2009 Second International Conference on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation

A Simplified Lossless Passive Soft-Switching Snubber for

PWM half-bridge Inverters
Yuanyuan Yang
School of Electronics and Information
Tongji University
Shanghai, China
e19840106@sohu.com

Xu Weisheng
School of Electronics and Information
Tongji University
Shanghai, China
Xuweisheng@tongji.edu.cn

Abstract: This paper presents a simplified

lossless passive snubber regenerative circuit to
achieve soft-switching purpose. This lossless
passive soft-switching snubber(LPSSS) employs
a diode and capacitor for each main switch to
provide low dv/dt and low switching stresses,
achieving ZVS(zero voltage soft-switching)
turn-off. This LPSSS further uses an inductor to
achieve ZCS(zero current soft-switching)
turn-on for both main switches. In addition, the
energy regenerative circuit uses a buffer
capacitor and a resonant inductor to recover the
snubber energy into the DC rail based on a series
of resonance, which achieves the combination of
snubber technique and resonance technique. This
LPSSS circuit has been incorporated into a
PWM half-bridge inverter, and the working
principle and operating characteristics are
described, together with the parameters design
and the simulation in saber.
Index Terms: snubber, soft-switching, ZCS
turn-on, ZVS turn-off.

voltage stress to provide higher efficiency and

larger duty ratio range.
This paper presents a simplified regenerative
lossless passive snubber circuit for PWM
inverters with no transformer being used for
energy recovery. This energy regenerative circuit
which consists of a larger capacitor and a
resonant inductor can recover the energy
captured in this buffer capacitor without losses.
All components in this simplified LPSSS circuit
are passive, making it reliable and low in cost.
Simulation in saber is given to demonstrate the
validity and features of this circuit.

I. INTRODUCTION
Soft-switching methods can be broadly
classified into two groups: active one and
passive one. In recent years, passive
soft-switching has been given renewed notice as
having a better price/performance ratio than their
active counterparts [1]. And snubber technique is
the only possible way to achieve soft-switching
through passive means. The snubber technique is
having an inductor and capacitor placed in series
and parallel with each power switch to reduce its
di/dt and dv/dt, achieving ZCS turn-on and ZVS
turn-off or ZCS turn-off and ZVS turn-on for
each switch. Fig 1 shows the McMurray Snubber
[2], which had been widely used in PWM
inverters. Although it can partly return the
snubber energy into DC rail, it is still lossy,
dissipating the recovered energy in resistors.
Recently, many lossless passive snubber circuits
have been proposed, but they almost use
transformers, whose parameters such as their
associated diode stress and leakage inductance
problem still remain to be studied. There have
been great improvements in this field such as [3,
4], which have an idea that takes advantage of
transformer as a part of resonant circuitry. In [5]
the authors present a method adding additional

Fig 1 Mc Murray snubber circuit

978-0-7695-3804-4/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE

DOI 10.1109/ICICTA.2009.468

II. SIMPLIFIED LPSSS CIRCUIT

ANALYSIS
Fig 2 shows the proposed simplified LPSSS
circuit, which consists of two IGBT switches S1 ,

S2 , and two diodes D1 , D2 that are reversely

paralleled to the main switches, and a snubber
inductor Ls which reduces the rate of turn-on
current(di/dt) to achieve ZCS turn-on and
restrains the reverse recovery current of diodes,
and a larger capacitor Cb which has two
functions: one is, as a passive voltage source
connected across the two snubber capacitors
Cs1 , Cs 2 , guarantying the sum of both snubber
capacitors voltages constant and equal to the
DC link voltage; the other is, as a transient
energy storage, recovering the snubber energy
into the DC rail through the resonant inductor
Lr . The simplified LPSSS circuit also includes a
snubber diode Ds1 and a snubber capacitor Cs1
for the upper main device S1 and symmetrically

Ds 2 and Cs 2 for the lower main device S2 , which

can reduce dv/dt to achieve ZVS turn-off for
31

each main switch and remain the circuit free

from parasitic oscillation. Because the upper and
lower
main
devices
always
operate
complementarily to each other during normal
PWM operation, to further guarantee the sum of
both snubber capacitor voltage constant, the two
snubber capacitor are connected to the midpoint
of the phase leg.

2 = 1/ Ls Cs1

and

Z 2 = Ls / Cs1

3 = 1/ Ls Cs 2 and Z 2 = Ls / Cs 2 .
3.3 Operation analysis in one switching period
A detailed analysis of each operation stage is
represented in Fig 4. The following analysis is
based on the assumption that the load current
I load >0, operation modes in the reversal
condition that I load <0 can be analogously
derived.
Mode1, t < t0 : Initially, the upper main device

S1 is conducting the load current I load , and the

load current remains constant during the
switching process. I Ls = I load , VCs1 =0.
Mode2, t0 < t < t1 : S1 is turn off and S2 is turn
on, The inductor current I Ls diverts into the
snubber capacitor Cs1 and Cb through the diode
Fig 2 the topology of the simplified LPSSS circuit

Ds1 , Charging Cs1 and discharging Cs 2 . The

Fig 3 [6] shows the ideal voltage operating

waveforms of Cs1 and Cs 2 during S1 turns off

upper main device S1 is turn off under zero

voltage.

and S2 turns on. In this time, Vcs1 increases,

I Ls = I load cos 2 (t t0 ) +

Vcs 2 decreases and the sum of both capacitors

voltage remains constant.

dVCs1
dV
+ (CS 2 Cs 2 ) = I S 2 + I load ,
dt
dt
VCs1 (t ) = VCb (VCb VCs1 ) cos 2 (t t0 )
I (t )
+ Ls 0 sin 1 (t t0 )
1Cs
CS 1

S1
S2

VCs1

Ud

Ud

VCs 2

Mode3(a), t1 < t < t2 : When t = t1 , the voltage

VCb

of

Ud

during S1 turns off and S2 turns on

is carried by switch S2 . The charging current

starts to decrease, because VCs1 is slightly higher
than the DC source voltage U d and then the
regenerative circuit begins to work. Once the
I Cs1 < I load , the operation of the circuit proceeds
to Mode 3(a).
Mode 4, t2 < t < t3 : The current of the snubber
inductor I Ls is still decreasing, and the energy

L1Cb is the resonant angular

stored in it is transferred to the capacitor Cb .

During this mode, when the voltage
of Cb becomes higher than the DC source

Z1 = L1 / Cb is the
characteristics impedance of the resonant
circuit which consists of inductors Ls , Lr and
and

Cb

L1 = Lr Ls / Lr + Ls

charged

Vcs 2 to zero. The current I Ls is also decreasing.

Cb , as a passive voltage source E, is large

capacitor

been

Mode3(b): If the current I Cs1 > I load , the surplus

enough. E = U d (the DC source voltage).

3.2 Symbol Description
frequency

capacitor Cs1 have

Ds 2 and D2 begin conducting and clamping

. SIMPLIFIED LPSSS CIRCUIT

OPERATING PRINCIPLE
3.1 Several assumptions are employed in the
analysis [7] :
y
All components in this circuit are ideal;
y
Provided inductive load, an equivalent
current source takes the place of the load
during commutation study;
y
To simplify analysis, Ls is equal to Lr ;

1 =1/

the

to VCs1 = U d , Vcs 2 have been discharged to zero.

If the current following through the snubber
capacitor Cs1 , I Cs1 < I load , the diodes

Fig 3 the ideal operating waveforms of VCs1 , Vcs 2

Ud
sin 2 (t t0 ) ,
Z2

voltage U d , the regenerative circuit starts to

work and transfer energy to the DC rail. At the

24

end of this mode, I Ls =0, the diode D2 carries

the load current.
Mode5, t3 < t < t4 : S2 is turn off under zero
voltage and S1 is turn on under zero current. I Ls
starts to increase. During this time, D2 together
with S2 carry the load current. At the end of this
mode, I Ls = I load .
Mode6, t4 < t < t5 : I Ls is still increasing and

Mode6, t4 < t < t5

charge Cs 2 through

Fig 4 Equivalent circuits for each operation stage

starts

to

the

route

LS - S1 - CS 2 . The snubber capacitor Cs1 starts to

transfer the energy stored in it into the
capacitor Cb , and the energy is finally recovered

PARAMETERS DESIGN AND

SIMULATION IN SABER
4.1 Parameters design
The performance characteristics of the
proposed LPSSS half-bridge inverter are verified
by the prototype of 100 kHz switching operation
using IGBT devices in saber.
The design requirements assumption: the DC
source voltage, U d =330V, switching frequency,

to the DC rail through the resonant diode Dr and

inductor Lr .

I Ls = I load +

U
Ud
sin 2 (t t4 ) + d cos3 (t t4 )
Z2
Z3

At the end of this mode, VCs1 =0, VCs 2 = U d .

FS =100kHz, 0.2 < D < 0.9 , 20 < I load < 20 ;

The state turns back to the mode1 and the time

The circuit parameters are as follows: Cb =1uF,

duration of this state is controlled by the PWM.

Ls = Lr =1uH, Cs1 = Cs 2 =0.1uF.

4.2 Simulation in saber
Fig 5 shows the voltage and current
waveforms of the upper switch S1 during it
turns off. From this figure, the reduction of dv/dt
has been achieved by soft-switching operation,
and the switching is almost lossless, UI=0.
Fig 6 shows the current waveform of the
switch S1 during it turn on. From the result, we

Mode1, t < t0

Mode3(a), t1 < t < t2

could see that S1 has achieved ZCS turn-on and

its current value finally keeps equal to the load
current I load .

Mode2, t0 < t < t1

Mode3(b)

Fig 5 the voltage and current waveforms of S1

Mode4, t2 < t < t3

Mode5, t3 < t < t4

35

2.

3.

Fig 6 current waveform of switch S1 during it turns on

4.

Fig 7 shows the current and voltage

waveforms of the switch S2 during it turns on;
Fig 8 shows the voltage waveform of the
capacitor Cb . It keeps stable around 330V.

5.

6.
Fig 7the current and voltage waveforms of S2

7.


Fig 8 the voltage waveform of the Cb

V. CONCLUSION
A simplified lossless passive soft-switching
snubber circuit has been presented in this paper.
It consists of turn-on/turn off snubber circuits
and a regenerative circuit which consists of a
larger capacitor and a resonant inductor
recovering the snubber energy stored in this
buffer capacitor into the DC rail, achieving the
combination of snubber technique and resonance
technique. This simplified circuit could work
well with high performance, low cost and
without additional switch or control circuitry, it
fits any PWM inverters. From simulation results,
this LPSSS circuit could achieve ZVS
turn-off/ZCS turn-on of the main switches and
minimize the switching losses and stresses.
However, because of the simplest topology, this
proposed circuit could not work well in larger
power range for its limited load current and
output power.

References
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