IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 51, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2004

89

An Improved ZCT-PWM DCDC Converter for

High-Power and Frequency Applications
Hac Bodur, Member, IEEE, and A. Faruk Bakan

AbstractIn this paper, an improved active resonant snubber

cell that overcomes most of the drawbacks of the normal zero-current transition (ZCT) pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) dcdc
converter is proposed. This snubber cell is especially suitable for
an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) PWM converter at
high power and frequency levels. The converter with the proposed
snubber cell can operate successfully with soft switching under
light-load conditions and at considerably high frequencies. The operation principles, a detailed steady-state analysis, and a snubber
design procedure of a ZCT-PWM buck converter implemented
with the proposed snubber cell are presented. Theoretical analysis
is verified with a prototype of a 5-kW and 50-kHz IGBT-PWM
buck converter. Additionally, at 90% output power, the overall
efficiency of the proposed soft switching converter increases to
about 98% from the value of 91% in the hard-switching case.
Index TermsActive snubber cells, soft switching, zero-current
switching (ZCS), zero-current transition (ZCT), zero-voltage
switching (ZVS), zero-voltage transition (ZVT).

I. INTRODUCTION

O achieve high power density and fast transient response

in well-known pulsewidth-modulation (PWM) dcdc
converters, switching frequency can be increased by decreasing
switching losses through circuits called snubber cells [1][14].
In the literature, there are many types of proposed snubber
cells, such as RC/RCD, polarized/nonpolarized, resonant/nonresonant, and active/passive snubbers [1]. In recent years, a
number of zero-voltage transition (ZVT) and zero-current transition (ZCT) PWM converters have been proposed by adding
resonant active snubbers to conventional PWM converters to
combine the desirable features of both resonant and normal
PWM techniques [3][5], [7].
In the normal ZCT-PWM converter [3], the main switch is
perfectly turned off under zero-current switching (ZCS) and
zero-voltage switching (ZVS) provided by ZCT with a serial
resonance. The auxiliary switch is turned on with near ZCS. The
operation of the circuit is very lightly dependent on line and
load conditions. On the other hand, the main switch is turned
on and the main diode is turned off simultaneously with hard
switching, so that a short circuit occurs at the same time. The
prevention of this short circuit causing losses and electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise of large magnitudes is very diffi-

Manuscript received December 18, 2001; revised June 11, 2003. Abstract
published on the Internet November 26, 2003.
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department, Electrical and
Electronics Engineering Faculty, Yildiz Technical University, 34349 Istanbul,
Turkey (e-mail: bodur@yildiz.edu.tr).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2003.822091

Fig. 1. Improved ZCT-PWM buck converter with IGBT.

cult to realize. Also, the auxiliary switch is turned off with hard
switching, and the parasitic capacitors discharge through their
own switches [3], [5].
The insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) has been broadly
used as a switching device in high-power industrial applications nowadays. The IGBT has high switching power, low conduction loss, and low cost, but relatively high switching losses.
The turn-off switching loss of the IGBT dominates its switching
losses [2], [3].
In this study, an improved active snubber cell that is especially suitable for an IGBT-PWM converter at high power and
frequency levels is proposed. This snubber cell overcomes
most of the drawbacks of the normal ZCT-PWM converter.
The converter with the proposed snubber cell can operate
successfully with soft switching under light-load conditions
and at considerably high frequencies. The operation principles,
a detailed steady-state analysis, and a snubber design procedure
of a ZCT-PWM buck converter implemented with the proposed
snubber cell are presented. Also, theoretical analysis is verified
with a prototype of a 5-kW and 50-kHz IGBT-PWM buck
converter.
II. OPERATION PRINCIPLES AND ANALYSIS
A. Definitions and Assumptions
The circuit scheme of the improved ZCT-PWM buck converter is shown in Fig. 1. The proposed snubber cell consists of
a resonant inductor , a resonant capacitor
and only one
and the auxiliary
auxiliary switch . Both the main switch
consist of an IGBT and its body diode. The auxiliary
switch
switch has lower power rating than the main switch.
To simplify the steady-state analysis of the circuit given in
Fig. 1 during one switching cycle, it is assumed that input and
output voltages and output current are constant, and semiconductor devices and resonant circuits are ideal.

0278-0046/04$20.00 2004 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 51, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2004

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit schemes of the operation stages in the proposed converter.

B. Operation Stages

(2)

Seven stages occur within one switching cycle in the steadystate operation of the proposed converter. The equivalent circuit
schemes of these operation stages are given in Fig. 2(a)(g),
respectively. Key waveforms concerning the operation stages
are shown in Fig. 3.
: Fig. 2(a)]: At the beginning of this
Stage 1 [
is in the off state. The main diode
stage, the main transistor
is in the on state and conducts the load current . At this
moment, the equations
,
and
,
and
are valid.
, a turn-on signal is applied to the gate of
and a
At
current begins to flow through it. The rise rate of this current is
current
limited by . During this stage, current rises and
falls simultaneously and linearly. Thus, the equations
(1)

can be written. At
, current reaches and
falls to zero, and this stage finishes. The time interval
stage,

current
of this

(3)
is found. Therefore, the load current
is commutated from
to
with soft switching.
is turned on under near ZCS
and
is turned off with ZVS due to .
through
: Fig. 2(b)]: At
, a resonance
Stage 2 [
between
and
starts via the path
under
constant current .
is . Here, the diode
is
Also, the initial current of
turned on under near ZCS through . For this resonance,
(4)

BODUR AND BAKAN: AN IMPROVED ZCT-PWM DCDC CONVERTER FOR HIGH-POWER AND FREQUENCY APPLICATIONS

91

: Fig. 2(c)]: This stage is the on state of

Stage 3 [
the known PWM converter. For this stage,
(11)
can be written.
Stage 4 [
: Fig. 2(d)]: At
, a control signal
is applied to the gate of the auxiliary transistor . It is turned
on with near ZCS due to . A reverse resonance between
and
begins by the path
under constant
at the same time. For this resonance, the equations
(12)
(13)
(14)
are obtained. At the time
, as
current reaches and
current drops to zero, this stage is finished. In this state,
(15)
is formed.
Stage 5 [
: Fig. 2(e)]: Immediately after the
, the diode
is turned on with near ZCS and the
time
resonance that started before continues to resonate through
and
. Thus, the diode
conducts the excess of the resonant
current from the load current . For this case, the equations,
(16)
(17)
Fig. 3. Key waveforms concerning the operation stages in the proposed
converter.

(18)

(5)
(6)

are derived. At
, current falls again to and
current
is turned off under
becomes zero, and this stage finishes.
near ZCS because of . The duration of this interval,

(7)

(19)

are obtained. In these equations,

(8)
(9)
are valid. Here, is the angular frequency of the resonance and
is the peak value of the resonant current. During this stage,
drops
voltage rises. Thus,
as long as the voltage across
is turned off under ZVS.
the main diode
, the resonant current becomes zero and this stage
At
is finished.
current drops again to and
current falls to
voltage becomes
at the same time. The diode
zero and
is turned off under near ZCS because of . At the end of
voltage is reversed. The time
this stage, the polarity of the
interval
of this stage,

is obtained. The duration of this stage is also equal to the ZCT

of the converter. Just now, it should be noted that the
time
must be removed during this stage, in which
gate signal of
is in the on state, and so the main transistor
the body diode
is turned off perfectly under ZCS and ZVS provided by ZCT.
: Fig. 2(f)]: During this stage, the
Stage 6 [
is charged from
to
with constant current
capacitor
. At
, the voltage
across
reaches and the load
current
is commutated from
to
with soft switching,
and the turn on of
and this stage is finished. The turn off of
take place naturally under ZVS. For this stage, the equations
(20)
(21)
(22)

(10)
occurs. Here, the time duration
.
the half resonance cycle

of this stage is also equal to

are obtained. Also, after the time

be removed.

, the gate signal of

must

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 51, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2004

Stage 7 [
: Fig. 2(g)]: This stage is the off
state of the known PWM converter. For this stage,
(23)
, one switching
can be written. Therefore, at the moment
cycle is completed and another switching cycle begins.
III. DESIGN PROCEDURE
A detailed analysis is not done for the minimization of the
additional losses in this paper. The following design procedure
considering [5] is mainly based on the soft switching turn off requirements of the main switch with the maximum load current.
are selected
1) Resonant inductor and resonant capacitor
to allow the peak value of the resonant current to be approximately twice the maximum load current. According to the
(7) and (9),
(24)
2)

can be found.
and
are selected to allow one half resonant cycle to
be approximately twice the fall time of the main transistor.
In connection with (10),
(25)

can be written. In the above equations,

is the maxis the fall time of the main
imum load current and
transistor.
and
are selected with reference
Consequently, if
to (24) and (25), the ZCT time given in (19) becomes about
33% longer than the fall time of the main transistor. Thus,
the soft-switching turn-off of the main transistor is realized
with ZCT. Also, the additional losses stay at about minimum
level with reference to [5].
3) With reference to Fig. 3, the sum of the transient intervals,
and the minimum and maximum time durations of the turn
on signal of the main transistor can be defined, respectively,
as follows:
(26)
(27)
(28)
4) If the sum of the transient periods is permitted to be equal
to at most 20% of the switching cycle as given in [13], for
possible maximum switching frequency by using (26)
(29)
is found. In this state, for the minimum and maximum values
of the duty ratio of the converter by using (27) and (28)
(30)
(31)
are obtained. As an example, if the design is done with regard to (24) and (25), and a main transistor owning a fall

Fig. 4. Experimental circuit of a 5-kW and 50-kHz IGBT-PWM buck

converter.

becomes equal
time of 500 ns is used in the circuit,
to 100 kHz.
Also, the sum of the transient periods is very small, and
is not dependent on line voltage and load current. Thus,
the proposed converter can operate succesfully with soft
switching under light load conditions and at considerably
high frequencies. These features make this converter very
interesting.
IV. CONVERTER FEATURES
The features of this new converter can be summarized
as follows.
1) All of the semiconductor devices operate with soft
is perfectly turned off with ZCT, and
switching.
is turned on and off
is turned on with near ZCS.
is naturally turned off under ZVS, and is
under ZVS.
and
are turned
turned on with near ZCS. Also,
on and off with near soft switching.
2) The circulating energy is minimal. Because one half resonance takes place during both the turn on and off processes of .
3) The control is very easy. For the control of the converter,
it is enough to perform a delay between a normal PWM
signal and its inverse. This delay is about a quarter resonant cycle.
4) The converter is as simple and cheap as the normal
ZCT-PWM converter [3]. However, it overcomes most
of the drawbacks of the normal ZCT converter.
5) The converter acts as a conventional PWM converter
during most of the time, because during both the turn
on and off processes only one half resonance occurs and
the resonant cycle is very short.
6) The converter can operate at wide line and load ranges.
Because the turn on and turn off transients are provided
by one half resonance and this resonant cycle is not dependent on the load current.
7) The presented converter does not require any additional
passive snubbers.
8) The proposed active snubber cell can be easily applied
to the other basic PWM dcdc converters and to all
switching converters.
9) Resonances with high frequency take place between
the resonant inductor and the parasitic capacitors after
turn-off processes. Moreover, the main diode is unfortunately subjected to twice the input voltage.

BODUR AND BAKAN: AN IMPROVED ZCT-PWM DCDC CONVERTER FOR HIGH-POWER AND FREQUENCY APPLICATIONS

93

Fig. 5. Experimental results. (a), (b) Oscillograms of the main switch and the main diode in the hard switching converter respectively, with 200 V/div, 20 A/div,
and 2 s/div scales. (c)(e) Oscillograms of the main switch and the main diode and the auxiliary switch in the proposed soft switching converter respectively,
with 200 V/div, 20 A/div, and 2 s/div scales. (f) Efficiency curves of the hard-switching and the proposed soft-switching converters comparatively.

10) The presented converter has more advantages than

most of the other improved ZCT converters. As
an example, [5] as one of well-known improved
ZCT-PWM converters proposed in this area has the
following drawbacks, three half resonances in different

sizes take place during both the turn on and turn off
processes, the circulating energy and the additional
losses are higher, control is harder, resonant capacitor
is subjected to about twice output voltage, and there
is an additional diode.

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V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A prototype of a 5-kW and 50-kHz IGBT-PWM buck converter given in Fig. 4 has been realized to verify the predicted
operation principles and analysis of the improved ZCT-PWM
buck converter.
With reference to the handbooks of the manufacturers, some
are
V,
nominal values of the main switch
A,
ns,
ns and
ns. The values of
V,
A,
ns,
the auxiliary switch are
ns, and
ns. Also,
owns
V,
A, and
ns.
It should be noted that the IGBTs used in the hard- and the
soft-switching converters do not have good dynamic characteristics. Also, the experimental results should be commented by
considering this state. The converter with these IGBTs operates
at 5 kW and 50 kHz without any problems in aid of the proposed
snubber cell.
The experimental oscillograms shown in Fig. 5(a)(e) are
obtained from operating hard- and soft-switching converters
with a digital camera. The experimental efficiency curves
given in Fig. 5(f) are determined by measuring the voltage
and current values of the input and output of these converters.
In addition, the measurements in the circuit operated at low
frequency levels are used to estimate the experimental results
in the hard-switching converter.
In Fig. 5(a) and (b), it can be seen that the main transistor
and main diode
are switched with hard switching. While
is in the turn-on process and
is in the turn-off process
simultaneously, a very high short-circuit current flows through
them. still continues to conduct the load current during its
turn-off process. The resonances with parasitic capacitors take
place after turn on and off processes at very high frequency
levels. Therefore, very high switching losses dominating the
total loss occur in the hard-switching converter.
is turned
From Fig. 5(c)(e) together, it can be seen that
on under near ZCS, and is perfectly turned off with ZCS and
is turned on and off under ZVS,
ZVS provided by ZCT.
and is subjected to about twice input voltage during its off state.
is turned on with near ZCS, and is naturally
Additionally,
turned off under ZVS. Also, the body diodes
and
operate
with near soft switching in the proposed converter. The reverseis shown as an overshoot and the one
recovery current of
is shown as a collapse on the
current. Unfortunately,
of
the additional resonances with high frequency occur between
the resonant inductor and the parasitic capacitors after turn-off
and . These resonances reflect on all voltage
processes of
and current oscillograms.
Consequently, during the turn-on processes of
and ,
and the turn off processes of
and
, a little overlap takes
place between their own voltages and currents. Therefore, the
switching losses are near zero, but some additional conduction
loss occurs, and so the conduction losses dominate the total loss
in the soft-switching converter.
In Fig. 5(f), it can be seen that since the snubber cell is designed for the maximum load current, the efficiency of the improved converter is very high especially at high output power
levels. At a 90% output power, the overall efficiency of the pro-

posed converter increases to about 98% from the value of 91%

in the hard-switching one. Furthermore, if an IGBT faster than
one here is used in the experimental converters, the differences
between the hard and the soft switching efficiency values decrease naturally. However, it is not very important.
As a result, it can be clearly seen that the predicted operation
principles and theoretical analysis of the proposed converter are
verified with all of the experimental results. All of the semiconductor devices are turned on and off with soft switching, and
most of the drawbacks of the normal ZCT converter are overcome perfectly and easily in the proposed converter.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, an improved active resonant snubber cell that
overcomes most of the drawbacks of the normal ZCT-PWM
dcdc converter is proposed. It is particularly suitable for
an IGBT-PWM converter at high power and high frequency
levels. Also, the proposed snubber cell has a simple structure,
low cost, and ease of control. The converter with the proposed
snubber cell can operate successfully with soft switching under
light-load conditions and at considerably high frequencies.
A PWM buck converter with the proposed snubber cell has
been analyzed in detail. The predicted operation principles and
theoretical analysis of this converter have been exactly verified
with a prototype of a 5-kW and 50-kHz IGBT-PWM buck converter. It has been clearly observed that all of the semiconductor
devices have operated with soft switching, and the converter has
operated at a wide load range without any problems. Also, the
overall efficiency has relatively increased with regard to that in
the hard-switching case.
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[12] T. W. Kim, H. S. Kim, and H. W. Ahn, An improved ZVT PWM boot

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Hac Bodur (M00) was born in Ordu, Turkey, in

1959. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from Yildiz Technical
University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1981, 1983 and
1990, respectively.
He was a Research Assistant from 1982 to 1986, a
Lecturer from 1986 to 1991, an Assistant Professor
from 1991 to 1995, and an Associate Professor
from 1995 to 2002 in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Yildiz Technical University, where,
since 2002, he has been a Professor. His research
has been concentrated on the areas of ac motor drives, power-factor correction,
switching power supplies, high-frequency power conversion, and active and
passive snubber cells in power electronics. He has authored over 25 journal and
conference papers in the area of power electronics. He was also a Researcher
on two research projects concerning power electronics.

95

A. Faruk Bakan was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in

1972. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees
in electrical engineering from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1994, 1997, and 2002,
respectively.
He was a Research Assistant from 1995 to 2003
in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Yildiz
Technical University, where, since March 2003, he
has been an Assistant Professor. His research subjects
include ac motor drives, direct torque control, powerfactor correction, and active and passive snubber cells
in power electronics. He has authored over ten journal and conference papers in
the area of power electronics. He was also a Researcher on a research project
concerning power electronics.