Zero-Voltage-Switching Control for a PWM Buck Converter Under DCM/CCM Boundary

A new zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) control approach is presented for pulsewidth modulation (PWM) buck converters under discontinuous conduction mode (DCM)/continuous conduction mode (CCM) boundary. This proposed technique compensates for control circuit delay, and hence, turns on power MOS at the instant exactly when drain-to-source voltage becomes zero. No complicated timing calculation circuits or additional external components are required. This proposed integrated ZVS control can be applied to other dc-dc converters as well. The corresponding circuit analysis, implementation, and die photograph are presented in this paper. Simulation and experimental results for an example circuit with
V

_IN
of 5 V and
V

_OUT
of 3.3 V reveal that buck converters with the presented ZVS technique have higher efficiency than conventional ones, especially at higher frequencies. At about 3.6 MHz operation, the measured conversion efficiency of the PWM buck converter under DCM/CCM boundary mode with the proposed ZVS approach is 11% higher.