Si) devices. In particular, WBG devices can achieve ZVS at low load currents due to their low parasitic output capacitance (Co,tr) characteristics. Therefore, in this paper, the ZVS operating resion is analyzed based on the characteristics of Si, silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). Power semiconductor devices. WBG devices with low Co,tr operate at ZVS at lower load currents compared to Si devices. To verify this, experiments are conducted and the results are analyzed using a 3 kW DAB converter. For Si devices, ZVS is achieved above 1.4 kW. For WBG devices, ZVS is achieved at 700 W. Due to the ZVS conditions depending on the switching device, the DAB converter using Si devices achieves a power conversion efficiency of 91% at 1.1 kW output. On the other hand, in the case of WBG devices, power conversion efficiency of more than 98% is achieved under 11 kW conditions. In conclusion, it is confirmed that the WBG device operates in ZVS at a lower load compared to the Si device, which is advantageous in increasing light load efficiency.

Selection of Carrier Waveforms for PWM Inverter

In this paper the influence of different carrier waveforms upon the output characteristics of PWM inverter is described in detail. When a triangular carrier waveform is used in hard-switching PWM inverters, harmonics exist in the neighborhood of the output frequency of the inverter output voltage and current due to the dead time. The triangular carrier waveform used in soft-switching PWM inverter will cause difficulties in controlling resonance-trigger time, higher loss in the resonant circuit, and less utilization of the DC bus voltage. If a sawtooth carrier is used in hard-switching PWM inverter, there will be severe distortion in the current waveform. When sawtooth carriers with alternate positive and negative slopes are used in soft-switching PWM inverters, the resonance-trigger time is easy to control, and distortion in the output voltage and current caused by the dead time will not appear.

Applying Normally-off GaN HEMTs for Coreless High-frequency Wireless Chargers

Wide-bandgap(WBG)devices such as Gallium-Nitride(GaN)High Electron Mobility Transistors(HEMTs)have become popular in the power electronics industry as they offer a lower switching loss,higher thermal capability and higher power density than conventional silicon devices.As an attempt of applying WBG devices to the wireless charging technology,this paper adopts two different types of normally-off GaN HEMTs.One adopts the cascode structure provided by Transphorm Inc,operated under 800kHz to charge a battery pack on an electric scooter at 48 V/500W,with the air gap between the transceiver and receiver of~10cm.The other is enhancement-mode GaN HEMTs provided by GaN Systems Inc,operated at~6MHz to use one transceiver to charge multiple cell phones@~20W.Both of these chargers have no magnetic cores to reduce the cost and weight.Experimental results show both types of GaN HEMTs significantly increased the charging efficiency over conventional Si devices.Challenges of applying such fast-transition devices are discussed,e.g.,common-source inductance and the gate-drive-loop parasitic.

Application research on ZVZCS full-bridge converter technique

Based on ZVZCS （zero voltage zero current switching） full bridge converter technique, a novel inverter welding power supply is designed, in which the secondary side of the transformer adopts passive clamping circuit to reduce voltage stress of rectifying components. This supply can realize power switches ZVS （zero voltage switching ） or ZCS （zero current switching） within a very wide range of load; Only through setting up blocking capacitor in the primary side of transformer, the power transformer＇s bias in the full-bridge converter is suppressed and the primary current can be reset easily. In addition, how to calculate the blocking capacitor and its influence to power supply performance are also subjects discussed in this paper.

A State Space Modeling of Non-Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converter with Active Switch

In this paper, analysis, design and implementation of non-isolated soft-switching bidirectional DC-DC converter with an active switch are described. The proposed topology gives the output voltage as twice as the input voltage and enhances the efficiency up to 94.5% and 92.9% for boost and buck mode operation by proper selection of the duty cycle. Soft switching can be achieved at both steps up and step down operating modes. Small signal analysis based on state space averaging and transfer functions have been presented in detail for the proposed converter. Finally, the feasibility of the desired converter is confirmed to mat lab simulation and investigational results.

Design and Experimentation of FPGA-Based Soft-Switched Interleaved Boost Converter for Telecommunication System

This paper proposes the design and experimentation of digital control of soft-switched interleaved boost converter using FPGA for Telecommunication System. The switching devices in the proposed converter are turned on and off with Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) and Zero Current Switching (ZCS) respectively. The circuit is operated in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM) with various load ranges having duty cycle of more than 50%. The proposed converter is studied by developing the simulation module in MATLAB/SIMULINK. A PI controller is designed and implemented in FPGA to obtain a regulated DC output for line and load variations. Simulation and experimentation results are verified with a prototype development of the proposed converter. The results indicate that the converter performance is enhanced with closed loop control.

Non-isolated stacked bidirectional soft-switching DC-DC converter with PWM plus phase-shift control scheme

In this paper, a non-isolated stacked bidirectional DC-DC converter with zero-voltage-switching(ZVS) is introduced for the high step-up/step-down conversion systems. The extremely narrow turn-on and/or turn-off duty cycle existing in the conventional bidirectional buck-boost converters can be extended due to the stacked module configuration for large voltage conversion ratio applications. Furthermore, the switch voltage stress is halved because of the series connection of half bridge modules. The PWM plus phase-shift control strategy is employed, where the duty cycle is adopted to regulate the voltages between the input and output sides and the phaseshift angle is applied to achieve the power flow regulation.This decoupled control scheme can not only realize seamless bidirectional transition operation, but also achieve adaptive voltage balance for the power switches. In addition, ZVS soft-switching operation for all active switches is realized to minimize the switching losses. Finally, a prototype of 1 kW operating at 100 kHz is built and tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed converter and the control strategy.

A driving pulse edge modulation technique and its complex programming logic devices implementation

With the continual increase in switching speed and rating of power semiconductors, the switching voltage spike becomes a serious problem. This paper describes a new technique of driving pulse edge modulation for insulated gate bipolar transistors(IGBTs). By modulating the density and width of the pulse trains, without regulating the hardware circuit, the slope of the gate driving voltage is controlled to change the switching speed. This technique is used in the driving circuit based on complex programmable logic devices(CPLDs), and the switching voltage spike of IGBTs can be restrained through software, which is easier and more flexible to adjust. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed method.

A 4-kbit low-cost antifuse one-time programmable memory macro for embedded applications

A 4-kbit low-cost one-time programmable （OTP） memory macro for embedded applications is designed and implemented in a 0.18-μm standard CMOS process. The area of the proposed 1.5 transistor （1.5T） OTP cell is 2.13 μm2, which is a 49.3% size reduction compared to the previously reported cells. The 1.5T cell is fabricated and measured and shows a large programming window without any disturbance. A novel high voltage switch （HVSW） circuit is also proposed to make sure the OTP macro, implemented in a standard CMOS process, works reliably with the high program voltage. The OTP macro is embedded in negative radio frequency identification （RFID） tags. The full chip size, including the analog front-end, digital controller and the 4-kbit OTP macro, is 600 × 600 μm2. The 4-kbit OTP macro only consumes 200 × 260 μm^2. The measurement shows a 100% program yield by adjusting the program time and has obvious advantages in the core area and power consumption compared to the reported 3T and 2T OTP cores.