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1.

1 INTRODUCTION

Power electronics is the applications of solid-state electronics for the control


and conversion of electric power.It involves the study of electronic circuits
intended to control the flow of electrical energy.These circuits handle power
flow at levels much higher than the individual device rating.It is
interdisciplinary in nature and is used in a wide variety of industries from
computers to chemical plants to rolling mills.There has been an ever-increasing
demand to increase the switching frequency, power density, efficiency and
dynamic performance of switch-mode power converter, the development of
soft-switching technology has taken an accelerated pace. The importance of
power electronics has grown over the years due to several reasons. The
development and advances in the technology of power semiconductor devices
have revolutionized the application of these devices in the industrial
applications. At present the silicon controlled rectifier with its ON and OFF
states of operation has become versatile in controlling the electric power.A
thyristor presents two states ON and OFF. There are several other devices
which belong to this thyristor family. The use of these devices in thyristor
power converters to control the power improves the utility ranges of these
converters.
Using the members of the thyristor family ,compactness and large
power handling capabilities of the power circuit can be achieved.For high
frequency switching,power transistor ,IGBTs and power MOSFETs can be
employed.
1.2 FUNCTION OF DC-DC CONVERETER
• To convert a dc input voltage Vs into a DC output voltage Vo.
• To regulate the DC output voltage against load and line variations
• To reduce the AC voltage ripple on the DC output voltage below the
required voltage level.
• To provide isolation between the input source and the load
• To protect the supplied system and the input source from
electromagnetic interferences.
• To satisfy various international and national safety standards.

1.3 APPLICATION OF POWER ELECTRONIC CONVERTER

Most DC to DC converters are designed to move power in only one


direction, from the input to the output. However, all switching regulator
topologies can be made bidirectional by replacing all diodes with independently
controlled active rectification . A bidirectional converter can move power in
either direction, which is useful in applications requiring regenerative braking.

Power electronic systems are virtually in every electronic device. For example,
around us:
 DC/DC converters are used in most mobile devices (mobile phones) to
maintain the voltage at a fixed value whatever the charge level of the
battery is. These converters are also used for electronic isolation and
power factor correction.

 AC/DC converters (rectifiers) are used every time an electronic device is


connected to the mains (computer, television,...)

 AC/AC converters are used to change either the voltage level or the
frequency (international power adapters, light dimmer). In power
distribution networks AC/AC converters may be used to exchange power
between utility frequency 50 Hz and 60 Hz power grids.

 DC/AC converters (inverters) are used primarily in UPS or emergency


lamp. During normal electricity condition, the electricity will charge the
DC battery. During blackout time, the DC battery will be used to produce
AC electricity at its output to power up the appliances.

1.4 RESONANT CONVERTERS


Resonant power converters contain resonant L–C networks whose
voltage and current waveforms vary sinusoidally during one or more sub-
intervals of each switching period.The chief advantage of resonant converters is
their reduced switching loss, via mechanisms known as zero-current switching
(ZCS), and zero-voltage switching (ZVS). The turn-on and/or turn-off
transitions of the various converter semiconductor elements can occur at zero
crossings of the resonant converter quasi-sinusoidal waveforms. This eliminates
some of the switching loss mechanisms. In order to protect the devices from the
switching stresses of high off-state voltages and high on-state currents, snubber
circuits are used. Hence, switching loss is reduced, and resonant converters can
operate at switching frequencies that are higher than in comparable PWM
converters. Zero-voltage switching can also eliminate some of the sources of
converter-generated electromagnetic interference.
Resonant converters exhibit some disadvantages. Although the
resonant element values can be chosen such that good performance with high
efficiency is obtained at a single operating point, typically it is difficult to
optimize the resonant elements such that good performance is obtained over a
wide range of load currents and input voltages. Significant currents may
circulate through the tank elements, even when the load is removed, leading to
poor efficiency at light load.
A full-bridge converter is widely used in medium to high power dc-dc
conversions because it can achieve soft-switching without adding any auxiliary
switches. The soft-switching techniques for pwm full bridge converter is classified into
two kinds

i. Zero voltage switching


ii. Zero current switching
The hard switching technology refers to stressful switching behavior of
power electronic devices. During turn-on and turn –off process, the power
devices has to withstand high voltage and current simultaneously resulting in
switching loss. A passive snubber is used to overcome this problem.

Soft switching for the power devices can be achieved by either zero-
voltage switching (ZVS) or zero-current switching (ZCS). ZVS consists of
turning on the switches while the voltage across them is zero. ZCS consists of
turning off the switches when the current through them is zero .Soft switching
has been proven to be an effective means of reducing switching losses and for
attaining higher overall efficiencies.
This switching on the other hand combines the advantage of
conventional pwm converters and resonant converters .The soft- switching
waveforms are similar to conventional pwm converters except that the rising and
falling edges of waveforms are smoothened with no transient spikes. Here
resonance phenomenon is exhibited and it is allowed to occur just before and
during the turn-off process so as to create ZVS - ZCS condition .Further the
advantage of soft-switching is, it can be operated at high frequency and it
suppresses Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI).

The proposed full-bridge converter topology converts the energy from


battery to dc bus and vice versa. The control technology in bidirectional converter
utilizes pulse width modulation. In pwm control the converter switches are turned
ON and OFF several times during a half cycle and the output voltage is controlled
by varying the width of the pulse.

It is desirable for power converters to have high efficiencies and high


power densities. Packaging and cost limitations require that the converter have a
small physical size and weight. Power density and electrical performance are
dependent on the switching frequency as it determines the values of the reactive
components in the converter. Thus, high frequency operation of the converter is
highly desired. However, operation at high frequency results in higher switching
losses and higher switching stresses caused by the circuit parasitic (stray
inductance, junction capacitance).
The main factors that contribute to the high-frequency switching losses are:

• Semiconductor devices have non-zero turn-on and turn-off times and thus
there is a finite time during the transitions wherein the devices are conducting a
significant current while a large voltage is applied across it. This results in large
energy dissipation. This energy loss increases with increasing frequency.

• At high frequencies, high dv/dt and di/dt induce voltage and current
oscillations in parasitic capacitors and inductors during switching transitions.
These oscillations result in higher peak current and voltage in the devices and
thus the switching loss increases. Furthermore, these oscillations create EMI
noise, which can interfere with other parts of the circuit or surrounding
electronic equipment.
• When a device is turned on while having a voltage across it, the energy stored
in the parasitic capacitance across the switch is dissipated in it. This loss
increases with the frequency and is proportional to the square of the voltage
across the device before turn-on.

Soft-switching techniques force the switch voltage or current to zero before the
device switching, thus avoiding current and voltage overlap during the
switching transition.

The advantages of soft switching are as follows:

• Lower switching losses due to smaller overlap of switch voltage and current.

• Lower dv/dt and di/dt and thus lower voltage spike and EMI emissions.

• Higher reliability due to reduced stresses on the switching components.


• Reduced voltage and current ratings for the devices.

• Smaller reactive elements.

ZERO VOLTAGE SWITCHING


ZVS consists of turning on the switches while the voltage across them is zero.
BENEFITS
• Zero power " Lossless " switching transitions.
• Reduced EMI / RFI at transitions
• No power loss.
• No higher peak currents, (ie. ZCS) same as square wave systems
• High efficiency with high voltage inputs atany frequency

Zero-voltage switching of a MOSFET also causes its body diode to operate with
zero-voltage switching. This can eliminate the switching loss associated with
reverse recovery of the slow body diode‚ and improve the reliability of circuits
that forward-bias this diode. Zero-voltage switching can prevent both diode
reverse recovery and semiconductor output capacitances from inducing
switching loss in MOSFETs .Zero-voltage switching can prevent both diode
reverse recovery and semiconductor output capacitances from inducing
switching loss in MOSFETs.

ZERO CURRENT SWITCHING


In ZCS, the device current is zero just before the turn-off, thus
totally eliminating the turn-off losses. Zero-current switching does not
affect the switching loss that arises from the MOSFET output capacitance‚ and
it may or may not influence the loss induced by diode reverse recovery. In
consequence ‚zero-current switching is of little or no help in improving the
efficiency of converters that employ MOSFETs.

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