Soft Switching
The power loss of Power Semi-Conductor
Switches used in power converters is one of
important properties of converters, which should
be taken into account during converter design.
Power losses of a switch is composed of four
different losses corresponding to its different
operating cases. Those areas;
a- Off state (switch is at off state),
b- Turning on (“off state” to “on state”),
c- On state (conduction state),
d- Turning off (“on state” to “off state”),
The power losses of a switch are converted
into heat causing increase in operating
temperature of switch.
When the operating temperatures increases
beyond a limit that is given in the data sheet
of the corresponding switch, it will be
damaged.
To prevent or to protect the switch against
high operating temperature one should use
heat sink or fan-cooled heat sink to keep the
temperature below limiting value.
Using heat sinks or fan-cooled heat sink
increases the dimensions of the power
converter and make it heavy and bulky.
Heat sink and Fan-cooled heat sink
On the other hand, increase in power losses
will decrease the efficiency of the power
converter.
To obtain a compact and small power
converter the switching losses of the
converter are reduced using different
methods of soft switching.
In high frequency operation the values of the
reactive components such as inductor and
capacitor are decreased resulting in small
volume converter. On the other hand,
increasing the operating frequency will
increase the power losses or decrease the
operating efficiency.
There are different methods used to reduce
the power losses of semi-conductor switches
used in power electronics converters. In this
course we’ll analyze the operating behavior
of two of them, and they are;
1- Zero Current Switching (ZCS)
In this method the turning on and off of the switch
occur when the switch current is zero. By this
way the power losses of the switch will decrease
considerably.
2- Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS)
In ZVS the switch turns on and off when the
voltage across the switch terminals is zero. This,
reduces the switch power losses during turning on
and off.
In converters operating in ZCS and ZVS
operation modes, the switching frequency is
adjusted to resonance frequency of capacitor and
inductor existing in the converter. Or, the values
of inductor and capacitors are selected to obtain a
resonance frequency equal to the operating
frequency.
Switch configurations for ZCS resonant converters.
Zero-Current-Switching Resonant Converters
The switches of a zero-current-switching
(ZCS) resonant converter turn on and off at
zero current.
The resonant circuit that consists of switch
S1, inductor L, and capacitor C is shown in
Figure shown below.
Inductor L is connected in series with a power
switch S1 to achieve ZCS. The inductor L
limits the di/dt of the switch current, and L
and C make a series resonant circuit.
When the switch is at off state, there is a
current i = Cf dvT/dt flowing through the
internal capacitance Cj due to a finite slope of
the switch voltage at turn-off. This current
flow causes power dissipation in the switch
and limits the high switching frequency.
L-Type ZCS Resonant Converter
An L-type ZCS resonant converter is shown
below.
The circuit operation can be divided into five
modes, whose equivalent circuits are shown
below.
We shall redefine the time origin, t = 0, at the
beginning of each mode.
An L-type ZCS resonant converter
a- Inductors filter the current ripples and reduce
the current change.
b- Capacitors filter the voltage ripples and
reduce the voltage change.
Mode 1:
Mode 2:
Mode 3:
Mode 4:
Mode 5:
Zero-Voltage-Switching Resonant Converters
The switches of a ZVS resonant converter
turn on and off at zero voltage.
The resonant circuit is shown below. The
capacitor C is connected in parallel with the
switch S1 to achieve ZVS.
The internal switch capacitance Cj is added
with the capacitor C, and it affects the
resonant frequency only, thereby contributing
no power dissipation in the switch.
If the switch is implemented with a transistor
Q1 and an antiparallel diode D1, as shown
below, the voltage across C is clamped by D1,
and the switch is operated in a half-wave
configuration.
If the diode D1 is connected in series with Q1,
as shown below, the voltage across C can
oscillate freely, and the switch is operated in
a full-wave configuration.
A ZVS resonant converter is shown below. A
ZVS resonant converter is the dual of the ZCS
resonant converter in Figure.
Equations for the M-type ZCS resonant
converter can be applied if iL is replaced by vc
and vice versa, L by C and vice versa, and Vs
by Io and vice versa.
The circuit operation can be divided into five
modes whose equivalent circuits are shown
below.
We shall redefine the time origin, t = 0, at the
beginning of each mode.
Switch configurations for ZVS resonant converters.
Mode 1:
Mode 2:
Mode 3:
Mode 4:
Mode 5:
