IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 38, NO.

4, NOVEMBER 1996 567

An Innovative EM1 Reduction Design

Technique in Power Converters
Alfio Consoli, Senior Member, IEEE, Salvatore Musumeci, Member, IEEE,
Giovanna Oriti, Student Member, IEEE, and Antonio Testa, Member, IEEE

Abstract-The present paper deals with the problem of reduc-

ing electromagnetic interference (EMI) of switched-mode power
converters using gate controlled devices such as IGBT’s and
Power MOSFET’s. In order to reduce power losses, these systems

--
rely on fast odoff time pulses, thus producing emissions due to 2
the high-frequencyspectral content of pulses. An original design
method for switched-mode power supplies is developed allowing
to obtain an acceptable compromise between power losses and
EMI. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of the commutation cell
of the switching static converter in order to demonstrate that it --&-I

is possible to control the emissions of the device by handling the

parameters of the driver circuit. Theoretical analysis is discussed
and compared with experimental results of the investigation on
the spectrum amplitude of the emissions.
I. INTRODUCTION
W HILE in the United States EM1 regulation is already
effective, in Europe the European norms (EN’s), a
common set of EMC requirements developed by the European
Community (EC), has only been effective since January 1,
1996. The EN’s apply to nearly all types of electronic equip-
ment. They are largely based on CISPR standards which most
countries refer to when adopting their own EMC regulations.
In the field of power electronics, the potential for un-
wanted emissions at high frequencies increases as advances in
switched mode power converter technology push the switching
frequency higher and higher. A traditional approach used
to control EM1 in switching-mode power supplies mainly
consists in performing EMC test prototypes at the end of
the productive cycle and modifying the layout if the expected
EMC performances are not matched. The risk of this approach
is a dangerous delay in placing the product on the market
since identification of the causes of failures, modification, and
successfully retesting of the product are required.
An alternative way to prevent EM1 is to suppress the emis-
sions at their source by addressing noise reduction techniques
during the design of the power circuits. Accordingly, EMC is
considered throughout the design, becoming an integral part
of it. The present paper deals with the application of this
approach to the design of a commutation cell such as the
one shown in Fig. 1. In order to reach the EM1 reduction
goal, the gate-controlled device employed in the commutation
cell requires an optimal driving technique [l], [ 2 ] . During
Manuscript received November 24, 1994; revised June 14, 1996.
The authors are with the Department of Electric, Electronic, and Systems
Engineering, University of Catania, Italy, Viale Andrea Doria, 6-95 125
Catania, Italy.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9375(96)08895-3.
0018-9375/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE
Fig. 1. Schematic of the device under test (EUT).
the design, selected parameters of the driving circuit can be
suitably chosen in order to meet EMC objectives as well as
maintain good performances of the power supply.
According to the procedure proposed in the present paper,
the on/off switching times of the pulses are related both to
the parameters of the driving circuit and to the Fourier coef-
ficient of the pulses. The Fourier transform-based theoretical
approach makes evident the effect of variation of the driving
circuit key parameters so that their values can be suitably
chosen. In fact, as short rise/fall times of the driver circuit
result in high frequency Fourier components, the slope of the
pulses is a key parameter that should be considered for a good
EMC design. In the final part of the paper results of EMC
tests, including conducted emission and close field radiated
emission measurements, are presented. Experimental results
confirm the validity of the proposed strategy.
11. DESIGNOF THE DRIVINGCIRCUIT
A. Dependence of the Current OdOff Slope
The increasing use of insulated gate devices such as power
MOSFET’s and IGBT’s in power electronic circuits is mainly
due to their easy driving and capability to handle both currents
and voltages at high frequency. Nevertheless, they require spe-
cific driving techniques in order to give the best performances.
An acceptable compromise between switching speed, power
losses and EM1 has to be obtained since the parameters of the
driving circuit need to be suitably chosen. As a consequence,
a first step is to understand how the slopes of the drain current
relate to the parameters of the driving circuit during the design.
When IGBT’s and power MOSFET’s are driven by voltage
pulses, the drain current slope is related to the rate of the gate
supplying charge by the relationships (1) and (2) valid at on
and off, respectively. In Appendix A a review of the basic
568 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 38, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1996
I shaping the gate current. The schematic of the circuit is drawn
Fig. 2. Parasitic inductances influencing the switching transient.
theory which allows us to compute such equations is reported.
Iload
Vdd - &h --
29,
(1)
on C t s s &on
The corresponding expressions of the gate current are
(3)
(4)
Equations (1)-(4) will be used during the analytical design
step together with the expression of the Fourier expansion
coefficients in order to conveniently set the parameters of the
circuit.
B. How to Manage d i l d t Without Increasing Power Losses
At Turn-On: Both IGBT’s and power MOSFET’s show a
turn-on switching transient which allows us to deduce the
following considerations:
power losses largely depend on the slope of the drain
0
current;
e switching transients generate electromagnetic interfer-
ences whose amplitude is related to the derivative of the
drain current.
According to (1) and (2), d i d l d t can be controlled by
the gate resistance R,. Such resistance is changed in order
to match two divergent goals: low power consumption that
requires a high R, and low EM1 generation requiring low
values of R,.
It must be noted that in practical circuits parasitic induc-
tances are present due to the wiring connections ( L s l ,Ls2,
and Ls3), as shown in Fig. 2.
Such inductances affect the switching transient, particularly
when the driving voltage V, is dropped by the presence of Lsl
in the gate source path. Moreover, Lsl affects d i d l d t , whose
expression has to be rearranged as follows:
It can be seen from ( 5 ) that as L,1 increases the influence
of R, reduces.
The proposed driving strategy is based on an independent
control of the slopes of the drain voltage and current by
in Fig. 3. It is composed by the following four blocks:
a) A standard push-pull output stage with separated turn-on
and turn-off paths devoted to energize the gate terminal.
b) The short circuit protection which operates by reducing
the conduction time. The short circuit is detected by
a high voltage fast recovery diode that senses any
increase of the drain-source voltage. The monostable 1
and the flip-flop FF allow masking of such short circuit
protection intervention for an adjustable time delay [3].
c) The third block is composed by monostable 2 and
the additional current pulse generator. It allows us to
optimize the turn-on transient.
d) The last block is composed by monostable 3 and the
auxiliary current sink. It allows optimization of the turn-
off transient.
Operation of the “turn-on block” is described by means
of Fig. 4. In particular, the upper plot shows the turn on
waveforms obtained with a standard driving technique, while
the lower plot shows the turn on waveforms obtained by
using the auxiliary current source, which is a current pulse
generator. Such additional source supplies gate current pulses
at the beginning of the Miller effect. This results in a fast
charge of the input capacitance, thus speeding up the variation
of the drain voltage without any change on the slope of the
drain current. The current generator increases the gate current
accelerating the collector voltage fall.
As energy losses can be minimized by suitably injecting
current pulses at the beginning of the Miller zone, it is
necessary to properly detect the Miller zone. This is quite a
critical point, as an incorrect timing of the current pulses can
prevent any power saving. Useful information can be achieved
by computing the energy consumption during the switching
transients (Appendix B).
At Turn-Off: The structural difference between power
MOSFET’s and IGBT’ s influences their behavior and leads
to different considerations.
a ) Power MOS: The gate-charge during turn-off is the
mirror image of that during turn-on. Thus, the proposed driving’
technique applies to the turn-off transient exactly as it does
during turn-on.
The turn-off behavior of power MOS when the proposed
driving strategy is employed is shown in Fig. 5. It has to be
noticed that at turn-off the current sink plays the major role
in the driving strategy.
b) ZGBT: At turn-off the IGBT’s show a tail during the
fall of the collector current due to the time required by the
excess carriers in the epitaxial drain region to decay. Such tail
CONSOLI et al.: EM1 REDUCTION DESIGN TECHNIQUE 569

Fig. 3. Schematic of the driving circuit.

f v

vccJ
I

....

................................ ................................. J A,
Fig. 5. Tum-off behavior of the new driver
Fig. 4. Tum-on behavior with the new driving technique.

computing its Fourier expansion coefficients. The waveform of

is responsible for major losses and is strongly related to the
device construction technology. Its effects cannot be reduced
by means of the driving circuit. Turn-off losses can only be
reduced during both the Miller effect and the power MOS turn-
off phases. Moreover, in order to reduce losses, it is necessary
to decrease Rg thus increasing the d v l d t . It is also necessary to
pay attention to not exceed the reverse bias safe operating area
(RBSOA) limits, since the latching current and the RBSOA
are strongly related to dVd,/dt, i.e., to R,. The manufacturer
guarantees the RBSOA with a specified minimum value of
Rgoff.
111. FOURIERSERIESSPECTRAL
ANALYSIS
An analytical study of the emission problem is possible
by investigating the frequency content of the current i d and
this current can be considered as a periodic trapezoidal pulse
train and its parameters, according to Fig. 6, are defined as
follows:
A = amplitude
t, =rise time,
tf =fall time,
7 =width.
For the aim of this study the rise time and fall-time are
respectively considered as the time required for the signal
transition from zero to A and from A to zero [4].
The expansion coefficients for such a waveform are
570 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 38, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1996

4 e T t
tf

Fig. 6. The periodic trapezoidal pulse train representing the current Zd.

(a)
Fig. 7. Simulated magnitude spectra (a) [dB PA] and (b) [dB PA].

TABLE I
PULSEPARAMETERS
FOR THE SIMULATION

Fig7 Rgon Rgog (di/dt),, (di/dCo, tr 'f Current pulse Duty

(0) (0) (A/pv) (A/p)(ns) (ns) amplitude frequency cycle
a> 70 90 50 20 40 80 2A 20kHz 10%
b) 700 180 20 10 100 200 2A 20 kHz 10%

sin ( n 7 ( . f o t o n )p r f o . r With reference to the amplitude spectrum of the current

on nnfo which is obtained by computing the amplitude of c,, a

[21 suitable simulation program has been used to display the

where:
-
0f f
sin ( n r f o t o f f ) e-jn.rrfo.r
n7rfo i (6) different spectra obtained by changing the values of the pulse
parameters. Therefore, an investigation has been carried out to
check the effect of decreasing the rise-time and the fall-time of
the current pulses, respectively, at turn-on and turn-off of the
[%lo, =
A
t,,
A
(7) gate controlled device. This is very useful for the design of
the driver circuit because from (1) and (2), the relationship
(8) between the Fourier coefficients and the parameters of the
off t0.f.f driver circuit is known. Let us consider (1) and (2), where
CONSOLI et al.: EM1 REDUCTION DESIGN TECHNIQUE 571

TABLE I1
CONDITIONS
OF MEASUREMENT

circuit (dildt),, (di/dt)off Power Current switching Duty

(Alp) (Alp) loss(&) amplitude frequency cycle
stand. 50 32 0.2 2A 20 kHz 10%
impr. 30 16 0.2 2A 20kHz 10%

we assume

EUT

By substituting in (6), (1) and (2) modified through (9) and

(lo), the following expression for the expansion coefficients
can be obtained
I
I
=

Fig. 8. Conducted emission measurement setup.

The validity of the proposed design strategy can be pointed

out by simple considerations. Since we are in practice an-
alyzing a magnetic coupling, let us consider the effect of
Equation (11) points out the importance of the R, term the magnetic field radiated by the inspected circuit on a
during the design phase. This parameter is actually the one receiver loop. As it is well known, the voltage produced by the
we can change in order to decrease the current slopes. What magnetic coupling can be estimated by means of the following
is new in our driving circuit is the capability of changing the relationship:
current slopes with a fixed value of power losses.
By means of a suitable simulation program, variation of
the spectrum can be evaluated when changing the Rgonand
R,,ff, i.e., the values of the current derivatives. The results where M is the mutual inductance between the culprit and
obtained demonstrate the influence of the current derivatives victim circuits. As M is directly related to the geometry of
on the harmonic content of the signal. the two circuits, in particular to loop areas, typical coupling
In Fig. 7 two simulated magnitude spectra computed in reduction techniques concern modification of such geometry
the frequency range of 0.15/300 MHz are shown. They are [5]. This makes clear the improvement introduced by the
obtained by assigning in the simulation program different proposed strategy which allows us to reduce the magnetic
, making evident the influence coupling without taking care of the M term in (12), but
values to Rgonand R g o f fthus
of the gate resistance on the current spectrum. The pulse working on the current derivative.
parameters are shown in Table I and were chosen according
to typical values experimentally obtained in real circuits, as it
IV. EMC MEASUREMENTS
will be shown in the following sections.
The magnitude spectra in Fig. 7 together with the data
shown in Table I demonstrate that a decrease of the current A. Experimental Environment
derivative results in a noticeable reduction of the high fre- A commutation cell of a voltage regulator, usually used to
quency harmonics. As it can be seen from (3,a decrease of the supply small ohmic-inductive loads (about 500 W), is chosen
current derivative in the simulation is obtained by increasing as the equipment under test (EUT) for the EMC measurements
the value of R,. (Fig. 1). The power device employed in the EUT is a power
For what it may concern radiated emissions, the above MOS. Using such a device it is possible to control the slope
considerations are useful when magnetic field radiation is con- of the output current both at turn-on and at turn-off, while for
sidered since we are analyzing the current gradients. Moreover, an IGBT the current slope at turn-off is fixed by the RBSOA
near-field radiated emissions have been detected by a balanced limitation and the current tail. As a consequence, the power
loop antenna, as is reported in the following section. MOS represents the most general case.
512 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY, VOL. 38, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1996

b b
REF
~. 90.0 dS6V #AT 10 OB REF 90.0 dS6V 7 A 7 10 OB
PEAK
LOG
10
dB/

WA se
SC FC
CGRR

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
START 150 kHZ srop 30.0~MHZ START 150 K H Z STOP 30.00 MHz
#RES BW 9.3 kH2 VBW 30 kHz SWP 1 . 1 1 sec dRES BW 9 0 kHz b8W 30 kHZ SWP 1 . i i sec

(4 (b)
Fig. 9. Conducted emissions measurement results. (a) Standard circuit and (b) improved circuit.

In order to verify the improvement achieved by means of the

NEAR FIELD
proposed strategy, conducted and close-field radiated emission
measurements are performed. Since the main purpose of the
emission tests is to demonstrate that a decrease in harmonics
occurs when the developed driving circuit is employed in the
EUT, two sets of measurements are performed. The first set of
measurements is performed using a circuit designed without
taking into account EMC requirements. With this circuit, a
power loss of 0.2 mJ is obtained. Then the emissions of
the EMC specifically developed circuit are measured. Such
a circuit was designed in order to obtain a 0.2 mJ power Ioss
as well as with the standard circuit.
The main parameters of both circuits are reported in
Table 11.
Fig 10 Radiated emission measurement setup

B. Conducted Emission Measurements
The block diagram of the measurement setup is drawn in
Fig. 8.
The harmonic content of the current flowing in the ac power
cord of the EUT is the conducted emission to be measured.
According to EN 55022 requirements, the conducted emission
tests have to be carried out by inserting a line impedance
stabilization network (LISN) in series between the main power
system and the EUT so that ac 220 V supply flows through
the LISN to the EUT. As is well known, the LISN has two
important functions: to present a constant impedance (50 0) to
the product’s power cord outlet over the test frequency range
and to prevent external conducted noise on the power system
net from contaminating the measurements [5].
A spectrum analyzer is used as a receiver in order to display
the magnitude spectrum of the signals coming from the LISN.
Moreover, the peak detecting function is used, so that the
measured results are performed in more restrictive conditions
with respect to the quasipeak (QP) limits imposed by the
EN’S. The results of the conducted emission measurements
are compared with such limits over the frequency range that
extend from 150 kHz to 30 MHz [6].
It should be noted that the experimental spectra of the
conducted emissions cannot equal those obtained by simula-
tion (Fig. 7), since the simulated spectra have been obtained
by plotting the Fourier expansion coefficients of the current
waveform and no theoretical study has been done on the
differential mode emissions or on the voltage spectrum. This
was not the aim of the present paper, which was essentially
devoted to show the main improvements of the proposed
design strategy on the current spectrum.
Results of the two sets of measurements are reported in
order to demonstrate the reduction of conducted emission
when the improved driving circuit is employed. In Fig. 9,
the magnitude spectra obtained with the standard and the
improved circuit are shown. Both spectra are compared with
QP conducted emission limits recommended in CISPR 22
for Class A electronic equipment. These are the same limits
adopted by EN’S and reported in EN 55022 [6].
It can be seen from Fig. 9 that a large reduction of the
harmonic amplitudes is obtained with the improved circuit,
especially in the 10-15 MHz frequency range where about 10
dB pV reduction is detected. Such a reduction is mainly due
to the improvements made to the current spectrum. In fact,
CONSOLI et aJ.: EM1 REDUCTION DESIGN TECHNIQUE
/b
RFF :aa 0 #ai jm as PS rlti 0 a8
STIR? 30 00 HHZ
#RES BW 120 kH7. VBN 300 k H L
(a)
Fig. 11. Near-field radiated emission measurements: (a) frequency range: 0.15-30 MHz (standard circuit), (b) frequency range: 0.15-30 MHz (improved
circuit), (c) frequency range: 30-100 MHz (standard circuit), and (d) frequency range: 30-100 MHz (improved circuit).
the main harmonic reduction in the simulated spectra plotted
in Fig. 7 can be observed in the same frequency range.
C. Diagnostic Radiated Emission Measurements
The improvement achieved with the proposed design strat-
egy of the driver circuit can be demonstrated also through the
radiated emission measurements reported in this section.
The measured radiated disturbances are of magnetic nature,
since a magnetic field sensor is used. This detector is a close
field probe which consists of two single turn loops feeding
a BALUN structure. The word BALUN is an acronym for
BALanced to UNbalanced, referring to the transition from an
unbalanced coaxial cable to a balanced antenna [4]. By means
of this structure the unbalance due to the coaxial feed cable
is prevented.
The block diagram of the measurement setup is repre-
sented in Fig. 10. The receiver is a spectrum analyzer as for
the conducted emission measurements. Antenna factors and
preamplifier gain are considered by means of an EMC software
included in the spectrum analyzer.
Given the purely diagnostic purpose of this investigation, the
radiated emissions are measured in the near-field. Therefore,
the recommended measurement practices are intentionally not
followed and the results are not compared with any standard
limit on radiated emissions.
513
/b
S T O P 100.00 WHL
sup 2 0 . 0 nwcc
S T A R T 150 kHZ STOP 3 0 . 5 5 HhX
+UYS ew 9 0 *HZ VBW 30 kWf SUP 1.13 scc
In Fig. 11 the results of diagnostic radiated measurements
obtained with the probe placed at a distance of about 2 cm from
the collector are shown. All the measurements were performed
by changing the probe orientation until maximum coupling
with the magnetic field radiated by the circuit was achieved.
Particular attention was paid in order to place the probe in the
same position during each measurement.
Results obtained from collector emissions tests were also
confirmed by similar measurements affected near the gate. A
noticeable reduction of the radiated emissions is detected at
low frequencies, as it can be seen from a comparison between
Fig. ll(a) and (b), where are shown the spectra measured in
the range of 0.15-30 MHz. The spectra plotted in Fig. ll(c)
and (d) show again a strong reduction of radiated emission
in the low frequency range, while a minimal difference be-
tween the two spectra is detected when frequency approaches
100 MHz. Over this frequency, further measurements have
confirmed the same result.
v. CONCLUSION
The results of addressing EMC objectives in the design stage
of a power converter are presented in this paper. In particular,
an optimal driving circuit for gate controlled devices has been
designed in order to reduce conducted and radiated emissions
of commutation cell of the converter. A theoretical analysis
514 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBLLITY, VOL. 38, NO. 4, NOVEMBER 1996

of the influence of the circuit key parameters on the harmonic

reduction has been considered throughout the design.
The experimental results obtained are encouraging since
a noticeable reduction of EM1 has been detected when the
improved circuit is used.
Both conducted emission and diagnostic radiated emission
measurements have demonstrated an effective EM1 perfor-
mance improvement of the power converter due to the pro-
posed design strategy.

APPENDIXA
SWITCHING BEHAVIOROF INSULATED GATE
DEVICES FROM THE GATECHARGE CURVE
Useful information about switching behavior of insulated
gate devices can be obtained from the gate charge curve.
Although measuring conditions are generally different from
the operating ones, the total charge supplied to the gate during
the switching transients is the same. The gate-charge curve
(Fig. 12), obtained by injecting a constant current into the
gate, is split in several areas. At the beginning, starting from
Vg = 0, I d remains equal to I d , , (few PA) until V, reaches
Vth at point 1. The slope of the gate voltage is fixed by the
gate input capacitance that, in this phase, is constant and equal
to C,,,. From now on the device is turned-on and the drain
current flows reaching its maximum value at point 2, while
Fig 12. Load line and dynamic characteristics versus gate-charge.
the drain voltage remains constant at its maximum value.
Between points 2 and 4 the Miller effect takes place.
During this phase the input capacitance appears to be infinite; where C,,, and Cgdr are the gate-drain capacitances,
in fact, the gate voltage remains constant even if the gate respectively, when the drain-gate voltage is positive and
circuit supplies current to the gate. This is due to the drain when such voltage reverses.
voltage decreasing with consequent modulation of the gate- It must be noted that the curve obtained by injecting
drain capacitance. In addition, the drain voltage exhibits two charges into the gate is the mirror image of the one obtained
different slopes due to the transition from a highly charged P extracting charges. Therefore, for power MOSFET's the above
zone to the simple depletion of the MOSFET capacitor that observations remain valid also during turn-off.
exists between the deep body cells. As soon as the Miller IGBT devices require separate comments. In fact, due to
effect ends, the gate voltage can increase again reaching its their inner structure, the current fall is strongly related to the
final value at point 5. used technology and its effect can hardly be mitigated by the
From the previous description it is possible to obtain some driving circuit.
relationships which allow us to understand the equations in
Section 11-A. APPENDIXB
a) The current slope is related to the rate of supplying ENERGYCONSUMPTION
DURINGSWITCHING
TRANSIENTS
charge to the gate during the first slope of the gate In Fig. 13 the linearized curves of current and voltage at
voltage by mean of the following relation turn-on and turn-off for a MOSFET are plotted. From such
curves it is possible to compute theoretical expressions of
energy losses during the switching transients.
Turn-On Transient: Looking at the curves in Fig. 13 the
Smig energy losses at turn on can be calculated as
E- (All
c,,,
b) The voltage slope is connected to the rate of supplying
won = ;(head + -IRM)(Vcc- av)
charge to the gate during the Miller effect zone ' (tr + trr) + iIload(Vcc
- a v ) h ~ (B1)
in this equation contributions of the freewheeling diode and
dv
-
-
-~ i,
AV of the collector voltage due to leakage inductances have
dt Cgd
been included. Such AV can be obtained by the following
'g 1st slope relation:
('42)
~

Cgdr
2nd slope av =L,- d l ldota d
CONSOLI ef ai.: EM1 REDUCTION DESIGN TECHNIQUE 575

C. Licitra, S . Musumeci, A. Raciti, A. Galluzzo, R. Letor, and M. Melito,

“A new driving circuit for IGBT devices,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 10, May 1995.
C. R. Paul, Introduction to Electromagnetic Compatibility New York
Wiley, 1992.
P. A. Chatterton and M. A. Houlden, EMC-Electromagnetic Theory to
Pratical Design. UK: Wiley, 1992.
C. Marshman, Guide to the EMC Directive 89/336/EEC. New York:
IEEE Press, 1992.

Alfio Consoli (M’79-SM’88) was bom in Catania,

Italy. He received the electrical engineering degree
from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy.
He was an Electrical Engineer in the Research
Fig. 13. Current and voltage switching transients of a power MOSFET. and Development Center of the Fiat, Turin, Italy.
In 1975, he joined the Electrical Department of the

= L,
Iload + IRM University of Catania, where he is presently Pro-
fessor of electrical engineering teaching Electrical
tr + trr Machines and Electric Drives. He is responsible for
the research activities at the University of Catania
The time interval to1 in (Bl) is obtained by experimental in the areas of electromechanical energy conversion
measurements. systems and power electronics. He is also responsible for the graduate-level
and Ph.D. programs for electrical engineering students. He was a Fellow with
Turn-OffTransient: Similarly to what has been made for a Nato Grant at Purdue University, and a Visiting Professor at the University
turn-on energy losses, the following expression can be com- of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
puted from the curves in Fig. 13 Dr. Consoli is a member of the Executive Board of the Industry Application
Society and serves on the Industrial Drives and the Electrical Machines
Committees as well as in the Power Electronics Society.
woff= $ I l o a d V c c t O 2
+ iIload(Vcc + Av)tf (B3)
where tO2is obtained by experimental measurements and AV Salvatore Musumeci (S’81-M’89) was born in
can be calculated by the following expression: Giarre (Catania), Italy. He received the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Iload University of Catania, Italy, in 1991 and 1995,
AV = L,-. respectively.
tf His research interests include the fields of power
electronics, power devices, and electrical drives.
In both (B1) and (B3) it can be considered AV e 0 if
the leakage inductances have been reduced by optimizing the
layout of the circuit. In addition, by assuming the freewheeling
diode to be ideal, the overcurrent at turn-on can be neglected.
With such assumptions, a simplified expression for the energy
consumption during switching transients can be computed
Giovanna Oriti (S’96) was bom in Catania, Italy,

I
and received the Laurea degree with honors in
electrical engineering in 1993 from the University
WE- f s v d s l d vds + v ds
of Catania, Italy, where she is presently pursuing
2 (duds\ (duds\ the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. She has
recently been a visiting scholar at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, WI.
1 Her current research interest is in the field of
power converters and electromagnetic compatibility.

Equation (B5) points out the dependence of the energy

losses from the current and voltage slopes. Antonio Testa (M’91) was bom in Catania, Italy.
In 1988, he received the degree in electrical engi-
neering from the University of Catania, Italy.
REFERENCES In 1989, he was a recipient of SGS Thomson
grant on power electronics. In 1990, he joined the
[ l ] A. Galluzzo, M. Melito, G. Belverde, S . Musumeci, A. Raciti, and A. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Testa, “Switching characteristic improvement of modem gate controlled at the University of Catania, where he is now
devices,” in Proc. EPE ’93, Brighton, UK. Senior Researcher and teaches electrical drives. His
[2] A. Consoli, S . Musumeci, A. Raciti, A. Testa, A. Galluzzo, and A. research interests are in electrical drives and power
Melito, “Optimal driver circuits for insulated gate controlled devices,” electronics.
in Proc. SPEEDAM ’94, Taormina, Italy.