Three-phase Fly-back AC/DC Converter with

Novel Resonant Snubber Circuit

Huang Xiao-jun, Gong Jian, Yang Xiao-lai
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications,
Beijing 100876, China;
Abstract - the paper presents a new three-phase fly-back
single stage AC/DC converter topology with a novel
particular ZCS circuit that provides a high power factor,
low switching component stress , low cost and low
complexity power supply interface to the utility such as
mobile telecommunication base station. The circuit
topology of the converter is based on the three phase
discontinuous current mode (DCM) fly-back converter. By
means of a new resonant snubber circuit which involves an
assistant switching component, the effective control of the
peak current and voltage at the time of the switching-off
operations, nearly zero current switch-off and lower
switching loss is realized. The simulation and
implementation results verify that the proposed converter
achieves a near-unity power factor at the input and a high
quality DC voltage at the output side of the interface.

I. INTRODUCTION
Governments and international organizations have imposed
regulations to limit the harmonic content of the current drawn
from the power line by power electronic converters. Some of
these regulations are IEEE Std. 519 [4]and the European Norm
IEC 1000-3-2[5]. So the design and realization of new patterns
of switch mode AC/DC converters becomes a hot spot of the
investigation in the power electronic domain. The subject of this
paper is the amelioration of a single-stage three-phase DCM
mode single switch AC/DC fly-back converter system with high
a quality input current waveform and high power factor [1]. The
draw back of the system in [1] is the high current peak value in
the switching-off time resulting in high switching losses and
low efficiency. In this paper, a resonant snubber circuit with an
assistant switch is proposed. The scheme is designed for the
power supply for the systems such as mobile
telecommunication base station with rated output power of
600W and three phase input. The aim is to realize a highly
reliable power supply with simple control, topology and losses
less. In the following paper, in section 1 the topology and
operation principle of the circuit are introduced. The
dimensioning of the power circuit and all the components of the
converter system are given in section2. In section 3 a detailed
simulation analysis of the stationary operating behavior.

II. TOPOLOGY AND OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF THE POWER CIRCUIT

A. Three phase DCM fly-back AC/DC converter [1]
Fig.1 shows the basic structure of the power circuit of the
three phase fly-back AC/DC converter system. The inputs of the
converter can be directly connected to a three-phase Y
connected utility system through a low pass LC filter placed in
each phase. The converter comprises six primary-side fast
recovery diodes, three secondary-side rectifier diodes, a
primary switch and an output capacitor C0.
The operation principle of the three phase DCM fly-back
AC/DC converter is present in [1]. The advantage of the
converter is that the high power factor is realized, the topology
and the control strategy is low complexity. While the drawback
of this kind of converter is the high peak current stress on the
components (high switching losses) for the converter operated
on DCM current mode, so a snubber for the primary switch is
expect to lighten the switching losses.
B. The proposed resonant snubber circuit
The proposed scheme is base on the upper showed three
phase fly-back AC/DC converter. The proposed particular ZCS
resonant snubber circuit shown by Fig.2 is in parallel
connection to the primary switch and consists of an assistant
switch S2, two

Fig.1 Basic structure of the power circuit of the three phase fly-back AC/DC
converter (Fig.2 in [1])

D1. 1

D1. 2

D1. 3

D2. 1

D2. 2

D2. 3

D2

C2

D3

D1
S1

C0

Ro

S2
C1
D1. 4

D1. 5

D4

D1. 6

Fig.3. (a) Equivalent of the converter during the time interval t 0 ~ t 2

Fig.2 Three phase fly-back AC/DC converter with resonant snubber circuit

snubber capacitor C1 and C2(the capacitance of C1 and C2 is

equal), an inductor L and three diodes. The switch component
S1 and S2 are controlled separately, but both of them are driven
by constant duty ratio, so the control strategy is less complex.
C. Operation principle of the proposed resonant snubber
circuit
On the assumption that the circuit in the primary windings is
at the on-time interval of the switching cycle and the primary
switch S1 is conductible while the assistant switch S2 is off,
so the circuit of the secondary side is out of work and the
capacitor C1 in the resonant circuit has been charged up to a
maximum voltage U C1. max , while the capacitor C2 is still in
the state of minimum voltage. At certain time ( t 0 ) before
the primary switch turned off , Force the assistant switch
turning on and the equivalent of the resonant snubber circuit
at the time t 0 is showed in Fig.3.(a) .After the time of t 0 ,
the capacitors C1, C2, the inductor L and S1, S2, make up a
series connected resonant circuit. The capacitor C1
discharges while the capacitor C2 charges up and at this
period of time ,the direction of the resonant current and the
current on the primary switch which is already occur before
the assistant switch turned on is identical, then assume this
direction as the positive direction of the resonant current.
When the voltage on capacitor C1 is equal to the voltage on
capacitor C2 and set this time as t1 , the current of the
resonant circuit gets to the maximum value in the positive
direction. After the time t1 , the current starts decreasing and
at the time of t 2 , the resonant current get back to zero. At the
time of t 2 , the voltage on the capacitor C1 gets down to the
minimum value while the voltage on the capacitor C2 gets
up to the peak value , the current direct reverses and starts to
increase in the negative direction (Shown by Fig.3 (b)). The
capacitor C2 discharges while the capacitor C1 charges up

Fig.3. (b) Equivalent of the converter during the time interval t 2 ~ t 3

until the time of t 3 , while the voltage on the capacitor C1 and

C2 is equal again. Attention this negative direction current
occurred during the interval of t 2 ~ t 3 counteract the
switching-off current of primary switch which is opposite to the
resonant current direction at this period of time, So the value of
the switching-off current of primary switch S1 will be
prominently lowered and the switching lossless of the proposed
converter will be decreased prominently. At the time of t 3 , the
pulse force the assistant switch S2 switching-off. After the time
of t 3 , C2 continues discharging while C1 charging up, the
negative direction resonant current decreases until the voltages
of C1 gets up to the maximum value, waiting for the next
switching cycle.
D. Power Factor Analysis
When the switch is turned on, the magnetizing current of
phase A increases linearly from zero with a slope of Va / L p .
The expression for the input current occurred in the primary
winding can be given by

ia =

Va
t
Lp

(1)

Where Va is thought to be constant during a single switching

cycle, At the end of the switching on time DTs , ia (t ) will
have risen to a peak of ,

ia .m ax

V D Ts
= a
Lp

(2)

Where Va = Vm sin t the instantaneous source is phase

voltage and is supposed to be constant during the switching
interval. Therefore, Equation (2) becomes

ia.max

V DT sin t
= m s
Lp

1
Ts

DT

Va
V D 2 Ts
tdt = m
2 Lp
Lp

Vm D 2Ts
sin t
2Lp

(3)

(6)

Where
T s the switching cycle of the primary switch,

component.
So the peak current value of the primary side can be
determined ((2), in [2]):

I p. max = V m

(5)

Ls = L

LP the inductance of the primary side of the fly-back

transformer
Equation 5 reveals how a high power factor is achieved. As
mentioned before, the primary switching component is operated
at constant switching frequency and constant duty ratio over the

VD 2Ts
is a
2Lp

constant value in a certain system. Therefore, it implies that the

instantaneous average of the input current is sinusoidal and in
phase with the input voltage.
III. DIMENSIONING OF THE SCHEME

A. Dimensioning of the fly-back Transformers

The fly-back transformers are actually coupling inductors.
During the primary switch is turned on, the primary side
magnetizing current of the fly-back transformer increases
linearly from zero and the energy is stored inside the air gap of
the transformer; When the primary switch is turned off, the
transformer releases the stored energy to the load by the
secondary side inductor of the fly-back transformer.

(7)

N
N

2
s
2
p

(8)

Where

Np
Ns

Vm . min
D max
(
) .
Vo. max 1 Dmax

(9)

to guarantee the circuit run in the DCM mode.

B. Primary Switch Component
The voltage stress of the power transistor assuming an ideal
magnetic coupling of the transformers is given by the relation

V S1 . m ax =

Ts the period of a switching cycle

Ts
D max
Lp

The inductance of the secondary winding is

(4)

in the upper discusses, where

D the duty ratio of the primary switch

entire cycle, So the coefficient n Equation 5

Ts
3
2
Dmax
L p = V m2
4
Po. max

Dmax the maximum duty ratio of the primary switch

There for, in any time, the average of the input current in phase
A is given by

I a .avg ( t ) =

obtained by ((1), in [2]):

Po. max the maximum value of output power,

Equation (3) suggests that the peak of the magnetizing

current occurring in a switching instant will change according to
the instantaneous value of source voltage. Since the source
phase voltage is a sinusoidal waveform, and then the peaks of
the magnetizing current will vary sinusoidal and follow the
input voltage.
Therefore, the average of the input current in a switching cycle
can be given by an integral:

I a .avg

The primary side inductance of the transformer L p can be

3V m + 2

Np
Ns

V o . m ax

(10)

C. Primary Side Diodes

The blocking voltage stress of the primary side diodes DI can
only be given as a worst-case estimate ((12), in [2])

VD1 .max = 3Vm +

Ns
Vo.max
Np

(11)

D. Secondary Side Diodes

The blocking voltage stress of the secondary side rectifier
diodes is given by ((2), in [2])

V D 2 . m ax = V o +

Ns
Vm
Np

(12)

E. ZCS Resonant snubber circuit components

As the assistant switch S2 is turned on, the snubber circuit is a
series connected resonant topology and the resonant cycle time
T can be determined by:
3
1
3
(13)
T = 2 L C + 2 ( L p + L ) C
4
4
2
Where
Cthe equivalent capacitance of the series connected capacitor
C1 and C2.
The previous analysis indicate that a proper resonant cycle
interval value will bring in a better effect of the resonant

snubber circuit and a batter control of the peak current occurring

at the time the switching off. Though the larger the capacitance
of the capacitor C1 and C2 is, the lower current value at the
switching-off time can be realized, but the larger capacitance
will cause the resonant cycle increasing, or the inductance of the
resonant inductance must be very low. Moreover, the greater
resonant cycle will limit the primary switching frequency which
is expected higher to advance the performance of the converter.
The previous discuss mentioned that the assistant switch
turns on at a certain time before the primary switch being turned
off. Obviously, this certain time is the moment of

3
t= 2 LC before the primary switch off. Therefore, when
4

the resonant cycle is confirmed, the switching cycle and the

duty ratio of the primary and the assistant switch can be
determined consequently.
IV. SIMULATION ANALYSIS

The prototype converter was tested under the environment of

Matlab7/Simulink. The input is Y connected three phase and the
primary switching frequency is 10kHz with a duty ratio
0.35.The resonant snubber circuit has a resonant cycle of
0.0000066s.
A. Voltage/current waveform of the component in the
resonant snubber circuit
Fig.4 shows the voltage and current waveform of the
component in the resonant snubber circuit. The waveform
validate the previous analysis on the resonant circuit and
suggests that the peak current and voltage at the moment of the
switching operation has been controlled effectively

Fig.4 The voltage and current simulation waveform of the components in the
ZCS circuit

V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

He measurements were done on a laboratory model of the

converter with a primary switching frequency of 10 kHz,
Np/Ns=4, D=0.40, R=6, C1=C2=0.0047F, L=500H,
C0=4700F. The experimental results also imply the converter
providing a high power factor, low switching-off current is
realized .Fig.5 shows the input voltage and input current with
low pass filtering in phase A. Fig.5 shows the experimental
waveform of the voltage and current on the primary switching
component. The waveform implies that on the switching-off
time, the current on the primary switching component is
extremely low.

Fig.5 the input voltage (50V/div) and input current (5A/div) with low pass
filtering in phase A

Fig.6 The experimental waveform of the voltage (200V/div) and current (5A
/div) on the primary switching component
VI. CONCLUSION

This paper has presented a three-phase high power quality,

high power factor and lower losses utility interface system.
Simulation results showed that the converter achieves
near-unity power-factor and high quality output DC voltage.
Further more, a new design of the particular ZCS resonant
snubber circuit which reduces the power loss of the system and
lightens the switching component stress is presented. The
results of this study will provide an appropriate power supply
scheme for telecommunication equipment such as mobile base
stations.
REFERENCES
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Single-Switch Discontinuous-Mode AC-DC Buck-Boost Converter with
High-Quality Input Current Waveforms and Isolated Output IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MARCH
1994
[2] Johann Minbock, Johann W. Kolar: Design and Experimental
Investigation of a Single-Switch Three-phase Flyback-Derived Power Factor
Corrector 0-7803-6407-4/00 @2000 IEEE
[3] Bunyamin Tamyurek, David A. Torrey, A High Power-Quality,
Three-Phase Utility Interface, 0-7803-7404-5/02 2002 IEEE
[4] IEEE Recommended Practices and Requirements for Harmonic Control in
Electric Power Systems, IEEE Std. 519-1992.
[5] Limits for Harmonic Current Emissions, IEC 1000-3-2, 1995.