A Novel Soft-Switching Synchronous Buck Converter for Portable Applications

Maddukuri Satya Veera Pavan Kumar

Medway Campus, University of Greenwich.

INTRODUCTION

Current trends in consumer electronics demand progressively lower-voltage supplies.

Portable electronics equipment, such as laptop computers, cellular phones, and future
microprocessor and memory chips, requires low-power circuitry to maximize battery run
time. Because of significantly lower conduction losses, synchronous rectifiers are now used
in essentially all low-voltage DC power supplies as explained by [O. Djekic, M. Brkovic, and
A. Roy, May 1998], [M. D. Mulligan, B. Broach, and T. H. Lee, 2005] . A synchronous
rectifier is an electronic switch that improves power-conversion efficiency by placing a low-
resistance conduction path across the diode rectifier in a switch-mode regulator. MOSFETs
usually serve this purpose.
However, higher input voltages and lower output voltages have brought about very
low duty cycles, increasing switching losses and decreasing conversion efficiency. So in this
paper, we have optimized the efficiency of the synchronous buck converter by eliminating
switching losses using soft-switching technique. The voltage-mode soft-switching method
that has attracted most interest in recent years is the zero-voltage transition as explained by
[G. Hua, C.-S. Leu, Y. Jiang and F. C. Y. Lee, 1994], [C.J. Tseng and C.-L. Chen, 1998],
[T.W. Kim, H.-S. Kim and H.-W. Ahn, June 2000], [W. Huang and G. Moschopoulos, 2006],
[V. Yousefzadeh and D. Maksimovi´c, 2006]. This is because of its low additional
conduction losses and because its operation is closest to the PWM converters. The auxiliary
circuit of the ZVT converters is activated just before the main switch is turned on and ceases
after it is accomplished. The auxiliary circuit components in this circuit have lower ratings
than those in the main power circuit because the auxiliary circuit is active for only a fraction
of the switching cycle; this allows a device that can turn on with fewer switching losses than
the main switch to be used as the auxiliary switch.
The improvement in efficiency caused by the auxiliary circuit is mainly due to the
difference in switching losses between the auxiliary switch and the main power switch if it
were to operate without the help of the auxiliary circuit. Previously proposed ZVT-PWM
converters have at least one of the following key drawbacks. (i) The auxiliary switch is turned
on while it is conducting current. This causes the switching losses and EMI to appear, which
offsets the benefits of using the auxiliary circuit. In converters such as the ones proposed, the
turn off’s very hard as explained in [G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, 1994]. (ii)
The auxiliary circuit causes the main converter switch to operate with a higher peak current
stress and with more circulating current. This results in the need for a higher current-rated
device for the main switch and an increase in conduction losses. The converters proposed are
having high current stresses on the main switch as explained in [C.J. Tseng and C.-L. Chen,
1998] (iii) The auxiliary circuit components have high voltage and/or current stresses, such as
converters proposed. The converter proposed in reduces the current stress on the main switch,
but the circuit is very complex. In addition, most active circuits are seriously criticized due to
their complexity, high cost, difficult control, large circulating energy, excessive voltage and
current stresses, and also narrow line and load ranges. Additionally, it has been reported that
the passive circuits are cheaper and more reliable and have a higher performance/cost ratio
than the active ones as explained in [K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1999].

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AIM

The aim of the project is to design a zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) pulse-width-modulated

(PWM) synchronous buck converter, which operates at low voltage and high efficiency
typically required for portable systems.

OBJECTIVES

 A new passive auxiliary circuit that allows the main switch to operate with zero-
voltage switching has to be incorporate in the conventional PWM synchronous buck
converter.
 The operation principles and a detailed steady-state analysis of the ZVT-PWM
synchronous converter should be implemented with the auxiliary circuit.
 The main switch and all of the semiconductor devices should operate under soft-
switching conditions.
 The auxiliary circuit provides a larger overall efficiency.
 The feasibility of the auxiliary circuit is to be confirmed by simulation and
experimental results.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES

The project deliverables were given by the supervisor which is listed below:

 Design an auxiliary snubber circuit using the resonant inductor, capacitor and diodes
to achieve Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) or Zero Current Switching (ZCS) for the
buck converter.
 Verify the design using MATLAB/Simulink and perform the analysis.
 To construct, the designed circuit for 25Volts input, 10 Volts output, 2 Amperes and
100 kHz switching frequency.
 Compare the performance (losses, efficiency) at 150 kHz, 200 kHz with 100 kHz
results.

POTENTIAL RISKS

 High switching frequencies are necessary to reduce the size and the weight of the DC-
DC converters. But, this yields high switching losses and, consequently, low
efficiency in hard switching converters.
 To improve the Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) operation during the turn off process
of the switch, the use of an additional parallel capacitor is necessary, this causes a
hard switching on the turn on process which should be come over.
 To simplify the power and control circuitry that is added to the standard PWM boost
converter is which is of complex in nature.

WORK PLAN

1. Initially refer relevant documents to the project topic for data collection and
knowledge gathering.
2. Collect the information regarding the various applications of buck converter and find
the various ways of switching’s available.

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3. A number of possibilities are to be analysing for bringing the implementation plan
model closer to the theory.
4. Install the MATLAB/Simulink software to design the circuit and observe the output
characteristics before going to the practical implementation.
5. Basing on the output characteristics, design the actual circuit by using the ISIS
software as this software is easy to use and the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) can be
obtained by simple conversion to ARES.
6. Make a list of components for completing the circuits.
7. After arriving the components, test those on a bread board to make it confirm that the
circuit is working well. Get the PCB layout by using the ARES and submit it to the
technician of the university. It will also take one to two weeks for arriving.
8. After getting the PCB on hand its need to drill and solder the PCB with care. Then it
needs to check the voltage and current to know that whether the design and soldering
is correct or not. If there is anything wrong then it will need some more days than
usual.
9. Connect all the designed circuits together properly and test its efficiency. Keep the
data for comparison.
10. The practical characteristics should be close to the theoretical analysis. Note down all
the characteristics and prepare the documentation report with all the work included
clearly.

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REFERENCES DISCUSSION

Reference 1: [O. Djekic, M. Brkovic, and A. Roy, May 1998]

This reference gives the clear idea of High frequency synchronous Buck Converter. By
studying this reference, it is understood, how the dead time delays affects the efficiency of a
constant frequency, low voltage and synchronous Buck converter. The procedure for
calculating the overall efficiency as a function of the load current and the switching
frequency with dead time as a parameter is learned.

Reference 2: [M. D. Mulligan, B. Broach, and T. H. Lee, 2005]

From this reference gained knowledge in improving light-load efficiency in synchronous
buck converters by reducing gate drive losses. A new gate drive technique is proposed
whereby the gate voltage swing dynamically scales with load current such that gate drive loss
is traded for conduction loss. It is learned that, the conduction losses scale with the square of
load current, an optimal gate swing exists that, at light loads, is shown to be less than the
supply voltage. The actual problem of low-voltage synchronous rectifier buck topology
suffers from low efficiency at light loads due to dissipation is eliminated with this proposed
model. In this paper, the authors had shown that the optimal gate drive voltage is load-
dependent, and that by modulating the amount of charge deposited on the gates of the MOS
switches, affects an increase in light-load efficiency is clearly shown.

Reference 3: [G. Hua, C.-S. Leu, Y. Jiang and F. C. Y. Lee, 1994]

This reference gives a brief idea about the different soft-switching techniques applied to the
PWM converters, with the exception of a few isolated cases, are subjected to either high
switch voltage stresses or high switch current stresses, or both. A new class of zero-voltage-
transition PWM converters is proposed, where both the transistor and the rectifier operate
with zero-voltage switching and are subjected to minimum voltage and current stresses.
Bread boarded converters are constructed to verify the novelty of the proposed new family of
converters. In this paper, a new class of zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) PWM converters is
proposed, by using a resonant network in parallel with the switches, the proposed converters
achieves zero-voltage switching for both the active and passive switches without increasing
their voltage and current stresses.

Reference 4: [K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1997]

This reference explains the comparison of voltage mode soft-switching methods for PWM
converters. This was conducted to characterize the loss mechanisms, component stresses, and
overall efficiencies of a group of voltage-mode soft-switching pulse width modulation
(PWM) methods, including two methods developed by the authors. All soft-switching
methods in the selected group allow zero voltage turn-on and turn-off of the main switch and
utilize a single auxiliary switch with some resonant components. Advantages and
disadvantages are identified for each method. Experimental verification for each soft-
switching method is provided. It was found that only those methods that softly switch the
auxiliary switch, minimize redirection current, and recover the auxiliary circuit energy
improved efficiency over most of the load range.

Reference 5: [C.J. Tseng and C.-L. Chen, 1998]

In this reference, an active snubber cell is proposed to contrive zero voltage-transition pulse
width modulated (ZVT-PWM) converters. Except for the auxiliary switch, all active and
passive semiconductor devices in a ZVT-PWM converter operate at zero-voltage-switching
(ZVS) turn on and turn off. The auxiliary switch operates at ZVS turn off and near zero-

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current-switching (ZCS) turn on. An analytical study on a boost ZVT-PWM converter with
the proposed active snubber cell is presented in detail. Six basic ZVT-PWM converters can
be easily created by attaching the proposed active snubber cells to conventional PWM
converters. By utilizing the body diode of the auxiliary switch, a series of ZVT-PWM
converters are proposed to turn off the auxiliary switch under ZVS. Soft switching can apply
to semiconductor devices in not only the original converters, but also the snubber cells. By
using similar resonant topologies, the active snubber cell presented in this paper can be seen
as a modification of this series of converters. As an example, a study of a boost ZVT-PWM
converter equipped with the proposed snubber cell is investigated in depth. Steady-state
operation analysis and relevant equations are presented in detail.

Reference 6: [T.W. Kim, H.-S. Kim and H.-W. Ahn, June 2000]
This reference had proposed an Improved Zero Voltage Transmission- Pulse Width
Modulation (ZVT-PWM) boost converter. The main switch of the conventional ZVT-PWM
converter is always switched at zero voltage. But the auxiliary switch is turn-off with
switching loss due to hard switching condition. Therefore, the proposed converter is reducing
the turn-off switching loss of the auxiliary switch by using additional circuit. All the
switching losses are minimized, and high power density system can be realized.

Reference 7: [W. Huang and G. Moschopoulos, 2006]

This reference had proposed a new family of active auxiliary circuits that allow the power
switch in single switch, pulse width modulated converters to operate with zero-voltage
switching. The main feature of an auxiliary circuit belonging to this family is that the
auxiliary switch can operate with a zero-current switching turn-on and turn-off without
increasing the peak current stresses of the main switch. This is an improvement over previous
proposed auxiliary circuits where either the auxiliary switch operates with a hard turn-off or
the circuit itself increases the peak stresses of the main switch. In this paper, the fundamental
principles behind the proposed family of active auxiliary circuits are explained. Based on
these principles, an example auxiliary circuit is systematically derived and presented along
with several other auxiliary circuits belonging to the new family. The operation of a boost
converter operating with the example auxiliary circuit is discussed in detail, and general
guidelines for the design and implementation of auxiliary circuits belonging to the new
family are also given.

Reference 8: [V. Yousefzadeh and D. Maksimovi´c, 2006]

This journal paper introduced an approach to achieve optimum dead times in dc–dc
converters with synchronous rectifiers without sensing any of the power-stage signals other
than the output voltage. The dead times are adjusted adaptively to minimize the duty-cycle
command, which results in maximization of the converter efficiency. The method is
particularly well suited for digital controller implementation, requiring no additional analog
components or modifications of standard gate-drive circuitry.

Reference 9: [G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, 1994]

A new family of zero-current-transition (ZCT) pulse width- modulated (PWM) converters is
proposed. The new family of converters implements zero-current turn-off for power transistor
(s) without increasing voltage current stresses and operates at a fixed frequency. The
proposed converters are deemed most suitable for high-power applications where the
minority-carrier semiconductor devices (such as IGBT’s, BJT’s, and MCT’s) are
predominantly used as the power switches. The proposed ZCT-PWM converters implement
zero-current turn-off for the transistors without substantially increasing voltage/current

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stresses of the switches. They are particularly suited for high-power, high voltage
applications where the minority-carrier semiconductor devices (such as IGBT’s, BJT’s, and
MCT’s) are used as the power switches. In the following section, the ZCT-PWM boost
converter is used as an example to illustrate the principle of operation.

Reference 10: [K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1999]

This reference paper derives general topological and electrical properties common to all loss
less passive soft-switching converters with defined characteristics and proposes a synthesis
procedure for the creation of new converters. The synthesis procedure uses the properties to
determine all possible locations for the resonant inductors and capacitors added to achieve
soft switching. Then a set of circuit cells is used to recover the energy stored in these resonant
elements. This paper also explains the operation of the circuit cells and the many new passive
lossless soft-switching converters. A family of soft-switching boost converters is given as an
example of the synthesis procedure. The synthesis procedure uses the properties to determine
all possible locations of the inductor and capacitor added to achieve soft switching. Then a set
of circuit cells is used to easily add circuitry that recovers the energy stored in these elements.
The properties also explain the operation of the circuit cells and the many new passive
lossless soft-switching converters that can be synthesized.

RESEARCH GAPS
(i) The auxiliary switch is turned on while it is conducting current. This causes the
switching losses and EMI to appear, which offsets the benefits of using the
auxiliary circuit. In converters such as the ones proposed, the turn off’s very hard
as explained in [G. Hua, C.-S. Leu, Y. Jiang and F. C. Y. Lee, 1994], [T.W. Kim,
H.-S. Kim and H.-W. Ahn, June 2000], V. Yousefzadeh and D. Maksimovi´c,
2006], [G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, 1994].
(ii) The auxiliary circuit causes the main converter switch to operate with a higher
peak current stress and with more circulating current. This results in the need for a
higher current-rated device for the main switch and an increase in conduction
losses. The converters proposed are having high current stresses on the main
switch as explained in [K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1997].
(iii) The auxiliary circuit components have high voltage and/or current stresses, such as
converters proposed. The converter proposed in reduces the current stress on the
main switch, but the circuit is very complex. In addition, most active circuits are
seriously criticized due to their complexity, high cost, difficult control, large
circulating energy, excessive voltage and current stresses, and also narrow line and
load ranges. Additionally, it has been reported that the passive circuits are cheaper
and more reliable and have a higher performance/cost ratio than the active ones as
explained in [K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1999].

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The methodology to be used for the completion of this project is based on Soft-
Switching Synchronous Buck converter which is useful for Portable Applications. A
systematic investigation and scientific approach should be carried out in this project.

METHODOLOGY TO BE DEVELOPED
1. This research is exploratory: This research is exploratory because it needs to design
the circuit successfully to test the efficiency. This research is successful only when the

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 efficiency is near the expected data.
2. This research is qualitative in nature: This research in reverse power flow tracking
is little bit qualitative in nature because it deals with the Power which is the product of
voltage and current.
3. The design for this research is flexible: Flexible design is to be used for the
development of the ideas. This research is flexible in nature because this research is
based on the algorithm and circuitry. So algorithm can be changed to change the
circuit’s property.
4. This is an action research: This research is an action research because the result
obtained and the conclusion achieved from this project can be directly applied in real
condition. This design can implement to investigate the power flow in both forward
and reverse direction.
5. The technique used is literature review: Literature review is generally used as the
tactics for this research. This means that there has been a prior literature research via
the initiation of the project. There has been a review on current work. The review now
gave the researcher the inspiration on the direction that the project might take.

SUMMARY
A literature survey would provide an idea about the project works. This survey sets a path of
doing a project in a successful way. An idea was obtained from various relevant technical
papers and journals about various types of soft switching technologies, its features,
mechanism and behaviour in accordance with buck converter. This research also provided
important information about working principle of buck converter, its performance with the
advancement of technology. It provided the knowledge of zero voltage switching and its
features. Ideas of various resonant topologies obtained from the resources. These relevant
projects helped in understanding about the project deliverables in a correct way.

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REFERENCES
[O. Djekic, M. Brkovic, and A. Roy, May 1998]: O. Djekic, M. Brkovic, and A. Roy,
“High frequency synchronous buck converter for low voltage applications,” in Proceedings
of IEEE 29th Annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC ’98), vol. 2, pp. 1248–
1254, ISSN: 0275-9306, Fukuoka, Japan, May 1998.

[M. D. Mulligan, B. Broach, and T. H. Lee, 2005]: M. D. Mulligan, B. Broach, and T. H.

Lee, “A constantfrequency method for improving light-load efficiency in synchronous buck
converters,” IEEE Power Electronics Letters, ISSN: 1540-7985, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 24–29,
2005.

[G. Hua, C.-S. Leu, Y. Jiang and F. C. Y. Lee, 1994]: G. Hua, C.-S. Leu, Y. Jiang, and F.
C. Y. Lee, “Novel zero voltage-transition PWM converters,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, ISSN: 0885-8993, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 213–219, 1994.

[K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1997]: K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, “A
comparison of voltage mode soft-switching methods for PWM converters,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, ISSN:  0885-8993, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 376–386, 1997.

[C.J. Tseng and C.-L. Chen, 1998]: C.J. Tseng and C.-L. Chen, “Nova ZVT-PWM
converters with active snubbers,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, ISSN:  1350-
2409, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 861–869, 1998.

[T.W. Kim, H.-S. Kim and H.-W. Ahn, June 2000]: T.W. Kim, H.-S. Kim, and H.-W. Ahn,
“An improved ZVT PWM boost converter,” in Proceedings of the 31st IEEE Annual Power
Electronics Specialists Conference (PESC ’00), ISSN: 0885-8993, vol. 2, pp. 615–619,
Galway, UK, June 2000.

[W. Huang and G. Moschopoulos, 2006]: W. Huang and G. Moschopoulos, “A new family
of zerovoltage-transition PWM converters with dual active auxiliary circuits,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, ISSN:  0885-8993, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 370–379, 2006.

[V. Yousefzadeh and D. Maksimovi´c, 2006]: V. Yousefzadeh and D. Maksimovi´c,

“Sensorless optimization of dead times in dc-dc converters with synchronous rectifiers,”
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, ISSN: 0885-8993, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 994– 1002,
2006.

[G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, 1994]: G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F.
C. Lee, “Novel zero current-transition PWM converters,” IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, ISSN: 0885-8993, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 601–606, 1994.

[K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley, 1999]: K. M. Smith Jr. and K. M. Smedley,
“Properties and synthesis of passive lossless soft-switching PWM converters,” IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics, ISSN: 0885-8993, vol. 14, no. 5, pp. 890–899, 1999.