Page 8 - PEN Ebook May 2021
P. 8

Cover Story - Design                                                                                                                                                                                   Cover Story - Design


                                                                                                                                 ductor connected to the switching node. However,     At a given moment in time (t ), Q2 must be
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                                                                                                                                 when Q2 is turned off, the inductor current keeps    switched off so the current will flow again
                                                                                                                                 flowing through its body diode, and, when Q1 is      through Q1 when turned on. After a certain delay
                                                                                                                                 turned on, a hard-commutation of the body diode      time (due to the R -C  network at the input of
                                                                                                                                                                                                        y
                                                                                                                                                                                                           y
                                                                                                                                 current occurs, leading to catastrophic results. By   the gate driver of Q2), the gate-to-source volt-
                                                                                                                                 applying the proposed solution, the Q  is removed,   age signal of Q2 also changes its state to off at
                                                                                                                                                                     rr
                                                                                                                                 and at the same time, the charge in the output       t . During the mandatory dead time in any half-
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                                                                                                                                 capacitance (C OSS ) of Q2 Si SJ MOSFETs is consid-  bridge (t -t ), the inductor current freewheels
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                                                                                                                                                                                              1
                                                                                                                                 erably reduced, and so its associated losses.        through the body diode of Q2. During this time,
                                                                                                                                                                                      the switching node is clamped to the ground,

                                                                                                                                 The included R -C  and R -C  filter networks at      with voltage drop –V BD-Forward . Also, all the boot-
                                                                                                                                                  x
                                                                                                                                               x
                                                                                                                                                            y
                                                                                                                                                         y
                                                                                                                                 the driver inputs allow the proper timing of the     strap capacitors, except for C HS_DP , for both driving
                                                                                                                                 PWM signals to the half-bridge devices and the       and depletion voltages are charged.
                                                                                                                                 added LV switches; thus, no extra PWM signals
                                                                                                                                 from the controller are required.                    Then, after the corresponding dead time, PWM B
                                                                                                                                                                                      is applied, and the CXRX network at the input of
                                                                                                                                 The circuit diagram in Figure 2 depicts a typical    the Q4 gate driver generates a pulse of a particu-

                                                                                                                                 double-pulse test platform using the proposed        lar duration. At t , the pre-charging MOSFET Q4 is
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          Figure 2: Circuit diagram of the proposed solution using CoolMOS™ in a half-bridge configuration.                      solution. This setup configuration reflects the      turned on, and a pre-charge current (pre-charge I
                                                                                                                                 same situation of “diode-to-switch transition”       “diode”) circulates in the C LS_DP -Q4-D2-Q2 net-
          To overcome these difficulties and make it pos-      transition since those charges are provided from                  in the totem-pole PFC operating in CCM where         work. The effective circulation of this current
          sible to use Si SJ MOSFETs in half-bridge CCM        a low voltage source. The result is a significant                 hard-commutation of the “diode mode” switch          depends on the fact that the magnitude of such
          operation, Infineon Technologies has developed       reduction in the commutation losses in the Si SJ                  occurs every switching cycle.                        pre-charging current must be higher than the
          and implemented an attractive and straightfor-       MOSFETs. Also, continuous hard-commutation in                                                                          freewheeling load current flowing through the
          ward solution. The innovative prototype achieves     the normal CCM operation of the totem-pole PFC                                                                         body diode of the Si SJ MOSFET Q2. At the end
          the highest efficiency in CCM totem-pole PFC         is now feasible.                                                  HARD COMMUTATION                                     of the pre-charge current (t ), the intrinsic body
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          topology at an attractive price-performance ratio.                                                                     TRANSITION WITH THE                                  diode of Q2 is deactivated, and the drain-to-
          In the following sections, we present the working    The proposed “pre-charge” solution requires a                     PROPOSED SOLUTION                                    source voltage (V DS,Q2 ) is pre-charged to 24 V, thus
          principles and the measured experimental results     single high-voltage Schottky diode (D1 and D2 in                  Figure 3 presents the main waveforms happening       bringing the following benefits:
          of our system solution.                              Figure 2), a low voltage (LV) MOSFET (Q3 and Q4                   during the commutation of a half-bridge imple-
                                                               in Figure 2), and a capacitor (C HS_DP  and C LS_DP ) per         menting Si SJ MOSFETs Q1 and Q2. For readers’         ▶   This pre-charge voltage brings the half-
                                                               power device in the half-bridge, as well as two                   convenience, the time axis showing the transi-           bridge capacitance closer to the knee of the
          HIGH-FREQUENCY HALF-BRIDGE                           supply voltages, for driving the LV MOSFET and                    tions that occur at the different PWM events is          non-linear C OSS  curve (Figure 1).
          OPERATION PRINCIPLE WITH SI                          providing the pre-charge voltage. The solution also               not in scale.
          SJ MOSFETS                                           implements a level-shifting (bootstrap capacitors)                                                                      ▶   The commutation losses at this point are

          With the proposed solution, the C OSS  capacitance   technique, with traditional drivers for both the                  In a previous state than t , the inductor was en-        considerably lower than in the point where
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          of the freewheeling or “diode mode” (Q2 in Figure    driver supply and the depletion voltage (highlight-               ergized through Q1, which would implement the            the drain-to-source voltage is negative or
          2) Si SJ MOSFET is pre-charged at a certain level,   ed in orange and grey, respectively, in Figure 2).                switch function in a totem-pole PFC. Once Q1 is          close to zero. Without the pre-charging,
          e.g., 24 V (Figure 1). This pre-charging drastically                                                                   turned off, the inductor current flows through           the losses would include the body diode Q
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          reduces the losses associated with its output ca-    In the half-bridge configuration of Figure 2, Q2                  Q2, first through its body diode and then through        losses and the very large output capacitance
          pacitance charge (Q OSS ) and the reverse recovery   typically turns on with soft-switching after Q1                   the channel of the device, once Q2 is turned on.         associated Q OSS  losses of Q2.
          charge (Q ) of its body diode during the turn-off    turns off, given the energy accumulated in the in-
                   rr
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