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Published in IET Power Electronics

Received on 9th December 2007
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel:20070038

ISSN 1755-4535

Zero-voltage and zero-current switching

buck-boost converter with low voltage
and current stresses
B.P. Divakar K.W.E. Cheng D. Sutanto
Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
E-mail: eeecheng@inet.polyu.edu.hk

Abstract: A family of soft-switching power converter is presented for fuel cell applications. The salient points are
that all the switching devices are under zero-current switching during turn-on and zero-voltage switching during
turn-off. The family of the circuit presented includes the buck, boost, buck-boost and Cuk converter. The active
switches in the converter undergo zero-capacitive turn-on losses unlike switches in other soft-switched
topologies discussed in the literature. The switches do not experience any over voltage/over current stress
proportional to load as in resonant converters. This soft-switching technique can also be applied to other
classical switched mode power converters. A detailed mathematical analysis of the converter under steady
state is carried out, and experimental results obtained from a prototype are presented. The converter was
also connected to a model toy car driven by fuel cells for the demonstration of the application.

1 Introduction motivation behind the present paper, which explores

Fuel cell is one of the very promising renewable energy
sources for power generation and energy storage
supporting devices. The applications of fuel cell have
been found in high-power and low-power applications,
including power sources for notebook computers and
electric vehicles. Fuel cell has very slow response to
load dynamics and hence requires suitable power-
conditioning device to interface with the load. The
interfacing device should be able to meet the high
energy demand with high efficiency, good dynamic
performance and with low electromagnetic interference.
DC–DC converters are the prime candidates for
interfacing fuel cells with the load as they can ensure
proper load management despite variation in the input
or the load. The interest in energy-efficient power
electronics interfacing circuits to compensate for the
drooping voltage–current nature of the fuel cells [1–3]
is growing up rapidly. In this connection, much
researches are being conducted globally to harness the
potential of fuel cells in the area of transportation,
utility grid application and uninterrupted power
supplies. This wide spread interest of fuel cells is the
the development of a new buck-boost converter
topology to be driven by a 35 W fuel cell system. The
main objectives of the project were to design a soft-
switched DC–DC converter, interface it with the fuel
cells to gain first-hand experience the problems
associated with such an operation. The design of a soft-
switching converter presents a major challenge to a
designer, especially when the constraints on the
permissible current/voltage stress and conduction losses
are stringent. The problem of finding a solution for
soft-switched converter is further aggravated by the
very nature of the input, which is DC, applied to
the converter. It is known that, for soft switching, the
switching transition must be accompanied by non-zero
product of voltage and current of the switch and that a
sub-circuit containing active/passive switches and
resonant elements must be placed at appropriate
position in a basic DC–DC converter so as to create a
non-zero product of voltage and current condition in
the circuit [4]. Although resonant elements help to
force the current/voltage of a switch to zero prior to a
switching transition they introduce high-current/voltage
stresses in the switch. Many soft-switched converters

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have been discussed in the literature. The resonant
capacitor is bypassed by an active switch for a time
period, which can be controlled to regulate the output
voltage [5]. The principle of controlling the resonance
period is applied and thereby controllable period called
‘extended-period’ is created using which the output was
regulated [6]. In doing so, both the converters achieved
lossless transition with simple PWM control. However,
the main switch in both the converters suffers from
capacitive turn-on loss. Also, the switch discussed in ref
[5] experiences a voltage stress of twice the input
voltage, whereas the switch discussed in ref [6]
experiences a peak resonant current stress, which is a
function of the load. The problem of high voltage stress
was solved and zero-voltage switching ZVS was
achieved for the main and the passive switch [7]. But
the auxiliary switch still suffered from the capacitive
turn-on loss, and the current through the resonant
inductor and the diode was more than the input current
resulting in higher conduction losses. The concept of
reversing the inductor current is adopted and all the
switches were turned-on with zero-current switching
(ZCS) without causing any over current or voltage
stresses for the switches [8]. Unfortunately, the
capacitive turn-on loss in the main and the auxiliary
switches and the use of four active switches and four
passive devices prevent the practical implementation of
this converter. The buck converter having zero
capacitiveturn-on losses was reported in [9]. The
present paper is the buck-boost version of the converter
presented in [9].
Other resonant topologies for fuel cells have been
reported recently. This includes the three-level
LLC [10], the tapped inductor-based soft-switching
converter [11] and the bidirectional isolated boost
converter [12]. There are a number of recent works
on fuel-cell power conditioning control and
implementation. The reported literature includes the
application of fuzzy logic to provide effective method
of energy control [13,14], the grid connection of the
fuel cells [15], the control method for distribution
[16] and transient recognition [17]. Some other work
on fuel cells includes parameter estimation for
modelling [18]. The study of fuel cells and super
capacitors in the application of hybrid electric vehicle
is reported in [19].
This paper presents the work of the new buck-boost
converter that provides zero-voltage turn-on and zero-
current turn-off. This is more useful than purely ZCS
or ZVS operation. The developed converter is applied
to drive a low-powered model toy car driven by fuel
cells. Similar report on high-efficiency power
conversion can be seen in ref. [20]. The buck-boost
version is selected because of its ability to develop
voltage less than or more than the input voltage.
Although Cuk, sepic and zeta converters have the same
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conversion ratio as the buck-boost converter, they
were not selected owing to large number of
components. The new buck-boost converter is
analysed in Section 2, design guidelines are presented
in Section 3, PSPICE simulations are given in Section 4
followed by concluding remarks.
2 Analysis of the proposed
converter
The proposed converter aims to provide the ZVS
(ZCS– ZVS) to the main switch. This is done by
adding auxiliary devices to the classical converter. The
auxiliary device is also needed to switch under ZCS–
ZVS by itself, so that no additional switching loss will
be occurred in the creation of the ZVS circuit. Fig. 1
shows the family of circuit developed for this purpose.
The auxiliary devices comprising of S1 , C1 , D4 , Lr
and D3 form the sub-circuit to provide favourable
switching condition for the main device S2 . Lr and C1
form the resonant tank to provide ZVS switching. The
path created by D3 and Lr is to remove the charge
across S2 for providing ZVS condition. C2 is added in
parallel, with the main switch S2 to provide ZVS
during turn-off.
The principle behind the development of the
topology to ensure no over voltage/current stress is:
1. To prevent resonance between resonant components
Lr and C1,2 when either of them has initial charge.
2. To discharge the energy stored in S1 by creating a
path for the inductor current Lr through D3 .
3. To create zero-capacitive turn-on loss for S1 and S2
by creating three-element resonance among C1 , Lr and
C2 .
The proposed buck-boost converter is analysed here,
and in order to derive an expression for the voltage
conversion ratio in steady state, the filter inductor Lf
is modelled as a constant current sink while the filter
capacitor C01 and the load are modelled as a constant
voltage source [5, 6]. The converter undergoes seven
topological stages in one switching cycle, and the key
waveforms and the equivalent stages are shown in
Figs. 2 and 3, respectively.
Stage a: capacitor C1 charging mode (t0 2 t1): Prior
to this stage, D0 , D3 and S1 are in conduction where as
S2 is off and C2 is charged to Vo þ Vi . The current in Lr is
circulating through D3 and S1 . S1 is turned off with ZVS
to initiate this stage in order to allow C1 to charge from
Lr. At the end of the stage, D4 conducts and clamps Vc1
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Figure 2 Waveforms of the converter

at the input voltage Vi .

vC2 (0) ¼ Vi þ V0 ; iLr (0) ¼ Ii þ I0

iLr (t) ¼ (Ii þ I0 ) cos vt
(1)
vC1 (t) ¼ (Ii þ I0 )Z sin vt
iD0 (t) ¼ (Ii þ I0 )
iLr (t)

where

rffiffiffiffiffi
Lr 1
Z¼ and v ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (2)
C1 Lr C1

At the end of this stage, vC1 ¼ Vi

The duration of this stage is

sin
1 a Vi
t1 ¼ , where a ¼ (3)
v (Ii þ I0 )Z

Stage b: inductor discharging mode (t1 2 t2): In this

mode, the energy stored in the inductor Lr is
Figure 1 Soft-switching power converter developed for completely discharged into the input voltage through,
the creation of ZCS-ZVS circuit D3 and D4 . At the end of this mode, D3 and D4
a Buck converter switch off at ZVS and ZCS. In practice, the fuel cells
b Boost converter cannot accept any current from external circuit and as
c Buck-boost Converter a result, a capacitor connected across the fuel cell
d Cuk converter
e Zeta converter
absorbs this current and provides a path for the
f Sepic converter inductor to discharge its stored energy.

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Figure 3 Topological stages of the buck-boost converter in a switching cycle

Initial conditions: switches do not experience any capacitive turn-on loss as

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi in other converters discussed in the literature. The
iLr (t1 ) ¼ (Ii þ I0 ) 1
a2 (4) expressions for the current and voltages are given below

Vi Vi
iLr (t) ¼ t þ iLr (t1 ) (5) iLr (t) ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi sin ve t (7)
Lr (2Lr =C)
iD0 (t) ¼ Ii þ I0
vC1 (t) ¼ Vi (1 þ cos ve t)
At the end of this stage iLr ¼ 0 and the duration of this (V0 þ Vi )
stage is vC2 (t) ¼ (1 þ cos ve t) (8)
2
(I þ I0 )Lr pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi2
t2 ¼ i 1
a (6) iD0 (t) ¼ (Ii þ I0 ) þ iLr (t)
Vi
Stage c: resonant stage: (t2 2 t3): In this stage Lr, C1 and C2 where
resonate causing VC1 , VC2 , and ILr to go to zero at the same
time. This condition creates the zero-voltage and zero- 1
current turn-on of S1 and S2 . Since the switches are C ¼ C1 ¼ C2 and ve ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (9)
turned on when the current and voltage are zero, the Lr (C=2)

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The end of the duration is determined by and the duty ratio

iLr ¼ vC1 ¼ vC2 ¼ 0
p t5
t4
t3 ¼ (10) D¼ (14)
ve TS

Stage d: Inductor charging stage (t3 2 t4): To begin Stage f: Capacitor C2 charging mode (t5 2 t6): S2 is
this mode, S1 and S2 are turned on at ZCS and opened at ZVS to begin Stage 6 operation to charge
ZVS to charge Lr with constant current until the C2 with constant current. The stage ends when
current in Lr is equal to the current in the output vC2 ¼ Vo þ Vi at which diodes D3 and D0 conduct to
filter. At the end of this stage, D0 is turned off end the current stage.
with ZCS.
(I0 þ Ii )t
vC2 (t) ¼
(V0 þ Vi ) C2
iLr (t) ¼ t
Lr (11) iLr (t) ¼ Io þ Ii (15)
iD0 (t) ¼ (Ii þ I0 )
iLr (t)
iD0 (t) ¼ 0
 
The stage ends when iLr ðtÞ ¼ Ii þ I0 and the duration of At the end of this stage vC2 ¼ Vo þ Vi and the
this stage is duration is:
(Ii þ I0 )Lr C2 (V0 þ Vi )
t4 ¼ (12) t6 ¼ (16)
(V0 þ Vi ) (I0 þ Ii )
Stage e: constant current stage: (t4 2 t5): During this Stage g: freewheeling stage (t6 2 t7): In this stage, the
period, the output is isolated from the input and energy in the filter inductor is released into the
constant current flows from the input to the filter output capacitor and load while the current in Lr
inductor. The duration of this stage is controlled by freewheels through D3 and S1 . The output current is:
the feedback loop to regulate the output voltage.
iLr (t) ¼ Io þ Ii
iLr (t) ¼ Ii þ I0
(13) iD0 (t) ¼ Io þ Ii
iD0 (t) ¼ 0

Figure 4 Simulation results of the buck-boost converter

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Substituting the corresponding input and diode current

as obtained from the respective equivalent stages in
the above equation and solving them gives the
following relation between the duty ratio and
conversion ratio.

M M (1 þ M)(1
a2 ) M M
D¼ þ


1þM 1þM K KVo K

CRL fS pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sin
1 a

þ 1
a2
M(1 þ M) vT S
(18)

Figure 5 Experimental results of the converter with fuel cell

a Experimental waveforms of vC1 , i1r and vC2; Top VC1: 15 V/div; i1r:
1.8 A/div; vC2: 35 V/div
b Steady-state waveforms of S1 , vC1 S2 and vC2; Top: S1; vC1
30 V/div; S2; vC2: 35 V/div
c A prototype of fuel cell-driven toy car

3 Relation between the duty ratio

(D) and the conversion ratio (M)
3.1 Conversion ratio
An expression for D in terms M (V0/Vi) is determined by
equating the input and the output power of the
converter. As the diode is connected on the load side,
the average diode current forms the average output
current and equating the input and the output power,
an expression for the duty ratio is obtained.
ð t7 ð t4 ð t7 !
Figure 6 Switching trajectory of the switches S1 and S2
Vi Ii dt ¼ V0 iD0 dt þ iD0 dt (17) a V–I plot of S1
t0 t0 t6 b V– I plot of S2

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where
2RL
K¼ (19)
Lr fS
It can be shown that, for practical values, the terms
inside the second bracket have small values relative to
the term M=ðI þ MÞ and hence the duty ratio of the
new converter is very much similar to that of the
classical buck-boost converter. The above equation
also indicates that the converter has a very good load
regulation capability and the influence of load variation
on D is very small.
3.2 Condition for ZVS
In order to create a condition for ZVS, the capacitor
voltages vC1 and vC2 should be discharged to zero at
the end of Stage c and this is possible if vC1 ¼ Vi at
the end of Stage a. It can be shown that both the
above conditions can be satisfied if
Vi max
Lr ¼ C (20)
(Ii þ I0 min )
which gives the design value for Lr.
4 PSPICE simulation results
The above-mentioned circuit is simulated in PSPICE for
the following specifications: Vin ¼ 24 V, V0 ¼ 12 V;
I0 ¼ 2 A; Lr ¼ 5mH; C1 ¼ C2 ¼ 800 pF, Lf was
modelled as a constant current source while the output
capacitor and the load are modelled as constant voltage
sink. The results are shown in Fig. 4.
The zero-voltage and ZCS of S1 and S2 is clearly
visible from the PSPICE simulation, wherein vC1 , vC2
and ILr come to zero before S1 and S2 are turned on.
5 Experimental results
A prototype was built in the laboratory for the
following specifications: Vin ¼ 16
30V, V0 ¼ 9 V;
I0 ¼ 0:7
4 A; switching frequency fs ¼ 100 kHz;
Lr ¼ 5mH; C1 ¼ C2 ¼ 800 pF. The MOSFETS IRF540
and diodes MBR10100 are selected for the prototype.
The experimental waveforms obtained from the
prototype are shown in Figs. 5a and b, and the results
confirm the ZVS and ZCS of S1 and S2 when vC1 , vC2
and ILr come to zero at the same time before S1 and S2
are turned-on. The converter achieved good regulation
for change of input voltage in the range of 16–30 V and
a load change of 0.7–4 A and has efficiency over 84%
in the whole range of specifications. The circuit was
later powered with a PEM fuel cell to drive a toy car as
shown in Fig. 5c. The fuel cell voltage varied from 22 to
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16 V for a change in current from 0 to 5 A and the
converter was adjusted to supply a steady output voltage
of 9 V. Hydrogen to the fuel cell was supplied from a
metal hydride cylinder which can store hydrogen with a
high storage efficiency compared with the cylinder in
which the gas is stored at high presszure. Figs. 5 and 6
show the V–I curves of the two switches, which
confirm the soft-switching of S1 and S2 as predicted by
PSPICE simulation.
6 Concluding remarks
A new family of the zero-switching buck-boost
converter operating at a constant switching
frequency having zero-capacitive turn-on loss is
developed and analysed. The converter does not
experience any over voltage or high-current stress
when compared with the other converters in its
class. This is particularly beneficial at high voltage as
the capacitive turn-on loss is proportional to square
of the input voltage. When interfacing this converter
with fuel cells, one has to consider the effect of the
flow of current into the DC source in Stages b, c
and d. Fuel cells cannot be charged like batteries for
they do not accept current flowing into the
terminals and thus requires the connection of a
capacitor to absorb the high-frequency current from
the converter. Experiments on fuel cells without the
converter revealed that they are very slow to
respond to any fast changes in the load. As a result,
some provision (like using a capacitor) must be
provided to ensure that the fuel cells do not see the
high-frequency fast-changing current. Fig. 7 shows
the voltage profile of the fuel cell when it is
subjected to cyclic load (simulating a driving cycle of
an electric vehicle (EV)) and from which the time
delay for the cells to respond was observed to be in
the range of 3 – 8 s. However, when the converter
was connected to the fuel cells, the time delay did
not affect the regulation as the converter was able to
adjust the duty ratio to keep the output constant. The
other comment the authors wish to make is that the
main aim of the paper is to gain experience in using
an interface circuit to drive a load from fuel cells.
The interfacing circuit can be of buck or boost type
of converters depending on the voltage requirement.
A buck-boost version although not as efficient as the
buck type is selected for the present work mainly
because of its ability to step-up or step-down the
voltage. The present paper is the buck-boost version
of the converter presented in [9], and it is discussed
here to explore the other family of converters based
on the converter discussed in [9]. The main limitation
of the circuit is its conduction loss as a result of
conduction of two switches in series. However, the
switches undergo zero-capacitive turn-on loss which
is unique among soft-switched converters presented
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doi: 10.1049/iet-pel:20070038
www.ietdl.org
in the literature. The near zero-switching losses during
turn-off and zero-capacitive turn-on losses make the
converter a good candidate for use at high voltage and
low current. The designer can compare the energy
saved as a result of zero-capacitive turn-on loss with the
additional conduction loss in the series switch to justify
the use of the circuit presented in the paper.
7 Acknowledgement
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of
the Research Committee of The Hong Kong Polytechnic
university for this project (Project no: PolyU 5245/04E).
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9 Appendix
Figure 7 Voltage profile of the fuel cells when subjected to
a cyclic load
Cycle load, 0– 2 A ramp for 50 s, 2– 1.5 A step for 25 s, 1.5–0.2 A
ramp for 25 s and 0 A for 10 s
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