Comparative evaluation of a Triangular Current Mode (TCM) and Clamp-Switch TCM DC-DC boost converter

For the power management of a wireless power transfer system for implantable mechanical heart pumps, an additional boost DC-DC converter stage is needed in order to control the power delivered to the implant. Particularly, battery powered and implantable medical devices pose special demands on the efficiency and/or power density of the employed converters. Accordingly, soft-switching and/or high switching frequencies must be targeted. Modulation schemes that allow for Zero-Voltage-Switching (ZVS) such as Triangular Current Mode (TCM) offer a highly efficient operation, but suffer from a large operating frequency variation, which is mainly limited by the digital control. Therefore the Clamp-Switch TCM (CL-TCM) converter can be employed which allows also for the control of the switching frequency variation. In this paper, the CL-TCM and the TCM converter are compared regarding the power conversion efficiency and the power density of the converter. Since the CL-TCM converter is not well known in the literature, the converter is analysed in detail and a modulation scheme is explained that allows for ZVS for all switches in the entire range of operation. In addition, the requirements for ZVS and a control scheme (i.e. timing calculations) are provided for the converter in order to limit the maximum switching frequency. The modulation and control scheme are verified with a hardware prototype. Finally, the performance of the CL-TCM converter is measured and compared to the performance of the converter operated in TCM mode. The measurements show that the CL-TCM converter offers similar performance compared to the TCM operation at lower inductor power density, but has the advantage of a significantly reduced switching frequency variation. In applications, where a very high power density is needed, the TCM converter outperforms the CL-TCM converter in terms of efficiency.