An improved ZCS-PWM commutation cell for IGBT's application

An improved zero-current-switching pulsewidth-modulation (ZCS-PWM) commutation cell is proposed, which is suitable for high-power applications using insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) as the power switches. It provides ZCS operation for active switches with low-current stress without voltage stress and PWM operating at constant frequency. The main advantage of this cell is a substantial reduction of the resonant current peak through the main switch during the commutation process. Therefore, the RMS current through it is very close to that observed in the hard-switching PWM converters. Also, small ratings auxiliary components can be used. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed ZCS-PWM commutation cell, it was applied to a boost converter. Operating principles, theoretical analysis, design guidelines and a design example are described and verified by experimental results obtained from a prototype operating at 40 kHz, with an input voltage rated at 155 V and 1 kW output power. The measured efficiency of the improved ZCS-PWM boost converter is presented and compared with that of hard-switching boost converter and with some ZCS-PWM boost converters presented in the literature. Finally, this paper presents the application of the proposed soft-switching technique in DC-DC nonisolated power converters.