Analysis of H-bridge Current Source Parallel Resonant Inverter
for Induction Heating
H.javadi*,A.Shoulaie**
*Iran University of Science and Technology, hjavadi@ee.iust.ac.ir
** Department of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, shoulaie@iust.ac.ir
Abstract: This paper gives the theory and experimental
results for a current-source parallel-resonant inverter
employed for induction heating. The analysis is performed
in the frequency domain using Fourier series techniques to
predict output power, efficiency, dc-to-ac voltage transfer
function, and component voltage and current stresses. The
inverter consists of four switches, a large choke inductor,
and a parallel-resonant circuit. Each switch consists of a
MOSFET in series with a fast diode. An inverter was
designed and constructed. The dc input voltage was 70 V
and the output voltage was a sine wave with a peak value of
100 V at an operating frequency of 83 kHz. The output
power at full load was 400 W.
Index Terms: induction heating, parallel resonant,
current source inverter.
1. Introduction
Voltage source inverters suffer from a pulsating
input current [1,3]. An alternate topology that draws a
constant current from the dc supply is the current
source parallel-resonant inverter. The constant current
drawing property of the current-source inverter is an
advantage over the voltage-driven inverters because of
the lack of harmonics introduced to the line[7].
Another advantage of the current-source parallel-
resonant inverter topology is that the switches only
carry the active power of the resonant circuit [2]. The
objectives of this paper are to present an analysis of a
full bridge current source parallel-resonant inverter for
induction heating, give a design example, and present
the experimental results.
2. Principle of Operation
Fig. l(a) shows the circuit diagram of the full
bridge current source parallel-resonant inverter. It
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consists of a large choke inductor L DC , four switches
S1-S4, and an LCR L , parallel-resonant circuit. The dc
input source V I and the filtering choke L DC , form a
dc input current source I I . R L is the calculated
work-piece resistance reflected to the heating coil
terminals[5]. Each switch is made up of a MOSFET
in series with a fast recovery diode. This series diode
disables the internal body-drain diode of the
MOSFET that would normally allow the negative
current to flow when the switch is off [4]. The
MOSFET’s are driven by rectangular gate-to-source
voltages VGS at the operating frequency f = 1/T and
an on-duty cycle of approximately 70%. The overlap
period ( 1µs ) when all switches are on is necessary to
prevent the filtering choke from being open circuited.
Fig. l(b) shows an equivalent circuit of the inverter
with parasitic resistances and offset voltage sources,
where R LDC is the equivalent series resistance
(ESR) of the input inductor L DC , rDS is the
MOSFET on-resistance, R F is the diode forward
resistance, V F is the diode offset voltage, R Lp is the
equivalent parallel resistance (EPR) of the resonant
inductor (work coil without work-piece) L, and RCp
is the EPR of the resonant capacitor C.
When switch S4 and S3 are OFF and switch S1
and S2 are ON, the current through the resonant
circuit is i = I I . When S1 and S2 are OFF and S3
and S4 are ON, the current through the resonant
circuit is i = − I I . Assuming that the input inductor
LDC is large enough, the circuit composed of V I ,
L DC , and S1-S4 can be modeled by a square-wave
current source i = ± I I . Shown in Fig. l(c).
The resonant frequency of the parallel resonant
circuit is f 0 = 1 / LC . When f < f 0 , the parallel- 3. Analysis of the H-Bridge Current Source
Parallel- Resonant Inverter
resonant circuit represents an inductive load. This
operation is rarely used for two main reasons. 1- The In this section the fundamental analysis of the H-
semiconductor devices have to ensure forced turn-off. bridge current source inverter with parallel resonant
However, in the current source inverters, the load such as induction heating systems is presented.
inductances limiting di / dt bring about high voltage
spikes across the semiconductor devices at the end of 3.1 Analysis of the Parallel-Resonant Circuit
turn-off. 2- Operation occurs in the unfavorable side
of the frequency characteristics of the inverter. Where Considering to the model of the current source
ω / ω 0 is less than 1 and the output voltage is not parallel-resonant circuit shown in Fig. l (b), it can be
sinusoidal any more [1]. seen that the parallel-resonant circuit is made up of a
capacitor C , an inductor L , and a resistor R [6]. For
this circuit, we can write.
LDC 1 R L Rd
R= = (1)
G R L + Rd
S4 Where R L is the ac load resistance and Rd is the
S1
equivalent parasitic resistance of the resonant tank,
given by
L
D1 D4 R Lp RCp
C Rd = (2)
R Lp + RCp
RL The parallel-resonant circuit can be characterized by
S3 S2 the resonant Frequency ω 0 = 1 / LC , the
characteristic impedance Z 0 = L / C = ω0 L , and the
D3 D2 loaded quality factor Q = R /(ω 0 L) = ω 0 RC . The
unloaded quality factor is:
Q0 = Rd /(ω 0 L) = ω 0 CR d .
(a)
The input admittance of the parallel-resonant circuit
can be written as
1  ω ω0 
Y = G + jω C + = G 1 + jQ L ( − ) (3)
jω L  ω0 ω 
One may therefore write the magnitude of the
admittance as
I 1 1
Y = rms =
Vout Z0 2
 ω ω0 
Q L 2 +  − 

(4)
 ω0 ω 
Where I rms is the rms value of the fundamental
component of the current through the resonant circuit
defined in equation (9) and Vout is the rms value of
the ac output voltage of the inverter. The input power
(b) of the resonant circuit is PR = V 2 out / R , the output
power of the resonant circuit is PRL = V 2 out / R L
and the power dissipated in the resonant circuit
is PRd = V 2 out / R d . Hence, the efficiency of the
resonant tank is
PR Rd
η rc = L = (5)
PR RL + Rd
(c) 3.2 Voltage Transfer Function of H-bridge
Fig.1- a) current source parallel resonant inverter b) Equivalent Current Source Inverter
parasitic resistance and offset voltage sources. c)simplified model The input current of the resonant circuit i is a square

436
wave of magnitude I I should be consider.
I I for 0 < ω t < π
i= (6) 12

− I I for π < ωt < 2π QL=2

QL=3
10
Fourier analysis of the current i gives its fundamental QL=7

component 8

ii1 = I m sin ωt (7)

MVI
6
where
4 4
Im = II (8)
π 2
The rms value of i1 is
0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5
Im 2 2I I f/f0
I rms = = (9)
2 π Fig.2- voltage transfer function of the inverter versus f / f 0 .
The dc to ac current transfer function from the dc 3.3 Output Power of the H-bridge Current-
input current I I to the fundamental component I rms Source Inverter
at the input of the resonant circuit is Solving (15) for Vout and substituting into (13) gives
I 2 2 the ac output power of the inverter to be
M I 1 ≡ rms = (10)  2
II π    ω ω  
π 2 R Lη I 2V I 2 1 + Q L  − 0    (16)
Equations (4) and (10) can be combined to obtain the V 2    ω 0 ω   
 
magnitude of the transfer function of the dc current I I PRL = out =
RL 8R
to the rms output voltage Vout Fig. 3 shows the ac output power PRL as a function
VR V RL I rms M I 1
M I2 ≡ L = × = of R L .
II I rms II Y
The peak value of the switch current is I SM = I I .
2 2Z 0 (11)
= 538

2 536
1  ω ω0 
π +  − 

534

QL 2  ω0 ω  532

530
The dc input power of the current-source inverter is
PRL(W)

528
given by 526
PI = V I I I (12) 524

and the ac output power of the inverter is 522

=V 2
520
PRL out / R L (13)
518
10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14
Dividing (13) by (12) gives the efficiency η I of the RL

inverter Fig.3- output power versus R L .

PR V M I2 The maximum values of the amplitude of the currents
η I = L = out (14) through the resonant inductor L and the resonant
PI VI RL
capacitor C occur at the resonant frequency and are
Substituting (11) into (14) yields the magnitude of the given by
voltage transfer function
4I
2 I Lm = I Cm = Q L I (17)
1  ω ω0  π
πη I R L + −  (15)
2  ω0 ω 
V η R QL 
M VI ≡ out = I L =
VI M I2 2 2Z 0 4. Efficiency of the Inverter
Assuming the inverter efficiency η I = 100% , the
4.1 Power Loss in the filtering choke L DC
range of M VI is from π 2 / 4 to ∞ . In Fig. 2, M VI Fig. l(b) shows an equivalent circuit of the inverter
is plotted as a function of f / f 0 for various values with parasitic resistances. Substituting (11) into (13)
of Q L . gives
It can be seen that the output voltage of the inverter   ω ω 0  
2
increase as switching frequency increase, as a result π 2 R L 1 + Q L 2  − 

  ω 0 ω   (18)
the output power of the inverter can be controlled by 
II 2 = PRL
switching frequency variation. The limitation of this 8R 2
control method is the switches rated voltage that

437
Neglecting the ripple current in the inductor L DC , the V 2 R
input current of the inverter contains only a dc PRd = out = L PRL (24)
Rd Rd
component I I . The power loss in the dc ESR rLDC of
The total conduction power loss Pr in the current
L DC is source inverter is simply the sum of the power losses
PLDC = rLDC I I 2 (19) in the filtering choke, MOSFET's, diodes, parallel
resonant circuit and turn-on switching losses.
4.2 Conduction Power Loss in the MOSFET's
The MOSFET's are modeled by switches with on- Pr = PL + 4 Pr + 4 PD + PR + 4 Pton (25)
DC DS d
resistance rDS . The rms value of the switch current
The dc input power of the inverter is
II
is . The conduction power loss in each switch can PI = PRL + Pr (26)
2
Using (16), (25), and (26), the efficiency of the
be expressed by (20)
inverter can be found as
r I 2
PrDS = rDS I Srms 2 = DS I (20) PRL PRL 1
2 ηI = = = (27)
PI PRL + Pr P
4.3 Turn-on switching Loss in the MOSFET 1+ r
PRL
In reality, however, there is a problem associated with
the discharging of the transistor output The inverter efficiency η I is shown in Fig. 4 as a
capacitance C oss [8]. When the switch voltage function of RL for f / f 0 < 1 and f / f 0 > 1 . Notice
increases, the MOSFET output capacitor C oss is that the efficiency decreases as f moves away from
charged via diode D1 to the peak value of the switch f 0 and the inverter is more efficient above resonance
voltage V SM = Vout. max and then remains at that than below resonance.
voltage until the transistor turns on. At this time, the 0.72
capacitor C oss is discharged through the transistor, X: 13
Y: 0.7083
f/f0=0.96
f/f0=1.04
resulting in a turn-on switching loss in the MOSFET 0.7

according (21). 0.68

Pton = fC oss V 2 SM / 2 (21)

Efficiency

0.66
Where V SM is the peak value of the switch voltage
0.64
[1]. Total power in each power MOSFET can be
calculated by adding (21) and (20). 0.62

4.4 Conduction Power Loss in the series Diodes

The diode that is conducting is modeled by a voltage 0.6
5 10 15 20 25 30
RL
source V F and a forward resistance R F . A diode that
Fig.4 -efficiency versus R L .
is not conducting is modeled by an open switch.
Assuming that the forward resistances of the diodes
are identical and equal to R F , the power loss due to
5. Experimental Results
R F can be found by using of (18) and (22)
RF I I 2 A current source parallel-resonant inverter was
PrF = R F I Srms 2 = (22) implemented, using four IRFP460 MOSFET's
2 (International Rectifier), four ultrafast STTA2006PI
II diodes in series with the MOSFET's and twenty five
The average current through the diode is and the
2 KP-6 capacitors (Alcon Electronics) as a capacitor
power loss associated with V F is bank. The capacitors EPR can be calculated with the
V I V P V F PRL V tan δ versus frequency curve provided in the
PVF = F I = F I = ≈ F PRL (23) capacitor datasheet. Circuit parameters are shown in
2 2V I 2V I η I 2V I Table 1.
Adding (22) and (23) gives the total conduction power Next, the inverter efficiency can be calculated as (25),
loss in each diode. (27)
4.4 Power Loss in the resonant tank Pr = PLDC + 4 PrDS + 4 PD + PRd + 4 Pton =
The resistance Rd is the parallel combination of the
80 + 4 *11 + 4 * (4.3) + 52 + 4 * .2 = 194W
equivalent parallel resistance R LP of work coil L and
The input power of the inverter,
the equivalent parallel resistance RCP of resonant p I = 72 *10 = 720W
capacitor bank C . The total conduction power loss in Hence, the efficiency of the inverter η I is
the resonant tank can be obtained as

438
 P Fig.7 shows the voltage transfer function of the
η I = 1 − r = 73% . implemented inverter versus f / f 0 that is in good
PI
Fig.5 shows the output voltage of the inverter. The agreement with the experimental results.
inverter DC input current is 10A, switching frequency 2.8
Calculation
is slightly above resonant frequency ( f r = 82.5KHz ) 2.6 Experimental

2.4
and the work-coil current peak value is 100A.
2.2

MVI
1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

0.8
0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.2 1.25
f/f0

Fig.7 –voltage transfer function of the implemented inverter versus

Fig.5 -inverter output voltage f=83300 Hz . peak value=
100V.;Horizontal: 5us/div.
f / f 0 ( η I = 75% ).
Fig.8 shows voltage across switches. No voltage
overshoot is present hence; the need for any snubber
circuit was eliminated, which reduce the number of
components needed for the inverter stage.

Fig.6 -inverter output voltage f=71000 Hz ( f / f 0 = 0.86 ).
peak value= 68V.;Horizontal: 5us/div.
Fig.6 shows the output voltage of the inverter when
the output frequency is less than the load resonant
frequency. In this case the resonant tank has an
inductive behavior. Hence, high voltage spikes will
appear on the load, which is undesirable.
TABLE 1. System parameters
Fig.8 -switch voltage f=83300 Hz . peak value= 90V.;Horizontal:
5us/div.
The heating load consists of a 10-turn copper coil
made from 6mm hollow tube. The cast iron work-
piece is placed inside a crucible which is made of a
alumina, capable of withstanding temperature up to
12000C. the maximum recorded temperature was
8000C which is suitable for induction hardening
application.

L DC 27 mH rLDC 0.8 ohm

RCP 6.1 k ohm C 1 µF

RF 0.017 ohm rDS 0.22 ohm

L 3.7 uH R LP 190 ohm

f 83300 Hz VI 72 V

RL 13 ohm C oss 500pF

Fig.9 -work-coil; alumina crucible and work piece

439
 6. Conclusion
In this article the topology of the current source
parallel-resonant inverter was investigated and the loss
equation for every circuit component has been
calculated. These equations can be used for
minimizing loss in design step and proper heat sink
selection in cooling system. The equations provide
easy-to-use design tools and good insight into inverter
operation. Experimental results prove the proposed
equations.

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