A MULTI POWER BAND HIGH VOLTAGE DC-DC

CONVERTER
Shahid Iqbal
School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Engineering Campus,
University Sains Malaysia, 14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
Email: shahidsidu@hotmail.com, shahid.iqbal@eng.usm.my



Keywords: Multi-band, voltage-multiplier, high-voltage.
Abstract
The conventional pulse-frequency-modulated (PFM) zero
current switching (ZCS) series resonant (SR) inverter-fed
high voltage (HV) dc power supplies have nearly zero
switching loss. However, they have several limitations like;
poor controllability at light load and large output voltage
ripple at low switching frequencies. These limitations make
them relatively less suitable for the applications which
demand wide range of output voltage variation. To address
these problems this paper proposes a multi-power-band high
voltage dc-dc converter. The proposed converter has sixteen
power bands (B
0
to B
15
). It has essentially zero output power
in the band B
0
, lowest output power in band B
1
and highest
output power in band B
15
. Thus the output power of proposed
converter increases in steps from its lowest value to highest
value as power band is changed from B
1
to B
15
. Switching
frequency of converter is tuned within its narrow limits to
adjust the output power within a power band. Proposed high
voltage converter have several features such as wide range of
control, less voltage ripple and low current stress on power
switches. Simulation and experimental results confirm the
excellent performance of proposed converter.
1 Introduction
There are numerous applications of DC high voltage power
supplies such as lasers, accelerators, ultra-high voltage
electron microscopes and X-ray power generators. However,
the design and development of dc high voltage X-ray power
supply especially for medical imaging application is most
complicated [1]-[6]. This is because in medical imaging an X-
ray power supply is required to control its output voltage and
current over wide range and its voltage ripple should be as
small as possible. The output voltage across the tube is
usually set to a particular value between 20 kV and 150 kV,
depending upon the type of application, and the current is
varied from 0.5 mA to 1.25 A. Thus an X-ray Power supply
must be capable to control its voltage and current over wide
range.

In literature several types of dc-dc converters such as series
resonant (SRC), parallel resonant (PRC), and series-parallel
resonant converters (PRC-LCC) have been proposed for an
X-ray generator for medical applications [2], [8]-[10].
However the large turn ratio (300 to 500) of the high-voltage
transformer used in these DC-DC converters exacerbates the
transformer non-idealities (i.e. the leakage inductance and
winding capacitance). Both of these non-idealities affect the
performance of the high voltage DC-DC converter for X-ray
generator. These non-idealities cause voltage and current
spikes and increase loss and noise [3]-[6], [11]. The large turn
ratio and hence the aforementioned non-idealities can greatly
be reduced by using voltage multiplier on the secondary side
of high voltage transformer [3]-[6], [11].

A ZCS-SR inverter is preferred to drive voltage multiplier
based high voltage dc-dc converter because of its features
such as zero switching loss, no saturation of transformer and
inherent over load protection etc [3]-[6], [12]-[15]. There are
two methods to control the output voltage of SR inverter fed
high voltage dc-dc converter. These are known as Pulse
Frequency Modulation (PFM) and Pulse Amplitude
Modulation (PAM) [14]-[15]. First method is simple;
however, it has limitations like poor control at light load and
large output voltage ripple for low desired output voltage due
to low switching frequency. The second method is
complicated because it requires an additional power converter
to control the voltage across SR-inverter [12]-[15]. Authors in
[14] proposed an input voltage modulation control scheme to
overcome the problem associated with PFM control scheme;
however this approach need an extra circuitry connected at
the lower arm of the high frequency inverter to control the
output voltage of power supply. In this paper a multi-power-
band high voltage dc-dc converter is proposed to achieve
wide range of controllability and minimum output voltage
ripple.

The organization of this paper is as follows. In section 2 the
circuit topology and principle of operation of proposed multi-
power-band HV dc-dc converter is described. Section 3
describes the principle of output voltage control. The
simulation and experimental results of proposed converter are
presented in section 4. Finally, Section 5 presents the
conclusions from simulation and experimental results.
2 Circuit description and principle of operation
Figure 1 shows the circuit diagram of the proposed multi-
power-band high voltage dc-dc converter. It consists of an
input DC source, a multi-output full-bridge resonant inverter,
four resonant capacitors (

, a high voltage


Figure 1: Proposed multi-power-band high-voltage dc-dc converter

-transformer with leakage inductance (

), a three stage
symmetrical voltage multiplier, and an output load resistance

R
. The series resonant inverter in the proposed converter
system consists of a common leg and four independent legs
(leg 1, leg 2, leg 3 & leg 4). The four independent legs of the
inverter produce four outputs (A, B, C & D). These outputs of
inverter are fed to the primary of HV transformer through
resonant capacitors

respectively as shown in Figure

1. The capacitors resonate with the leakage inductance of high
voltage transformer and enables resonant mode operation of
inverter. The centre-tapped secondary of the high voltage
transformer is connected to a three stage symmetrical voltage
multiplier. The voltage multiplier circuit rectifies and
multiplies the ac output voltage of high voltage transformer
and supply the amplified dc voltage to the load. The inverter
in the proposed converter operates in discontinuous
conduction, so all the power switches turn ON and OFF under
zero current switching conditions as shown in Figures 2 & 3.

The values of the resonant capacitor are selected such that:

. Because of different values of

resonant capacitors, the impedance of the tank circuit and
consequently the output power of converter is different for
each of the output. Hence, the four outputs of the resonant
inverter can be activated in sixteen different ways to yield
sixteen power bands (B
0
to B
15
) as shown in the Table 1. The
power switches (S
H
and S
L
) of common leg operate with 180
phase difference and their operation is independent of the
power band. In contrast to this, the activation of the power
switches (S
1
- S
8
) of independent legs depends upon the power
band. These power bands are described as follows.
Band B
0
: All the power switches of independents legs are
disabled. So all the inverter outputs are OFF and consequently
no power transfer occurs in this power band.
Band B
1
: In this power band the power switches of
independent leg 1 (S
1
& S
2
) and of common leg (S
H
& S
L
)
operate, while the power switches of other independent legs
are disabled. Thus only output A of inverter is ON and all
others are OFF. The resonant inductor current and gate signal
for this power band is shown in Figure 2. Power Switches S
1

& S
L
turn on during positive half cycle and S
2
& S
H
turns on
during negative half cycle. The resonant tank circuit in this
power band consists of series combination L
r
and C
r1
. Since
the capacitance of C
r1
is smallest of all the resonant capacitors,
the power transfer rate is lowest in this power band.
Band B
2
: In this power band the power switches (S
3
& S
4
) of
independent legs 2 and (S
H
& S
L
) of common leg are enabled
where as the power switches of other independent legs are
disabled. Thus only output B of inverter is ON and all other
are OFF. Consequently, power switches S
3
& S
L
turn on
during positive half cycle and resonant current flow through
resonant tank circuit (formed by C
r2
and L
r
), primary of the
transformer and back to the source. Similarly power switches
S
3
& S
L
turn on during negative half cycle of operation. The
level of power transfer from source to load is higher than
power band B
1
.
Band B
3
B
14
: These power bands can be explained from
similitude with the aid of Table 1. As we go up from lower to
higher power band, the output power increases step by step
from P
1
to P
15
as can be seen from the Table 1.
Band B
15
: In this power band power switches (S
1
S
8
) of all
the four independent legs and (S
H
& S
L
) of common leg are
enabled. All the four outputs (A, B, C, &D) are ON. So the
power switches S
1
, S
3
, S
5
, S
7
& S
L
turn on during positive half
cycle and S
2
, S
4
, S
6
, S
8
& S
L
. Because all the four resonant
capacitors are connected in parallel so the impedance of tank
circuit is minimum in this power band. Hence power transfer
level is highest in this power band. The typical waveform of
resonant inductor current and gate signal for this power band
are exhibited in Figure 3.

Figure 2: Key steady state waveform of inductor current in power band B
1
.

Figure 3: Key steady state wave form of indcutor current in power band B15.

Power
Band
State of inverter outputs
(ON/OFF)
Net capacitance of
tanks circuit

D C B A
B0 OFF OFF OFF OFF 0
B1 OFF OFF OFF ON

B2 OFF OFF ON OFF

B3 OFF OFF ON ON

B4 OFF ON OFF OFF

B5 OFF ON OFF ON

B6 OFF ON ON OFF

B7 OFF ON ON ON

B
8
ON OFF OFF OFF

B9 ON OFF OFF ON

B10 ON OFF ON OFF

B11 ON OFF ON ON

B12 ON ON OFF OFF

B13 ON ON OFF ON

B14 ON ON ON OFF

B15 ON ON ON ON

TABLE 1: SIXTEEN POSSIBLE POWER BANDS OF THE CONVERTER AND
CORRESPONDING TANK CIRCUIT CAPACITANCE
3 Output voltage control
The output voltage of converter can be varied by changing its
power band from B
1
B
15
. When the power band of converter
is changed to higher one the net capacitance of the tank
circuit is increased (shown in table 1) and consequently the
impedance of the tank circuit is reduced. The decrease in tank
impedance increases the rate of power flow from source to
load. As a result the output voltage of converter is increased.
However since changing power band the impedance of tank
circuit changes in steps therefore the output voltage of
converter rises/fall in steps as shown in Figure 4. The
switching frequency of the inverter can be varied within its
narrow limits (f
s(min)
to f
s(max)
) to adjust the output voltage
within a power band as shown in Figure 4. Thus in proposed
converter output voltage is regulated both by changing power
band and switching frequency. The power band of converter
is changed when a larger variation of output voltage is
required and frequency is slightly varied only to adjust the
output voltage with in a power band. Thus proposed control
approach significantly alleviates the problem of voltage ripple
of conventional PFM control approach.

Figure 4: Graphical representation of output voltage variation by chaning
power band and switchinig frequency.
4 Simulation and experimental results
4.1 Simulation results
The proposed multi-power-band high-voltage dc-dc converter
was simulated using PSPICE for verification of its principle
operation and feasibility. The specifications of simulation
circuit are as follows:

, R
o
= 200 k: and the capacitance
of multiplier capacitors is . The proposed circuit was
simulated for wide range of output voltage and load settings;
however selected results are presented here. When converter
is operated in highest power band B
15
the net capacitance of
tank circuit is and corresponding resonant frequency
is 91 kHz. So the converter would operate in discontinuous
conduction mode up to switching frequency of 45 kHz.

Figure 5 shows the output voltage and resonant inductor
current of proposed converter when operating in highest
power band B
15
at switching frequency of 40 kHz. As in this
case all the four inverter outputs are fed in parallel so tank
circuit capacitance is maximum (300 nF). It can be seen that
the output voltage of the converter is approximately 38 kV
and peak resonant current is 80 A. So the output power of
high voltage dcdc converter is approximately 7.2 kW. Figure
6, shows the output voltage and resonant indcutor current of
inverter when operating in intermediate power band B
7
at
switching frequency of 40 kHz. The output voltage of
converter is approximately 20 kV and peak inverter current is
55 A. The output power of converter in this case is 2 kW.

Next to evaluate the range of control of proposed coverter, the
switching frequency is set to its minimum value (30 kHz) and
it is operated in lowest power band. The obtained waveforms
of output voltage and inverter current are shown in Figure 7.
The output voltage of converter for this case is approximately
2 kV, peak inductor current is 18 A and output power is only
35 W. This proves that proposed converter is able to control
its output voltage over very wide range. Furthermore, with the
reduction in output power, the peak resonant current of
inverter is also reduced, consequently the condcution loss in
the power switches is reduced. Therefore proposed converter
have high light load efficiency and its output voltage ripple is
also very small.


Figure 5: Simulated waveforms of output voltage and resonant inductor
current in power band B15 at fS =40 kHz and Ro = 200 k:.

Figure 6: Simulated waveforms of output voltage and resonant inductor
current in power band B7 at fS =40 kHz and Ro = 200 k:.

Figure 7: Simulated waveforms of output voltage and resonant inductor
current in power band B1 at fS =30 kHz and Ro = 200 k:.
4.2 Experimental results
A low power prototype of the proposed multi-power-band
high voltage dc-dc converter was implemented to evaluate its
performance experimentally. The specifications of the
experimental circuit are as follows:

and the
capacitance of multiplier capacitor is . A conventional
converter with PFM control was also implemented with
similar specification to compare the performance. The
obtained results are presented in Figure 8. Figure 8a shows
the maximum output voltage and the corresponding resonant
inductor current of both the proposed and conventional
converter. Because the specifications and switching frequency
of both the converters are identical at maximum power, the
maximum output voltage and resonant current are exactly
identical. The maximum output voltage for this case is about
1050 kV and the peak resonant current is 1.7 A. The percent
ripple in the output voltage is roughly 6%.

Next, to evaluate the range of controllability, both converters
were set to produce their minimum output voltage. Figure 8b
shows the experimental waveforms of the proposed converter
for the case of minimum output voltage. In order to produce
minimum output voltage the proposed converter was operated
in lowest power band B
1
and its switching frequency was set
to 9 kHz. The minimum output voltage is 90 V and the peak
resonant current is around 0.3 A. The percent ripple in the
output voltage is less than 5%. The results reveal that the
range of output voltage achieved by the proposed system is
from 90 to 1050 V for an output load of 105 kO. The
minimum output voltage is approximately 12 times lower
than the maximum value. In addition, the peak value of the
resonant current for the case of maximum output voltage is
1.7 A, whereas it is only 0.3 A for the case of minimum
output voltage. Hence, the conduction loss of the power
switches decreases with reduction in output power in the
proposed converter.

Figure 8c shows the experimental waveforms of the
conventional PFM converter for the case of minimum output
voltage. To produce the minimum output voltage the
switching frequency of converter was set to 9 kHz (i.e. the
minimum frequency). The minimum value of the output
voltage that conventional converter produced at this switching
frequency is approximately 539 V, which is more than three
times higher than the minimum voltage produced by the
proposed converter. This shows that the proposed converter
has a wider range of output voltage controllability.
Furthermore, the percent ripple in the output voltage of the
conventional PFM converter (Figure 4c) is approximately
25% and the peak current stress is 1.8 A. This indicates that
the peak current stress on power switches at the minimum
voltage is higher than that at the maximum output voltage for
the conventional PFM converter.

To compare the output voltage ripple and peak current stress
on power switches at equal output voltage/power, the
proposed converter was set to produce an output voltage of
539 V. The proposed converter achieved this value of output
voltage in power band B
3
at a switching frequency 23 kHz.
The resulting experimental waveforms of the output voltage
and resonant current are shown in Figure 8d. The percentage
of voltage ripple is less than 7% and the peak resonant current
Time
900us 920us 940us 960us 980us 1000us
I(Lr)
-100A
0A
100A
SEL>>
V(Ro:1)
0V
10KV
20KV
30KV
40KV
Time
900us 920us 940us 960us 980us 1000us
I(Lr)
-100A
0A
100A
SEL>>
V(Ro:1)
0V
10KV
20KV
30KV
40KV
Time
900us 920us 940us 960us 980us 1000us
I(Lr)
-20A
0A
20A
SEL>>
V(Ro:1)
0V
10KV
20KV
30KV
40KV

Figure 8: Experimental waveforms of output voltage, resonant inductor current, and gating signals Ior an output load oI 105 kO. (a) Maximum output voltage
of both the proposed and conventional converter at fS = 37 kHz. (b) Minimum output voltage of the proposed converter (power-band = B1 and fS = 9 kHz). (c)
Minimum output voltage of the conventional converter with PFM control at fS = 9 kHz. (d) Output voltage of 539 V of the proposed converter (power-band =
B3 and fS = 23 kHz).

-is only 0.7 A. This shows that the proposed converter has
three times smaller percent ripple and two times smaller peak
current stress on the power switches than the conventional
PFM converter. The lower current stress results in lower
conduction loss and high efficiency at light loads.
Additionally, smaller peak current produces less EMI, which
is another advantage of the proposed control scheme.

5 Conclusion
A multi-power-band high voltage dc-dc converter has been
proposed in this paper. The circuit topology and principle of
operation of proposed converter has been described in detail
in this paper. It has been shown that proposed converter has
sixteen power bands. Its output power can be changed over
wide range by changing the power band from lowest power
band B
1
to highest power band B
15
. Switching frequency of
converter can be changed within its narrow limits to vary the
output power within a power band. As change in switching
frequency is small so output voltage ripple is quite small in
the proposed converter. Furthermore, all the power switches
of proposed converter operate with ZCS so switching loss is
nearly zero. The performance of proposed converter has been
evaluated both by simulation and experimental results. It has
been shown that proposed system has several advantages such
as wide range of output voltage control, low output voltage
ripple over the entire control range and low current stress at
light load.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Universiti Sains Malaysia for
providing all necessary facilities and equipment to make this
research possible. The research is supported by incentive and
short term grant (grant no: 304/PELECT/60311002) from
Universiti Sains Malaysia.
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