Soft-switching techniques for pulse-width-modulated converters

The concept of soft-switching pulse-width-modulated (PWM) technique was proposed aimed at combining the advantages of both the conventional PWM technique and the resonant technique. This work presents four new families of soft-switching PWM converters: the zero-voltage-switched (ZVS) PWM converters, the zero-current-switched (ZCS) PWM converters, the zerovoltage- transition (ZVT) PWM converters, and the zero-current-transition (ZCT) PWM converters.

The family of ZVS- and ZCS-PWM converters are developed to improve the performance of the ZVS and ZCS quasi-resonant converters, respectively. The principles of operations of these two families of converters are presented, and the merits and limitations are assessed. A number of experimental converters are breadboarded to verify the theoretical analysis.

Both the ZVT-PWM and ZCT-PWM techniques use the concept of shunt resonant network to achieve soft-switching. In this way, the new converters achieve soft-switching without increasing the voltage and current stresses of the power switches and diodes. By using the boost topology as an example, a complete dc analysis of the ZVT-PWM and ZCT-PWM converters is presented, and the dc Voltage-conversion ratio characteristics are derived. Design trade-offs are examined, and design procedures are established. The theoretical analysis and novel features of the proposed converters are verified on a number of breadboarded converters.

Finally, the typical small-signal characteristics of the ZVT -PWM converters are analyzed and verified experimentally by using the boost converter as an example.