IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO.

3, MARCH 2012

1347

A Comparative Study of a New ZCS DCDC

Full-Bridge Boost Converter With a ZVS
Active-Clamp Converter
Ahmad Mousavi, Pritam Das, Member, IEEE, and Gerry Moschopoulos, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractPulse width modulation (PWM) current-fed fullbridge dcdc boost converters are typically used in applications
where the output voltage is considerably higher than the input
voltage. In this paper, a comparison is made between two converter
topologies of this typethe standard zero-voltage switching (ZVS)
active-clamp topology and a new zero-current switching (ZCS)
topology. This paper begins with a review of the operation of the
ZVS active-clamp converter and that of ZCS converters in general;
the advantages and disadvantages of each approach are stated. A
new ZCS-PWM current-fed dcdc boost full-bridge converter is
then introduced. The operation of the new converter is explained
and analyzed, and a procedure for the design of its key components
is given and demonstrated with an example. Experimental results
obtained from a prototype of a ZVS active-clamp converter and
the new ZCS converter are presented. Finally, a comparison of the
performance of the two converters is made and conclusion based
on this comparison is stated.
Index TermsActive clamp, dcdc power conversion, LCresonance, low-power converters, pulsewidth modulated (PWM)
converters, soft switching, switch-mode power supply, full-bridge
converter, zero-current switching (ZCS), zero-voltage switching
(ZVS).

I. INTRODUCTION
HERE are a number of applications where an output dc
voltage that is considerably larger than the input dc voltage
is needed. Such applications include fuel cell and photovoltaic
(pv) applications, where the voltage obtained from the fuel or
pv cell is low, and hybrid vehicles where the voltage required to
run the motor is much higher than that provided by the battery.
Pulse width modulation (PWM) current-fed full-bridge boost
converters like the one shown in Fig. 1 are the preferred option

Manuscript received August 7, 2009; revised December 4, 2009, February

26, 2010, April 30, 2010, July 30, 2010, and January 11, 2011; accepted
February 9, 2011. Date of current version February 7, 2012. This work was
supported by the National Sciences and Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor F. L. Luo.
A. Mousavi is with ePOWER, Queens University, Kingston, ON K7L3N6,
Canada, and also with the University of Western Ontario, ON N6A5B9, Canada
(e-mail: mosavia@queensu.ca).
P. Das is with the Queens Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research
(ePOWER), Queens University, ON K7L3N6, Canada (e-mail: pritam.das@
queensu.ca).
G. Moschopoulos is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, ON N6A5B9, Canada (e-mail:
gmoschopoulos@eng.uwo.ca).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2011.2118233

Fig. 1.

PWM current-fed full-bridge boost converter.

for these applications because they have two mechanisms by

which the input voltage can be stepped upthe main power
transformer, which is a step-up transformer, and the boosting
nature of the converter itself. In brief, the converter operates as
follows: during a typical switching cycle, the input current falls
and the converter is in an energy transfer mode when only a pair
of diagonally opposed switches is ON. The input current rises,
but no energy is transferred to the output, when all switches
are ON and the converter is in a boosting mode. The sequence
of gating signals that the converter operates within a typical
switching cycle is as follows: Q1 and Q4 ON, all bridge switches
ON, then Q2 and Q3 ON and again all switches ON. In other
words, an energy transfer mode when only a pair of diagonally
opposed switches is ON is always followed by a boosting
mode where all the switches are ON and no energy is transferred.
A PWM full-bridge boost converter can be implemented with
either zero-voltage switching (ZVS) [1][10] or zero-current
switching (ZCS) [11][20] depending on the application. In
general, the use of ZVS converters is preferred for applications
where MOSFETs are used (i.e., [21][27]), where the input voltage is high and the input current is low or medium, and where
turn-on switching losses dominate. The use of ZCS converters
is preferred in applications where insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) are used (i.e., [28][34]), where the input current
is high, and where conduction losses dominate.
ZCS converters are rarely used in applications where the
input voltage is very low (i.e., 12 V48 V) such as in fuel
cell converters, because the converters in these applications are
implemented with MOSFETs and not IGBTs. The low dc voltages
that the converter switches are exposed to do not allow for the use
of IGBTs as very low voltage IGBTs (<400 V) are unavailable.
If a review of the power electronics literature is made, it can be
seen that ZCS techniques are associated with IGBT and ZVS
techniques are associated with MOSFETs, and that it has, thus,
been assumed that ZCS techniques are, therefore, unsuitable for
converters with very low input voltages. The objective of this
paper is to show that this assumption is not necessarily true.

0885-8993/$26.00 2011 IEEE

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Fig. 2.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

Active-clamp ZVS full-bridge boost converter.

In this paper, a comparative study of two PWM dcdc fullbridge boost convertersa ZVS converter that uses the standard
active-clamp technique and a new ZCS converteris presented.
The operation of the ZVS active-clamp converter is explained
and its strengths and weaknesses are stated. After a review of
the existing ZCS converters, a new ZCS-PWM boost full-bridge
converter is introduced. The operation of the new converter is
explained and analyzed, and a procedure for the design of its key
components is given and demonstrated with an example. Experimental results obtained from a prototype of ZVS active-clamp
converter and the new ZCS converter are presented. Finally, a
comparison of performance of the two converters is made and
conclusion based on this comparison is stated.
II. ZVS-PWM FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER
WITH ACTIVE CLAMP
The most widely used current-fed full-bridge converter for
applications with low input dc voltages is the ZVS active-clamp
converter shown in Fig. 2 [1][10]. Any converter switch can be
made to turn on with ZVS by turning the active-clamp switch
Qaux just before it is to be turned on. This action discharges
energy from the active-clamp capacitor into the transformer
leakage inductance that is then used to discharge the capacitance
across the switch, thus bringing down the voltage across the
switch to zero before it is turned on.
The capacitor also acts as a clamp that keeps excessive voltage
ringing from appearing across the switches. The spikes and the
ringing are due to the interaction of the bridge switches and
the transformer primary leakage inductance when the switches
are turned off. Energy that would otherwise resonate between
these components can be transferred to the clamp capacitor and
then used to help the main converter switches to turn on with
ZVS.
The operation of the converter is as follows: the clamp switch
Qaux is ON whenever any two diagonally opposite switches of
the full bridge are ON and the converter is in an energy transfer
mode. This switch is OFF whenever all four full-bridge switches
are ON and the converter is in a boosting mode. Assuming that
Q1 and Q4 have been turned on and the converter has just entered
an energy transfer mode, Qaux is turned on soon afterward.
Doing so discharges the energy stored in the clamp capacitor
into the leakage inductance of the transformer so that the current
in the leakage inductor of the transformer becomes greater than
the input current.

The active-clamp switch is turned off just before the other

pair of diagonally opposite switches Q2 and Q3 are to be turned
on and the converter is about to enter a boosting mode. Once
Qaux is turned off, the difference between the current in the
leakage inductor and the input current discharges the output
capacitors of Q2 and Q3 and flows through their body diodes.
This reduces the voltage Vpn in the active-clamp branch to zero;
the corresponding switches (Q2 and Q3 ) can now be turned on
with ZVS.
When the current through the transformer leakage inductance
drops to zero, the input current starts flowing through the four
bridge switches and the converter enters a boosting mode. The
input inductor current rises and no energy is transferred from
the input of the converter to its output. The boosting mode ends
when the other two diagonally opposite switches Q1 and Q4 are
turned off.
After these two switches are turned off, the input current flows
through the active-clamp branch through the body diode of Qaux
and the voltage across the active-clamp capacitor starts rising.
The clamp capacitor reduces the rate of voltage rise and limits
the magnitude of the spikes across switches Q1 and Q4 . Qaux is
turned on, during the time the clamp capacitor is charging up.
Once the clamp capacitor voltage exceeds the reflected output
voltage at the transformer primary, the current in the transformer
primary begins to grow until it becomes greater than the input
current and transfers energy to the output. When the current in
the leakage inductor exceeds the input current, it changes direction and starts flowing through Qaux . Energy continues to be
transferred to the output and the input inductor gets discharged.
Sometime while the clamp current is flowing through the switch
Qaux and the current in the leakage inductor is greater than the
input current, switch Qaux is turned off and it marks the beginning of next half of the switching cycle.
The main advantageous features of an active-clamp ZVS
full-bridge boost converters are that the converter is a fixedfrequency ZVS current-fed converter that uses a very simple
auxiliary circuit to create ZVS over an extended range of load.
The main disadvantageous features are that 1) the main converter switches and the active-clamp switch have a significant
amount of conduction losses since current flows either through
the active-clamp switch or through its body diode whenever
any two diagonally opposite bridge switches are ON (which
occurs during a significant portion of the switching cycle); and
2) the overlap of voltage and current in the bridge switches when
they turn off creates considerable losses when the converter is
operating under heavy load conditions.
III. ZCS-PWM FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTERS
Another approach to soft-switching in current-fed boost-type
dcdc PWM full-bridge converters is using ZCS [11][20]. ZCS
methods allow the full-bridge switches to turn off softly by diverting current away from them before they turn off. This soft
turn-off removes the need for additional snubber capacitances
to be connected across each bridge switch; therefore, there is
no need to be concerned about losses due to snubber capacitor energy being dissipated in the switches. Small inductances

MOUSAVI et al.: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A NEW ZCS DCDC FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Resonant ZCS full-bridge boost converter.

Full-bridge boost converter with current-blocking diodes.

placed in the converter and the transformer leakage inductance

are used to slow down the rise of current through the switches
when they are turned on.
Previously proposed converters of this type, however, have at
least one of the following disadvantages.
1) The converter is a fixed-frequency resonant ZCS currentfed converter [11], [12] or a variable-frequency resonant
converter [13], [14]. An example resonant converter is
shown in Fig. 3. Both types of resonant converter generate
a considerable amount of circulating current in the full
bridge so that the switches can turn off with ZCS. This
circulating current is not transferred to the load and does
little but add to the conduction losses of the converter.
For example, in the resonant converter shown in Fig. 3,
the current flowing in capacitor resonant Cr does not result in energy being transferred to the output, but adds to
conduction losses instead.
2) The converter achieves the ZCS turn-off of its devices by
using an active auxiliary circuit that is connected parallel
to the full bridge to divert current away from the bridge
switches before they are turned off. This circuit is activated just before any switches are to be turned off and is
deactivated shortly afterward. Since the circuit is active for
only a short length of time, there is less circulating current
compared to the fixed-frequency resonant converters, but
this current is still significant and contributes to a significant amount of losses [16][19]. An example converter
with this problem is shown in Fig. 4. In this converter, auxiliary circuit capacitor Cr discharges into the full bridge
whenever the dc bus is shorted, but this energy is not transferred to the output. Instead, this energy flows back into
Cr so that the end result is that the voltage across Cr just
changes polarity. The converter shown in Fig. 5 tries to
remove auxiliary circuit energy by feeding it to the input,
but this approach still results in increased primary-side

Fig. 5.

1349

ZCS full-bridge boost converter with parallel auxiliary circuit.

conduction losses and the switches do not operate with

soft-switching.
3) The additional circulating current also contributes to increased peak current stresses in the full-bridge switches.
These switches must conduct the current that they are
supposed to conduct, to feed the load and the circulating
current. Devices that can withstand higher peak current
stresses than those found in conventional boost full-bridge
converters are needed [13][16]. For example, the converters shown in Figs. 3 and 4 must conduct current from the
resonant tank (see Fig. 3) or auxiliary circuit (see Fig. 4)
on top of the current they are supposed to conduct. The
converter in Fig. 5 needs to be operated with the input
boost inductor in a discontinuous conduction mode if a
ZCS turn-on is to be achieved, but doing so results in very
high peak converter currents.
4) Diodes are placed in series with the switches in some
converters so that current does not flow through the body
diodes of the switches and circulating current is reduced
[16], [20]. Putting these additional diodes in the converter,
however, means that current must flow through more devices, which results in the reduction of conduction losses
being less than expected, and increases cost. Some converters avoid using series diodes by using reverse blocking IGBTs [15], but they are more expensive than regular
IGBTs and are not appropriate for low input voltage applications. The converter shown in Fig. 4 is an example
converter with this issue.
5) An uncontrolled voltage spike (a spike that is dependent
on the interaction of the transformer leakage inductance
and switch capacitance that can be at least four to five times
the rated switch voltage) and/or significant voltage ringing can appear across the main converter switches because
the output switch capacitances resonates with the leakage
inductance of the main transformer during turn off. This
spike and ringing will appear across the secondary diodes
as well. This creates a need for higher voltage-rated devices and/or lossy snubbers, which will increase the cost
and the losses in the converter [11][19]. An example
converter with this problem is shown in Fig. 6. The main
bridge switches in this converter have a switch voltage that
is at least double the expected peak stress.
The existence of the aforementioned disadvantages has prevented the use of ZCS to be considered as a viable option in
low input dc voltage converters. The use of ZCS might be more
attractive if these disadvantages can be eliminated. To see if this

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

Fig. 6.

ZCS full-bridge converter with snubber energy.

Fig. 7.

New ZCS full-bridge boost converter.

can be done, a new ZCS-PWM dcdc full-bridge boost converter

that has none of the aforementioned disadvantages is proposed
in this paper.
IV. NEW ZCS-PWM FULL-BRIDGE CONVERTER
The new ZCS converter is shown in Fig. 7. It is a standard
PWM full-bridge converter with an auxiliary circuit that consists
of an auxiliary switch Qaux , a resonant capacitor Cr , a resonant
inductor Lr 2 , a transformer with a center-tapped secondary, and
two secondary diodes Ds1 and Ds2 connected to the output.
Another small inductor Lr 1 is added at the input of the bridge
to help in the ZCS turn-on and -off of the full-bridge switches.
The auxiliary circuit used in the converter is based on the
circuit that was first proposed in [34]. In [34], this circuit was
compared to a number of other auxiliary circuits for ZCS-PWM
single-switch boost converters. It was found that a boost converter with this circuit had a better efficiency than with any
other previously proposed auxiliary circuit, for higher current
applications. It is, therefore, an attractive candidate for use in
converters such as a low-voltage input, current-fed boost fullbridge converter that operates with very high currents. This is
especially true as many other auxiliary circuits for ZCS-PWM
boost converters cannot be implemented in current-fed fullbridge converters.
It should be noted that although the auxiliary circuit in the
new ZCS-PWM current-fed boost full-bridge converter is based
on the auxiliary circuit that was proposed in [34], there are
significant differences in the way it is implemented. This is due
to the fact that it is implemented in a full-bridge converter that
must operate with much greater current and the fact that the
leakage inductance interaction must be taken into account when
designing the auxiliary circuit.

Fig. 8.

Converter waveforms.

The basic principle behind the converter is that the auxiliary

circuit is activated during the time when all full-bridge switches
are ON so that current can be diverted away from these switches
and the appropriate pair of switch can turn off with ZCS. Energy
in the auxiliary circuit can be transferred to the output through
the transformer in the auxiliary circuit. Switches turn on with
ZCS due to the leakage inductance of the transformer preventing
current from rushing into a switch in a sudden manner.
A. Modes of Operation
The modes of operation that the new converter goes through
during half of a steady-state switching cycle are explained in this
section and a mathematical analysis of each mode is performed.
It should be noted that the analysis that follows is approximate
and that the following has been assumed: 1) All converter components are ideal. 2) All parasitic inductances are negligible
and can be neglected. 3) The transformer magnetizing current is
negligible and can be neglected. Typical converter waveforms
are shown in Fig. 8 and the equivalent circuit modes are shown
in Fig. 9.

MOUSAVI et al.: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A NEW ZCS DCDC FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER

1351

discharges. Energy in the auxiliary circuit is transferred to the

load through Taux and Ds1 . This mode ends when the voltage
of Cr , VCr , reaches zero and diode Daux turns on. Voltage VCr
and current Isa can be expressed according to the following
equations:
diLr2 (t)
+ Vx
(1)
dt
dVCr (t)
.
(2)
iLr2 (t) = iCr (t) = Cr
dt
The initial conditions for (1) and (2) are VCr (0) = VCr 0 and
iLr 2 = 0. Solving these equations gives
VCr (t) = Lr 2

VCr (t) = Vx + (VCr0 Vx ) cos 2 t

(3)

(VCr0 Vx ) sin 2 t
(4)
Z0

where 22 = 1/Lr 2 Cr and Z0 = Lr 2 /Cr is the characteristic
impedance of the auxiliary circuit. The transformer primary
is clamped to Vx = Vo (N1 /N2 ) from time t2 to t4 and the
secondary diode Ds1 is forward biased. Circulating energy from
the auxiliary circuit is transferred to the output during this time.
Mode 3 (t3 < t < t4 ) [see Fig. 9(d)]: At t = t3 , the voltage
across Cr reaches zero and Daux starts to conduct as Cr continues to resonate with Lr 2 and the voltage across it becomes
negative. This negative voltage appears across the resonant inductor Lr 1 , and thus, current diverts away from the full-bridge
switches.
The voltages across Cr and Lr 1 , VCr and VLr 1 , the currents
through Lr 1 and Lr 2 , iLr 1 and iLr 2 , and the current through Cr ,
iCr , can be expressed according to the following equations:
iLr2 (t) =

Is = iLr1 (t) + iLr2 (t) + iCr (t)

(5)

d2 VCr (t)
2
= VCr (t)eq
VX 22
dt2

(6)

Fig. 9. Converter modes of operation. (a) Mode 0. (b) Mode 1. (c) Mode 2.
(d) Mode 3. (e) Mode 4. (f) Mode 5. (g) Mode 6. (h) Mode 7. (i) Mode 8.

Mode 0 (t0 < t < t1 ) [see Fig. 9(a)]: Switches Q1 and

Q4 are turned at the beginning of this mode at t = t0 while
the other two switches Q2 and Q3 were already ON carrying the full input current Iin . Due to the primary transformer
leakage inductance, the transfer of current to these switches
is gradual so that they turn on with ZCS. This is a commutation mode during which a negative voltage appears across the
leakage inductor so that current through it starts decreasing.
This will reduce the current through Q2 and Q3 while the current through Q1 and Q4 increases. At the end of this mode,
there is no current in the transformer primary and the bridge is
shorted.
Mode 1 (t1 < t < t2 ) [see Fig. 9(b)]: At time t = t1 , all
four switches Q1 , Q2 , Q3 , and Q4 are ON and the input current
flows through all four of these devices so that Q1 -Q2 and Q3 -Q4
carry half of the input current ideally. The transformer primary
remains shorted and the output capacitor gets discharged into
the load. The input inductor has the full input voltage across it
and gets energized.
Mode 2 (t2 < t < t3 ) [see Fig. 9(c)]: At t = t2 , the auxiliary
switch Qaux is turned on and Cr begins to resonate with Lr 2 and

diLr1 (t)
diLr2 (t)
= Lr 2
+ Vx . (7)
dt
dt
The initial conditions for (6) and (7) are VCr (0) = 0, iLr 1 =
Is , and
VLr1 (t) = VCr (t) = Lr 1

iLr2 (0) =

(VCr0 Vx ) sin(cos1 (Vx /VCr0 Vx ))

.
Zo

(8)

Solving these equations gives

VCr (t) =

(VCr0 Vx ) sin(cos1 (Vx /VCr0 Vx )) sin eq t


(1 + (Lr 1 /Lr 2 ))

Vx 22 [1 cos eq t]
2
eq

(9)

ILr1 (t) = Is

Leq (VCr0 Vx ) sin(cos1 (Vx /VCr0 Vx )(1 cos eq t)

Zo Lr 1

Vx 22 [t sin eq t]
2 L
eq
r1

(10)

1352

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

iLr2 (t) =

(VCr0 Vx ) sin(cos1 (Vx /VCr0 Vx ))

Zo

Leq (VCr0 Vx ) sin(cos1 (Vx /VCr0 Vx ))(1 cos eq t)

Zo Lr 2

Vx 22 [tsin eq t] Vx t

2 L
eq
Lr 2
r2

(11)

2
= 1/Leq Cr and Leq = Lr 1 Lr 2 /Lr 1 + Lr 2 .
where eq
Mode 4 (t4 < t < t5 ) [see Fig. 9(e)]: At t = t4 , the current
through the main switches becomes zero and begins reversing
direction by flowing through the body diodes of the switches.
Switches Q2 and Q3 can be turned off softly at any time while
current is flowing through their body diodes. Current in the
auxiliary circuit is positive but decreasing.
Mode 5 (t5 < t < t6 ) [see Fig. 9(f)]: At t = t5 , the body
diode of Qaux starts conducting and the switch can be turned off
softly after this instant. During this mode, the body diode of all
converter switches conducts current. The current coming out of
the bridge flows through Lr 1 and Daux , charging up Cr . Energy
is transferred from the auxiliary circuit to the load through Taux
and Ds2 .
Mode 6 (t6 < t < t7 ) [see Fig. 9(g)]: At t = t6 , the current
in the body diode of Qaux goes to zero. During this mode,
the voltage across Cr increases in resonance with Lr 1 while
the current flows through the body diodes of the full-bridge
switches. At the end of this mode, the voltage across Cr reaches
Vpri = Vo /N .
Mode 7 (t7 < t < t8 ) [see Fig. 9(h)]: At t = t7 , the current
in the body diodes of the full-bridge switch becomes zero, and
some input current starts to flow through Lr 1 , Q1 , and Q4 .
The remaining input current continues to charge Cr and the
voltage across it rises. Energy begins to be transferred to the
load through D1 and D4 . At the end of this mode, the voltage
across Cr charges up to VCr 0 .
The differential equations describing this mode are

dvCr (t)
+ iLr1
(12)
dt
diLr1 (t) Vo
+
(13)
vCr (t) = Lr 1
dt
N
which have the following initial conditions: VCr (0) = Vo /N ,
iLr (0) = 0, iCr (0) = Iin . Applying these initial conditions, the
capacitor voltage in this mode is given by
Iin = Cr

iLr1 (t) = Iin (1 cos 1 t)

VCr (t) =

Vo
+ Iin Z1 sin 1 t
N

(14)
(15)

where

Mode 8 (t8 < t < t9 ) [see Fig. 9(i)]: At t = t8 , all the input
current flows through the bridge switches Q1 and Q4 , and none
through Cr . The converter is in an energy transfer mode. A
negative voltage is placed across the input inductor. At the end
of this mode at t9 = TSw /2 , Q2 and Q3 are turned on and this
begins the beginning of a similar switching half cycle.
B. Converter Features
The new ZCS-PWM full-bridge boost converter has the following features.
1) The presence of a transformer in the auxiliary circuit provides a path for energy that would otherwise be trapped
in the auxiliary circuit. Energy can be transferred to the
output instead of contributing to conduction losses.
2) The auxiliary circuit is adaptive as the greater the energy
that would otherwise be trapped in the circuit, the greater
the energy that is transferred to the output, since trapped
auxiliary circuit energy is a cause of circulating current.
This means that the converter can be made to operate with
little additional circulating current regardless of whether
it is operating with a light load or a heavy load. This property does not exist in most other ZCS-PWM full-bridge
boost converters as they have a considerable amount
of circulating current when operating under light-load
conditions.
3) Since the new converter has little additional circulating
current regardless of load, it does not need additional
diodes connected in series with the full-bridge switches to
prevent current flowing through their body diodes. There
are, therefore, no conduction losses due to series blocking
diodes unlike several other ZCS-PWM full-bridge boost
converters.
4) The peak current stress of the switches is the same as
that of a switch in a conventional PWM boost full-bridge
converter, as Daux blocks any auxiliary circuit current
from flowing into the full bridge.
5) One of the drawbacks of a conventional current-fed fullbridge converter is that it lacks a dc bus capacitor across
the full-bridge section so that there can be uncontrolled
voltage spikes during turn-off of the bridge devices owing
to resonance between their output capacitance and leakage
inductance which can damage the bridge devices. It can
be seen from Fig. 8 that the full-bridge switches do have
an additional voltage stress in form of a controlled voltage
hump and not an uncontrolled voltage spike. The rise of
this voltage hump is restricted by the size of Cr , Lr 1 , and
Llk and also its maximum value is fixed at
VCr (t) =

1 = 
and

1
(Lr 1 + Llk )Cr


Z1 =

Lr 1 + Llk
Cr

where Llk is the transformer leakage inductance.

(16)

(17)

Vo
+ Iin Z1 .
N

(18)

This allows lower rated devices to be used as the full-bridge

switches.
V. DESIGN PROCEDURE
A procedure for the design of the converter is presented in
this section and is demonstrated with an example. These curves

MOUSAVI et al.: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A NEW ZCS DCDC FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER

can be generated from the equations that were derived from the
analysis of the converter in Section III. Equations (8)(11) are
the key equations that can be used to generate these curves. For
example, the converter is to be designed according to the following specifications: output voltage Vo = 300 V, input voltage
Vin = 12 V24 V, output power Po = 600 W, and switching
frequency fs = 1/Ts = 50 kHz.
The design procedure that is presented here is an iterative
one and requires several iterations before the final design can
be completed. Only the final iteration will be shown in the
example that follows. It should be noted that only the design
of the auxiliary circuit components is presented here since the
design of the main power circuit can be found in any standard
power electronics textbook.
A) Step 1: Minimize Reverse Recovery Losses in the Auxiliary
Diode
The duration of Mode 7 in which the input current gets diverted from the auxiliary capacitor Cr to the inductance Lr 1
should be greater than 3trr (three times the reverse recovery
time of the auxiliary diode), which is typically. The expression
for the commutation time tc can be found from (14) to be

tc =
(19)
21
where
1 = 

1
(Lr 1 + Llk )Cr

By combining (17) and (18), (19) can be written as


tc =
(Lr 1 + Llk )Cr .
2

(20)

Fig. 10.

1353

Variation of C r peak voltage for different values of Z 1 .

the current into the full bridge to reverse direction and create an
opportunity for the ZCS turn-off of switches.
By choosing a large capacitor, the resonant cycle time will
increase in the circuit, which in turn will increase the on-time
duty ratio in the auxiliary switch and will cause more losses
as the device has to be on longer. The energy in the capacitor
is 12 CV 2 , so either a higher voltage can be placed across the
capacitor or a bigger capacitor can be chosen. For this design, a
value of Z1 = 1.5 is chosen. Using (20), determined in Step
2, and Z1 , given by (17) in this step, values of Lr 1 and Cr are
found to be 240 nH and 360 nF by assuming Llk to be typically
around 500 nH.
C) Step 3: Determine the Characteristic Impedance
of the Auxiliary Circuit and the Value of Lr 2
The characteristic impedance of the auxiliary circuit is defined
by

(21)

The value for the commutation time tc during which the input current gets diverted from the auxiliary capacitor Cr to the
bridge section must be greater than the value of 3trr of the auxiliary diode. As a result, the following relation can be derived:

(Lr 1 + Llk )Cr = 240 nS.
(22)
3trr = tc =
2
Equation (22) will be used along with equations derived in the
following steps to determine the values of Cr and Lr 1 .
B) Step 2: Determine the Values of Cr and Lr 1
In this step, the values of Cr and Lr 1 are determined. Consider Mode 7, when switches Q2 and Q3 are turned off and
voltage across them builds up due to the resonance between the
equivalent series inductance of leakage inductance Llk and Lr 1
and capacitor Cr . At the end of this mode, the voltage across
the switches rises to a peak voltage given by (18).
The value of this peak voltage across the switches, which is
the same as the maximum voltage across the resonant capacitor,
is plotted for different values of Z1 in Fig. 10. It can be found
from this graph that by choosing a larger impedance, the voltage
across Cr will increase. If a smaller impedance is chosen, a
larger capacitor must be used for Cr as there must be enough
energy stored in the capacitor at the end of this mode to force

Zo =

Lr 2
Cr

(23)

where Zo affects the peak current stress of the auxiliary circuit

components and the window of time that the main switches can
be turned off with ZCS. It should also be considered that the
peak current in the auxiliary switch must be greater than the
bridge input current so the bridge current starts reversing and
eventually reduces to zero and flows in the opposite direction
through the body diodes of the bridge switches that can then be
turned off with ZCS.
Low values of Zo result in higher values of peak current stress,
but result in longer windows of time during which the main
switches can be turned off with ZCS. It can be seen in Fig. 11
that values of Zo over 1.5 would result in low auxiliary circuit
current stresses, but these values of Zo are unsuitable because
the time window for the ZCS turn-off of the main switches
would be very narrow or nonexistent. Values of Zo below 1.5
will result in very high peak current in the auxiliary switch,
which will increase the losses in it. So for this design, Zo =
1.5 is chosen which implies that Lr 2 = 0.9 H.
D) Step 4: Determine the Value of Nx
To determine Nx , the effect of auxiliary transformer secondary voltage on the soft-switching window of both auxiliary

1354

Fig. 11.
Zo .

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

Variation of peak current in auxiliary switch for different values of

following (10)(11), thus creating a ZCS turn-off window for

the switches.
From the characteristic graph in Fig. 12(a), it can be seen that
higher the value of Vx , lower is the magnitude and duration of
the negative portion for the current through the bridge switches.
This is expected since with higher values of Vx , the negative
peak voltage across Cr is reduced and thus less negative voltage
appears across Lr 1 during Modes 35; therefore, lower will be
the amount of its negative current region. On the other hand,
it can be seen that the negative part of the auxiliary current is
increased with increasing values of Vx since increasing values
of Vx will decrease the peak current in the auxiliary switch from
which its current starts decreasing. In choosing a suitable value
for Vx , it should be considered that greater negative portions in
the switch currents will increase the circulating current losses
and also increase the duration of activation of the auxiliary
circuit, which, in turn, will increase conduction losses in it. So,
Vx = 24 V or equivalently Nx = 1:12 is chosen, considering all
these tradeoffs.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Fig. 12. (a) Variation of the duration in which bridge switch currents reduce to
zero and go negative during Modes 35 for different values of N x . (b)Variation
of the duration in which bridge switch currents reduce to zero and go negative
during Modes 35 for different values of N x .

and bridge switches needs to be considered. The primary voltage Vx = Vo /Nx across the auxiliary transformer in Modes 24
reduces the negative peak voltage across Cr and also reduces
peak current across the auxiliary switch. These two phenomena
can have a detrimental effect on the ZCS window, but they can
help in reducing circulating current in the auxiliary circuit.
The characteristic graphs in Fig. 12(a) and (b) show the effect
that Vx has on the duration and amount of negative portion
of the bridge switch and auxiliary switch current for varying
values of Vx with other component values decided in previous
steps, during Modes 35. These are also the modes in which
the currents in all switches reduce to zero and reverse direction

Experimental prototypes of the active-clamp converter and

the new ZCS converter were built to confirm the feasibility of
the new converter and also to compare the efficiencies of the
two converters. The basic current-fed converter prototypes in
each case had the following specifications.
1) Input voltage Vin = 12 V and 24 V;
2) output voltage Vo = 300 V;
3) output power Po = 600 W;
4) transformer turns ratio N = 1:12;
5) input inductor Lin = 500 H;
6) switching frequency: fsw = 50 kHz.
A switching frequency of 50 kHz was chosen based on a review of the literature. It can be considered to be the highest acceptable switching frequency for high input current, current-fed
boost converters. Operating such converters at higher switching
frequencies such as 100 kHz would result in a lower converter
efficiency that many would not find to be acceptable.
The prototype of the new ZCS converter was implemented
using the following component values.
1) Auxiliary circuit inductors Lr 1 = 300 nH and Lr 2 =
900 nH.
2) Auxiliary circuit capacitor Cr = 360 nF.
It should be noted that the inductor Lr 2 is realized as the
leakage inductance at the primary of the auxiliary transformer.
The following devices were used for the semiconductors in
the prototype.
1) STD70N10F4 (Rds,on = 15 m, Coss = 300 pF) as bridge
switches;
2) STD25NF10 (Rds,on = 33 m, Coss = 220 pF) as aux
switch Qaux ;
3) output diodes: HFA16PA60C;
4) auxiliary diodes Daux : FR802;
5) diodes Ds1 and Ds2 : GUR5H60;
6) Saturable reactors implemented on Toshiba saturable
cores (SA14 8 4.5) were in series with the switches

MOUSAVI et al.: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A NEW ZCS DCDC FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER

Fig. 13.

1355

Simplified logic of auxiliary switch gating signal generator.

used to reduce the effect of parasitic resonances during

switching transitions.
The active-clamp prototype had the following components.
1) Active-clamp capacitor Ccl = 10 F;
2) STD70N10F4 (Rds,on = 15 m, Coss = 300 pF) as bridge
switches;
3) STD25NF10(Rds,on = 33 m, Coss = 220 pF) as aux
switch Qaux ;
4) output diodes: HFA16PA60C.
The controller that was used in the prototypes was a UC2823
current-mode controller.
The auxiliary switch gating signal for the ZCS converter was
generated according to the simplified logic diagram shown in
Fig. 13 where Vc is a voltage that comes from the controller and
is an error voltage that is generated from the difference between
the output voltage Vo and a reference voltage Vref . Vda is a
small voltage that is proportional to the desired duty cycle of
the auxiliary switch. For example, if a duty cycle of Daux = 0.1 is
desired and the peak voltage of the sawtooth voltage waveforms
in the logic circuit is 5 V, then Vda would be 0.1 5 V = 0.5V.
This Vda is subtracted from Vc and then compared to Vst1 and
Vst2 . Vst1 is a sawtooth voltage waveform that can be obtained
from the controller while Vst2 is the same sawtooth waveform
as Vst1 , but phase-shifted by 180 .
The result of Vc Vda is compared to Vst1 and Vst2 to produce pulses that are the same as the gating signals of the main
converter switches, but narrower by the desired duty cycle. For
example, if Q1 has a duty cycle of 0.5, then the output of Comparator 1 will have a duty cycle of 0.5Daux . The output of
each comparator is inverted then fed to an AND gate having the
appropriate main switch gating signal as its other input. The
output of the top AND gate in Fig. 13 is the auxiliary switch
gating pulse that will help Q1 and Q4 turn off with ZCS and the
output of the other AND gate is the auxiliary switch gating pulse
that will help Q2 and Q3 turn off with ZCS. These two gating
pulses are fed to an OR gate and combined to give the complete
gating signal for the auxiliary switch.
It can be seen in Fig. 14(a) that the main switches operate with
a zero-current turn-on and turn-off. It can be seen that when a
switch turns off, the current flowing through it is negative, which
indicates that the current is flowing through the body diode of
the device and not through the switch itself. The same can
be concluded about the auxiliary switch from its current and
voltage waveforms in Fig. 14(b). It should be noted that there
is some overlap in the switch voltage and current waveforms

Fig. 14. (a) Current and voltage in switches Q1 and Q4 over one full switching
period (V : 30 V/div, I: 15 A/div, t: 2 s/div). (b) Current and voltage in auxiliary
switch over one switching period (V : 30V/div, I: 15 A/div, t: 2 s/div).

Fig. 15.

Transformer primary voltage waveform (V : 50V/div, t: 5 s/div).

in Fig. 14(a). This overlap is due to the Miller effect of the

MOSFET, which exists in the ZCS converter because the internal
capacitances of the device have not been discharged as they
would if the converter were operated with ZVS.
The most notable feature in the main switch current and voltage waveform is that the switch voltage has a well-behaved
hump when the switch is turning off and not a spike, which is
common in almost all current-fed full-bridge converters. It can
be seen from Fig. 15 that the primary voltage waveform is similar to that of a conventional current-fed full-bridge converter.
From the graphs of the gate pulse waveforms in Fig. 16, it can
be seen that the auxiliary switch is activated for a very short
duration compared to that of a full switching cycle, before a
pair of main switches are turned off.
Fig. 17 shows the current and voltage waveforms in a fullbridge switch in the active-clamp prototype. It can be seen that
in the bridge switches have a ZVS turn-on, but, during turnoff, there is overlap of voltage and current in the device that
creates considerable switch turn-off losses. Moreover, the bridge
switches show increased current stress during the energy transfer
modes due to the charging current of the active capacitor. Fig. 18

1356

Fig. 16.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 2012

Switch gating pulses (V :10 V/div, t: 5 s/div).

Fig. 19. Efficiency measurements for the new ZCS converter, the active-clamp
converter, and the conventional hard switching converter with 24-V input and
varying output load.

Fig. 17. Current and voltage in switches Q1 Q4 over one full switching period
in the active-clamp converter (V : 30 V/div, I: 15 A/div, t: 5 s/div).

Fig. 20. Efficiency measurements for the new ZCS converter, the active-clamp
converter, and the conventional hard switching converter with 12-V input and
varying output load.

Fig. 18. Current through and voltage across auxiliary active-clamp branch in
the active-clamp converter (V : 30 V/div, I: 15 A/div, t: 5 s/div).

shows the current flowing through the active-clamp branch ICc

and the voltage across the active-clamp branch (Vax as shown
in Fig. 2). It can be seen that no current flows out of or into
the active clamp whenever Vax is zero, which corresponds to
a short circuit state in the full bridge that causes the current
through Lin to rise. It can also be seen in Fig. 18 that the
active clamp remains ON for much longer time than that of the
auxiliary switch of the ZCS converter as energy that will be
used to help turn the bridge switches ON with ZVS is placed in
the transformer leakage inductance; this also creates additional
conduction losses in the converter.
It should be noted that voltage spikes appear in some of the
ZVS active-clamp converter waveforms. These voltage spikes
are typically not shown in many other papers with ZVS currentfed full-bridge converters because 1) the main switches in these
converters turn off much less current than those in the ZVS prototype converter and/or 2) the main switches in these converters
are implemented with devices that have higher output capacitances than the devices used in the ZVS prototype converter. For
example, the current-fed converter proposed in [6] used 250-Vrated 2SK2995 devices with output capacitance Coss = 1.9 nF,

even though it was a 200-W converter operating with 24-V input voltage. ZCS converters, however, can be implemented with
MOSFETs having very low values of Coss because the turn-off of
these devices is soft and there is no need for large switch output
capacitances to suppress voltage spikes. The use of devices with
low values of Coss helps reduce the turn-on losses that would
occur otherwise. The STD70N10F4 devices that were used in
the main power circuit and the STD25NF10 device that was
used in the auxiliary circuit have very low values of Coss . The
STD70N10F4 devices also have a very low value of Rds,on to
reduce conduction losses. The same basic full-bridge structure
with the same devices used for the main power switches was
used to make the comparison between the ZVS and the ZCS converter. Some voltage spiking was allowed in the ZVS converter
and considered acceptable so that the same basic full-bridge
could be used to make the comparison.
Efficiency measurements taken from the ZCS, the activeclamp converter, and an equivalent hard switching converter are
shown in Figs. 19 and 20 for 24 V and 12 V inputs, respectively.
For the case when the input voltage is 24 V, it can be seen
that the new ZCS converter is more efficient than the standard
ZVS active converter only when the load is greater than 450 W.
For the case when the input voltage is 12 V, however, it can
be seen that the new ZCS converter is more efficient than the
active-clamp converter for loads over 300 W.
The new ZCS converter is more efficient than the ZVS activeclamp converter when the primary side current is very high. This

MOUSAVI et al.: COMPARATIVE STUDY OF A NEW ZCS DCDC FULL-BRIDGE BOOST CONVERTER

is because the active-clamp converter has higher turn-off losses

due to the high currents that the switches must handle when
they turn off. Moreover, the active-clamp auxiliary circuit is
ON for a considerably longer amount of time than the auxiliary
circuit of the new ZCS converter during a switching cycle and
contributes additional current to the high primary current that
remains trapped on the primary side. For lighter loads when there
is less current, conduction losses and turn-off losses become less
of an issue. The new converter, however, is not a ZVS converter
and has losses that the active-clamp converter does not have,
which is why it is the less efficient converter at lighter loads.
Based on the experimental results, it can be concluded that
it is not necessarily true that ZVS is always to be preferred
over ZCS when a converter is implemented with MOSFETs. It
can be seen that using ZCS as explained in this paper can be
the more efficient approach in low-input, high-output voltage
dcdc converters operating with heavier loads, as it is the turnoff and conduction losses that dominate under these operating
conditions.
VII. CONCLUSION
A new ZCS-PWM dcdc full-bridge boost converter was presented in this paper. The converters main power switches can
operate with ZCS due to an active auxiliary circuit that diverts
current away from the switch just before it is turned off. Unlike other previously proposed converters, the auxiliary circuit
allows the bridge switches to be turned off with ZCS without increasing the peak current stress of these switches, with reduced
circulating energy, and with a significantly lower peak bridge
switch voltage stress.
The active switch in the auxiliary circuit can also operate with
soft-switching and conducts current for only a small fraction of
the switching cycle. This auxiliary circuit also helps remove unwanted voltage spikes appearing across the full-bridge devices
during their turn-off transient as found in conventional currentfed full-bridge converters and other converters referred in the
literature. Through this auxiliary circuit, the otherwise trapped
circulating energy can be fed to the output hence making it
useful unlike all similar converters in the literature.
The operation of the new ZCS converter was explained in
detail in this paper and a design procedure and example were
also given. Furthermore, a comparative study of two PWM dc
dc full-bridge boost convertersa ZVS converter that uses the
standard active-clamp technique and the new ZCS converter
was done. A comparison of the efficiency obtained from prototypes of both converters confirmed that the new ZCS converter
is more efficient than the standard active-clamp ZVS converter
for certain specific operating conditions. It can be concluded,
therefore, that using ZCS can be a better approach than using
ZVS for a low-input, high-output voltage dcdc converter operating under heavy-load conditions, even though the converter
is implemented with MOSFETs. To be more specific, the new
ZCS current-fed converter can be considered when the input
voltage is low and the load is heavy, but ZVS should be used
in applications where the input voltage is greater than 24 V and
the load current is low. In general, the switching frequency of

1357

current-fed converters such as the ones discussed in this paper

should be limited to a maximum of 50 kHz due to the switching
losses that can be caused by the heavy current.
The main contribution of this study to the power electronics literature has been to show that ZCS approaches can be
examined to improve converter efficiency, even in converters
with MOSFETs. As a result, new ZCS MOSFET converters can be
considered for applications where ZVS converters have been
previously assumed to be superior.
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Ahmad Mousavi received the B.S. degree from

Tehran Azad University, Tehran, Iran, in 2002, and
the M.Sc. degree from the University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, in 2009, both in electrical engineering. He is currently working toward
the Ph.D. degree at the University of Western Ontario.
From 2002 to 2004, he was an Electrical Engineer
at GITAL Company, Tehran, Iran, and from 2005 to
2007, he was a Design Engineer at LG Electronics,
Mississauga, ON, Canada. He is also with the Centre
for Energy and Power Electronics Research (ePOWER), Queens University,
Kingston, ON, Canada.

Pritam Das (S09M12) was born in Calcutta,

India in 1978. He received the Bachelor of Engineering Degree in electronics and communication engineering from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal, India in 2002. He also received the M.S. and the
Ph.D. degrees both in electrical engineering from the
University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada,
in 2005 and 2010 respectively.
He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the
Queens Centre for Energy and Power Electronics
Research (ePOWER), Queens University Kingston,
ON, Canada, where he is involved in research on modeling and control of high
frequency and high efficiency resonant and PWM converters for various applications including electric vehicles, data centers, etc. His research interests include
high frequency and high efficiency ac-dc and dc-dc power converters, power
factor correction, soft switching techniques, design of high frequency magnetic
components for power converter, and modeling and control of ac-dc and dc-dc
converters. He has published over 30 technical papers in referred journals and
conferences.
Dr. Das is a Reviewer of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS and
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL INFORMATICS.

Gerry Moschopoulos (S90M96SM10) received the B.Eng., M.A.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from
Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada, in
1989, 1992, and 1997, respectively, all in electrical
engineering.
From 1996 to 1998, he was a Design Engineer in
the Advanced Power Systems Division, Nortel Networks, Lachine, QC, Canada. From 1998 to 2000,
he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Concordia University, where he was involved in research in the area
of power electronics for telecommunications applications. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Western
Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Dr. Moschopoulos is a Registered Professional Engineer in the province of
Ontario.