Synchronous Rectifiers Enable High Efficiency for Buck-Boost Converter
Yurii Shynkarenko and Igor Klyuchnyk
Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics
Ukraine
l-tech@ukr.net
Abstract
The online UPS is ideal for environments where
electrical isolation is necessary or for equipment that
is very sensitive to power fluctuations. As demand for
longer battery life in online UPS increases, engineers
are challenged to design highly efficient buck-boost
converters. Adding to the challenge is the fact that
many online UPSs have wide battery voltage variation.
This paper discusses the replacing low effective
Schottky-diode rectifiers with synchronous MOSFET
rectifiers for the buck-boost converter. The discussion
includes an example of buck-boost converter for
Industrial Online UPS with 12V output, MOSFET
selection, and an evaluation of in-circuit efficiency
against the current commercial solutions based on
Schottky-diode rectifiers.
1. Introduction
Uninterruptible Power Supplies constitute one of
the most competitive and rapidly evolving markets in
the world. Industrial UPSs aimed at a broad range of
applications that use battery backup to maintain
equipment operation during a mains failure. The main
advantage to the on-line UPS is its ability to provide an
electrical firewall between the incoming utility power
and sensitive electronic equipment. The online UPS is
ideal for environments where electrical isolation is
necessary or for equipment that is very sensitive to
power fluctuations.
As demand for longer battery life in UPSs
increases, engineers are challenged to design highly
efficient buck-boost converters [1]. This is the fact that
many UPSs have wide battery voltage variation and
solutions based on Schottky-diode rectifiers.
Due to a forward voltage drop of the Shottky
diodes (0.4V and higher) combined with the high
output currents, these devices produce high conduction
losses and therefore have a major contribution to the
efficiency of the whole converter. Wide battery voltage
variation additionally impacts converter efficiency
978-1-4799-2096-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
which contributes to power loss. Higher power losses
translate to shorter battery life.
In order to reduce conduction losses on the Shottky
diodes, there is method of improvement, such as using
a synchronous MOSFET rectifier (SR) in the buck-
boost converters. Synchronous rectification provides
greater efficiency and density. Designers turn to
synchronous rectification to improve the efficiency of
their power subsystems. This conceptually simple
modification of a classic topology, such as a buck-
boost converter, can significantly reduce dissipation by
replacing Schottky diodes with MOSFETs at little
system cost impact. The power level losses at which
such a modification is practical has been decreasing
with every new generation of power MOSFETs.
For example, a typical buck or boost converter
dissipates between 700 and 850 mW/A in the output
Schottky diode. The dissipation follows this linear
relation, the slope of which is a function of the device's
operating temperature:
PD=VF(T)IDRMS …(1)
Where:
PD is the diode's power dissipation, W;
VF is the diode's forward voltage at temperature T, V;
IDRMS is the diode's forward current, A.
The MOSFET's conduction losses are proportional
to the square of the current, but are scaled by the
device's channel resistance, which for modern devices
is quite small:
PMOSFET=RDSON(T)ID2 … (2)
Where:
PMOSFET is the power dissipation due to the MOSFET's
conduction losses, W;
RDSON is the MOSFET's channel resistance at
temperature T, Om;
ID is the MOSFET's on-time current, A.
 Neglecting the moment, additional losses due to the
FET's switching, for the example, a 9 mOm MOSFET
substantially reduces the dissipation. The MOSFET's
smaller dissipation allows designers to take advantage
of smaller components with less heat sinking,
increasing power density.
As one of examples of an Industrial Uninterruptible
Power Supply with high demands for longer battery
life and high requirements for improved efficiency is
the “L-tech”TM SPN-4 video surveillance UPS with
220VAC input and regulated 12VDC/4A output.
AC/DC Converter
AC
+
Vin
Understanding power losses in a buck-boost
converter based on Schottky-diode rectifiers is a
necessary step to design a high performance BUCK-
BOOST converter. Fig. 2 shows a two-stage buck-
boost converter, where Q1/D1 is the buck stage and
Q2/D2 is the boost stage.
Taking a look into a two-stage buck-boost
converter block-diagram, the Schottky-diode rectifiers
can be found on the buck and boost stages of the
converter.
In order to optimize performance, power losses of
Q1, D1 and Q2, D2 can be calculated using the data
Buck-Boost Converter
table 1 and following approximate equations [2]:
10-14VDC
+

85-265V R
load Ploss Q1 = (Irms2 · RDS(on) · δ1) + (I · Qsw/Ig · Vin · f) +
14VDC 12VDC Vout
(Qg · Vg · f) + (Qoss/2 · Vin · f) … (3)
12V ACID BATTERY

Fig. 1. Online UPS simplified block diagram. Ploss Q1 = (conduction) + (Switching) + (Gate Drive) +
(Output capacitance)
Fig. 1 shows an online/double-conversion UPS with
buck-boost converter. The AC-DC power supply is Ploss D1 = (VF · I · δ1) + (IRR · Vout · (1-δ1 )) … (4)
used to convert the AC line voltage (85-265V) down to
14VDC. This 14V regulated DC voltage with current Ploss D1 = (conduction) + (Switching)
control charge ACID battery and converted down/up to
the 12VDC, required by the load using 12V regulated Ploss Q2 = (Irms2 · RDS(on) · δ2) + (Qg · Vg · f) +
DC voltage input. In an online UPS, the battery is (Qoss/2 · Vin · f) + (Qrr · Vin · f) … (5)
always connected to the inverter, so that no power
transfer switches are necessary. When power loss Ploss Q2 = (conduction) + (Gate Drive) + (Output
occurs, the AC/DC converter drops out of the circuit capacitance) + (Body Diode Reverse Recovery losses)
and the battery with buck-boost converter keep the
power steady and unchanged. When power is restored,
Ploss D2 = (VF · I · δ2) + (IRR · Vout · (1-δ2 )) …
the AC/DC converter resumes carrying most of the
load and begins charging the battery. (6)

Ploss D2 = (conduction) + (Switching).

2. UNDERSTANDING POWER LOSSES
IN BUCK-BOOST CONVERTERS
Table 1. Input/output current converter data.
This online UPS uses two-stages Buck-Boost DC- f = 100kHz V I W Efficiency
DC converter that convert input battery voltage to
Power input 12 5 60 0,8
output regulated voltage. In UPS the battery voltage
can vary between 10V to 14V. Power output 12 4 48
Fig. 2 Two-stage buck-boost converter diagram.
As shown in Fig. 3, power loss account of Schottky-
Q1
diode rectifiers for more than 70% the power loss in a
BATTERY 10-14V

MOSFET
D2
SHOTCKY
+ 12V/4A current buck-boost converter - an important fact in an
L1 application that is critically dependent on efficiency.
After further examination, losses can be divided
8 1 U1 C1
into two Schottky-diode rectifiers, buck D1 and boost
R load
4
D2, as shown in table 2. As we can see, these devices -
Gate 1

V+ FB
Q2
MOSFET
GRN Gate 2
2
D1 two Schottky-diode rectifiers, buck D1 and boost D2
SHOTCKY
5 produce high conduction losses, therefore have a major
RTN contribution to the efficiency of the whole converter
and to be replaced with high efficiency synchronous LTC3780 requires four external N-channel power
MOSFET rectifiers. MOSFETs, two for the buck stage (switch Q1 and Q3,
shown in Fig. 4) and two for the boost stage (switch

Q1 IRFR3704 L1
Q4 IRFR3704

+ 12V/4A
Q2

BATTERY 10-14V
IRFR3704

R sense C1
Q3 IRFR3704
R load

Industry's Buck-Boost Controller LTC3780

RTN

Q2 and Q4).
Fig. 3 Power losses of a two-stage current buck- Fig. 4 Two-stage synchronous buck-boost converter
boost converter, 12Vin, 12V/4A out, 100 kHz. block-diagram.

Important parametersfor the power MOSFETs are

Table 2. Power losses table. the breakdown voltage VBR,DSS, threshold voltage
Power losses in buck-boost converter, Pout 48W VGS,TH, resistance RDSON, reverse transfer capacitance
Buck (Q1) Boost(Q2) Buck (D1) Boost (D2) CRSS and maximum current IDS(MAX). The drive voltage
is set by the 6V internal supply. Consequently, logic-
1,1 W 1,40 W 3,9 W 3,25 W level threshold MOSFETs must be used in LTC3780
applications. This buck-boost converter was designed
using four “D-Pak” 20 volt devices.
3. Power MOSFET Selection and A number of tests was performed to compare two-
Efficiency Considerations stage four switch synchronous buck-boost converter
with two-stage buck-boost converter using the
The use of a low voltage low RDSON MOSFET has Schottky-diode rectifiers as well as current
become attractive to replace the Schottky diode commercially solutions. In-circuit comparison was
rectifiers in high current applications, because it offers made using the following combinations of MOSFETs
several system advantages such as dramatic reduction and Shottcky diodes to validate the above analysis are
in conduction losses and better thermal management of shown in Table 3:
the entire system by reducing the cost of the heat sink
and PCB space [3]. In order to examine low voltage Table 3. Combinations of MOSFETs and Shottcky
MOSFET technologies, efficiency measurements were diodes
made in a four switch synchronous buck-boost Controller Stage Device pairs
converter with LTC’s 3780 controller, one of the
newer commercially available solution [4]. This 4- Buck Q1-IRF3205, D1-MBRB1560
switch controller takes the form of a true synchronous Discrete1
buck or boost, depending on the input voltage. Boost Q2-IRF3205, D2-MBRB1560
Transitions between modes depend on duty cycle and
are quick and automatic. The controller is versatile, Buck Q1-IRFR37042, Q3-IRFR37042
3
providing three modes of operation, switching LTC3780
frequencies from 200kHz to 400kHz, and output Boost Q2-IRFR37042, Q4-IRFR37042
currents from milliamps to tens of amps. The three 1. Current competitor’s solution
operating modes permit the designer to choose 2. 20V MOSFET
between efficiency and low ripple at light loads. The 3. Industry’s 4-Switch Buck-Boost Controller

Specifications for the test data are shown in Table 3
and Table 4.
Table 4. Power losses comparison
Power losses comparison, W, PLoad – 12V/4A
VF I Pconduct.+switch. Pconduct.+switch.
100kHz 200kHz
MBRB1560 0,62 4 2,73 3,03
IRFR3704, 0,05 4 0,27 0,38
(RDSON·IF)
The diagram Fig. 5, shows more than 13%
efficiency advantage of four switch synchronous buck-
boost converter with LTC’s 3780 controller comparing
to two-stage buck-boost converter based on Schottky-
diode rectifiers.
Fig. 5 Efficiency comparison.
Replacing the original Shottky devices with a 20-
volt synchronous MOSFETs device, which uses the
advanced planar technology, increases efficiency up to
95%. In practice, the lower the RDSON the better the
efficiency, but this typically comes with increased cost.
Higher operating frequencies are required to
improve transient response and to enable high current
solutions in a compact footprint. As the size of the
power supply shrinks, thermal management becomes
increasingly difficult, as there is less and less area to
dissipate the heat generated by the various
components. As passives shrink in size, most of the
power losses in a DC-DC converter are generated in
the power semiconductors making them the major
contributor to power losses.
Each of the device mentioned above were run at the
4 amps maximum current in the 2-stage buck-boost
converter at 200 kHz.
The best performing device are the four IRFR3704s
and the LTC3780 combination. As can be seen, a 13%
addition in efficiency can be achieved using 20V
synchronous MOSFET devices instead of the currently
solutions based on Shottky diode devices.
4. CONCLUSION
Improved efficiency and better thermals are the
goals of all power supply designers. Replacing a
Schottky-diode rectifiers with synchronous MOSFET
and choosing the best MOSFET is a very important
task to design highly efficient buck-boost converter. It
is not a trivial task to deliver high current with tight
regulation when the input voltage can be more than,
less than, or equal to the output voltage.
This paper presents a simple method to analyze
power losses in the synchronous MOSFET stage of
switched mode power converters. With these results
developers of switched mode power supplies using
synchronous rectification have the possibility to
optimize topology and MOSFET selection. A rough
calculation of the SR power losses can be done, which
helps to speed up the design process and to boost
efficiency.
According to achieved efficiency up to 95% the
Industrial Online Uninterruptible Power Supply using
four switch synchronous buck-boost converter with
LTC’s 3780 controller is ideal for automotive, telecom,
industrial, and battery-powered applications.
REFERENCES
[1] Michael Tao Zhang, “Electrical, Thermal, and EMI
Designs of High-Density, Low-Profile Power
Supplies”, Dissertation, Blacksburg-Virginia, 1997,
Chapter 2.
[2] Texas Instruments, “Control Driven Synchronous
Rectifiers In Phase Shifted Full Bridge Convertes”,
Application Note SLUA287, March 2003.
[3] “Powering the Mobile Microprocessor: New
Technology Power MOSFETs Demonstrate Lower
Losses and Increase DC-DC Converter Efficiency.”
Chris Davis, International Rectifier.
[4] Theo Philips, Wilson Zhou, "Breakthrough Buck-
Boost Controller Provides up to 10A from a Wide 4V-
36V Input Range" Linear Technology Magazine,
Volume XV, No.3, Sept.2005.