IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO.

4, JULY/AUGUST 1998 847

A Review of Soft-Switched DCAC Converters

Maria D. Bellar, Student Member, IEEE, Tzong-Shiann Wu, Member, IEEE, Aristide Tchamdjou, Student Member, IEEE,
Javad Mahdavi, Senior Member, IEEE, and M. Ehsani, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractSoft-switching techniques have recently been applied switching losses;

in the design of dcac converters, in order to achieve better severe and which produce electromagnetic
performance, higher efficiency, and higher power density. A interference (EMI).
substantial number of new topologies for different applications
has been developed, however, the amount of work that has Various soft-switched dcac converters using either zero-
been done in this field is not widely known. This paper is an voltage switching (ZVS) or zero-current switching (ZCS) have
attempt to classify the soft-switched dcac topologies in a simple been proposed in the literature, and the basic issue is to achieve
and generic way. The topology classifications are based on the high-frequency operation with reduced switching losses and
location of the resonant network (load, inverter bridge, and bus),
the characteristic of switching waveforms (zero-voltage switching EMI. When the switching frequency becomes higher, the
or zero-current switching), and the type of resonance (series or harmonics filtering is easier and the audible noise (below 18
parallel). Operating principles, performance, and design limi- kHz) can be reduced. This is a very desirable enhancement in
tations are discussed. Some possible industrial applications of motor drive systems, for example. However, these features are
soft-switched dcac converters are addressed. sometimes accomplished at the expense of producing higher
Index TermsResonant dcac converters, soft-switched dcac voltage or current stresses and circuit complexities which
converters, zero-voltage switching, zero-current switching. prevent implementation of the well-known PWM techniques.
However, more recently, some modified topologies have been
I. INTRODUCTION presented in order to solve these problems.

T HE pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) dcac converter has

been the main choice in power electronics for decades,
because of its circuit simplicity and rugged control scheme.
II. TOPOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF SOFT-SWITCHED
DCAC CONVERTERS
Typical applications for PWM dcac converters can be found A systematic classification of the dcac converters is pre-
in uninterruptible power systems (UPSs), motor drives, in- sented in Fig. 1. In general, dcac converter topologies can be
duction heating, etc. Due to the switching losses and the classified as hard-switching and soft-switching converters, ac-
limitations of semiconductor devices that are currently avail- cording to their switching characteristics. In the hard-switching
able, the switching frequency of PWM converters is usually dcac PWM converters, the power devices are connected either
around a few kilohertz when the power rating is tens of to a stiff voltage source, as in a voltage-source inverter (VSI),
kilowatts. However, power density and circuit performance are or to a stiff current source, as in a current-source inverter (CSI).
improved with higher switching frequencies. Higher switching Sudden changes in switch voltage and current waveforms
frequencies in PWM converters are limited by the following: cause severe switching losses and EMI problems [1], [2].
switching stresses (high voltage and current peaks) on the High voltage and/or current peaks can also be observed during
power devices during the turn-on and turnoff transients, switching transients, because of parasitic capacitances and
which result in oversizing the safe operating area (SOA); stray inductances around power devices.
Paper IPCSD 9812, presented at the 1996 Industry Applications Society In the soft-switched topologies, a high-frequency resonant
Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, October 610, and approved for publication network is added to the conventional hard-switching PWM
in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Industrial Power topology. The resonant network can be composed of only
Converter Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. The work
of M. D. Bellar was supported by CNPq of Brazil. Manuscript released for passive elements and or it can also have additional
publication February 6, 1998. auxiliary diode(s) and/or switch(es). As a result, the switch
M. D. Bellar is with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of voltage or current swings and crosses zero points and, thus,
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA, on leave from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio creates the soft-switching conditions for the power devices.
de Janeiro 20559, Brazil. Therefore, the switch waveforms are shaped by the resonant
T.-S. Wu and A. Tchamdjou were with the Power Electronics Laboratory, network such that the switching losses can be minimized, the
Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Sta-
tion, TX 77843-3128 USA. They are now with International Rectifier, El switch stresses can be reduced, and EMI can be prevented.
Segundo, CA 90245 USA. Therefore, depending on the chosen resonant network scheme,
J. Mahdavi was with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of different shapes of voltage and current waveforms in the
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA. He is now with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Sharif converter can be obtained. This can lead to a different way
University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. of topology classification, as will be referred to later.
M. Ehsani is with the Power Electronics Laboratory, Department of In this paper, the classification of soft-switching converters,
Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-
3128 USA. presented in Fig. 1, is based upon the location of the resonant
Publisher Item Identifier S 0093-9994(98)04921-4. network (load, inverter bridge, and dc bus) in the converter
00939994/98$10.00 1998 IEEE
848 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

Fig. 1. A classification of the dcac converters.

system, characteristic of switching waveforms (ZVS or ZCS), full-bridge configurations. These converters can be generally
and the type of resonance (series or parallel). These can be classified as series resonant converters and parallel resonant
further explained as follows. converters. In series resonant topologies, the inverter bridge
1) Load resonant dcac converterAn LC resonant tank supplies a square-wave voltage to a resonant network that is
is added at the load side in a series, parallel, or in a connected in series with the inverter bridge. The load can be
combination of series and parallel LC schemes. Hence, connected to the resonant network in series [3], parallel [4], or
the ZVS or ZCS condition can be produced for the active in a hybrid resonant configuration, such as series/parallel [5],
switches on the inverter bridge. The dc-bus waveform [6], parallel/series [7], and multiresonant [8]. In the parallel
of the load resonant dcac converter is unaltered. resonant converter, the inverter supplies a square-wave current
2) Resonant transition dcac converterA resonant net- into a resonant network that is connected in parallel with the
work is added to the inverter bridge, thereby creating the inverter. In this case, the load can also appear in series [9],
ZVS or ZCS conditions. The parasitics of the switches [10], or in parallel [5], [11] with the resonant tank. Next, two
can also be part of the resonant scheme. The input dc examples of load resonant converters are presented, followed
bus is not altered. by some general comments.
3) Resonant link dcac converterThe resonant network
A. Series Resonant Parallel-Load DCAC Converter (SRPLC)
is connected between the input dc source and the in-
verter bridge. Thus, the input bus is oscillating in order Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows a half-bridge SRPLC and the
to create the soft-switching conditions for the power corresponding waveforms, when (typically
devices. Therefore, the input buses of these resonant 1.11.3) [4]. In this case, the output impedance
link converters are different from the conventional PWM becomes capacitive, and the switches and diodes are turned
system. on and off at zero-current condition (ZCS). So, SCRs can
In the following sections, the basic features of each soft- be used. Each active switch is parallel connected with a
switched converter type will be explained. diode, which is necessary when the load current flows in the
opposite direction. During the turnoff period, the antiparallel
diode shares the load current with the incoming active switch
III. LOAD RESONANT DCAC CONVERTERS and improves the reverse blocking capability of the outgoing
In these converters, a resonant network is connected to the device. The turn-on time of active switches is determined
load and oscillates with resonant frequency along the entire by the control signal, and their turnoff time is dependent
switching period where is the converter only on the power circuit behavior (natural commutation).
switching frequency). The oscillating load voltage and current The resonant capacitor is in parallel with the load,
waveforms create the ZVS and/or ZCS conditions for the main in order to reduce the output voltage distortion. However,
devices. The inverter bridge can appear in half-bridge or in variable-frequency control of the SRPLC is limited and is
BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS 849

(a)

(a)

(b)
Fig. 2. SRPLC, with resonant frequency fo =1 p
= Lo Co .

constrained by the output distortion. A poor output regulation

can be expected when the resonant frequency drifts away from (b)
the switching frequency due to parameter variation in time p
Fig. 3. The parallel resonant series-load dcac converter, with resonant
frequency fo = 1= Lo Co :
or in manufacturing. In practice, two inductances, are
connected in series with the switches, respectively, at points
and in Fig. 2(a), in order to limit the shoot-through Moreover, it has been shown in [6] and [18] that the
current [4]. Advantages, such as low-distortion sinusoidal series resonant converter performance is better when the load
output waveform and good efficiency, have made the series is connected into a hybrid series/parallel or parallel/series
resonant converter, either parallel loaded [11] or series loaded resonant network. This type of circuit configuration has also
[3], [12], attractive for high-power applications (20 kHz/10 recently been considered for applications on the utility line
KVA), such as in induction heating and in space power [19].
conversion applications.
The SRPLC can also operate with ZVS during turn-on and
turnoff if and, instead of SCRs, higher frequency B. Parallel Resonant Series-Load DCAC Converter (PRSLC)
switches (such as BJTs and power MOSFETs) are employed. Fig. 3(a) shows a PRSLC, which is the dual transformation
In this case, a capacitor should be connected in parallel with [9] of the SRPLC in Fig. 2(a). Alternatively, an isolation
each switch [5], [6], in order to avoid turnoff losses, as a dual transformer can be used in place of the input source induc-
of connecting series inductances [Fig. 2(a)] in the ZCS case. tances [11]. In the PRSLC circuit of Fig. 3(a), the resonant
In this case, when full-bridge configuration is used, phase- inductor is series connected with load to provide regulated
shift modulation (fixed switching frequency) can be applied load current. When , the output impedance becomes
to control the output [14]. This configuration offers some inductive, hence, the circuit behavior determines the turn-on
particular features. The resonant mode of operation occurs at a time of the switches, and the control signal determines their
time interval much shorter than the switching period, and the turnoff time. For example, the switch is not fully turned
parasitics of switches and leakage inductance of an isolation on until the switch voltage swings back to zero, as shown in
transformer can be combined to the series resonant network Fig. 3(b). However, can be turned off at any time, and
in the inverter side. Due to these features, this configuration resonant capacitor takes over the load current. In the
has been particularly popular for high-frequency power supply PRSLC, the switches can be turned on and off at zero-voltage
applications [15]. condition (ZVS) because of the parallel resonant capacitor
Another way of obtaining ZVS operation in a series resonant A practical example is shown in [9], where two capacitances
converter is by using the partial series resonant technique [16]. are placed each in parallel with each of the switches,
Here, the condition is and the resonance occurs only composed of diode and transistor.
during part of the switching period. This technique, initially Because the switch voltages of Fig. 3(b) are alternating,
proposed to dcdc conversion, was also applied to induction the main switches must be capable of reverse blocking. If
heating application [17]. fast-switching-type devices are used, such as power bipolar
850 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

transistors, MOSFETs, and IGBTs, reverse-blocking diodes the load. Also, the resonant network should operate accord-
must be series connected with these devices to prevent reverse ing to the controller commanding signals, which are usually
breakthrough. When a thyristor bridge is used, the parallel provided by a PWM-type controller. In this section, it is
resonant circuit must be started up prior to the inverter shown that resonant switch, resonant pole, quasi-resonant,
operation. An analysis of a starting process is presented in resonant snubber, and soft-transition PWM conversion [zero-
[10]. In thyristor bridge configuration, fixed-frequency control voltage transition (ZVT) and zero-current transition (ZCT)] are
can also be used [5]. This converter can be found in industrial all concepts closely related, that can be generally termed as
applications for induction heating and metal melting up to resonant transition when they are applied to dcac conversion.
levels of 10 kHz/1000 kW [10]. Some representative examples of these concepts are presented
next.
C. General Comments
A. Resonant Pole Inverter (RPI) or Quasi-Resonant
Load resonant converters are more suitable for constant ZVS DCAC Converter
load applications. In these converters, the resonant mode of
operation occurs during the entire switching period. In order Previously, the resonant switch concept [20] has been
to reduce the output distortion and to achieve a wide output defined by considering each converter switch as a main switch
voltage range with only a small change in the quality factor combined with a resonant network. This resonant network
of the resonant tank must be as high as possible. Moreover, is used only to shape the switch voltage and/or current,
the definition of in (1) shows that, since the denominator yielding soft-switching conditions, either through ZVS or ZCS.
is proportional to the load power, the peak energy storage The converters are frequently called quasi-resonant converters
requirements of the LC resonant tank has to be increased when when the resonant mode of operation occurs only during part
is higher. Hence, the reactive components will be bigger: of the switching cycle, while PWM operation takes place
peak energy storage during the rest of the switching period. This concept has
(1) been extensively and succesfully applied to PWM dcdc con-
energy dissipated per cycle
verter topologies [21], where many different types of resonant
Since the resonant elements are connected in the main power switches were conceived as the elementary cells, which gave
transfer path, these converters suffer from high voltage and way to a wide variety of topologies. However, when this
current ratings in every component. Because of this, series concept was directly applied to dcac conversion [22], the
resonant converters have limitations at high power levels (at resulting topologies were very complex, apparently due to the
the 20-kHz/100-kW level, for example), due to the difficulty of required number of switches. The resonant pole technique [23],
implementing a compact, high-efficieny high-power resonant although it was first proposed for dcdc conversion, turned out
inductor [15]. However, load resonant converters can provide to be very convenient for dcac conversion [24]. The main
excellent output regulation by tuning the load closely to idea is to connect the resonant network across the inverter
the resonant frequency. In this case, the load power factor pole, in order to provide the soft-switching conditions for
approaches one, and the voltage and current ratings of the both switches of an inverter leg. In this way, for a three-
power devices can be minimized, when compared to the phase system, each inverter leg will have its corresponding
untuned load case using PWM. However, if one is interested in pole assisted by a resonant network.
extracting low-frequency ac from a high-frequency switched Fig. 4(a) shows the single-phase version of the RPI [24],
signal at the output of a dcac converter, it is convenient that [25]. The resonant element can be the output capacitance
the resonant network does not take part in the main power of active switches, or extra capacitor parallel connected with
flow, and it is activated only as a means of creating the soft- power devices. The resonant inductor is at load side to
switching conditions during the switch state changes. This provide both output filtering and waveform shaping operations.
approach, which contrasts with the continuous resonant mode In practice, it is recommended that a filter capacitor should
of operation (predominantly used in load resonant converters), be connected in series with and the load is connected
is explained in the next section, as resonant transition dcac across
converters. The circuit operation is described as follows. In Fig. 4(b),
the pole voltage is PWM. The voltage rating on the active
IV. RESONANT TRANSITION DCAC CONVERTERS switch is which is the same as that of A conventional
In resonant transition dcac converters, the input bus voltage PWM converter. The resonant inductor is charged and dis-
(VSI) or current (CSI) is fixed. The soft-switching condition charged by this pole voltage and provides alternating current
is implemented by resonating the voltage and/or current of to the load. A parallel resonant mode occurs between the
the inverter switches. Ideally, the resonant network should inductor and the capacitors whenever the pole voltage
be activated only during the switching transition intervals changes its polarity. For example, in Fig. 4(b), switch
and should make the resonance circulating energy be as is fully turned on and is at off state before To
minimum as possible and completely decoupled from the main activate the RPI mechanism, is turned off at zero voltage
power transfer to the load. Frequently, the parasitics of the level (ZVS). A parallel resonance between and two output
devices can be part of the resonant scheme. However, the capacitors resets the capacitive energy from to Due
resonance energy should be enough to create the soft-switching to the fact that the resonant operation takes place only during
conditions (ZVS or ZCS), irrespective of the variations in a small part of the switching period, this topology can also be
BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS 851

Fig. 5. The auxiliary resonant commutated pole inverter.

devices can be much higher than those of the conventional

PWM converters. This results in a higher component cost
and a very poor switch utilization. On the other hand, at
light load, the inductor current may not be sufficient to create
(a) the ZVS condition. This restricts the load range capability of
the converter. Moreover, since the resonant inductor is series
connected with load, RPI topology does not seem suitable
for motor drive applications because of the redundancy in
stator inductance [24], [25]. However, active power filter
implemented with RPI has been reported up to 10 kVA [26].
Many modified inverter pole resonant schemes have been
presented in order to reduce the current ratings, as well as
to improve the load range and control capabilities [27][34].

B. Resonant Snubber-Based DCAC Converters

In [28], a voltage-source inverter with a resonant circuit
assisted by auxiliary switches (resonant snubber) is presented
(Fig. 5). This idea can also be extended to current-source
(b) inverters. The main switches are self-turnoff devices (such
as GTOs, IGBTs) operating with ZVS, and the auxiliary
switches operate with ZCS. In [28], the auxiliary switches are
thyristors, and in [29], the auxiliary switches are -channel
MCT with an antiparallel diode. In this case, the topology
was termed an auxiliary resonant commutated pole inverter
(ARCPI). The main idea here is that the resonant inductor
(c) is shifted away from the main power flow in Fig. 5),
Fig. 4. The RPI or quasi-resonant zero-voltage switching dcac converter. and the auxiliary switches and are series connected
to the resonant inductor to control the direction of resonant
energy transfer. The control scheme must assure that, at light
called quasi-resonant ZVS. Thereafter, the switch voltage of load, the auxiliary devices are activated and, at full load, they
is clamped to zero at and diode is conducting are not activated [29], [15], thereby reducing the conduction
the load current. Now, the resonant inductor is charged by dc losses. Since the auxiliary switches are not associated with
voltage and can be turned on any time the main load energy transfer, their power ratings are much
Because the antiparallel diode is conducting first, the active smaller than the main power devices and The main
switch is ensured to have ZVS turn on. When load current switch current rating is 1 p.u. of the load current in this ARCPI
becomes positive, is conducting and can be turned off by circuit. However, the antiparallel diodes need to process both
control logic to start the next parallel resonance operation. the load and resonant currents when the resonant inductor is
A current-mode delta modulation scheme [Fig. 4(c)] is used discharged. Since the discharging period is only a fraction
in this quasi-resonant ZVS (QR-ZVS) topology, in order to of the entire switching cycle, the power ratings of diodes are
synthesize the desired low-frequency output. Because of this, very small. Moreover, the commutation process and the system
this converter has been also termed a quasi-resonant current- performance still depend upon the load current. Current zero-
mode inverter (QRCMI) [24]. A major hurdle of the RPI crossing detection is very critical for the auxiliary switches,
converter is the switch current stresses. The inductor current due to the reverse recovery process of the devices. Also, the
must be sufficiently large, in order to reset capacitive energy conduction times of these auxiliary switches are varied in
during parallel resonance and create ZVS conditions for the each switching cycle and, hence, this makes the control of
active switches. As a result, the peak and rms current ratings of ARCPI more complicated. An alternative configuration, using
the active switch are at least twice and 1.2 times the rated load only thyristors as switches, is proposed in [30], where a good
current, respectively. Hence, the conduction losses of power description of the current zero-crossing detection problem is
852 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

Fig. 6. Nonlinear commutated resonant pole inverter (NLRPI).

(a)
presented. Other improvements for the ARCP topology can
be found in [31][34]. In [31] and [32], the resonant circuit
is placed between phase outputs, instead of using a center-
tapped dc link for commutation. IGBTs and MCTs were
used, respectively, in [31] and [32], as auxiliary switches. In
these proposed arrangements, called Y-configured and Delta-
configured resonant snubber inverters, the number of devices
in the resonant network was reduced when compared to the
ARCPI.
Fig. 6 shows the nonlinear commutated resonant pole in-
verter (NLRPI) [33], [34], where a saturable nonlinear inductor
(b)
replaces the auxiliary commutation circuit in the ARCPI. The
benefits of the saturable inductor in the NLRPI are smaller
voltampere ratings on the resonant inductor, smaller current
ratings, and shorter conduction duration with the diodes of
active switches. The control difficulty of the NLRPI comes
from the volt-second energy balance in the nonlinear inductor.
If the volt-second balance of the nonlinear inductor is not equal
to zero over each switching cycle, a residue energy will build (c)
up and the NLRPI becomes unstable. A controlled current
Fig. 7. (a) QR-ZCS dcac converter. (b) The relevant waveforms. (c)
source can be injected into the center-tapped source capacitor, Bang-bang control scheme.
in order to compensate for this residue energy [34].
Although there is the added complexity resulting from
additional devices and the difficulty in selecting a proper
auxiliary switch, the resonant snubber-based topology has inductive energy from the outgoing device to the incoming
shown attractive features, such as possibility of operation with one and, hence, the power switch can be turned off at zero
PWM with independent control of the phase legs, and good current. The resonant inductors also ensure the zero-
efficiency. Indeed, topology comparison studies presented in current turn-on of switches. In case of a low-frequency output
[35] and [15] have shown that this topology is highly efficient. waveform, a bang-bang control scheme [36] can be applied
These aspects have made this topology be considered for to this QR-ZCS circuit, as shown in Fig. 7(c). The capacitor
high-power applications, such as motor drives. voltage is compared with the boundaries of reference volt-
ages and and determines the corresponding switching
C. Quasi-Resonant ZCS (QR-ZCS) DCAC Converter sequence.
The QR-ZCS dcac converter of Fig. 7(a), or the so-called A favorable switch current rating is an attractive feature
capacitive coupled dcac inverter (CCI) [36], [37], is the of this QR-ZCS topology. The ac output is fed from current
duality transformation of the QR-ZVS topology (Fig. 4). The sources in the QR-ZCS converter. The peak and rms current
current-fed topologies have been well known for low current of active switches are 1 p.u. and 0.5 p.u. of the input current,
ratings on the active switches, and this is also true in the QR- respectively, in this converter. This implies the applicability of
ZCS converter. The two source inductors are in continuous high-current high-power devices, such as SCRs and GTOs.
conduction mode and charge the output capacitor in
Although the switch voltage ratings are much higher (the dual
opposite directions. Two small resonant inductors are
case of high switch current in the QR-ZVS/RPI topology), it
series connected to the active switches and circulate capacitive
energy of in order to create zero-current turn-on and usually costs less to implement with power devices of high
turnoff conditions for and The switching sequence of voltage ratings than high current ratings.
the QR-ZCS converter is such that, whenever an active switch The resonant capacitor of the QR-ZCS converter provides
needs to be turned off, the complementary switch should an alternating voltage waveform to inductive loads. Therefore,
be turned on first. A series resonance between the output QR-ZCS is more suitable for motion control and induction
capacitor and the two resonant inductors releases the heating applications.
BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS 853

the main switches are switched at zero-voltage conditions.

Therefore, the switching losses can be dramatically reduced.
This ZVT-PWM topology is suitable for implementation with
MOSFETs and IGBTs, where the output capacitances of the
switches can be used as part of the auxiliary resonant network.
Hence, this ZVT-PWM circuit is expected to operate at a very
high switching frequency. The operation of the ZVT-PWM
converter is basically the same as that of its conventional
PWM counterpart, except during switching transient periods.
(a)
Assuming that and are conducting and phase is
the most positive terminal, the phase current is flowing out
of the converter while and are in the inbound directions.
The ZVT-PWM operation of and starts with turning
off all these active switches at zero-voltage conditions. This
ZVS operation is due to the QR-ZVS mechanism produced
by and load inductances. Therefore, the load must be
inductive to provide this ZVS operation. The phase currents
are conducting through diodes and at
Auxiliary switch is activated to initiate the ZVT mechanism
at Thereafter, diode currents are shifted into the auxiliary
circuit and charge the resonant inductors Then, all the
diodes can be turned off at zero-current condition at
as shown in Fig. 8(b). After and are turned
(b)
off, active switches and take over the charging
Fig. 8. ZVT dcac converter [39]. currents to secure sufficient inductive energy stored in the
auxiliary circuit. At the devices and are
D. Soft-Transition PWM DCAC Converters turned off with zero voltage conditions. To achieve zero-
voltage switching of active switches, the resonant inductors
The elementary soft-transition PWM switching cell (as
resonate with switch capacitors of the inverter bridge.
opposed to the elementary PWM switching cell) is defined [38]
Then, and are turned on again under zero-voltage
as the main building block of the class of soft-transition PWM conditions by an energy reset mechanism, due to the parallel
converters. Initially, these concepts were applied to acdc and resonance of and
dcdc conversion, but they were extended to dcac conversion It is evident that the PWM operation of every single switch
[39][42]. results in a ZVT switching of all active devices in this
These soft-transition schemes are a compromise between ZVT-PWM converter. Therefore, more switching sequence is
PWM and soft-switching techniques. In these cases, the dc bus required in ZVT topology than in the conventional PWM cir-
is fixed, the inverter bridge operates as a conventional PWM cuit. Switching timing is the other problem for implementing
type, and an auxiliary resonant circuit is connected into the ZVT technique in the PWM converter [40]. Since ZVT is not
system, as shown in Figs. 810. Therefore, the auxiliary circuit available for all switching combinations, for example, when
is used to achieve soft-switching operation only during the and are all in on states, a modified SVM scheme
switching transition periods of the inverter switches, while the is incorporated with ZVT operation to prevent commutation
PWM feature is preserved to reduce the switching ratings. The failure [40], [41]. This ZVT-PWM converter can be used for
operation of the auxiliary switches needs to be synchronized motor drive applications because the load inductance is not
with the PWM control scheme [frequently based on space part of the ZVS operation of inverter switches.
vector modulation (SVM)], in order to activate the resonant 2) ZCT DCAC Converter: The ZCT dcac conveter [42]
transition mechanism for the inverter switches. The soft- can also be viewed as a modification of the current-pulse
transition switching techniques have been referred to in the forced commutation circuit which has been used in SCR-
literature as ZVT and ZCT. In this section, some representative type inverters for high-power applications. In the current-
examples using these techniques are described. pulse forced commutation circuit of Fig. 9, also known as a
1) ZVT DCAC Converter: The ZVT dcac converter is McMurray inverter [43], resonant tank and provides
proposed in [39] as an improvement to the ARCPI, where impulse current to turn off the active switches at zero-current
is the only auxiliary switch. conditions. However, the auxiliary switches in the commuta-
A small power level diode bridge is used as an auxiliary tion circuit must be capable of reverse blocking, and their
commutation circuit in a conventional PWM topology, as voltage ratings are higher than dc-bus voltage. Also, two
shown in Fig. 8(a) [39]. The auxiliary switch activates the auxiliary switches, two regenerative diodes, and resistor
ZVT commutation of the main switches, and the diode are necessary to achieve ZCS of the active switches on each
feeds back extra inductive energy to the dc side. All of the phase leg of the inverter bridge. This increases the number of
diodes are subjected to zero-current turn-on and turnoff, while components and complexity of the circuit operation.
854 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

blocks the diode on The advantage of this ZCT-PWM

converter is the minimized voltage and current ratings on
active switches and all diodes. Since all the active switches are
ZCS turned on and turned off, power switches with long-tailed
turnoff currents, such as power transistors, GTOs, and SCRs,
might be good candidates for ZCT topology. The energy
circulating in the auxiliary circuit is adjusted adaptively to the
Fig. 9. The current-impulse forced commutation circuit [43]. load current [42] and not dissipated, which is an improvement
from the current-pulse forced commutation circuit (Fig. 9).
Therefore, the current peak is around 1.1 times that of the
load current, and the conduction losses can be reduced in the
auxiliary circuit. However, the diodes of the inverter bridge
and the auxiliary switches are not subjected to soft-switching
turnoff. In fact, these devices are turned off at load current
and, hence, the turnoff losses can be a serious problem due to
hard reverse recovery.
3) General Comments: In the ZVT-PWM converter, when
the auxiliary network is activated, both the dc bus and the
(a)
load see a parallel resonant network, whereas in the case of
the ZCT-PWM converter, the dc bus and the load see a series
resonant network. Nevertheless, the ZCT-PWM is not the dual
of the ZVT-PWM. The switches of the inverter bridge in
the ZVT-PWM and in the ZCT-PWM converters turn on and
off with ZVS and ZCS, respectively. However, the auxiliary
switch and all diodes in the ZVT-PWM topology are subjected
to ZCS turn-on and turnoff, while in the case of the ZCT-PWM
converter, the auxiliary switches and the diodes in the inverter
bridge are hard switched off at the load current level. Another
point to observe is that, in both topologies, the devices of the
resonant network are placed similarly to the resonant snubber
topologies referred to in section IV-B. Research work has
been continuously carried out for improvements of these soft-
(b) transition techniques, where one of the main goals is to make
the converter operate as closely as possible to a conventional
Fig. 10. The ZCT dcac converter.
PWM counterpart.
A ZCT-PWM topology, shown in Fig. 10(a) [42], consists
V. RESONANT LINK DCAC CONVERTERS
of a conventional PWM converter and an auxiliary bridge with
series resonant tanks and Each switch of the auxiliary The resonant link dcac converters shift the resonant net-
circuit provides ZCT operation of the active switch on the work from the inverter bridge to the dc bus. Depending on the
corresponding phase leg. The ZCT turnoff of for example, resonant network configuration and the switching scheme, the
is activated by turning on in the auxiliary circuit. In resonant link dcac converters can be divided into two types.
Fig. 10(b), the resonant capacitor of phase is precharged 1) Resonant ac-link dcac converter (RACLC)The link
to After turn-on of a series resonance between waveform can be either an alternating voltage or alter-
and increases the inductor current and diverts the nating current, in order to create ZVS or ZCS conditions
phase current into the auxiliary circuit. for the inverter bridge. Hence, bidirectional switches
The active switch is turned off at zero-current condition, should be used.
and the diode circulates the remaining inductor current. At 2) Resonant dc-link dcac converter (RDCLC)The link
starts to conduct current, while is at off state, is a dc-biased oscillating waveform, whereby unidirec-
as in the conventional PWM case. Auxiliary switch can tional switches can be implemented in the inverter bridge
be turned off any time , and then, the diode of and with ZVS or ZCS conditions.
takes over the resonant current. The resonant capacitor is
discharged to at and the circulating energy A. RACLCs
is stored in the auxiliary circuit after resonant current High-frequency link-based power conversion systems were
decreases to zero. The active switch can be turned on at proposed as a different approach for power conversion dis-
zero current by the PWM control signal. The capacitive energy tribution systems [44]. In this category, a high-frequency LC
in the auxiliary circuit is released through and the diode of resonant tank circuit is inserted into the input dc bus.
However, does not conduct the load current until Fig. 11(a) and (b) shows the series resonant ac-link con-
the capacitor voltage swings back to and reversibly verter (SRACLC) and the parallel resonant ac-link converter
BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS 855

(a)

(b) (c)
Fig. 11. (a) SRACLC. (b) PRACLC. (c) Corresponding link and output waveforms.

(PRACLC) topologies, respectively. Their corresponding 3) Control of the RACLCs: The link current (SRACLC)
waveforms are shown in Fig. 11(c) [44][46]. In the SRACLC, or the link voltage (PRACLC) is a sinusoidal waveform that
the series and resonant elements produce a sinusoidal goes through natural zeros twice in each switching cycle.
current waveform in the link, while in the PRACLC, the The switches on the inverter bridge are activated only at
parallel resonant tank produces a sinusoidal voltage-link those zero-crossing instants and, therefore, the basic mode
waveform. In both cases, the waveform frequency is given of control is discrete pulse modulation (DPM). In this case,
by . the switching sequence control circuit activates the switches
1) SRACLC: In Fig. 11(a), the input source is a rectified such that selected half-cycle and/or full-cycle pulses of the
dc voltage. Normally, the link current is controlled through this high-frequency link are transferred to the output, as shown
input rectifier. However, another topology using a battery as in Fig. 11(c). In fact, this switching sequence control scheme
voltage source with a current control stage can also be used is exactly the same as in the cycloconverter converter [45].
[47]. The reactive elements of the series ac-link converter are The number of pulses at the output is determined by the link
chosen small, in order to create a high link frequency. Since frequency, amplitude of fundamental output component, and
the link current is alternating, the active switches must be capa- the desired output frequency. Therefore, the fundamental com-
ble of carrying bidirectional currents. Therefore, the inverter ponents of output voltage (PRACLC) or current (SRACLC)
bridge operates in a cycloconverter mode. The link current can be synthesized by this DPM scheme.
goes through natural zero points twice, and the switches of
the inverter bridge are activated only at these zero crossings. B. RDCLCs
The active switches operate with ZCS conditions. Therefore, Like the previous case, here, a series or parallel resonant
high-power devices, such as SCRs, can be implemented in network is connected in the input dc bus and makes the
this topology. link oscillate. Nevertheless, a dc-bias voltage (parallel) or
2) PRACLC: In the PRACLC, the resonant network is current (series) level is also added to the oscillating waveform.
connected between the current-source dc bus and the inverter Therefore, unidirectional switches can be used in the output
bridge. These reactive elements and are connected in bridge, which operates in an inverter mode.
parallel and provide alternating link voltage to the inverter 1) Parallel Resonant DC-Link Converter (PRDCLC):
bridge. The switches of the inverter bridge are turned on Fig. 12(a) shows a dc-to-three-phase parallel resonant dc-
and turned off only at those zero-voltage instants to reduce link inverter [48]. In this circuit, the inverter input voltage
switching losses. Bidirectional voltage switches are necessary is pulsating by applying a parallel resonant
in the PRACLC circuit to withstand alternating link voltage, network between the dc voltage source and the inverter
as shown in Fig. 11(b). Power devices, such as transistors and bridge. Therefore, the link voltage has zero crossings
IGBTs, can be used in this PRACLC topology. which create the ZVS soft-switching conditions for the power
856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

and is the capacitor initial current which

guarantees will have a zero-crossing point.
In practice, zero-crossing failures and overshoots in the bus
voltage may occur because the circuit initial conditions
change during each resonant cycle. A special control strategy
should be applied, in order to establish the same initial
condition at the beginning of each switching cycle. The crucial
(a) factor to solve both voltage overshoots and zero-crossing
problems is the control of the capacitor initial current ,
which varies from one switching cycle to another, due to the
variations of the input inductor initial condition and on
the inverter input current [49]. Moreover, the output voltage
of Fig. 12(c) is obtained by using a DPM control type (such
as delta modulation). This control technique has not shown a
good resolution in terms of harmonic components distribution
(b) when it is compared with the PWM type [50]. However, it
was shown that delta-modulated RDCL inverters switching
34 times faster than PWM systems can realize comparable
harmonic levels and are as efficient as the ARCP inverter
topology [35].
In order to overcome the problems in the RDCLC, the
bus resonant network has been frequently modified to reduce
the clamping factor, thus reducing the switch stresses, and to
introduce the PWM capability. Therefore, new topologies have
been proposed where the following concepts can be commonly
found: passively clamped, actively clamped, quasi-resonant,
(c) and notch commutated.
Fig. 12. (a) Parallel resonant dc link converter, (b) equivalent circuit, (c) a) Passively clamped dc link: An auxiliary circuit, basi-
resonant dc bus voltage vd and output line-to-line voltage. cally composed of a passive element (coupled inductor) and a
diode is introduced in the bus [24]. The idea is to extract
energy from the LC resonant tank to create the clamping
devices. The input voltage introduces the dc bias level in level. This extracted tank energy is fed back to the input dc
the voltage source. However, sufficient excess energy must still be stored
For analysis of this converter, the equivalent circuit of the in the inductor to ensure the zero-crossing point in the
resonant dc link is used, as shown in Fig. 12(b). In this figure, dc-link voltage. Therefore with this technique the link peak
defines the factor of the resonant tank, and the inverter voltage stress reduction is restricted to more than [24].
input current is a function of the phase currents (the load The topology in [24] operates with DPM control.
can be an induction motor, for example) and of the inverter b) Actively clamped dc link: In Fig. 13(a) and (b), the
switching function. In this analysis, is assumed constant actively clamped resonant dc-link inverter [24] and the cor-
during the resonant cycle. To ensure that will return responding waveforms are shown. An auxiliary switch
to zero, is turned on until stores sufficient energy, and a stored-voltage clamp capacitor (electrolytic) are added
determined by Then, when is turned off, the energy in the conventional parallel resonant dc link. The voltage
stored in should guarantee that returns to zero value. in the clamp capacitor is In this case, a better
At the beginning of the turnoff interval at , the initial clamping level can be achieved 1.21.4, where is
conditions are the clamping factor). However, the precharging problem of
the voltage clamping capacitor and the operation with DPM
control have restricted the utilization of this circuit.
c) Quasi-resonant PWM dc link: Several attempts have
been made to introduce the PWM capability in the original
Assuming that the system is highly underdamped, that is, resonant dc-link topology [50][55]. Sometimes, the PWM
, then it can be shown that capability does not result in low switch stresses [50]. Improve-
(2) ment has usually been obtained at the expense of increasing
the number of devices in the auxiliary bus network. Thus,
(3) the conduction losses may increase. Also, the application
where of the PWM technique may impose some restrictions to
load range capability and to the operating frequecy [52]. An
(4) example of quasi-resonant technique applied to an RDCL
three-phase inverter is presented in [54]. In this circuit, the
BELLAR et al.: A REVIEW OF SOFT-SWITCHED DCAC CONVERTERS 857

(a)
(a)

(b) (b)
Fig. 13. (a) Actively clamped resonant dc-link inverter. (b) DC-bus voltage
and line-to-line output voltage waveforms.

(a)

(c)
Fig. 15. (a) SRDCLC. (b) Equivalent circuit. (c) Resonant dc-bus current
id ; output phase current ia , and equivalent switch voltage VSW :

(b) commutating network is activated to provide notches in the

Fig. 14. (a) Notch-commutated three-phase PWM ZVS inverter and (b) the
bus (short zero-voltage intervals) only when it is required
dc-bus voltage. by the PWM inverter. During the notch interval, the soft-
switching condition is created, so that the inverter switches
can change their status. Fig. 14(b) shows the bus voltage
link voltage is clamped by using coupled inductors, and an A high-frequency resonance process occurs between
auxiliary switch is included in the resonant network to provide and the switch parasitic capacitances on the bus. Therefore,
the quasi-resonant mode of operation. A three-phase sine- an oscillation appears in the bus-voltage waveform. As in
triangle PWM controller is used, and the resonant network the previous case, special care is taken to assure that the
is only activated after detecting the state change of the auxiliary commutating circuit operation is synchronized with
PWM command signal. The inverter switches change state the respective PWM scheme.
only at zero-voltage conditions. However, the quasi-resonant 2) Series Resonant DC-Link Converter (SRDCLC): The se-
operation imposes a minimum link pulse requirement that does ries resonant dc-link converter [58], [59], which is the dual of
not match those state changes in the PWM controller that will the parallel resonant dc-link type [Fig. 12(a)], has been studied
occur in shorter time intervals. A solution to this problem in different applications [59][62], [68]. Fig. 15(a) shows the
has been recently investigated by using space vector PWM SRDCLC in the case of a three-phase load. In this circuit, a
modulation [57]. large inductance provides the dc bias current of the
d) Notch-commutated PWM dc link: In an attempt to link. The high-frequency resonant tank is connected in
improve the PWM capability and reduce the switch stresses, series with the main power flow. It creates the ZCS feature in
the notch-commutated PWM inverter topology [Fig. 14(a)] the link current [Fig. 15(c)], which allows the use of SCRs.
has been proposed [55], based on the dc-side commutation Therefore, the converter can operate at higher power levels.
concept [56], [51]. Similarly to the previous case [54], the An equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 15(b), where is the
bus voltage is normally constant, and the inverter bridge is output voltage of the input rectifier in Fig. 15(a). Hence, the
operating as a conventional PWM type. The auxiliary bus thyristor represents the operation of two devices from the
858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

input rectifier and two from the output inverter. The current
and the voltage are assumed constant during the resonant
period, since and are large. From Fig. 15(b), the current
can be obtained as follows:
(5)
where
(a)
(6)

where the initial thyristor voltage

and is the initial voltage of
The current pulse is initiated when is turned on. The
thyristor voltage starts to increase when and
is turned off. The thyristor is turned on again when it reaches
the level. During the turnoff, the remaining current in (b)
charges In order to obtain a uniform current pulse Fig. 16. (a) Series quasi-resonant PWM dc-link topology. (b) Bus current.
train, the initial conditions at the beginning of each pulse
should be the same. It must be noted that, if becomes greater
than the desired level, the circuit will lose the ZCS condition added at the output. In the SRDCLC, the inverter switches turn
and will become unstable. Moreover, highly irregular peaks in on and off with ZCS. In this case, it is possible to use SCRs
may occur, due to changes according to the output load switching at higher frequencies than in the forced commutation
demands. Therefore, regulation of is necessary, as well as PWM case. This feature makes SRDCLC attractive for high-
The input bridge has been employed to control by power/high-performance applications, such as motor drives.
controlling and a saturable core has been used for
[63] to clamp the peak. Similarly to the parallel topology VI. CONCLUSIONS
[Fig. 12(c)], the output current is a high-frequency signal
In this paper, a systematic overview and generic classifica-
modulated by an integral cycle control strategy called pulse
tion of soft-switched converters for dcac power conversion
density modulation (PDM). Here, also, the PWM technique
have been presented. The basic principles of each topology
cannot be applied.
were shown, and some applications were also addressed. The
The main problems with this topology, such as high link
benefit from reducing the switching losses and increasing the
current peaks (regular and irregular) and control complexity,
power density can be achieved. However, in some topologies,
are the dual of the problems in the PRDCLC of Fig. 12(a).
drawbacks such as switch stresses and control complexities
In both circuits, the resonant elements have to continuously
may occur, which can make them difficult for immediate
store the same amount of energy in each resonant cycle, and
commercial utilization. Nevertheless, in these cases, many
then, oscillations may occur due to the input and/or output
modified topologies have been proposed, in order to overcome
load variations.
these drawbacks and improve the system performance. These
In order to improve the link current clamping level and
improvements are still an interesting research topic, and the
to synchronize with a PWM control strategy, many modified
wide use of this technology in many industrial applications
SRDCL topologies have been proposed [64][67]. In these
will be in the near future.
modified SRDCL topologies, the continuous resonant current
pulses can be evolved to quasi-resonant PWM [65] or notch-
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resonant pole converters, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1991, link inverter for electric vehicle drives, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu.
pp. 834839. Meeting, 1994, pp. 443447.
860 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 1998

[63] Y. Murai, S. G. Abeyratne, T. A. Lipo, and P. Caldeira, Current peak Javad Mahdavi (M95SM97) received the B.S.
limiting for a PWM series resonant DC link power conversion using a degree in electrical engineering from Sharif Univer-
saturable core, in Conf. Rec. 14th EPE Conf., 1991, vol. 2, pp. 812. sity of Technology, Tehran, Iran, and the M.S. and
[64] E. da Silva, G. Ledwich, M. T. Aydemir, and T. A. Lipo, Pulse width Ph.D. degrees from the Institut National Polytech-
modulated series resonant converter, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. nique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, in 1979, 1981,
Meeting, 1992, pp. 744749. and 1985, respectively.
[65] H. Nakamura, Y. Murai, and T. A. Lipo, Quasi current resonant DC link During 1981 and 1985, he was with the Research
AC/AC converter,in Conf. Rec. IEEE-PESC93, 1993, pp. 279284. Department of Merlin Gerin Company, Grenoble,
[66] E. R. C. da Silva, Notching current source AC/AC converters for soft France. In 1986, he joined the Department of Elec-
switched PWM, in Conf. Rec. IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1994, pp. trical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology,
10011007. where he is currently an Associate Professor. He
[67] E. R. da Silva, S. G. Abeyratne, and Y. Murai, PWM series resonant also cooperates with Niroo Research Institute, Tehran, Iran. During 1996, he
DC link converter with current peak limiting using a saturable core, was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas
Electron. Lett., vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 145146, Feb. 1, 1996. A&M University, College Station, and also was a Consultant Engineer with
[68] E. R. da Silva, Y. Murai, T. A. Lipo, L. P. de Oliveira, and C. B. Magna Power Electronics, Inc., Boonton, NJ. His areas of interest are static
Jacobina, Pulsed DC-link current convertersA review, in Conf. Rec. power converters, power electronic converter modeling, static var control,
IEEE-IAS Annu. Meeting, 1997, pp. 14061413. and EMI in power electronics.

Maria D. Bellar (S90M91) was born in Rio M. Ehsani (S73M75SM84F96) received the
de Janeiro, Brazil. She received the B.S. degree Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
in electronics and the M.S. degree in electrical University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1981.
engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Since 1981, he has been with Texas A&M Uni-
Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1986 and 1989, versity, College Station, where he is currently a
respectively. She is currently on leave from the State Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director
University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, of the Texas Applied Power Electronics Center
Brazil, working towards the Ph.D. degree at Texas (TAPC). He is the author of over 100 publications
A&M University, College Station. concerning pulsed-power supplies, high-voltage en-
In 1990, she joined the State University of Rio de gineering, power electronics, and motor drives. He
Janeiro (UERJ), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she is the coauthor of a book on converter circuits for
teaches power electronics. Her current research interests include soft-switched superconductive magnetic energy storage and a contributor to an IEEE Guide
power conversion, converter modeling and analysis, and motor drives. for self-commutated converters, as well as other monographs. He holds seven
U.S. patents. His current research work is in the areas of power electronics,
motor drives, and hybrid vehicles and their control systems.
Dr. Ehsani has been a member of the IEEE Power Electronics Society
Tzong-Shiann (Thomas) Wu (S90M97) re- AdCom and is past Chairman of the PELS Educational Affairs Committee,
ceived the B.S. degree from Chung-Yuan Christian past Chairman of the IEEE Industry Applications Society Industrial Power
University, Chungli, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1985 and Converter Committee, and past Chairman of the IEEE Myron Zucker Stu-
the M.S. degree from National Taiwan University, dentFaculty Grant Program. He was the General Chair of the 1990 IEEE
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1987, both in electrical Power Electronics Specialist Conference and is an IEEE Industrial Electronics
engineering. He is currently working towards the Society Distinguished Speaker. He was the recipient of the Prize Paper Award
Ph.D. degree at Texas A&M University, College in static power converters and motor drives at the IEEE Industry Applications
Station. Society Annual Meetings in 1985, 1987, and 1992. In 1984, he was named the
From 1990 to 1995, he was a Research Assistant Outstanding Engineer of the Year by the Brazos Chapter of the Texas Society
in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas of Professional Engineers. In 1992, he was named the Halliburton Professor
A&M University, responsible for the design and in the College of Engineering, Texas A&M University. In 1994, he was also
simulation of soft-switching dcdc and dcac power supplies in a NASA named the Dresser Industries Professor at the same college. He is a Registered
project. In 1995, he was with Lynntech, Inc., College Station, TX, involved Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.
in MCT-based soft-switching motor drives. In 1996, he joined International
Rectifier, El Segundo, CA, where he is currently with the Battery Management
Group, engaged in the development of dcdc converters and MOSFET devices
for portable electronics applications.

Aristide Tchamdjou (S95M96) received the

B.S. degree from the Technische Universitaet Berlin
(TUB), Berlin, Germany, and the M.S. degree from
Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1992
and 1996, respectively.
In 1996, he joined International Rectifier, El
Segundo, CA, as a Rotation Engineer and developed
testing procedures for MOSFETs and high-
voltage gate drivers for IGBTs. He is currently
a Development Engineer in the Power Integrated
Circuits Group.