IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO.
4, APRIL 2009
Family of Soft-Switching PWM Converters With
Current Sharing in Switches
Ehsan Adib, Student Member, IEEE, and Hosein Farzanehfard, Member, IEEE
Abstract—In this paper, a new family of soft-switching
pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converters is introduced. In
this family of converters, two switches operate out of phase and
share the output current while providing soft-switching condition
for each other. A buck converter, from this family of converters,
is analyzed and its operating modes are discussed. The adoption
of regular PWM control circuit to the proposed converters is pre-
sented. A prototype converter is implemented and its experimental
results are illustrated.
Index Terms—DC–DC power conversion, zero-current (ZC)
switching, zero-voltage switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
N ORDER to increase the efficiency and power conversion
I density, soft-switching techniques are vastly applied to
dc–dc converters. Resonant and quasi-resonant converters are
a family of soft-switching converters. In these converters, a
resonant tank is added to the converter. Thus, resonances occur
in the switch current or in the voltage across the switch. During
these resonances when the switch current or voltage reaches
zero, the switch can be turned on or off under soft-switching
condition. Since the switch-on time or switch-off time is lim-
ited by the resonance period, so the converter output power is
usually controlled by variation of switching frequency. In order
to improve these converters, zero-voltage transition (ZVT)
and zero-current transition (ZCT) converters are developed. In
these converters, the resonances are limited only to switching
instances, and therefore the converter operates like a regular
pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converter. In these converters,
an auxiliary circuit that provides soft switching is connected
to the converter by an auxiliary switch at switching instances.
In ZVT converters, by turning the auxiliary switch on, the
output capacitor of the main switch is discharged to provide
zero-voltage switching condition for switch turn-on. In ZCT
converters, by turning the auxiliary switch on, the main switch
current is reduced to zero for switch turn-off. In ZVT con-
verters, soft-switching condition for switch turn-off is provided
by adding a capacitor across the main switch, and in ZCT
converters, a series inductor provides soft-switching condition
for switch turn-on. ZVT and ZCT converters have the advan-
tages of resonant and quasi-resonant converters suchas soft
Manuscript received July 30, 2008; revised September 24, 2008. First pub-
lished January 23, 2009; current version published nulldate. Recommended for
publication by Associate Editor F. Z. Peng.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 8415683111, Iran (e-mail:
adib.ehsan@gmail.com; hosein@cc.iut.ac.ir).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2008.2008022
979
switching and low electromagnetic interference (EMI), while
the converter output power is still controlled with variation of
duty cycle like PWM converters.
In ZVT and ZCT converters, an auxiliary circuit containing
resonant elements and an auxiliary switch is used that provide
soft switching at switching instances and is usually incapable of
transferring energy from an input source to output [1]–[20]. In
some of these converters or some members of converter family,
the auxiliary circuit can boost the effective duty cycle, but the
amount of energy that is transferred through the auxiliary circuit
cannot be controlled once the converter is designed [14]–[18]. In
the ZVT converter family introduced in [19], the output current
can be shared between main and auxiliary switches even though
the authors did not have the intention of current sharing for these
converters. Nevertheless, in these converters, the current stress
of the auxiliary switch in current sharing condition is very high.
Besides, in this converter family, the auxiliary switch turn-off is
not soft. In ZCT converters introduced in [20], the output current
is shared between the switches; however, the switches do not
turn off under soft-switching condition.
This paper introduces a new family of soft-switched PWM
converters. In this converter family, two switches share the
output current while providing soft-switching condition for
each other. The buck converter from this converter family is
analyzed and its operating modes are discussed in the second
section. In the third section, the design considerations are
discussed. In the fourth section, adopting conventional PWM
controllers to proposed converters is presented. Experimental
results are illustrated in the fifth section. Other proposed con-
verter family members are introduced in the sixth section.
II. CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION
The proposed soft-switching switch cell is shown in Fig. 1(a)
and is applied to a buck converter, as shown in Fig. 1(b). The
proposed buck converter is composed of two switches and
, two diodes and , two coupled inductors and
with turns ratio of 1: , filter inductor , and filter capacitor
. The snubber capacitor of is . The converter has seven
different operating intervals in a switching cycle. To simplify
the converter analysis, it is assumed that inductor is large
enough so that its current is almost constant in a switching cycle
and is equal to . Also, the input voltage is assumed constant
and is equal to in a switching cycle. The main theoretical
waveforms of the proposed buck converter are shown in Fig. 2,
and the equivalent circuit for each operating interval is shown in
Fig. 3. Before the first interval, it is assumed that is charged
to , diode is conducting, and all other semiconductor
devices are OFF.
980 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 4, APRIL 2009

Interval 1 : This interval starts by turning on,

and thus input voltage is placed across . Inductor current
equation during this interval is

(1)

According to (1), zero-current (ZC) switching condition is

provided for turn-on. voltage stress during this interval is

(2)

This interval ends when current reaches and turns

off under ZC condition.
Interval 2 : In this interval, a resonance starts
between and , and this capacitor is discharged until its
voltage reaches zero. voltage and current during this
interval are

Fig. 1. (a) Proposed soft-switching switch cell. (b) Proposed soft-switching

buck converter. (3)
(4)

where

(5)

(6)

Interval 3 : In this interval, either or the body

diode of may start to conduct. If the semiconductor devices
are assumed ideal, this interval cannot be analyzed. In practice,
the body diode of starts to conduct only if the voltage across
is reduced to where is the conducting
voltage of and is the conducting voltage of body
diode. At this condition, the voltage across is
and the voltage across is , which
is equal , and therefore is already for-
ward biased, and thus must be conducting. Since is large
(i.e., > 5), once is conducting, the voltage across body
diode is very small to be forward biased for any reasonable cir-
cuit elements. The experimental results presented in Section V
approve this fact. It is important to notice that large value of
is desirable as discussed in Section III. Therefore, in practice,
always starts to conduct. Since the total ampere turns of
and is constant and also current should be equal to sum
of and current, the relevant equations for and cur-
rents during this interval are

(7)

Fig. 2. Main theoretical waveforms of the proposed buck converter. (8)

ADIB AND FARZANEHFARD: FAMILY OF SOFT-SWITCHING PWM CONVERTERS WITH CURRENT SHARING IN SWITCHES 981

Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit for each operating interval of the proposed circuit (only semiconductor devices that carry current are shown). (a) [ t 0t ]. (b) [ t 0t ].
(c) [t 0 t ]. (d) [ t 0 t ]. (e) [ t 0 t ]. (f) [t 0 t ]. (g) [ t0 +t T ].

In this interval, is ON and energy is transferred from the is charged with current until its voltage reaches . There-
input voltage source to output. Any time during this interval, fore, the duration of this interval is
can be turned on under zero-voltage zero-current (ZVZC)
conditions. The ZC condition is due to since its current
remains constant and no current flows through . (11)
Interval 4 : This interval begins with turning
off and since and are ON, this switch is turned off under Interval 6 : In this interval, begins to conduct and
zero-voltage (ZV) condition. Since the total ampere turns of is placed across till its current reduces to zero. Therefore,
and should remain constant, and currents during this the duration of this interval is
interval are

(12)

(9) voltage during this interval is

(10)

In practice, since is small, and have a very small (13)

leakage inductor. By turning off, the energy of this leakage
inductance is absorbed by output capacitor and a small Interval 7 : is conducting during this interval
voltage will occur across this switch. Therefore, S1 turns off and the converter operates like a regular buck converter.
under almost ZV condition. This effect can be observed in the
experimental results. During this interval, the energy is still III. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
transferred from the input source to output. The filter inductor and filter capacitor are designed like a reg-
Interval 5 : This interval begins by turning off ular PWM buck converter. Therefore, it is important to select
and starts charging. Since the duration of this interval is , , , and semiconductor devices. is the snubber ca-
small, current can be assumed almost constant, and thus pacitor of and its value can be calculated like any turn-off
982
Fig. 4. Schematic of the converter controller.
snubber [21]. is the turn-on snubber of and its value can
be calculated like any turn-on snubber too [21]. When and
are ON, an additional circulating current stress is applied to these
switches that can be calculated from (7), (9), and (10). As it can
be observed from these equations, this additional current stress
can be reduced to any extent with selection of large values for
and . If necessary, in order to increase , can be overde-
signed. Large value of will also decrease the voltage stress
of , which can be calculated from (14). However, this will in-
crease the voltage stress of that is calculated from (2), which
is a minor concern. Therefore, can be selected between 5 and
10 or even higher. In the seventh interval, current should be
decreased to zero
(14)
where is the converter maximum duty cycle and is the
switching period. The previous equation can be simplified as
follows:
(15)
Therefore, has a limitation that can be calculated from
the previous equation. Also, the converter minimum duty cycle
is limited to the duration of first and second intervals. Therefore
(16)
IV. ADOPTING CONVENTIONAL PWM CONTROLLERS WITH
THE PROPOSED CONVERTER
The schematic of the controller for the proposed converter
is shown in Fig. 4 . The output gate pulse of the conventional
PWM controller is applied to a derivative circuit, and then to
a Schmitt trigger buffer (like ICL7667). By tuning the deriva-
tive elements, the output of the Schmitt trigger buffer is a pulse
with maximum duration of where is con-
verter maximum operating duty cycle that occurs at nominal
load. This pulse is applied to . The output pulse of the con-
ventional PWM converter is also applied to an integrator cir-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 4, APRIL 2009
Fig. 5. Schematic of the implemented circuit.
cuit, and then to a Schmitt trigger buffer. By tuning the inte-
grator elements, the output of this buffer is a pulse with max-
imum duration of and delay of . This
pulse is a proper pulse for . With this circuit, at converter
nominal duty cycle, two pulses with equal duration are applied
to the switches and output current is equally shared between
the switches. At lower operating duty cycles, the duration of
pulse is decreased while duration of pulse remains equal
to . With this circuit, the conventional PWM con-
trollers can be simply adopted for controlling the proposed con-
verter. If the duty cycle decreases to less than , only
S1 turns on. In this condition, turn-off losses are less than reg-
ular buck converters due to , and this switch turn-off is under
almost ZV condition.
V. DESIGN EXAMPLE AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A 200-W laboratory prototype operating at 100 kHz is im-
plemented. The converter input voltage is around 100 V and its
output voltage is 40 V. According to [21] and considering 2-A
current ripple for , the value of this inductor is calculated as
100 H. Also, a 50- F capacitor is used as the output filter ca-
pacitor to have less than 0.2-V output voltage ripple. Since the
voltage stress of switches is approximately 100 V, IRF640 is
used for switches. By substituting the specifications of IRF640
from its datasheet in the equations presented in [21], the min-
imum value for and are calculated as 0.8 H and 1.8 nF,
respectively. However, in order to clearly verify the achieved
soft-switching condition, a 10-nF capacitor is used for and a
10- H inductor is used for . In an ideal buck converter with
aforementioned input and output voltage levels and switching
frequency, the switch is ON for 4 s and is OFF for 6 s. Since
0.5 s of the duty cycle is lost due to in the first interval, so
the switch-on time should be 4.5 s. Also, considering 90% ef-
ficiency for the converter at the worst case condition and input
voltage ripple, the maximum switch-on time is approximately
5 s. Therefore, according to (15) , with the selected value of
, is limited to 7. The complete implemented circuit and its
parameters are shown in Fig. 5. In order to implement couple
inductors and , EE-19 ferrite core with five turns winding
for and a very small air gap is used. Also, an EE-30 fer-
ADIB AND FARZANEHFARD: FAMILY OF SOFT-SWITCHING PWM CONVERTERS WITH CURRENT SHARING IN SWITCHES 983

Fig. 6. Waveforms: (top) voltage waveform and (bottom) current waveform.

(a) S (vertical scale is 80 V/division or 5 A/division, time scale is 1  s/di-
vision). (b) S (vertical scale is 80 V/division or 5 A/division, time scale is 1
s/division). (c) D (vertical scale is 80 V/division or 5 A/division, time scale
is 1 s/division). (d) D (vertical scale is 200 V/division or 2 A/division, time
scale is 1 s/division).

Fig. 7. Efficiency of the proposed soft-switching buck converter (continuous

line) in comparison with the regular buck converter (broken line).
Fig. 8. Other basic soft-switching dc–dc converters. (a) Boost. (b) Buck–boost.
(c) Cuk. (d) SEPIC. (e) Zeta.

rite core with 30 turns winding and 1 mm air gap is used for
implementation of . A high-voltage diode (BYV26E) is used
for . Usually, high-voltage diodes have high reverse recovery
time, but since this diode is in series with a large inductor ( ),
its reverse recovery time is not so important. The experimental
results are presented in Fig. 6 that justifies the theoretical anal-
ysis. The converter efficiency curve is presented in Fig. 7. The
efficiency of the hard switching converter is for a buck converter
with same parameters using IRF640 for its switch and BYV32
for its diode. In theoretical analysis, it was predicted that cur-
rent remains zero until is turned off. However, in practice due
to conducting voltage, current has increased before is
turned off and current does not remain constant as specified
in the third interval. This is a desirable effect since it decreases
the converter circulating current and also reduces the leakage
inductance energy.
VI. OTHER SOFT-SWITCHED CONVERTERS
The proposed switch cell can be used instead of converter
switch in any basic dc–dc converter such as buck, boost,
buck–boost, Cuk, SEPIC, and zeta. Also, the proposed switch
cell can be applied to single-switch isolated converters such as
forward, flyback, isolated Cuk, and isolated SEPIC converters.
The operation of this auxiliary circuit in these converters is
similar to its operation in the buck converter. These converters
are shown in Figs. 8 and 9.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new soft-switching switch cell is introduced
that can be applied in dc–dc converters instead of their switch.
This switch cell is composed of two switches that provide soft-
984
Fig. 9. Isolated soft-switching converters. (a) Forward. (b) Flyback. (c) Isolated
Cuk. (d) Isolated SEPIC.
switching condition for each other. Furthermore, the converter
output current can be shared between the switches. The pro-
posed soft-switching buck converter is analyzed and the pre-
sented experimental results confirm the validity of the solution.
REFERENCES
[1] G. Hua, E. X. Yang, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, “Novel zero-current-tran-
sition PWM converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 9, no. 6,
pp. 601–606, Nov. 1994.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 24, NO. 4, APRIL 2009
[2] H. Mao, F. C. Lee, X. Zhou, H. Dai, M. Cosan, and D. Boroyevich,
“Improved zero-current transition converters for high power applica-
tions,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl, vol. 33, no. 5, pp. 1220–1232, Sep./Oct.
1997.
[3] J. Zhang, X. Xie, X. Wu, G. Wu, and Z. Qian, “A novel zero current
transition full bridge DC/DC converter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron.
, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 354–360, Mar. 2006.
[4] C. J. Tseng and C. L. Chen, “Novel ZVT–PWM converters with active
snubbers,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 861–869 ,
Sep. 1998.
[5] M. L. Martins, H. Pinheiro, J. R. Pinheiro, H. A. Grundling, and H. L.
Hey, “ Family of improved ZVT PWM converters using a self-commu-
tated auxiliary network,” Proc. Inst. Electr. Eng Electr. Power Appl.,
vol. 150, no. 6, pp. 680 –688, 2003.
[6] W. Huang and G. Moschopoulos, “A new family of zero-voltage-tran-
sition PWM converters with dual active auxiliary circuit ,” IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 370–379, Mar. 2006.
[7] D. Y. Lee, M. K. Lee, D. S. Hyun, and I. Choy, “New zero-current-tran-
sition PWM DC/DC converters without current Stress ,” IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 95–104, Jan. 2003.
[8] H. S. Choi and B. H. Cho, “ Novel zero-current-switching (ZCS) PWM
switch cell minimizing additional conduction loss,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 49, no. 1, pp. 165–172, Feb. 2002.
[9] P. Das and G. Moschopoulos, “A zero-current-transition converter with
reduced auxiliary circuit losses,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 22,
no. 4, pp. 1464–1471, Jul. 2007.
[10] C. M. Wang, “A novel ZCS PWM flyback converter with a simple ZCS
PWM commutation cell ,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 2,
pp. 749–757, Feb. 2008.
[11] E. Adib and H. Farzanehfard, “Family of isolated zero voltage transi-
tion PWM converters,” Inst. Eng. Technol. Power Electron., vol. 1, no.
1, pp. 144–153, 2008.
[12] N. Lakshminarasamma and V. Ramanarayanan, “A family of auxiliary
switch ZVS-PWM DC–DC converters with coupled inductor ,” IEEE
Trans. Power Electron., vol. 22, no. 5, pp. 2008–2017, Sep. 2007.
[13] S. P. Yang, J. L. Lin, and S. J. Chen, “A novel ZCZVT forward con-
verter with synchronous rectification,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 912–922, Jul. 2006.
[14] C. M. Wang, “A new family of zero-current-switching (ZCS) PWM
converters ,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1117–1125,
Aug. 2005.
[15] C. M. Wang, “Novel zero-voltage-transition PWM DC–DC converters
,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 254–262, Feb. 2006.
[16] I. Barbi, J. C. Bolacell, D. C. Martins, and F. B. Libano, “Buck
quasiresonant converter operating at constant frequency: Analysis,
design and experimentation,” in Proc. IEEE PESC Conf., 1989, pp.
873–880.
[17] E. Adib and H. Farzanehfard, “Family of zero-current transition PWM
converters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 8, pp. 3055–3063
, Aug. 2008.
[18] E. Adib and H. Farzanehfard, “Family of zero current zero voltage tran-
sition PWM converters,” Inst. Eng. Technol. Power Electron., vol. 1, no.
2, pp. 214 –223, 2008.
[19] G. Hua, C. S. Leu, Y. Jiang, and F. C. Lee, “Novel zero-voltage-tran-
sition PWM converter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 9, no. 2, pp.
213–219, Mar. 1994.
[20] M. Ilic and D. Maksimovic, “Interleaved zero current transition buck
converter,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 1619–1627 , Nov./
Dec. 2007.
[21] A. I. Pressman, Switching Power Supply Design, 2nd ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1998.
Ehsan Adib (S’08) was born in Isfahan, Iran, in
1982. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in elec-
trical engineering in 2003 and 2006, respectively,
from the Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan,
Iran, where he is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering.
His current research interests include soft-
switching techniques in dc–dc converters.
ADIB AND FARZANEHFARD: FAMILY OF SOFT-SWITCHING PWM CONVERTERS WITH CURRENT SHARING IN SWITCHES 985

Hosein Farzanehfard (M’08) was born in Isfahan, Technology Institute. His current research interests include high-frequency
Iran, in 1961. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees soft-switching converters, pulse power applications, power factor correction,
in electrical engineering from the University of Mis- active power filters, and high-frequency electronic ballasts. He is the author or
souri, Columbia, in 1983 and 1985, respectively, and coauthor of more than 70 technical papers published in journals and conference
the Ph.D. degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute proceedings.
and State University, Blacksburg, in 1992.
Since 1993, he has been a faculty member in the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran,
where he is currently an Associate Professor and the
President of the Information and Communication