IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS LETTERS, VOL. 3, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2005 141

A Passive Auxiliary Circuit Achieves

Zero-Voltage-Switching in Full-Bridge
Converter Over Entire Conversion Range
Mangesh Borage, Sunil Tiwari, and Swarna Kotaiah

AbstractA passive auxiliary circuit is proposed to achieve

zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) over the entire conversion range
in a full-bridge (FB) pulse-width modulated (PWM) converter
(FBZVS converter) with minimum conduction loss penalty. The
stored energy in the auxiliary circuit is minimal under the full-load
condition. It increases progressively as the load current decreases.
The proposed auxiliary circuit is passive, simple and can be viewed
as an add-on to the conventional FBZVS converter. The principle
of operation is described and the performance is demonstrated on
a 100 kHz, 500 W prototype.
Index TermsDCDC converter, full-bridge converter, phase-
shift control, zero-voltage-switching.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HE full-bridge (FB) zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) pulse-

width modulated (PWM) converter (FBZVS converter) of-
fers many advantages [1]. However, the major limitation of the
converter has been the limited range of operation over which ZVS
can be achieved. When the load current is low, the ZVS of the
left-leg switches is lost as the energy stored in the leakage induc-
tance of the transformer is insufficient to discharge the switch
and transformer capacitances. The ZVS range can be extended
by intentionally increasing the transformer leakage inductance
and/or with additional series inductance, but at the cost of loss
of effective duty cycle, reduction in transformer turns ratio and
higher switch current and conduction loss. If a saturable inductor
is used, the ZVS operation range can be increased without sig-
nificantly losing the duty ratio [2], although a large-size core is
required to implement the saturable inductor. An approach using
the energy storedin the magnetizing inductance to aid the ZVS op-
eration [3] significantly increases rms switch current and losses.
By using the energy stored in the inductor of an auxiliary circuit,
the full-range ZVS can be achieved [4]. However, constant cir-
culating current increases switch conduction loss. Therefore, in
all of these techniques the range of ZVS operation is extended
at the expense of increased conduction loss.
An auxiliary circuit, ideally, is not required to store energy
at full load, since the energy stored in transformer leakage
inductance is sufficient for ZVS operation. The additional stored
energy is required only for lower load current, when the energy
stored in the transformer leakage inductance is not sufficient to
ensure ZVS operation. Recently, FBZVS converters featuring
this kind of adaptive energy storage in the auxiliary circuit
Manuscript received February 8, 2005; revised November 13, 2005. Recom-
mended by Associate Editor V. G. Agelidis.
The authors are with the Power Supplies Division, Centre for Advanced Tech-
nology, Indore 452 013, India (e-mail: mbb@cat.ernet.in).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPEL.2005.863601
1540-7985/$20.00 2005 IEEE
Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of FBZVS converter with proposed auxiliary circuit
shown inside the shaded area.
were reported [5], [6]. In this letter a new, passive and simple
auxiliary circuit is proposed to achieve ZVS over the entire
conversion range with minimum conduction loss penalty. The
stored energy in the auxiliary circuit is minimal under full-load
conditions and it progressively increases as the load current
decreases. The capacitors placed normally on the input dc bus to
allow low-impedance path for high-frequency circulating current
can be split to realize required capacitive divider in proposed
circuit. Required magnetic components are also amenable to
integration. The proposed auxiliary circuit can be viewed as an
add-on to the conventional FBZVS converter since the main
power circuit is not altered. The principle of operation and
experimental results demonstrating a full-range ZVS operation
with the proposed auxiliary circuit are presented.
II. NEW AUXILIARY CIRCUIT FOR FBZVS CONVERTER
Fig. 1 shows the circuit diagram of FBZVS converter with
the proposed auxiliary circuit. In the main FBZVS converter
four MOSFET or IGBT switches, , four anti-parallel
diodes, , and four snubber capacitors, con-
stitute the FB switching circuit. The diodes can be
integral body-drain diodes in the case of MOSFET switch, and
snubber capacitors can be device parasitic capaci-
tances and/or additional capacitors. The transformer has a pri-
mary-to-secondary turns ratio of . The diodes and
, inductors and , and capacitor form the output
142 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS LETTERS, VOL. 3, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005

in the loop , we get . In the free-

wheeling interval , switches and are on. In this
interval, and hence . In the loop
, we get . Similarly in the next
half-cycle, it can be shown that during the time interval
, and during the interval . The
resulting waveforms of and are shown in Fig. 2. The
waveform of is obtained by integrating the waveform of
. The amplitude of is equal to and duty cycle
is .
When the main FBZVS converter operates under full-load
condition (longer powering interval than the free-wheeling in-
terval), is close to 1 and the duty cycle of is close to zero.
Therefore, the peak value of , , is
also close to zero, being the time period of switching cycle.
The changes in relevant waveforms when operating is low
are shown by dashed dark lines in Fig. 2. When is low, the
load current of the main FBZVS converter is low. The energy
stored in is not sufficient to ensure ZVS of the switches.
However, under this operating condition, the duty cycle of is
high. Therefore, is high and the energy stored in achieves
the ZVS of the switches. Thus, the load current and the auxil-
iary current in the proposed scheme vary opposite to each other.
The trade-off between the ZVS operation and conduction losses
is optimally resolved, and full-range ZVS is achieved without
significantly increasing full-load conduction losses.
Fig. 2. Idealized waveforms of FBZVS converter with proposed auxiliary
circuit in the steady state.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
current doubler rectifier and filter. Note that the full-wave bridge The effectiveness of the proposed auxiliary circuit for the
and center-tap rectifiers can also be used if suitable. is the FBZVS converter in achieving ZVS over the entire conversion
load resistance and is the input dc voltage source. range is verified on a 500 W laboratory prototype converter
The proposed auxiliary circuit is shown inside the shaded area operating at 100 kHz. The converter operates from a 250 V
in Fig. 1; it is comprised of only passive components. Capaci- dc input and delivers 50 A maximum to coils of a dc electro-
tors and form the capacitor voltage divider. The two magnet having a resistance of 0.2 . The output current vari-
magnetic components shown in Fig. 1, namely 1:1 transformer ation is specified in the range of 2 A to 50 A. The switches
and auxiliary energy storage inductor can be integrated. are IRF840 MOSFETs. In the transformer,
The leakage inductance of can be used as . However, to and , which is sufficient for ZVS above 25 A
explain the principle of operation the two magnetic components output load current. The output filter is:
are considered discrete. and . The auxiliary circuit has a 1:1 transformer
The idealized waveforms of the converter with the proposed , and .
auxiliary circuit in the steady state are shown in Fig. 2. The The experimental waveforms of , and for
details of switching transitions are not shown explicitly in are shown in Fig. 3(a). It can be observed that while is
the figure, because the intention is to describe the operating high, is low and additional conduction losses are minimal.
principle of the auxiliary circuit and a detailed description of Fig. 3(b) shows the waveforms for operation at . It is
switching transients is well documented in the literature [1]. observed that while is low, is high and the energy stored
Let be the duty cycle of the output voltage, , of the FB in achieves the ZVS.
converter. The key waveforms for the operation when is The gate-source and drain-source voltage waveforms during
high are shown by the solid dark lines in Fig. 2. The voltages turn-on of the left-leg switch and the right-leg switch
are the gate voltage signals for switches , are shown in Fig. 4(a) and Fig. 4(b), respectively. In both
respectively. The waveform of the transformer primary current the figures, the upper pair of waveforms is captured at 5 A
is shown as . The load current is high and the energy stored load current and the lower pair at 45 A load current. The
in the transformer leakage inductance, , is sufficient to waveforms clearly demonstrate the ZVS operation over the
achieve ZVS of . The voltage also appears across entire conversion range.
the two windings of . Since the turns ratio of is 1:1, The experimental plots of Fig. 5 compare the conversion
. In steady state, the voltage across and efficiency of the developed prototype converter with (continuous
( and , respectively) is equal to . The voltage curve) and without (dashed curve) the proposed passive auxiliary
and current in are designated as and , respectively. circuit.Maximumconversionefficiencyislimitedto0.8primarily
In the powering interval , switches and are on, because the drops in the output rectifier become comparable with
resulting in . Since , the low output voltage (10 V). The efficiency of the prototype
BORAGE et al.: PASSIVE AUXILIARY CIRCUIT 143

 
Fig. 3. Experimental waveforms of v , i and i for (a) D 0:8 and (b) D 0:2. Traces marked (i) and (iii) show the waveform of v (100 V/div). The
0
trace marked (ii) shows the waveform of i (2 A/div) and the trace marked (iv) shows the waveform of i (2 A/div). The x-scale is 2.5 s=div .

Fig. 4. Details of the turn-on transition of (a) the left-leg switch S and (b) the right-leg switch S . The upper pair of waveforms corresponds to operation at 5 A
load current and the lower pair of waveforms corresponds to operation at 45 A load current. Traces marked (i) and (iii) show the respective drain-to-source voltage
waveform (100 V/div). Traces marked (ii) and (iv) show the respective gate-to-source voltage waveform (10 V/div). The x-scale is 250 ns/div.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
A new auxiliary circuit is proposed to achieve ZVS opera-
tion of switches over the entire conversion range in the FBZVS
converter. The circuit operation principle is described. Experi-
mental results on the prototype converter confirm the effective-
ness of the proposed circuit. The proposed circuit is passive and
simple. The stored energy in the auxiliary circuit is minimal
under full-load condition, and it progressively increases as the
load current decreases. Therefore ZVS operation over the entire
conversion range is achieved without significantly increasing
the conduction loss.

Fig. 5. Efficiency of experimental prototype FBZVS converter with (solid
curve) and without (dashed curve) proposed passive auxiliary circuit as a
function of output load current.
with and without the proposed auxiliary circuit is nearly the
same for higher load currents, confirming that the proposed
circuit does not increase the conduction losses. At lower load
currents, the proposed circuit maintains the ZVS operation,
thereby improving the efficiency. The improvement in efficiency
depends on the switching losses saved by maintaining ZVS
operation, which will be larger if either switching frequency
is high (typically 100500 kHz in low-power applications,
e.g., up to 12 kW) or the snubber capacitors are larger (e.g.,
in high-power converters up to 510 kW).
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