Design and Evaluation of GaN-Based Dual-Phase Interleaved MHz Critical Mode

PFC Converter
Zhengyang Liu, Xiucheng Huang, Mingkai Mu, Yuchen Yang, Fred C. Lee, Qiang Li
Center for Power Electronics Systems
The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061 USA
Abstract This paper presents the design consideration and
performance evaluation of gallium nitride (GaN) high electron
mobility transistor (HEMT) based dual-phase interleaved MHz
critical conduction mode (CRM) power factor correction (PFC)
converter. A 1.2kW 1-3MHz interleaved boost PFC converter
prototype is built with 97.9% peak efficiency and 120W/in3
power density. The significant impact of MHz frequency is
demonstrated as dramatically size reduction of boost inductor
and electro-magnetic interference (EMI) filter. Several inductor
designs are discussed. The corner frequency of EMI filter is
pushed to several hundreds of kHz. Finally, the limitation of
conventional boost PFC converter is discussed as high
conduction loss on diode rectifier bridge and high switching loss
caused by valley switching, which is negligible in other low
frequency PFC converter but significant in MHz PFC converter.
The totem-pole bridgeless PFC converter is introduced to
further improve the efficiency with no rectifier bridge and zerovoltage switching (ZVS) extension strategy.

Combining the merits of CRM PFC converter and high

voltage GaN HEMT, a GaN-based PFC converter is able to
be built in several MHz operating frequency. Then the
important impact of GaN-based MHz PFC is expected to be
significant size reduction of inductor and EMI filter and, as a
result, dramatically improvement of the power density.
In this paper, the high frequency capability of high-voltage
GaN HEMT is first discussed in section II. CRM is selected
as a good candidate for the GaN-based PFC converter. Next,
design and evaluation of dual-phase interleaved MHz CRM
boost PFC converter are discussed in section III including
detailed design consideration, experimental results, different
inductor design comparison, and important MHz impact on
EMI filter. Finally, limitations of conventional boost PFC
converter are analyzed and totem-pole bridgeless PFC
converter with ZVS extension strategy is introduced as a
promising candidate for further efficiency improvement.

I. INTRODUCTION
The critical conduction mode (CRM) boost power factor
correction (PFC) converters are widely used in off-line power
supplies due to its merits of zero-current switching (ZCS)
turn off of the diode and zero-voltage switching (ZVS) or
valley switching turn on of the main switch [1-3]. By
interleaving two CRM boost PFC converters, the ripple of the
input and output current and the size of the input differential
mode (DM) electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter can be
reduced significantly, while the power rating can be extended
to a higher level [4]. In addition, phase shedding strategy can
be used to improve the light load efficiency.
With the advent of 600V-class gallium nitride (GaN) high
electron mobility transistor (HEMT), the converters
switching frequency is able to be pushed to multi MHz. This
is a dramatically improvement compared to the high
frequency capability of a silicon (Si) based power
semiconductor device. Previous research has demonstrated
that the switching loss is dominant of total loss in MHz
frequency hard switching condition, and soft switching is still
critical to achieve high efficiency for the high voltage GaN
HEMT [5-7].
This work was supported primarily by the Power Management
Consortium (PMC) in CPES, Virginia Tech

978-1-4799-5776-7/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

II. HIGH FREQUENCY CAPABILITY OF GAN HEMT

Recently, high voltage depletion mode GaN HEMTs in
cascode structure are becoming available and popular due to
its easy and safe driving, compared to high voltage
enhancement mode GaN HEMTs. The characterization and
evaluation of 600V-class cascode GaN HEMT is continued
reported in recent literature. According to comparisons
between hard switching and soft switching, it has been
illustrated that due to the capacitor charge effect and/or
reverse recovery effect of low voltage Si MOSFET in
cascode GaN HEMT, and the common source inductance
effect, there is significantly high switching loss occurring in
hard-switching turn-on transition [5-7]. As a result, soft
switching technics is justified as critical for high-voltage GaN
HEMT to achieve high frequency and high efficiency,
especially when pushing the frequency to multi MHz.
In addition, as analyzed in paper [6], attributing to the
unique feature of cascode configuration, there is a current
source turn off mechanism existing in cascode GaN HEMTs.
So the turn-off switching loss is extremely small even at high
current turn-off condition (10-15A). Then the use of CRM
soft-switching technics, which has only ZVS turn on but hard
switching turn off for the main switch, is further justified.

611

D1

D2

L1

D1

L2

D2

D3

+
CO

VIN

Load
-

S1

S2

Master
Phase
Controller

Slave
Phase
Controller

600V
SiC Diode

2.7 inch

D4

600V
GaN HEMT

TSW /2 Delay

3.6 inch

Figure 1. Diagram of dual-phase CRM PFC converter

Table 1. Parameters of the PFC converter
Input voltage (RMS)
200~240V
Output voltage
390V
Rated output power
1.2kW
Switching frequency
1~3MHz
Active switch
TPH3006PS
Diode
C3D10060A

Vin

IL2

IL1

10

5
Vin=240V
3
Vin=200V
1

Frequency (MHz)

Frequency (MHz)

10

Figure 3. Prototype of dual-phase MHz PFC converter

(a)

20%PO

Vin
(100V/div)

50%PO

VDS_2

100%PO

(100V/div)

1
1/120

IL2

(a)
(b)
Figure 2. Variable frequency in half line cycle with (a) different input
voltage at full output power, (b) 230Vac input and different output power

IL1

1/240
Time (ms)

1/120

1/240

(10A/div)

Time (ms)

Valley Switching

ZVS

(10A/div)

(b)
(c)
Figure 4. Experimental waveforms of dual-phase interleaved CRM PFC
at full load, (a) waveform in line cycle, (b) zoom-in waveform when
vin>1/2Vo, (c) zoom-in waveform when vin<1/2Vo.
Table 2. Testing results of the PFC converter
Input voltage
230Vac
Output voltage
380V
Full power
1.2kW
Peak efficiency
97.9%
Power density
120W/in3
Input current THD
9.7% @ full load
Power factor
0.995 @ full load

III. DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF MHZ CRM BOOST PFC

CONVERTER
A. Operation Principle
The operation principle of single-phase CRM PFC
converter is clear described in paper [1]. In a steady state, the
on time ton of the main switch is constant and can be express
as
(1)
where L is the inductance value of boost inductor, Po is the
output power of converter, is the estimated efficiency of
converter, and Vin is the root-mean-square (RMS) value of
the input voltage.
Different with the on time, the switching frequency is
variable related to sinusoidal input voltage as
(2)
For control methods of single-phase CRM PFC converter,
current mode pulse-width modulation (PWM) control and
voltage mode PWM control are commonly used [2]. Since
voltage mode control eliminates the multiplier used to shape
the peak current reference in current mode control, it is
considered as simpler and preferred.
For control of dual-phase interleaved CRM PFC converter,
due to its variable switching frequency nature, the switching
frequency need to be detected and synchronized all the time.
So it is always a challenge to achieve good interleaving
between two phases. Many literature are focused on this issue
and the proposed control methods are usually divided into

Figure 5. Converter efficiency (single phase)

Figure 6. Loss breakdown (single phase, full load, averaged in line cycle)

two category, open-loop control methods and close-loop

control methods [8, 9]. Open-loop control methods have
advantage for easy implementation compared to close-loop
control methods. Open-loop control methods can also be
divided into four category according to two different control
methods for single-phase CRM PFC converter and

612

Table 3. Inductor parameters

Material
Shape
Relative permeability
Winding
Turn
Core loss density (at Vin(t)_peak)
Air gap
Core loss (at Vin(t)_peak)
Winding loss (at Vin(t)_peak)

Inductor 1
Ferrite
Ferroxcube
3F45
ER23/3.6/13
900
400/44 AWG
12
500kW/m3
1.8mm
1.8W
5.2W

Inductor 2
Powder
Micrometals
-2
T80(20.2/12.6/6.35)
10
400/44 AWG
34
4000kW/m3
3.11W
0.54W

20mm

23mm

1.8mm

9mm

12mm

23mm

23mm

(a)

(b)
Figure 7. Inductor design comparison. (a) inductor 1, (b) inductor 2

(a)

(b)

Figure 8. Simulated magnetic field strength in the winding regions of two studied cases, (a) The field penetrating the winding region
in ferrite inductor (case 1), (b) The field penetrating the windng region of powder inductor (case 2)

different synchronization instant between slave phase and

master phase. However, paper [8] has further demonstrated
that only the one of four methods with current-mode control
and turn-on instant synchronization is stable no matter duty
cycle is smaller or greater than 50%.
So for the dual-phase interleaved MHz CRM PFC converter
in this paper, this open-loop control method is used.
B. A Design Example and Its Performance Evaluation
A GaN-based dual-phase interleaved MHz CRM PFC
converter is designed following the aforementioned operation
principle and control method. Figure 1 is the circuit diagram
while specific design parameters are shown in Table 1.
The switching is variable in wide range according to
different working conditions. Figure 2(a) shows the variable
switching frequency in half line cycle with different input
voltage and full output power. Figure 2(b) shows the variable
switching frequency in half line cycle with 230V input
voltage and different output power. Frequency limit will be
set at input voltage zero crossing and light load condition.
The trade-off will be played according to efficiency, input
current distortion, and EMI.

The interleaving control is implemented with open-loop

control method and the two phases are in master-slave
relationship. It means the master phase works as a standalone CRM PFC converter while the slave phase always
delays one half switching period compared to the master
phase. Current mode control method is adopted for the closeloop control of each individual phase and the turn-on instant
is synchronized.
Figure 3 is the prototype of this dual-phase interleaved
MHz CRM boost PFC converter. The footprint is shown in
this figure while the thickness is 1.05 inch which is decided
by the bulky capacitor for hold-up time and output voltage
ripple requirement. One of the advantages by pushing
frequency to MHz is the size reduction of boost inductor.
More analysis about the inductor design is in the next part.
The power density of this prototype is achieved 120W/in3.
Figure 4 shows experimental waveforms of interleaved
dual-phase PFC converter. In these waveforms, the envelop
of inductor current is in sinusoidal shape; either valley
switching or ZVS turn on is achieved depending on the input
voltage;

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Table 4. Tested inductor loss

DCR
ACR
Core
Total
Loss/mW Loss/mW Loss/mW Loss/mW

10

Ferrite Core (400/44)

Ferrite
420/46
Powder
420/46

Ferrite Core (420/46)

10

R
(ohm)
Rac
(ohm)

Toriod Powder (400/44)

Toriod Powder (420/46)
0

10

304

808

1800

2912

451

570

3110

4131
420/46
330/46
250/46
175/46

10
-1

10

-2

10

10
5

10

10

Rac (ohm)

10

Freq (Hz)

Figure 9. Calculated AC winding resistance

the switching frequency is keeping increasing when the input

voltage decreasing as depicted in Figure 2; interleaving is
achieved between two phase inductor current.
The efficiency curve of the dual-phase interleaved PFC
converter is shown in Figure 5. For further analysis, a loss
breakdown is conducted based on previously developed loss
model [6][7]. Figure 6 shows the loss breakdown results for
different input voltage and full load condition. It indicates
that diode rectifier conduction loss and GaN HEMT
switching loss due to non-ZVS valley switching are dominant
factors.

-1

10

-2

10

10

10

10

Freq (Hz)

Figure 10. Calculated AC resistance of different number of strands

Table 5. Tested inductor with different number of stands
DCR
ACR
Core
Total
Loss/mW Loss/mW
Loss/mW
Loss/mW
170/46
596
513
1800
2909
250/46
428
566
1800
2794
330/46
362
698
1800
2860
420/46
304
808
1800
2912

C. Inductor Design Comparison

The inductor design for MHz CRM PFC converter is a
challenge because at MHz frequency the winding loss usually
increase significantly. Two inductors are made as examples
shown in Table 3 and Figure 7. The core loss and winding
loss are measured according to the method proposed in paper
[10][11]. Inductor 2 and inductor 3 made with powder core (2 material from micrometals) have high core loss owing to
the nature of core material. On the contrary, the core loss of
inductor 1 is smaller, however its winding loss is much
higher than the other two inductors although the winding
length is much shorter. The significant winding loss of
inductor 1 is highly related to the specific inductor structure,
that the winding is embraced closely by the high permeability
core material, so that MMF are exerted on a small volume of
the winding area. This will cause higher magnetic field
strength penetrating the winding and higher eddy current loss.
The large gap also generates more fringing flux, which makes
the eddy current loss even higher. The toroid powder core is
embraced by the winding, and the MMF around the winding
is exposed to the free space. So the eddy current loss on the
winding is much lower compared to the ferrite case.
The winding loss of litz wire is difficult to calculate very
accurately. Here we use the square-field-derivative (SFD)
method [12] to estimate the difference between the ferrite
inductor (case 1) and the powder inductor (case 2).
With the simulated field, we can calculate the winding
resistance of the two inductors, as shown in Figure 9. At
1MHz, the ferrite inductors resistance is about 3 times of the
toroid powder inductors, although it uses shorter winding.

This is caused by higher field in the winding region, as the

FEA simulation result shown in the figures above. To reduce
the winding loss, litz wire with finer wire should be used.
With awg 420/46 litz wire, both AC resistance of the
ferrite and powder core can be reduced at 1MHz, as shown in
Figure 9. The ferrite core has more significant reduction
because its winding loss is more sensitive to the penetrating
field. With finer litz wire, the total inductor of the ferrite is
lower than the powder core.
The number of strands of the litz wire should also be
optimized, because the more strands the lower DC loss but
higher eddy current loss simply because more copper is
exposed in the alternating field. Several litz wire with
different number of strands are analyzed and tested.
So the inductor of lowest loss is the ferrite core with
250/46 litz wire is optimal. Its loss at the peak current is less
than 2.8W, so the averaged loss over line cycle is even lower.
D. MHz Impact on EMI Filter Design
EMI filters are always a bulky part of front-end converters
to meet international EMI standard. According to EN55022,
EMI noise has strict limit beginning from 150kHz.
Predictions have been made in literature [13] that when
pushing frequency above 400kHz, the required corner
frequency continues increasing and the size and weight of
EMI filter keep decreasing.
Figure 11 is the DM noise spectrum in which the red curve
is measured DM noise of a single phase MHz CRM PFC
converter at 200Vac input voltage and full output power. The
blue curve is predicted DM noise according to a

614

Measurement

Amplitude (dB)

120

Prediction
EN55022 class B
quasi peak standard

100

80
60
40
100k

1M

10M

100M

Frequency (Hz)

Figure 12. Simulation waveform of ZVS-extension totem-pole PFC

Figure 11. DM noise spectrum

mathematical model proposed in paper [14]. Compared to

EN55022 class B standard, 61dB attenuation is required at
1.06MHz. If typical two stage DM filter is applied, the
corresponding corner frequency is calculated as 183kHz
which is much higher than current industry practice. Detailed
analysis and EMI filter design will be covered by future
publication.

Figure 13. Interleaved totem-pole PFC converter

E. Limitation of Conventional Boost PFC Converter

The loss breakdown in Figure 6 indicates that diode
rectifier conduction loss and GaN HEMT switching loss are
two dominant factors. Regarding the rectifier conduction loss,
it can be reduced by one half if any bridgeless PFC converter
is applied. On the other hand, in regard to the switching loss
caused by non-ZVS valley switching, it is inevitable for CRM
PFC converter when the input voltage is higher than one half
of the output voltage. The switching loss can be expressed in
the following equations,
(3)

(4)
Figure 8 shows the distribution of instant loss and half line
cycle averaged loss with different input voltages. Although
the equation is complicated, the trend is clear that such
switching loss is significant and increase with input voltage.
To solve the non-ZVS problem of CRM boost PFC
converter, totem-pole bridgeless PFC converter, which can
achieve full input voltage ZVS by operating in quasi-square
wave (QSW) mode in certain conditions, is seems a good
candidate. Several papers [15][16][17] have talked about this
possibility and demonstrated in Si-based totem-pole
bridgeless PFC converters. Paper [18] demonstrates a 50kHz
frequency CCM hard switching totem-pole PFC reaching
99% peak efficiency. The specialty for GaN-based MHz PFC
converter is that the non-ZVS loss is quickly becoming the
most significant loss (Figure 8(b)) which is not often true for
Si-based comparatively low frequency PFC converter.
To solve the non-ZVS issue, quasi-square-wave (QSW)
mode operation is adopted in the region that the input voltage
is than one half of the output voltage. Figure 12 shows the
simulated line cycle input voltage and current waveform.

Figure 14. Simulation of interleaved totem-pole PFC converter

Within the region between two dashed black line, the

negative current is increased with the input voltage which is
purposely introduced to achieve ZVS. The zoom-in
waveform at the blue line time instant shows that the on-time
of SR is extend so that inductor current goes into negative
and ZVS is achieved.
Figure 13 shows two phase interleaved totem-pole PFC
converter. Figure 14 is simulation waveforms for each phase
inductor current and total input current. Ripple cancellation
effect is clearly observed.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
A 1.2kW 1-3MHz GaN-based dual-phase interleaved CRM
boost PFC converter is demonstrated with 97.9% peak
efficiency and 120W/in3 power density. Different Inductor
designs show that inductor loss is high and thus it is one of
the challenge for MHz PFC converter design. By pushing
frequency above 1 MHz, the benefit for EMI filter design is
significant. As the required corner frequency of EMI filter
has reached hundreds of kHz, dramatic size and weight
reduction can be projected. Finally, CRM boost PFC has its
limitation that rectifier conduction loss and non-ZVS
switching loss are dominant especially in MHz frequency
range. The totem-pole bridgeless PFC converter is introduced
as a promising solution to further improve efficiency by full
line ZVS extension strategy. The predicted peak efficiency is
above 99% while the switching frequency is more than 1MHz.
Hardware demonstration of the totem-pole PFC will be
included in future work.

615

Correction Converters," Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on ,

vol.27, no.7, pp.3150,3157, July 2012

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Transphorm Inc. for
providing GaN device samples.
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