The Implementation of A Modified Energy-loss

Boost Converter Via Combined ZVS-ZCS

Snubber Network Converter


Youssef A. Rezk and Sayed F. Gilani
1Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750, PERAK, MALAYSIA
Youssef.rezk.1991@gmail.com, faizangilani93@gmail.com


Abstract A combined zero-current switching and zero-
voltage switching (ZCS-ZVS) snubber network is proposed for a
DC-DC boost converter in this paper. The technique reduces the
energy losses and spiking on collector-emitter voltage (VCE)
during switching. To illustrate the circuit operation, an example is
presented. Simulation of a combined snubber boost converter has
been made to validate the operation and the efficiency.
Keywords DC-DC Converter; Boost Converter; Zero
voltage Zero current switching; Continuous Conduction
Mode (CCM).
1. INTRODUCTION
In this paper, a DC-DC boost converter is designed using
the combination of ZCS-ZVS snubber circuit. A boost
converter is a power converter with an output DC voltage
greater than its input DC voltage. It is a class of switching-
mode power supply (SMPS) containing at least two
semiconductor switches (a diode and a transistor) and at least
one energy storage element. Zero-Current Switching (ZCS) is a
technique in which the power switches in a SMPS turns on
when there is zero current through it. Similarly, Zero-Voltage
Switching (ZVS) is a technique in which the power switches in
a SMPS turns on when there is zero voltage across it. It also
minimizes switching transient noise and switching losses

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
A new type of PWM series resonant converter is proposed.
In the converter that is proposed, one pole is switching at zero-
current and the other pole is switching at zero-voltage. The
converter is also suitable for high-voltage dc/dc converter. It is
because the voltage stresses of switching devices are
minimized [1]. The proposed converter is different from other
conventional dc/dc converters . The input is the capacitor and
the output is the voltage source. Thus in this circuitry the object
of the control loop not to regulate the output voltage but to
regulate the input capacitor voltage in accordance with input
source current by transferring energy into the output voltage
source. Thus, positive error amplifier is used for negative
feedback control. In [3], this type of converter is suitable for
extremely wide load range and for high dc/dc voltage
converter.
By mixing one zero- voltage switched pole with other zero-
current switched pole, to eliminate the reverse blocking diode,
soft switching can be achieved [4]. A phase shifted charge
control is being used. This control method also makes constant
switching frequency operation possible. While, ZVS/ ZCS
mixing topology has been used differently in constructing a
bidirectional full-bridge dc/dc converter, the new converter
introduces low ripple input current. The proposed design uses
the leakage inductance of the transformer and a capacitor to
achieve circuit resonance. This improves the efficiency of the
converter. The resonant frequency is operated in about double
frequencies of the primary switch, the main switches and
output synchronous rectifiers are operated in ZVS and ZCS
when being switched on and off. Therefore, the overall
conversion efficiency in this proposed ZVS-ZCS bidirectional
full-bridge dc-dc converter increases [5].
When power flows from the low voltage side to the high
voltage side, the circuit works in discharge operation or we can
say, boost mode. It is to power the high voltage side load. The
operation of the new converter can be simplified. The gate
signal of the ZVS-ZCS bidirectional full-bridge dc-dc
converter is symmetric switching. Before the main switches are
turned on, the switches voltage is discharged to zero; it can
make the main switches turn-on under ZVS. At the same time,
the resonant circuit is composed of the resonant capacitor and
the resonant inductor, the current of the circuit is activated in a
sinusoidal waveform that is raised from zero and falls to zero.
Therefore, before the switch is turned off and the current falls
to zero, both the main switches can be operated under ZCS. [2]
more researches were conducted to examine and compare
between the behavior of a conventional ZVS and ZVZCS full-
bridge converter with highlighting on the soft switching
techniques for the switching power converters to reduce the
switching losses.
The problem encountered with the ZVS converter is
represented in the form of narrow range and the reduction of
the effective duty cycle[1]. The ZVS of the leading-leg
switches is achieved by a similar manner as that of the
conventional phase shifted ZVS full- bridge PWM converters,
while the zero-current switching (ZCS) of the lagging-leg
switches is achieved by resetting the primary current during the
freewheeling period. The ZVS of the leading- leg switches is
achieved by the energy stored in the leakage inductance of the
transformer, while the ZCS of the lagging-leg switches is
achieved by reducing the primary current by discharging the
holding capacitor during the freewheeling period, while in case
of the conventional full-bridge ZVS PWM converters, ZVS of
the leading leg switches can be achieved even at light loads,
because the anti-parallel diodes of the leading leg switches can
always be turned on by the reflected current of the output filter
inductor.[1]

3. CONVENTIONAL BOOST CONVERTER
OPERATION
A conventional Boost Converter is shown in figure 1 along
with its modes of operation. A Boost Converter is a step up
DC-DC that is widely used to obtain a higher voltage output
level of a specific lower input voltage. The Boos converter is a
Quasi-state converter that utilizes a switch and a diode for its
operation. To ensure smooth and efficient operation of a Boost
Converter circuit the parameters should be selected carefully
for the input inductor current I(Lin) not reach zero level t any
time for it to be operating in Continuous Conduction Mode
during the steady state.

Figure 1. Conventional Boost Converter with Operation modes

4. SNUBBER CIRCUIT
Figure 2 shows the proposed snubber circuit for the novel
design of the modified Boost Converter to overcome some of
the drawbacks of the conventional Boost Converter. The
proposed snubber circuit consists of and inductor between the
switch the output diode and another diode followed by a
resistor capacitor parallel passive network in parallel with them
to achieve Zero current switching. A fly back diode is
connected across the switch to achieve Zero Voltage
Switching. Combing the two together to achieve ZVS-ZCS to
eliminate switching power losses.
The parameters of the circuit has been selected accordingly
to achieve ZCS based on a theoretical analysis for the
conventional Zero Current Switching for the Boost Converter.
The conventional CZCS has been replaced with the resistor
capacitor passive network to eliminate current stress across the
switch.
The snubber network causes the improvement of the
conventional Boost Converter based on four dimensions:

Control the rate of rise of the voltage across the
switch.
Control the rate of falling of the current through
the switch.
Eliminating power losses through the switch .
Reducing the output ripple levels.

Figure 2. Proposed snubber Circuit

The circuit proposed achieves steady state after 9 ms using
LTspice 4.0 so all simulations have been introduced after 30
ms to ensure stability.
All parameters for the Boost converter in figure 1have been
done for the circuit to be in CCM. An input voltage of 28 V
was selected for simulation purposes. The values of the Output
capacitor and the input inductor were selected accordingly to
achieve 2.0% output voltage ripple level and the value of
output resistor has been carefully applied to mimic some of the
current circuits for applications. The Frequency was chosen to
be 16.67 KHz and the on time is 25 us per cycle.


I through LZCS




VZCS



Output
Voltage


I through
Ro



I through
Co

Switch Power


VCE


IC


VBE
5. Circuit Operation
The proposed boost converter circuit is designed as shown
in figure 3 . It aims at reducing the voltage and current stress as
well as trying to avoid energy and power losses. The circuit has
been designed accordingly to ensure operation in Continuous
Conduction Mode
Figure 3. Modified Boost Converter

The circuit utilizes a snubber circuit between the NPN
transistor and the output port to achieve zero current switching
and a fly back diode across the transistor to achieve zero
voltage switching. The resultant wave forms are shown in
figures 4, 5, and 6.
Figure 4. Switch wave forms

Figure 5. Output wave forms

Mode1 (t
1
-t
2
)*
In this mode the NPN transistor is turning on. V
GS
is
increasing from zero to maximum value. Along half way V
DS

decreases to zero as the fly back diode D
4
starts conducting in
the forward bias mode at the same time I
C
reaches its
maximum value resulting in a single power spike compared to
a power dissipation curve in the operation of the conventional
Boost converter. This is where the circuit got its name zero-
voltage aero-current switching.

Figure 6. Snubber Network wave forms

Mode2 (t
2
-t
3
)*
During that time the Current reaches the maximum value
but the voltage V
CE
is already at zero level. Thus the resultant
power dissipated is zero. The current through L
ZCS
keeps
increasing slightly and the current through R
ZCS
is constant at
zero.

Mode3 (t
3
-t
4
)*
In this mode the switch starts going to the off mode the
current I
C
drops to zero as the voltage across the switch rises as
the fly back diode is reverse biased and L
ZCS
starts discharging
and the current through R
ZCS
drops to negative instantaneously
and starts increasing due to the discharge of the capacitor.
Mode4 (t
4
-T)*
In this mode the switch is still in the off region. All the
parameters are at the zero level except for V
CE
. There is no
non-zero interaction between the voltage and the current of the
transistor resulting in zero power loss eliminating any energy
losses.
*t
1
is at 0 us on the simulation graphs.
*t
2
is at 2.6 us on the simulation graphs.
* t
3
is at 27.5 us on the simulation graphs.
* t
4
is at 30 us on the simulation graphs.
*T is at 60 us on the simulation graphs.
*No specific rise and fall times have been determined not to
modify the most realistic model as proposed by the simulator
software.
*All simulations have been carried out by LTspice 4.0 for
the designed circuit in figures 1 and 3. Both Circuits have been
designed to operate in the Continuous Conduction Mode
(CCM). Other simulation softwares might have slightly
different results yet the operating concept and the theory has
been verified through calculations.

Output
Current





Output
Voltage

Output
Current





Output
Voltage



Switch Power





VCE & IC



Switch Power





VCE & IC
6. Results and Discussion
In this section the modified Boost converter is assed via
comparing its performance with the performance of the
conventional Boost Converter in dimensions:
Switch Performance
Figures 7 and 8 display the voltage through the switch, the
collector current, and the power loss during switch changing
states of turning on and turning off for the conventional Boost
Converter and the modified Boost Converter respectively.

Figure 7. Switch wave forms for conventional Boost Converter

Figure 8. Switch wave forms for modified Boost Converter

The modified Boost Converter circuit is much better than the
conventional Boost Converter as the switch current and the
voltage across the switch drop and rise synchronously
eliminating the triangular curves that appear for the
conventional Boost Converter reducing power loss and
therefore eliminating any energy losses. The value for the
power spikes are almost the same for booth circuits.

Output level

The output current and the output voltage are compared for the
conventional Boost Converter and the modified Boost
Converter respectively in figures 9 and 10 showing the
advantage of the modified design over the conventional
design.

It is shown that the modified Boost Converter is able to supply
higher output voltage and output current compared to the
conventional Boost Converter as it reduces the power losses
consumed through switching thus supplying the output with
higher level of power and reducing the output voltage and
output current ripple.

Figure 9. Output wave forms for conventional Boost Converter

Figure 10. Output wave forms for modified Boost Converter

The table below compares summarizes some of the parameters
differences between the modified Boost converter and the
conventional converter.

The results displayed below were all calculated via LTspice
4.0 for the displayed circuits for the conventional Boost
Converter and the modified Boost Converter shown in figure 1
and figure 3 respectively. The circuit parameters as been
stated were designed for CCM and output voltage ripple level
for the conventional Boost Converter of 2.0 %.

Parameter
Conventional
Boost Converter
Modified Boost
Converter
Switch Power
loss per cycle
Finite non-zero
level
Almost Zero
Power losses
Average output
Voltage level
48.26 V 50.68 V
Average output
Current level
1.61 A 1.69 A
Output Voltage
Ripple
percentage
2.0% 1.09%
Output Current
Ripple
percentage
1.89% 1.12%
Average Output
Power
77.7 W 85.65 W

7. CONCLUSION

This paper presents a modified Zero-voltage Zero-Current
switching method for DC-DC applications. It utilizes a
conventional Boost Converter combined with a snubber
network to achieve ZVS ZCS. The passive snubber circuit
reduces the ripple level for the output voltage and the output
current. The novel design achieves a near zero level power
loss eliminating any form of energy loss during switching
resulting in more power supplied to the output. Higher power
efficiency is obtained from the novel design with the
elimination of ringing and voltage stress to ensure smooth and
efficient switching. All results have been verified through
LTspice 4.0 for the Boost converter with 28 V input voltage
and 48 V output voltage for a switching frequency of 16.67
KHz. This simple circuit can be applied for current products
easily due to simplicity instead of the conventional Boost
Converter and reducing its drawbacks.

8. REFERENCES
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Converter With Energy Recovery Clamp
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Zero Voltage and Zero Current Switching Three-Level
DC/DC Converter Using a Lossless Passive Circuit
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