3kW Four-Level Flying Capacitor Totem-Pole

Bridgeless PFC Rectifier with 200V GaN Devices

Qingyun Huang Qingxuan Ma Pengkun Liu Alex Q. Huang Michael de Rooij
Semiconductor Power Semiconductor Power Semiconductor Power Semiconductor Power Efficient Power
Electronics Center Electronics Center Electronics Center Electronics Center Conversion
The University of Texas The University of Texas The University of Texas The University of Texas El Segundo, California,
at Austin at Austin at Austin at Austin USA
Austin, Texas, USA Austin, Texas, USA Austin, Texas, USA Austin, Texas, USA michael.derooij@epc-
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] co.com

Abstract—This paper introduces a flying capacitor multilevel

(FCML) totem-pole bridgeless power-factor-correction (PFC) 6 6
rectifier for the high-efficiency and high-density switching power
L/ /
supplies of data centers. A 3kW four-level FCML totem-pole PFC
& 9RXW
with 200V GaN devices is discussed and designed in this paper.
Compared with the conventional two-level GaN totem-pole PFC, YLQ
this four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC utilizes the low voltage 6 6
GaN devices, reduces the switching voltage, reduces the voltage
stress on the inductor and increases the equivalent ripple
frequency of the inductor. Since the reduced switching voltage also Fig. 1. Traditional two-level GaN totem-pole PFC
reduces the dv/dt, the EMI noises are also reduced. Based on the
commercial cubic composite inductors, a modular compact and 6D
low-profile inductor design method is introduced for this four-
level totem-pole PFC. A high density 3kW four-level-FCML GaN 6D 6D
totem-pole PFC prototype is developed and tested. The working
principles, control strategy and performance of this PFC rectifier 6D
L/ /
are verified by the experimental results. The estimated peak & & &'& 9'&
efficiency of the prototype is 99%, and the power density is about 6E
125W/in3.
YDF 6E
6E
Keywords—totem-pole PFC, flying capacitor multilevel
converter, GaN, high efficiency, high density, modular inductor 6E

I. INTRODUCTION
Fig. 2. Four-Level FCML Si totem-pole PFC
Due to the increased usage and size of the data centers, the
data centers have extremely high demand for energy consum- totem-pole bridgeless PFC is considered as a major solution
ption. The efficiency, the power density and the cost of the recently, since the 650V GaN FETs have addressed the concern
AC/DC switching power supplies for data centers are much of the severe reverse recovery issue [4]-[6]. The GaN totem-
more important [1]. The typical two stage power supply pole PFC has two high frequency 650V GaN FETs, two line-
solution is widely used for the 48V mother boards: a power- frequency 650V Si MOSFETs and one inductor, as shown in
factor-correction (PFC) rectifier to build the 400V DC link, and Fig. 1. This topology minimizes the conduction loss, and highly
an isolated DC/DC stage to convert the 400V DC link to 48V. utilizes the devices and the inductor.
The bulky DC link capacitors provide the energy decoupling
and hold-up time. The conventional GaN totem-pole PFC is a two-level PFC
rectifier. It has been proven with 99% efficiency for kW level
To improve the system efficiencies of the power supplies, application. Both the switching voltage of the devices and the
the high-efficiency PFC rectifiers are drawing a lot of interest. voltage swing of the inductor are 400V. 650V Enhancement-
Due to the high conduction loss of the conventional Boost PFC, Mode GaN devices are still expensive. For hard-switching
various bridgeless PFC topologies are discussed [2]. The dual- continuous conduction mode (CCM) operations, the switching
Boost bridgeless PFC removes two line-frequency diodes, but frequency is normally under 100kHz to minimize the switching
its conduction loss is still high, since there are still two low loss. The size of the main inductor is not reduced compared
frequency diodes in the circuit. Besides, since the two Boost with the traditional hard-switching Boost rectifier. The soft-
converters work alternatively, the utilizations of the inductors switching two-level GaN totem-pole PFC reduces the inductor
and the devices in the dual-Boost PFC are low [2]-[3]. The

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 6D 6D
6D
6D 6D 6D
6D
6D 6D
L/ / L/ /
& &'& 9'& & & &'& 9'&
6E 6E
6E
YDF YDF 6E
6E 6E
6E
6E 6E

Fig. 3. Three-Level FCML Si totem-pole PFC with devices in series Fig. 4. Four-Level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC

size. However, the complexity of the sensing and control

system is much more complicated compared with the hard- 6QD
switching CCM one.
The Flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) converters are 6D 6D
traditionally used for medium voltage power electronics [7]-[9].
Recently, they have also been demonstrated to achieve high 6D
efficiency and high density for low voltage grid connected L/ /
& & &Q &'& 9'&
applications [10]. A 1.5kW bridgeless seven-level FCML Boost
PFC is reported in [13]. With twelve 100V GaN devices which 6E

work at 150kHz, the peak efficiency is 99.07%. However, in

this topology, there are 4 line-frequency Si MOSFETs while 6E
YDF
6E
totem-pole PFC has only two of them. Besides, the loss is not
evenly distributed between the high side devices and low side
6QE
devices, since the Boost PFC is not a symmetrical topology.
The FCML totem-pole bridgeless PFC topology combines
the FCML Boost converter and the totem-pole PFC, as shown Fig. 5. Generalized topology of FCML totem-pole PFC
in Fig. 2. It addresses the issues of the FCML Boost bridgeless
PFC. And it can achieve high efficiency, high power-density tested. The operations, control and performance are verified by
and low cost. A 200W four-level FCML totem-pole PFC the experimental results.
rectifier with 200V Si MOSFETs is reported in [14]. The
topology is shown in Fig. 2. However, due to the high switching II. GENERALIZED TOPOLOGY OF FCML TOTEM-POLE PFC
loss and reverse recovery losses of 200V Si MOESFETs, the The generalized topology of the FCML totem-pole PFC is
efficiency is only around 98% at 150kHz switching frequency. shown in Fig. 5. In the line frequency leg, 6D and 6E are still the
A 3kW three-level FCML totem-pole PFC with 150V Si Si 650V super-junction MOSFETs which have low on-
MOSFETs in series is implemented with 99% efficiency in [15], resistance and low cost. The high frequency leg consists a
since the performance of 150V Si MOSFETs is significantly FCML Boost. In this FCML leg, 6D to 6QD are on the high side,
improved compared with 200V Si MOSFETs. The topology is and 6E to 6QE are on the low side. There are Q flying
shown in Fig. 3. However, due to the low switching frequency
capacitors. This FCML leg has Q levels. And the voltage on
70kHz and three level operation, the main inductor size is still
large, and not improved a lot compared with two-level GaN the MWK flying capacitor &M is M9GFQ (e.g., 9GFQ, 9GFQ, …,
totem-pole PFC. Q 9GFQ).
Based on the previous work on the FCML totem-pole PFC, 9GF
Y& M M (1)
a four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC rectifier with 200V Q
Enhancement-Mode GaN devices are designed, analyzed and
implemented in this paper. The topology is shown in Fig. 4. The phase-shift pulse-width-modulation (PSPWM) can be
Compared with the conventional two-level totem-pole PFC, used for this FCML leg, since PSPWM has the natural voltage-
this FCML totem-pole PFC has the following benefits: the balance capability for FCML converters [11]-[12]. With PS-
utilization of low voltage devices, the reduced switching PWM, 6D to 6QD use the phase shifted gating signals, and 6E
voltage, the reduced voltage swing on the inductor, and the to 6QE use the complementary gating signals of 6D to 6QD
increased equivalent ripple frequency of the inductor. respectively. The duty-cycle of the high-side switches is G. The
Compared with the Si-based FCML totem-pole PFC, this four- duty cycle G is expressed as follows.
level GaN PFC achieves both high density and high efficiency.
A modular low-profile inductor design method is introduced for YDF 9GF 
 YDF !
this PFC. Besides, the system control strategy for this PFC is G (2)
 YDF 9GF  YDF 
discussed. A 3kW prototype with EPC 2047 are developed and

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 TABLE I. COMPARISON OF LOW VOLTAGE DEVICES
/HYHOVLQ
)20 )20 )20
 )&0/7RWHP 3DUW1XPEHU 5RQ Pő  &LVV Q)  4RVV s&  4UU s&  4J Q& 
5RQu&LVV  5RQu4RVV  5RQu4UU 
SROH3)&
  9
96L  ,3711)'     9    9 
9  $sV 
%6&116$  & 9
96L      9    9 
70$ 9  $sV 
  9
96L  %6&116     9    9 
9  $sV 

9*D1  (3&     9     9 
9 

In this FCML totem-pole PFC, the voltage stresses on the FOM1(5RQu&LVV) is the key factor describing the driving
high frequency devices 6DE~6QDE are 9GFQ. In the high speed. The driving speed is faster if FOM1 is smaller. For Si
frequency leg, this FCML totem-pole PFC can utilize low devices, the driving speed is improved a lot with the lower
voltage Si MOSFETs which have much better reverse recovery voltage devices. From 200V Si device to 150 Si device, FOM1
performance than 9 Si MOSFETs. In addition, the cost of is improved with 2.6 times. However, with 200V E-Mode GaN
the low voltage Si MOSFETs is much less than the 9 GaN device EPC2047, FOM1 is improved with 6.7 times compared
FETs. Low voltage GaN FETs can be utilized to further with 200V Si device, and 1.9 times even compared with 100V
improve the efficiency. Moreover, the voltage swing on the Si device. The cause is that the input capacitance of GaN device
inductor is also significantly reduced. The effective inductor is much smaller than Si devices.
current ripple frequency is QIV, if the switching frequency of FOM2(5RQu4RVV) explains the performance of the switching
each high frequency device is IV. Therefore, both the inductance loss for both hard-switching and soft-switching. The switching
and the size of the inductor are reduced, compared with the two- loss is lower with smaller FOM2. For Si devices, the lower the
level totem-pole PFC. voltage stress, and the lower the FOM2. However, considering
the different testing voltage conditions for different devices, the
III. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF FOUR-LEVEL FCML GAN improvement is not too much with lower voltage devices.
TOTEM-POLE PFC However, 200V GaN device has much lower FOM2 than 200V
As shown in Fig. 4, four-level FCML totem-pole PFC has  Si device. It has similar FOM2 even compared with 100V Si
low voltage high frequency devices in the high frequency leg. device if considering the different testing voltage.
The voltage stress on each GaN device is 9GF. FOM3(5RQu4UU) describes the performance of the reverse
9GF recovery loss. The reverse recovery loss is less if FOM3 is
YGV (3) smaller. For Si devices, FOM3 of 150V Si device is reduced by
 85% compared with FOM3 of 200V Si device. The reverse
The voltage stress on & is 9GF, and the voltage stress on & recovery loss is significantly reduced by using 150V Si devices.
is 29GF. However, E-Mode GaN device has zero reverse recovery loss.
GaN FET is ideal for synchronous rectification.
9GF 9GF
9& , 9& (4) In summary, 200V E-Mode GaN FET has much lower
  switching loss, reverse recovery loss and driving loss, compared
with 200V Si devices. 100V Si devices are improved a lot
Since the DC link voltage is 400V, the voltage stress of the high compared with 200V Si devices. However, if 100V Si devices
frequency devices is 133V. 200V devices are suitable in this are used for FCML totem-pole PFC, seven level operation is
topology. required. The system control complexity and reliability suffer a
A. Selection of Low Voltage Devices lot. However, with 200V E-Mode GaN devices, only four level
Due to the multilevel operation, the low voltage switching operation is required, and the switching loss is even a little bit
devices can be used in this PFC application. For four-level lower, and the reverse recovery loss is zero. And its driving loss
operation, 200V device is enough. With 150V devices, five- is also much lower. Therefore, four-level GaN totem-pole PFC
level operations are required. If 100V devices are used, seven- is an optimized solution based on the semiconductor com-
level operations are more suitable. In Table I, the state-of-art parison.
200V Si device, 150V Si device and 100V device and 200V E- B. Voltage-Seconds on Inductor
Mode GaN device are compared in detail. To make the Since the equivalent ripple frequency is three times of the
comparison fair, the total 5RQ for conducting the same current switching frequency in four-level FCML totem-pole PFC, this
with each type of device is between Pő to Pő. multilevel operation significantly reduces the filter capacitors if
There are three normalized figure of merits (FOMs) listed in the current ripple is the same.
Table I. The device performance is better with smaller FOMs.

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 § 96RIWZROHYHO3)&
x10-5 § 96RIIRXUOHYHO 3)&

Fig. 7. Picture of Vishay IHLP-5050FD-01 series inductor [16]

s+ s+

t(s)

§ $&YROWDJH 9
s+ s+

Fig. 8. s+ inductor made by four s+ in series

t(s)

Fig. 6. Reduction of voltage-second on the inductor

For the main inductor, the impact of the multilevel operation

can be explained by the calculation of the voltage-second on the Fig. 9. A generalized modular inductor design concept
inductor. According to the Faraday's Law, the voltage-second
can be expressed as follows. efficiency. Since the DC current value is high in CCM PFC, the
DC flux is high. High saturation flux magnetic material is
( ĽW / Ľ, 1 Ľ%P $H , (5) usually preferred in this application. Some toroid powder cores
where (uĽW is the voltage-second, / is the inductance, Ľ, is the based on some high saturation flux magnetic materials, such as
Kool Mu, High Flux, etc., are used a lot in CCM PFC application
current ripple, N is the turns number, Ľ%P is the maximum flux operating at around 100kHz switching frequency. However,
density variation, $H is the effective cross-section area of the with these powder cores, the inductance could be significantly
core. Based on (5), if the voltage-second (uĽW is lower, the reduced at high DC current. For example, if the inductance at
inductance can be lower with the same current ripple. And the zero current is the original inductance, the inductance might be
turns number or the effective area can be smaller. Therefore, around 30% of the original inductance at designed maximum
with lower voltage-second, the inductance is lower, and the size current. That means, if the required inductance at maximum
of the inductor is also smaller. current for a 3kW 100kHz two-level totem-pole PFC is s+,
Fig. 6 shows that the voltage-second of the inductor in this the original inductance at zero current should be around s+.
four-level totem-pole PFC is significantly reduced compared The large inductance and the large inductor size could still be
with that in the two-level totem-pole PFC. For the calculation of the limitations for two-level totem-pole PFC.
Fig. 6, DC link voltage is 400V, AC voltage is 240VAC, and the As discussed in the previous section, the inductance for the
switching frequency is 100kHz. For two-level PFC, the four-level PFC is much lower compared with two-level totem-
switching voltage is 400V and the frequency is 100kHz. For pole PFC. In this paper, the switching frequency is 100kHz, the
four-level PFC, the switching voltage is 133.4V, the switching current ripple frequency is 300kHz, and the required inductance
frequency for each device is 100kHz, and there are 3 devices is around s+. In the four-level GaN totem-pole PFC, the
switching with interleaving. Assuming the switching speed of high saturation flux is still required for the inductor. The toroid
650V GaN device for two-level PFC and the 200V GaN device powder cores for two-level totem-pole PFC are not suitable for
for four-level PFC is similar, the total switching loss should be the four-level totem-pole PFC. First, these toroid powder cores
similar. With the similar switching loss, 72 reduction of the achieve high efficiency usually at around 100kHz switching
averaged voltage-second over a line cycle on the inductor is frequency or even lower. However, for this four-level PFC, the
achieved in this four-level totem-pole PFC, compared with that current ripple frequency is 300kHz if the switching frequency is
of two-level totem-pole PFC. Even though 72% reduction of the 100kHz. Thus, these toroid powder cores are not efficient for
voltage-second doesn’t mean 72% reduction of the inductor size, this frequency range. In addition, the toroid cores are not suitable
the inductance and the inductor size will still be significantly for high density design, since the toroid cores are not low-
reduced compared with the two-level totem-pole PFC. profile, and usually occupy a lot of converter space.
IV. INDUCTOR DESIGN BASED ON MODULAR HIGH-DENSITY The ferrite cores can be much more efficient for several
AND LOW-PROFILE INDUCTOR hundred kHz. And there are a lot of low-profile planner ferrite
The switching frequency of the two-level GaN totem-pole cores with different sizes. However, due to their much lower
CCM PFC is about or lower than 100kHz, to achieve high saturation flux, the ferrite cores need much more turns number

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 6D

6D 6D

6D
L/ /
& & &'& 9'&
6E

YDF 6E
6E

6E

6D 6D 6D 6E 6E 6E 6D 6E

3// 363:0 3RODULW\ YDF

G
_ 9'&
+ + YDF 9GF 
YDF !
*FY G II
 YDF 9GF YDF  YDF
VLQ Ő LUHI
+ Fig. 11. Operation waveforms and principles
,P _9'&
*FY
+ arrangement, this 13.2uH (35A) inductor is very cubic and low-
9UHI
profile, and the size is 25.8x26.4x6.4mm3. A more generalized
Fig. 10. Control strategy modular inductor design based on the commercial composite
inductors is shown in Fig. 9. With the modular cubic and low-
or cross-section area. The inductor size and the winding loss profile inductors, the bigger cubic and low-profile inductors can
could be large. be developed. These modular inductors can be connected in
series or parallel. Series connection provides higher inductance,
For the low voltage high current DC/DC applications, such and parallel connection provides higher current capability. The
as notebook, desktop, servers and POL converters, there are a modular inductors can be put on both sides of the PCB to further
lot of commercial composite inductors. These composite indu- utilize the system space.
ctors are usually made by some powdered iron cores. The
powdered irons integrate the distributed airgaps with the iron. V. CONTROL STRATEGY AND SIMULATION RESULTS
Therefore, the powdered iron has much higher saturation flux
compared with ferrite. And the powdered iron cores have very The control strategy of this four-level totem-pole PFC is
stable inductance at high DC current. Even approaching the shown in Fig. 10. This control strategy is based on the dual-loop
saturation current, the inductance reduction is very soft. In these control including the outer DC voltage loop and the inner AC
composite inductors, the powdered iron cores are pressed around current loop. Fig. 11 shows the basic operation principles and
the inductor coils. The inductor coils are welded to the lead signal waveforms, including the duty-cycle and the gating
frame [17]. These composite inductors have high DC saturation signals.
current, stable inductance, and soft saturation characteristic. The duty-cycle G is for the high side devices. The duty-cycle
They are very compact and low profile. Due to the powdered G has a step change during the AC zero crossing as shown in Fig.
iron material which have low core loss for high frequency 10. This step change is a challenge for the dynamic response of
operation, these inductors are very efficient for the switching AC current control loop. To solve this issue, a feedforward
frequencies from several hundred kHz to MHz. Since the signal GII is added to the output of the AC current controller. The
powdered iron is low-cost, these composite inductors are low-
cost. calculation of GII is expressed as follows.

Fig. 7 shows an example of Vishay IHLP commercial YDF 9GF 

 YDF !
inductors IHLP-5050FC-01 series. In this series, the inductance G II (4)
 YDF 9GF  YDF 
can be chosen from s+ (120A) to s+ (15.5A). The size is
12.9x13.2x6.4mm3. For a s+ inductor, the saturation current Since the feedforward signal GII is the big signal of the duty-
is 35A, and the DC resistance is Pő. This inductor is high- cycle, the step change of the duty-cycle is generated by this
density, efficient and low-cost. However, the inductance is still feedforward signal. The feedforward signal also compensates
too low for the four-level totem-pole PFC. Since these comer- the variation of the input and output voltages. Therefore, the
cial composite inductors are very cubic, compact and low- output of the AC current controller *FY can be a smaller number
profile, this paper proposes to use the commercial inductors as around zero, and it doesn’t include the step change signal. With
modular inductor building blocks to build bigger cubic and low- this feedforward signal, the dynamic response of the AC current
profile inductors. To get higher inductance, the multiple indu- control loop is improved.
ctors are in series. In this paper, a s+ (35A) inductor is built
by four s+ (35A) in series. As shown in Fig. 8, by proper

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 (a) Four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC card

Fig. 12. Simulation results

The PWM signals are generated by the duty-cycle G and

PSPWM. The voltage balancing is naturally achieved by
PSPWM. The gating signals for line frequency switches 6D and (a) Four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC system
6E are determined by the AC voltage polarity detection. Fig. 13. Hardware of 3kW Four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC
The simulation results are shown in Fig. 12. The conditions
for simulations are as follows: 3RXW :, YDF 9$&,
9GF 9, IV N+]. Fig. 12 shows the well-controlled AC
current, the multilevel waveforms and the balanced flying
capacitor voltages. This topology and control are verified by the ,/
simulation results.
9VZ
VI. HARDWARE DESIGN AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In this paper, a 3kW four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC
is developed and tested. Fig. 13 shows the photos of the
prototype. Fig. 13 (a) shows the photo of the four-level FCML 9DF
GaN totem-pole PFC card. 200V GaN devices (EPC2047) are
utilized for the high frequency leg. In the low frequency leg, the
Si devices IPT60R028G7XTMA1 are used. The size of the PFC
card is 3.07x1.65x0.43in3. The power density of this power stage
card is 1380W/in3. This GaN PFC card is a power stage module.
This GaN PFC card includes the switching devices, the drivers, Fig. 14. Experimental waveforms
the driver power supplies, and inductor current sensor. This GaN
card can be used as a PFC module in the PFC system. It is very 9DF 9$&, 9GF 9, 3 :. Fig. 14 shows the well-
compact and low profile. The driver power supply solution uses
controlled inductor current and the multilevel waveforms.
the cascaded bootstrap method [18]. This solution provides
multiple driver power supplies without any transformers. And VII. CONCLUSIONS
this solution is compact and low-cost.
This paper discusses the FCML totem-pole bridgeless PFC
The whole PFC system, including the GaN PFC card, the rectifier. A 3kW four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC with
controller card, the DC bulky capacitors, EMI filter, relay, etc., 200V GaN devices is analyzed, designed and implemented in
is shown in Fig. 13(b). The size of this whole PFC prototype is this paper. Compared with the conventional two-level GaN
4.76x2.87x1.77in3, and the density is 125W/in3. Fig. 14 shows totem-pole PFC, this four-level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC has
the experimental waveforms under the following conditions: the following benefits: utilization of the low voltage GaN
devices, reduced switching voltage, reduced voltage stress on

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 TABLE II. COMPARISON OF TWO-LEVEL GAN TOTEM-POLE PFC AND FOUR-LEVEL FCML GAN TOTEM-POLE PFC

Two Level GaN totem-pole PFC Four Level FCML GaN totem-pole PFC

High Frequency Switches 2(650V GaN) 6(200V GaN)

Drivers 2 6

Auxiliary power supplies for

1+1 bootstrap power supply 1 + 5 cascaded bootstrap power supplies
drivers
Inductor ripple frequency at
100kHz 300kHz
100kHz switching frequency
Inductor core design at 100kHz Modular cubic inductor design based on commercial
Toroid powder cores (Kool Mu, MPP, High Flux...)
switching frequency composite cubic inductors (powdered iron cores)
Inductance at 100kHz switching
165µH (about 50µH at maximum current) 13.2µH
frequency

Switching voltage 400V 133.3V

[5] L. Zhou, Y. Wu, J. Honea and Z. Wang, "High-efficiency True Bridgeless

the inductor and increased equivalent ripple frequency of the Totem Pole PFC based on GaN HEMT: Design Challenges and Cost-
effective Solution," Proceedings of PCIM Europe 2015; International
inductor. The detailed comparison is shown in Table II. The Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion,
reduced switching voltage reduces the CM noises. Assuming the Renewable Energy and Energy Management, Nuremberg, Germany,
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inductors with powdered ferrite iron cores are low-profile and Multilevel Converters—State of the Art, Challenges, and Requirements
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