Arnold Knott

A VHF class E DC-DC converter with self-oscillating gate driver

This paper describes the analysis and design of a DC-DC converter topology which is operational at frequencies in the Very High Frequency (VHF) band ranging from 30 MHz–300 MHz. The presented topology, which consists of a class E inverter, class E rectifier, and self-oscillating gate driver, is inherently resonant, and switching losses are greatly reduced by ensuring Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) of the power semiconductor devices. A design method to ensure ZVS operation when combining the inverter, rectifier, and gate driver is provided. Several parasitic effects and their influence on converter operation are discussed, and measurement results of a 100 MHz prototype converter are presented and evaluated. The designed prototype converter verifies the described topology.

Evolution of Very High Frequency Power Supplies

The ongoing demand for smaller and lighter power supplies is driving the motivation to increase the switching frequencies of power converters. Drastic increases however, come along with new challenges, namely the increase of switching losses in all components. The application of power circuits used in radio frequency transmission equipment helps to overcome those. However, those circuits were not designed to meet the same requirements as power converters. This paper summarizes the contributions in the recent years in the application of very high frequency (VHF) technologies in power electronics, which show the results of the recent advances and describes the remaining challenges. The presented results include a self-oscillating gate drive, air-core inductor optimizations, an offline LED driver with a power density of 8.9 W/cm3, and a 120-MHz, 9-W dc powered LED driver with 89% efficiency as well as a bidirectional VHF converter. The challenges to be solved before VHF converters can be used effectively in industrial products are within those three categories: 1) components; 2) circuit architectures; and 3) reliability testing.

Low Power Very High Frequency Switch-Mode Power Supply With 50 V Input and 5 V Output

This paper presents the design of a resonant converter with a switching frequency in the very high frequency range (30-300 MHz), a large step down ratio (ten times), and low output power (1 W). Several different inverters and rectifiers are analyzed and compared. The class E inverter and rectifier are selected based on complexity and efficiency estimates. Three different power stages are implemented; one with a large input inductor, one with a switch with small capacitances, and one with a switch with low on-resistance. The power stages are designed with the same specifications and efficiencies from 60.7-82.9% are achieved.

Very high frequency resonant DC/DC converters for LED lighting

This paper presents a very high frequency DC/DC converter for LED lighting. Several resonant topologies are compared and their usability discussed. At the end the resonant SEPIC converter is chosen based on the achievable power density and total bill of material. Simulations of a 51 MHz converter with 40 V input and 15 V output are made. The simulation shows possibility of achieving efficiency up to 87 % even with a HEXFET Power MOSFET. Three prototypes of the simulated converter are implemented showing good correlation with simulations. The prototypes have efficiencies up to 84 % and power densities up to 8.9 W/cm3 (146 W/in3).

Printed circuit board integrated toroidal radio frequency inductors

Modern power semiconductors allow for switching frequencies of power converters in the very high frequency (VHF) band (30 MHz to 300 MHz). The major advantage of this frequency increase is a remarkable reduction of the size of power converters due to smaller passive components. However crucial attention needs to be payed to switching losses, so that the size reduction in electrical components does not get consumed by a major increase in heatsink size. This paper is investigating the major size limiting component in power converters: the inductor. In the VHF range, inductors are typically implemented as solenoids, either in spiral or cylindrical form. Those have the disadvantage of excessive stray fields, which can cause losses and disturbances in adjacent circuitry. Therefore this paper presents the analysis, design and realization of a printed circuit board (PCB) integrated inductor under significant consideration of the losses in the inductor. The analysis results in a general design tool which is verified by a prototype inductor. Its inductance is 50 nH and has a quality of 149 at 100 MHz.

Analysis, Design, Modeling, and Control of an Interleaved-Boost Full-Bridge Three-Port Converter for Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems

This paper presents the design, modeling, and control of an isolated dc-dc three-port converter (TPC) based on an interleaved-boost full-bridge converter with pulsewidth modulation (PWM) and phase-shift control for hybrid renewable energy systems. In the proposed topology, the switches are driven by phase-shifted PWM signals, where both phase angle and duty cycle are the controlled variables. The power flow between the two inputs is controlled through the duty cycle, whereas the output voltage can be regulated effectively through the phase shift. The primary-side MOSFETs can achieve zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation without additional circuitry. Additionally, due to the ac output inductor, the secondary-side diodes can operate under zero-current-switching (ZCS) conditions. In this study, the operation principles of the converter are analyzed and the critical design considerations are discussed. The dynamic behavior of the proposed ac-inductor-based TPC is investigated by performing state-space modeling. Moreover, the derived mathematical models are validated by simulation and measurements. In order to verify the validity of the theoretical analysis, design, and power decoupling control scheme, a prototype is constructed and tested under the various modes, depending on the availability of the renewable energy source and the load consumption. The experimental results show that the two decoupled control variables achieve effective regulation of the power flow among the three ports.

Self-oscillating resonant gate drive for resonant inverters and rectifiers composed solely of passive components

This paper presents a new self-oscillating resonant gate drive composed solely of passive components. The gate drive can be used in various resonant converters and inverters and can be used for both low and high side gate drive. The paper presents examples of how higher order harmonics can be used to improve the performance of the gate drive and how the gate drive can be implemented in a class E inverter, a class DE inverter and in class E inverter with a synchronous class E rectifier. The paper shows practical implementations of all the proposed inverters and converters operating in the Very High Frequency (VHF) range, all showing good results with peak efficiency up to 82% and output regulation from 70% to full load without bursting.

Boost converter with combined control loop for a stand-alone photovoltaic battery charge system

The converter control scheme plays an important role in the performance of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms. In this paper, an input voltage control with double loop for a stand-alone photovoltaic system is designed and tested. The inner current control loop with high crossover frequency avoids perturbations in the load being propagated to the photovoltaic panel and thus deviating the operating point. Linearization of the photovoltaic panel and converter state-space modeling is performed. In order to achieve stable operation under all operating conditions, the photovoltaic panel is linearized at the maximum power point (MPP) and at the voltage and current source regions. A settling time under 1 ms is obtained which allows fast MPP tracking implementation.

Design and measurement of planar toroidal transformers for very high frequency power applications

The quest for higher power density has led to research of very high frequency (30–300 MHz) power converters. Magnetic components based on ferrite cores have limited application within this frequency range due to increased core loss. Air-core magnetics is a viable alternative as they do not exhibit core loss. The drawback of most air-core magnetics is that the magnetic field is not contained within a closed shape, and it is thus prone to cause electro magnetic interference. A toroidal air-core inductor configuration can be used to contain the magnetic field. This work presents a novel air-core toroidal transformer configuration for use in very high frequency power conversion applications.

Self-oscillating galvanic isolated bidirectional Very High Frequency DC-DC converter

This paper describes a galvanic isolated bidirectional Very High Frequency (VHF = 30 MHz - 300MHz) Class-E converter. The reason for increasing the switching frequency is to minimize the passive components in the converter. To make the converter topology bidirectional the rectifier has to be synchronous. This increases the complexity of the gate drives, which in this paper is solved by using a self-oscillating gate drive. A bidirectional converter has been implemented and is described in this paper; the converter reaches efficiencies above 80% in forward conduction mode and 73.5% in reverse conduction mode. The designed converter operates at a switching frequency of 35.6 MHz, which is well within the VHF range. The same converter is also implemented with PCB embedded inductors to minimize cost and the physical volume of the total converter.