PRACTICAL EVALUATIONS OF SINGLE-ENDED LOAD-RESONANT INVERTER

USING APPLICATIONSPECIFIC IGBT 8 DRIVER IC FOR INDUCTION-HEATING APPLIANCE

Izuo Hirota*, Hideki Omori*, Kundu Arun Chandra**, and Mutsuo Nakaoka** (IEEE Members)
*Home Appliance Research Laboratory, Matsusluta Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. Hinode-cho Toyonaka Osaka, 56 1, Japan
**Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering & Technology,
Yamaguchi University, Tokiwa-dai Ube Yamaguchi, 755, Japan

consumer power electronic products employing highfrequency resonant inverter, the design important constraints
are significantly based upon the requirement such as low
cost, lowered acoustic noise, reduced EMI/RFI noises, highefficiency high-power density and wide power regulation
range. Simple inverter topologies must be effectively
selected accordmg to the applications in order to meet the
inverter requirements mentioned above under a highfrequency switching operation due to load specifications.

ABSTRACT This paper presents an eficient singleended type high -frequency induction -heating quasiresonant inverter circuit using a single advanced 2nd
generation IGBT for soft-switching and its speciallydesigned driver IC, which operates at a zero-voltage softswitching(ZVS)mode under PFM-based power regulation
strategy. The generic voltage-fed and current-fed circuit
versions of single-ended resonant inverters for home power
electronics appliances are systematically proposed and
classified on the basis of the soft-switched PFM mode
inverter family. The epoch -making advanced IGBT
designed for the application -specific soft-switching and its
driver IC, are shown as new induction -heating rice cooker
including cooking vessel and evaluated from an
experimental point of view. These new technologies are
especially developed for quasi-resonant ZVS highfrequency inverter with working coil-linked induction heating loads.

In practice, the simple and compact inverter systems

should be well shielded to prevent undesirable EMI/RFI
noises, which are used for induction-heating cookmg
appliances such as multi-diverse cookmg pan, microwave
oven. discharge lamp lightening and TV. In consumer home
power electronics, a single-ended quasi-resonant inverter
using a single active power semiconductor device is more
cost-effective and acceptable which efficiently operates at
ZVS principle based upon a resonant switch concept.
I

This paper describes an advanced quasi-resonant

ZVS-PFM inverter using a single specially-designed IGBT
and its driver IC in next generation, which is introduced as a
high-frequency induction-heating rice cooker/warmer, along
with the extended quasi-resonant soft-switching inverter
circuit topologies with a single active power switch.

This high -eficient high -frequency quasi-resonant

inverter system with high-power factor correction and
sinewave line current shaping functions is practically
demonstrated including a high -frequency IGBT with
reduced saturation voltage characteristics, and discussed on
the basis of high-power density home-power electronic
appliances in the next generation.

In this paper, this system is experimentally evaluated

for the consumer home power electronic apparatus, which
includes a unity power-factor correction and sinewave linecurrent shaping function.

1. INTRODUCTION
2. POWER CONVERSION SYSTEM

In recent years, the advanced system technology

developments of switched-mode resonant type highfrequency inverter using new power semiconductor
devicesimodules have attracted special interest in industrial,
consumer, medical and space power utilization fields as well
as home telecommunication power plants.

<2-I>TOTAL SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Figure 1 shows a schematic total power conversion

system for induction-heating cooking apparatus, which is
mainly composed of a single-phase diode rectifier with a
high-pass LC filter, a single-phase single-ended highfrequency resonant inverter operating at ZVS-PFM scheme,
working-coil coupled heating load(vesselipan or utensil) and
power regulation control and power device driver IC,
including a micro computer-based system controller. In this
system. the unity-power factor correction and sinewave-line
current shaping operation are simply accomplished without
using an additional active-filter type switching converter on
the basis of a weak DC-link effect. In other words, this total
system can be actually considered as a frequency step-up

The remarkable unique applications of highfrequency inverter and converter circuits with resonant-tank.
resonant-pole, resonant DC link and quasi-resonant switch
topologies which efficiently operate at a zero-current or a
zero voltage soft switching mode. include the static highpower density DC-AC power supplies for induction-heating
and melting. high-power ultrasonic generating, dischargelamp lightening & dimming. niicrowavc oven and CVCF or
W V F power conditioning and processing due to highfrequency AC link and/or resonant DC link. Considering thc
IEEE Catalogue No. 95TH8025
0-7803-2423-4/95/$4.000 1995 IEEE

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<2-3>INVERTER POWER REGULATION

cycloconversion system.
This total system is practically applied for the
induction-heating cooking vesseVutensi1 or inductionheating rice cooker/warmer as well as magnetron drive
microwave oven in consumer home power electronic systems.

I ity

high-pass

interface
50/60Hz 1 O O V r

1
3

Pan

Rectifier
Uti

Figure 3. illustrates the power regulation characteristics of this inverter under the designed circuit parameters;
L1=72H, k=0.78 =L2/R2=9sec and C1=0.27F where, Ton;
IGBT conduction time, f; operating frequency as defined in
Figure 13. As shown in Figure 3, the output power can be
continuously regulated by means of varying a conduction
duration time Ton. As a result, control frequency vanes
according to Ton and in this case, an operating frequency
range is to be relatively-narrow band;f=20kHz-40kHz.

,.

L-10
8.2
0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

P,,, (kW)
FIG.1. A schematic total power conversion system for induction-heating
power supply in home power electronic system

FIG.3. Power regulation characteristics when the operating frequency is

controlled

3. EXTENDED INVERTER TOPOLOGIES

The single-ended quasi-resonant inverter circuit

topologies using a single power active switch, which
operates at ZVS or ZCS can be widely used in order to
alleviate the electrical dynamic stresses and switching losses
of a power semiconductor switching device and reduce the
EMI noise level.

temperature sensor

A new family of single-ended ZVS soft-switching

inverter circuits employing quasi-resonant switches
composed of two or three resonant elements is displayed in
Figure 4, which make use of a half-wave resonant mode or a
full-wave resonant mode is displayed in Figure 4. The
voltage-fed half-wave resonant inverter of these topologies
provides a good power regulation in a steady-state because of
relatively narrow frequency adjustment. These power
inverter topologies can efficiently operate in the frequency
range more than 20kHz-40kHz.

'J

heating coi I

FIG.2. Arrangement of heating-coil for induction-heatingrice cooker

<2-2>RlCE COOKER IMPLEMENTATION

These inverter topologies have a significant

improvement in performance and high-power density on the
basis of introducing a high-frequency low-saturation voltage
of IGBT designed for soft-switching,

The induction-heating-coil structure in this system is

distributively arranged so as to deliver the high-frequency
power into the heating vessel load, which is made of the
stainless-steel pan within the aluminum as shown in Figure
2. Note that this structure is different from induction
pancake coil structure.

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Table 1 indicates the maximum power rating of a

trially-produced new IGBT with a low voltage drop and a
short falling time characteristics. The IGBT appearance
developed newly is depicted in Figure 6. In case of the
single-ended ZVS inverter incorporating this IGBT, the
smaller switching loss due to the tail current occupies as
compared with a switching loss during a falling time.

4. ADVANCED GENERATION IGBT

By using the inverter circuit shown in Figure 1,

Figure 5 shows the measured voltage and current waveforms
to estimate the conduction loss of IGBT and its turn-off
switching losses during its falling time tf and its tail-current
generating time. In addition, its instantaneous conduction
loss(VceIc) during high-conduction time and turn-off
switching losses during both falling time and tail current
generating time are numerically shown in Figure 5,
respectively, along with conduction loss energy and
switching loss energy .

leverse-conduct i ve device

Table 2 indicates the loss analysis of various triallyproduced IGBTs which are designed for special-purpose
soft-switched mode inverter operating at ZVS and low SOA
design, on the basis of elaborate measuring and analysis due
to the personal computer system. Figure 7 shows VCE(aat)
(saturation-voltage of 1GBT)vs.conduction loss characteristics.
As can be seen, the conduction loss of a new IGBT family
can be sufficiently decreased according to the reduced
saturation voltage design.

Reve se lqck dev'ce

h a ? c I rcu i ts\

fJ-,-$
(a)

In addition, its turn-off losses vs. fall time tr

characteristics measured by the quasi-resonant ZVS inverter
employing a single trialky-developed IGBT are represented
in Figure 8. The turn-off switching losses during a falling
time and a tail current duration time are analyzed in Figure
8. Of these losses, the switching loss during a falling time is
almost kept constant in spite of fast-switching type IGBT
design consideration. In experiment, it is taken into
account that the switching loss during a falling time

(a)

Reverse-conduct i ve device

Reverse-block dev
(Dual c i r c u i t :

(C)

(a)

(a)

.*n
,,.-

-(a)

(a)

FIG.4. Modified version type single-ended quasi-resonant inverter topologies

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1
A
l.-dALd
I

IC

290V

...............

4omv
...............

...............

0
..............
.....................

..............
.........

..............
..............

1mJ

I.. ..........................

0
0 0 . 5 ,s~

2 4 s~

2Y s

Tj=l 10C
n
c,

Table 2 Conduction losses and turn-off losses of various

type of IGBTs

Newly-developed
IGBT appearance

3-

occupics a ccrtain constant

value, which is proportional to
the energy stored into the
parasitic inductanccs cxisting in
the circuit. In this case. the
measured switching loss during
the tail current duration time is
practically negligibly small for
IGBT with fast switching time
less than t,=O.Is as compared
with the switching loss during a
turn-off falling time.

2.0
VCE(SAT)af

2.5
3.0
1 ~ 6 0 A(v)

3.5

FIG.7. Conduction losses vr VCE(*.,)characteristics of

various type of IGBTs

even iT various new IGBTs with 160.1s were produced

trially ,

Figure 9 gives tr vs. Vce(..,) characteristics for various

IGBTs in the Ist, 2nd, advanced 2nd generations. Broken
lines in Figure 9 denote the regions which achieve an
indicated total-loss. As can be seen, the newly- developed
next generation IGBT realize much lower loss(3mJ) as
The IGBT switching loss
compared with conventional Ist,2nd IGBTs. In particular,
designed for short falling time
sample IGBT named N 0 . 5 accomplishes the optimum
is almost equal to the turn-off
switching losses in case of
design.
IGBT designed for a relativelyTotal losses vs the temperature characteristics of the
large ralling time. In Practice,
advanced-2nd generation IGBT are illustrated in Figure 10.
the
loss energ This shows a conduction loss of IGBT and its switching loss
not effectivelybe miuced
when the junction temperatures are changed. According to

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Tj=llO"C

Turn-off Loss

0.5

0'0

On Loss

:
-

Turn-off Loss

fall loss

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

tf ( l u

s )

FIG.8. Turn-off losses vs falling switching time

characteristics of various type of IGBTs
t*-VCE(S*TI

'

0:2

0.4
I'

'

Ol6

Ic:SOA/div V,--:ZOOV/div t:200ns/div

'

(@resonant-loadturn-off(250A)

FIG.9. t,-VCE(sat)
characteristics in lst, 2nd and advanced
2nd generation

the temperature rise. it is noted that the total losses of this

IGBT is to increases with a relatively-small temperature
gradient less than 0.6% /deg.
Allowable current waveforms of the trially-produced
IGBT incorporated into the testing circuit similar to the
single-ended ZVS inverter shown in Figure I are
experimentally shown in Figure 11. The turn-off operation
in resonant-load is shown in Figure Il(a), and the shoot
through operation under the capacitive-load is shown in
Figure ll(b). Taking into account these testing data, this
new IGBT produced here can turn-off as large current as 4
times of the rating current and more it can shoot through as
large current as 8 times of the rating current at Tj=150.

Ic:200A/div VCE:lOOV/div t:2 fl s/div

(b)capacitive-load short(4SOA)

The lC(AN672 I ) structure without isolation link for

FIG.1 1. Hieh current operation of newly-developed IGBT

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Figure 14 indicates the observed voltage and current

waveforms in utility interface side of the inverter systems. In
this system, the input power factor becomes almost unity
(0.99). The line current is effectively shaped to be a
sinewave with a high-power factor without a complicated
active switched-mode reckker.

IGBT drive is provided in Figure 12, which is acceptably

designed for a high-density arrangement.
vu

I
~~

~-

FIG.12. Appearance and struction of IC driver

J l f : +

5. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

k:SOA/div Vc~:tOOV/divt:2ms/div

The steady-state voltage and current waveforms when

the quasi-resonant ZVS inverter operates under the
condition of the full-power setting are observed as shown in
Figure 13.

EIG.14. Sinewave line current shaping and unity powerfactor correction

60
40
20

6. CONCLUSIONS

The single-ended high-frequency inverter utilizing

zero-voltage soft-switching and a working coil-coupled
resonance has been presented introducing a single advanced2nd generation IGBT and its driver IC, and evaluated for
induction-heating rice cooker/warmer as well as inductionheating cooking vesselhtensil.

3 0
-20

"

-40

>II

1/f

This quasi-resonant inverter systems efficiently

operates at a relatively-narrow frequency range and under
the principle of ZVS due to resonant switch concept in order
to alleviate switching stresses switching losses and EM1
noise. In particular, the switching characteristics of
specially-designed IGBT for soft-switched power conversion
has been illustrated as compared with the conventional other
IGBTs from an experimental point of view.

Ton

In addition, it has been substantially proved that the

newly-developed voltage-sourced type IGBT inverter system
which has just put into a commercialized practice as
induction-heating appliance includes a significant improvement in performance and power density.

>II

800

Furthermore, a generic family of single-ended quasiresonant inverter topologies employing resonant switch
concept which operate at ZVS or ZCS mode under PFM
scheme has been systematically demonstrated and classdied
on the basis of a dual circuit topological theory and resonant
switch structures. Some of them are able to be effectively
applied for induction-heating cooking power supply used in
home power electronic appliances introducing more
improved MOS-gate new power semiconductor switching
devices/modules in next generation.

400
0
FIG.13. Voltage and current wave form under ZVS
condition

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In the future, the novel soft-switching single-ended

load resonant inverter topologies which operate under the
PFh4 mode should be applied the other consumer power
electronic appliance such as microwave oven, and DC-DC
power conversion supplies and so on, including the
improved technology of single-ended resonant inverter
operating at constant frequency PWM strategy.
REFERENCES

(1)H.Omori and M.Nakaoka; "New single-ended resonant

inverter circuit" International Journal of Electronics,
pp.277-296, January, 1989.
(Z)H.Omori, H.Yamashita and MNakaoka; "A Novel type
induction-heating single-ended resonant inverter using a
new bipolar-darlington transistor" EEE-PESC Record,
Vol.1, pp.590-599, June, 1988.
(3)Irving Gottlieb; "Solid-state hgh-frequency power"
Reston Publishing Company, Inc, Prentice-Hall Company,
pp.31-41, 1989.
(4)J.Pforr, L.Hobson, "Resonant-switched mode preconverters for hgh-frequency induction heaters"
Proceedings of Power Conversion International
Conference (PCIM), pp.245-259, June, 1991.
(S)I.Hirota, H.Omori, W.sheng and M.Nakaoka; "Singleended quasi-resonant ZVS high-frequency inductionheating IGBT inverter with unity power factor correction
and sinewave line current shaping functions" Proceedings
of Chinese- Japanese Power Electronics Conference, Sept,
1992.
(6)K.Heumann; "Evaluation of turn-off semiconductor
devices and future trends" International Symposium on
Power Electronics (ISPE), pp.36-45, April, 1992.
(7)I.Hirota, H. Omori, and M. Nakaoka; "Practical
developments of high-efficient induction-heating
application using new IGBT" International Appliance
Technical Conference(1ATC). pp.83-92. May, 1994.

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