A novel lossless passive snubber for soft-switching boost-typeconverters

A novel lossless passive snubber is proposed for soft switching boost-type converters. The proposed snubber does not use any auxiliary switches, but uses two identical snubber capacitors which are charged in parallel at turn off of the main switch and discharged in series at turn on automatically, and the discharged energy is recovered effectively (more than 95% recovery) into the output capacitor. Thus, the snubber provides zero-voltage switching for the converter main switch, reducing both the turn-off losses and the electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise, which improves the converter performance. The experimental results of a 20 kHz 600 W DC-DC boost converter and a single-phase AC-DC boost rectifier with the new snubber are presented     

Soft Switching Circuit for Interleaved Boost Converters

A zero-voltage switching-zero-current switching interleaved boost converter is proposed in this paper. An active circuit branch in parallel with the main switches is added and it is composed of an auxiliary switch and a snubber capacitor. By using this interleaved converter topology, zero current turn-on and zero voltage turn-off of the main switches can be achieved and the reverse-recovery loss of boost diode can be reduced. In addition, the auxiliary switches are zero-voltage transmission during the whole switching transition. A prototype of boost converter rated at 1.2kW has been built to confirm the effectiveness of the converter     

A new, soft-switched, high-power-factor boost converter with IGBTs

A new soft-switching technique that improves performance of the high-power-factor boost rectifier by reducing switching losses is introduced. The losses are reduced by an active snubber which consists of an inductor, a capacitor, a rectifier, and an auxiliary switch. Since the boost switch turns off with zero current, this technique is well suited for implementations with insulated-gate bipolar transistors. The reverse-recovery-related losses of the rectifier are also reduced by the snubber inductor which is connected in series with the boost switch and the boost rectifier. In addition, the auxiliary switch operates with zero-voltage switching. A complete design procedure and extensive performance evaluation of the proposed active snubber using a 1.2 kW high-power-factor boost rectifier operating from a 90 V_rms-256 V_rms input are also presented     

A novel active snubber for high-power boost converters

A technique which improves the performance of the boost converter by reducing the reverse-recovery-related losses in the boost switch and rectifier with an active snubber that is implemented with a minimum number of components is presented. This minimum-component-count snubber consists of a snubber inductor, an auxiliary switch, and a rectifier. The proposed technique reduces the reverse-recovery-related losses by controlling the turn-off di/dt rate of the rectifier current with the snubber inductor connected in series with the boost switch and rectifier. The voltage and current stresses of the components in the proposed active-snubber boost converter are similar to those in its conventional “hard-switched” counterpart     

A New Bidirectional Switch With Regenerative Snubber to Realize a Simple Series Connection for Matrix Converters

A new bidirectional switch and snubber circuit are proposed for medium-voltage AC/AC converters. The proposed switch can be constructed using 2-in-1 insulated-gate bipolar transistor and 2-in-1 diode modules, and can reduce the voltage stress of the switching device by series connection. The proposed snubber configuration is very simple and can regenerate absorbed energy. On the other hand, timing errors in the switching between the series-connected switches cause a voltage imbalance in the snubber circuit. Therefore, a simple method is proposed for reducing the voltage imbalance that uses one voltage sensor for each switch circuit. This proposed method controls the snubber voltages by adjusting the switch timings. Furthermore, application of the proposed switch circuit to a matrix converter is discussed and is confirmed by experiment.     

Novel passive lossless turn-on snubber for voltage source inverters

A novel passive lossless turn-on snubber with a soft-clamped turn-off snubber circuit for voltage source inverters is proposed. The energy trapped in the snubber is recovered into the DC supply and load without any active devices, associated control circuitry, or resistors. The overshoot voltage on the switches is clamped, and the peak switch current is low, making this snubber suitable for use in high-power insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) inverters     

Novel ZVT-PWM converters with active snubbers

An active snubber cell is proposed to contrive zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) pulsewidth-modulated (ZVT-PWM) converters. Except for the auxiliary switch, all active and passive semiconductor devices in a ZVT-PWM converter operate at zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn on and turn off. The auxiliary switch operates at ZVS turn off and near zero current-switching (ZCS) turn on. An analytical study on a boost ZVT-PWM converter with the proposed active snubber cell is presented in detail. A 750 W 80 kHz prototype of the boost ZVT-PWM converter has been built in the laboratory to experimentally verify the analysis. Six basic ZVT-PWM converters can be easily created by attaching the proposed active snubber cells to conventional PWM converters. A detailed design procedure of the proposed active snubber cell is also presented in this paper     

High-power-factor soft-switched boost converter

A novel implementation of the high-power-factor (HPF) boost converter with active snubber is described. The snubber circuit reduces the reverse-recovery-related losses of the rectifier and also provides zero-voltage switching for the boost switch and zero-current switching for the auxiliary switch. The performance of the proposed approach was evaluated on an 80-kHz, 1.5-kW, universal-line range, HPF boost converter. The proposed technique improves the efficiency by approximately 2% at full load and low line.     

Soft switching active snubbers for DC/DC converters

A soft-switching active snubber is proposed to reduce the turn-off losses of the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) in a buck power converter. The soft-switching snubber provides zero-voltage switching for the IGBT, thereby reducing its high turn-off losses due to the current tailing. The proposed snubber uses an auxiliary switch to discharge the snubber capacitor. This auxiliary switch also operates at zero-voltage and zero-current switching. The size of the auxiliary switch compared to the main switch makes this snubber a good alternative to the conventional snubber or even to passive low-loss snubbers. The use of the soft-switching active snubber permits the IGBT to operate at high frequencies with an improved RBSOA. In the experimental results reported for a 1 kW, 40 kHz prototype, combined switching/snubbing losses are reduced by 36% through the use of the active snubber compared to a conventional RCD snubber. The use of an active snubber allows recovery of part of the energy stored in the snubber capacitor during turn-off. The generic snubber cell for the buck power converter is generalized to support the common nonisolated DC/DC power converters (buck, boost, buck-boost, Cuk, sepic, zeta) as well as isolated DC/DC power converters (forward, flyback, Cuk, and sepic)     

Single phase three-level power factor correction circuit with passive lossless snubber

Multilevel conversion techniques, power factor correction (PFC) techniques and soft switching techniques are the three research hot points of power electronics. The paper proposes a single phase three-level PFC circuit with passive lossless snubbers which embodies these trends. Firstly, the three-level buck and boost topologies are derived from one bridge leg of the traditional diode clamped three-level inverters. Then, a single phase three-level PFC circuit is presented based on the three-level boost topology, and the principle and implementation approaches of the three-level PFC circuit are described. To realize the soft switching of the main switches and freewheeling diodes, two passive lossless snubber cells are added to the circuit. The operating principle and design considerations of the new circuit are discussed in detail. Finally, a 2 kW prototype of the single phase three-level PFC with the passive lossless snubber is built and tested. The simulated and experimental results indicate that the proposed circuit can realize the function of three-level PFC, increase system efficiency and have no over-voltage stresses on main power switches. Moreover, the power factor of the proposed circuit with the passive lossless snubber is higher than that of the circuit without the snubber.     

A Zero-Voltage and Zero-Current Switching Three-Level DC–DC Converter With Reduced Rectifier Voltage Stress and Soft-Switching-Oriented Optimized Design

A novel zero-voltage zero-current switching (ZVZCS) three-level converter with pulsewidth modulation (PWM) phase-shift control is proposed. The ZCS of the lagging switch is obtained by using a regenerative passive snubber in the secondary. In order to reduce the voltage stress on the rectifier's diodes, a few passive elements are inserted into the primary: a small inductance, two diodes, and a small additional winding of the main transformer. In each half-cycle, one of these diodes will conduct for a short time in order to clamp the voltage of the snubber's capacitor, and thus, the rectifier stress, at$(n_2/n_1)(V_ in/2)$,$n_1$, and$n_2$being the transformer's primary and, respectively, secondary turns number. The three-level configuration allows for the reduction of the voltage stress across the power switches to half of the input voltage$V_ in$. The conditions for assuring ZVS of the leading switch and ZCS of the lagging switch are found. Design constraints on the parallel capacitances of the switches of the leading switch, on the snubber's holding capacitor, and on the additional inductance and winding are hence established, allowing for an optimized design of the converter parameters. A dc analysis allows for the calculation of the effective duty cycle, which enjoys a boost effect due to the proposed snubber. Thus, a further reduction of the primary current stress and rectifier voltage stress is obtained. All the improvements conclude in a high efficiency. The influence of the choice of the parameters' values on the regulation capability is pointed out. Experiments on a prototype of 4.5kW confirm the results.     

A technique for reducing rectifier reverse-recovery-related lossesin high-power boost converters

A circuit technique that reduces the boost power converter losses caused by the reverse-recovery current of the rectifier is described. The losses are reduced by inserting an inductor in the series path of the boost switch and a rectifier to control the di/dt rate of the rectifier during its turn off. The energy from the inductor after the boost switch turn off is returned to the input or delivered to the output via an active snubber     

A new ZVT-PWM DC-DC converter

In this paper, a new active snubber cell that overcomes most of the drawbacks of the normal "zero voltage transition-pulse width modulation" (ZVT-PWM) converter is proposed to contrive a new family of ZVT-PWM converters. A converter with the proposed snubber cell can also operate at light load conditions. All of the semiconductor devices in this converter are turned on and off under exact or near zero voltage switching (ZVS) and/or zero current switching (ZCS). No additional voltage and current stresses on the main switch and main diode occur. Also, the auxiliary switch and auxiliary diodes are subjected to voltage and current values at allowable levels. Moreover, the converter has a simple structure, low cost, and ease of control. A ZVT-PWM boost converter equipped with the proposed snubber cell is analyzed in detail. The predicted operation principles and theoretical analysis of the presented converter are verified with a prototype of a 2 kW and 50 kHz PWM boost converter with insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). In this study, a design procedure of the proposed active snubber cell is also presented. Additionally, at full output power in the proposed soft switching converter, the main switch loss is about 27% and the total circuit loss is about 36% of that in its counterpart hard switching converter, and so the overall efficiency, which is about 91% in the hard switching case, increases to about 97%     

A magnetically coupled regenerative turn-on and turn-off snubberconfiguration

This paper presents a magnetically coupled regenerative turn-on and turn-off snubber configuration applied to a boost converter, which operates in continuous conduction mode (CCM). In addition to reducing the stresses in the switch, providing soft transitions in its turn-off voltage and turn-on current, it transfers the energy stored in the snubber capacitor to the load. This is achieved by using a coupled inductor mounted on the main inductor of the converter, which resets the capacitor voltage at each switching period. Design equations, as well as experimental results are presented, showing the high performance of the boost converter using the proposed snubber     

A new ZVT-ZCT-PWM DC-DC converter

In this paper, a new active snubber cell is proposed to contrive a new family of pulse width modulated (PWM) converters. This snubber cell provides zero voltage transition (ZVT) turn on and zero current transition (ZCT) turn off together for the main switch of a converter. Also, the snubber cell is implemented by using only one quasi resonant circuit without an important increase in the cost and complexity of the converter. New ZVT-ZCT-PWM converter equipped with the proposed snubber cell provides most the desirable features of both ZVT and ZCT converters presented previously, and overcomes most the drawbacks of these converters. Subsequently, the new converter can operate with soft switching successfully at very wide line and load ranges and at considerably high frequencies. Moreover, all semiconductor devices operate under soft switching, the main devices do not have any additional voltage and current stresses, and the stresses on the auxiliary devices are at low levels. Also, the new converter has a simple structure, low cost and ease of control. In this study, a detailed steady state analysis of the new converter is presented, and this theoretical analysis is verified exactly by a prototype of a 1-kW and 100-kHz boost converter.     

A Nonisolated Single-Phase UPS Topology With 110-V/220-V Input–Output Voltage Ratings

A circuit configuration of a single-phase nonisolated online uninterruptible power supply (UPS) with 110-V/220-V input–output voltage ratings is proposed, allowing the bypass operation without a transformer even if the input voltage is different from the output voltage. The converter consists of an ac–dc/dc–dc three-level boost converter combined with a double half-bridge inverter. In this type of configuration size, cost and efficiency are improved due to the reduced number of switches and batteries, and also, no low-frequency isolation transformer is required to realize bypass operation because of the common neutral connection. Both stages of the proposed circuit operate at high frequency by using a passive nondissipative snubber circuit in the boost converter and insulated-gate bipolar-transistor switches in the double half-bridge inverter, with low conduction losses, low tail current, and low switching losses. Principle of operation and experimental results for a 2.6-kVA prototype are presented to demonstrate the UPS performance.      

A new active clamping zero-voltage switching PWM current-fed half-bridge converter

A new active clamping zero-voltage switching (ZVS) pulse-width modulation (PWM) current-fed half-bridge converter (CFHB) is proposed in this paper. Its active clamping snubber (ACS) can not only absorb the voltage surge across the turned-off switch, but also achieve the ZVS of all power switches. Moreover, it can be applied to all current-fed power conversion topologies and its operation as well as structure is very simple. Since auxiliary switches in the snubber circuit are switched in a complementary way to main switches, an additional PWM IC is not necessary. In addition, it does not need any clamp winding and auxiliary circuit besides additional two power switches and one capacitor while the conventional current-fed half bridge converter has to be equipped with two clamp windings, two ZVS circuits, and two snubbers. Therefore, it can ensure the higher operating frequency, smaller-sized reactive components, lower cost of production, easier implementation, and higher efficiency. The operational principle, theoretical analysis, and design considerations are presented. To confirm the operation, validity, and features of the proposed circuit, experimental results from a 200-W, 24-200Vdc prototype are presented.     

零电压2零电流PWM 软开关技术研究

本文提出一种新的全桥PWM电路结构，使用少量的无源器件可使开关管工作于零电流－零电压的软开关状态，同时所引入的吸收回路是无损耗的。详细分析了电路工作原理和能量转移关系，并给出了关键参数的选取原则。在保持开关元件的电压／电流应力没有很大提高的前提下，可提高电源的转换效率。     

一种无源软开关技术的研究

开关电源的高频化使得功率开关的损耗加大,采用软开关技术是减小损耗的有效手段。文中提出了一种采用无源器件构成无损耗吸收回路的结构,可以实现PWM开关电源中开关管的零电流开通和零电压关断,而且不会给开关管带来过大的附加电压应力和电流应力。文中对该电路工作原理和能量转移关系进行了分析,给出了关键参数的选取原则。最后利用saber软件对电路进行了仿真。     

Utilization of an active-clamp circuit to achieve soft switching inflyback converters

Flyback derived power convertor topologies are attractive because of their relative simplicity when compared with other topologies used in low power applications. Incorporation of active-clamp circuitry into the flyback topology serves to recycle transformer leakage energy while minimizing switch voltage stress. The addition of the active-clamp circuit also provides a mechanism for achieving zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) of both the primary and auxiliary switches. ZVS also limits the turn-off di/dt of the output rectifier, reducing rectifier switching losses, and switching noise due to diode reverse recovery. This paper analyzes the behavior of the ZVS active-clamp flyback operating with unidirectional magnetizing current and presents design equations based on this analysis. Experimental results are then given for a 500 W prototype circuit illustrating the soft-switching characteristics and improved efficiency of the power converter. Results from the application of the active-clamp circuit as a low-loss turn-off snubber for IGBT switches is also presented