Design Considerations for Very High Frequency dc-dc Converters

This document describes several aspects relating to the design of dc-dc converters operating at frequencies in the VHF range (30–300 MHz). Design considerations are treated in the context of a dc-dc converter operating at a switching frequency of 100 MHz. Gate drive, rectifier and control designs are explored in detail, and experimental measurements of the complete converter are presented that verify the design approach. The gate drive, a self-oscillating multi-resonant circuit, dramatically reduces the gating power while ensuring fast on-off transitions of the semiconductor switch. The rectifier is a resonant topology that absorbs diode parasitic capacitance and is designed to appear resistive at the switching frequency. The small sizes of the energy storage elements (inductors and capacitors) in this circuit permit rapid start-up and shut-down and a correspondingly high control bandwidth. These characteristics are exploited in a high bandwidth hysteretic control scheme that modulates the converter on and off at frequencies as high as 200 kHz.

[1]  E. Guillemin.  Synthesis of passive networks : theory and methods appropriate to the realization and approximation problems , 1957 .

[2]  No Sokal,et al.  CLASS-E - NEW CLASS OF HIGH-EFFICIENCY TUNED SINGLE-ENDED SWITCHING POWER AMPLIFIERS , 1975 .

[3]  R. Gutmann,et al.  Power Combining in an Array of Microwave Power Rectifiers , 1979, 1979 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[4]  Ronald J. Gutmann,et al.  Application of RF Circuit Design Principles to Distributed Power Converters , 1980, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and Control Instrumentation.

[5]  Bela Molnar,et al.  Class E Resonant Regulated DC/DC Power Converters: Analysis of Operations, and Experimental Results at 1.5 MHz , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.

[6]  Y. C. Cheng,et al.  A 580 kHz switching regulator using on-off control , 1987 .

[7]  Marian K. Kazimierczuk,et al.  Exact analysis of class E tuned power amplifier at any Q and switch duty cycle , 1987 .

[8]  W. Strauss,et al.  A resonant DC-to-DC converter operating at 22 megahertz , 1988, APEC '88 Third Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition.

[9]  F.T. Dickens,et al.  A new family of resonant rectifier circuits for high frequency DC-DC converter applications , 1988, APEC '88 Third Annual IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition.

[10]  Fred C. Lee,et al.  High-frequency quasi-resonant converter technologies , 1988, Proc. IEEE.

[11]  Dragan Maksimovic,et al.  A MOS gate drive with resonant transitions , 1991, PESC '91 Record 22nd Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference.

[12]  Tadashi Suetsugu,et al.  Class DE high-efficiency tuned power amplifier , 1996 .

[13]  D. C. Hamill,et al.  Class DE inverters and rectifiers for DC-DC conversion , 1996, PESC Record. 27th Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference.

[14]  Thomas H. Lee,et al.  The Design of CMOS Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuits: RF CIRCUITS THROUGH THE AGES , 2003 .

[15]  K. M. Smith,et al.  Properties and synthesis of passive lossless soft-switching PWM converters , 1999 .

[16]  C. Trask,et al.  Class-F amplifier loading networks: a unified design approach , 1999, 1999 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (Cat. No.99CH36282).

[17]  Kazuhiko Honjo,et al.  A simple circuit synthesis method for microwave class-F ultra-high-efficiency amplifiers with reactance-compensation circuits , 2000 .

[18]  J.A. Melkebeek,et al.  Gate drive circuit for zero-voltage-switching half- and full-bridge converters , 2001, Conference Record of the 2001 IEEE Industry Applications Conference. 36th IAS Annual Meeting (Cat. No.01CH37248).

[19]  Matthew W. Vania.  PRF-1150 1KW 13.56 MHz Class E RF Generator Evaluation Module , 2002 .

[20]  I. D. de Vries,et al.  A resonant power MOSFET/IGBT gate driver , 2002, APEC 2002.

[21]  F. C. Lee,et al.  A novel resonant gate driver for high frequency synchronous buck converters , 2002 .

[22]  Ali Hajimiri,et al.  Fully integrated CMOS power amplifier design using the distributed active-transformer architecture , 2002, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[23]  Shawn K. Kelly,et al.  A system for efficient neural stimulation with energy recovery , 2003 .

[24]  Andrei Grebennikov,et al.  RF and Microwave Power Amplifier Design , 2004 .

[25]  D.J. Perreault,et al.  New architectures for radio-frequency DC/DC power conversion , 2004, 2004 IEEE 35th Annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37551).

[26]  D.J. Perreault,et al.  Multi-resonant microfabricated inductors and transformers , 2004, 2004 IEEE 35th Annual Power Electronics Specialists Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37551).

[27]  Yehui Han,et al.  Resistance Compression Networks for Resonant Power Conversion , 2005, 2005 IEEE 36th Power Electronics Specialists Conference.

[28]  M. P. Theodoridis.  Analysis of a capacitive-filter, half-wave rectifier fed by a parallel-load resonant tank , 2005 .

[29]  Joshua W. Phinney,et al.  Multi-resonant passive components for power conversion , 2005 .

[30]  Juan Rivas,et al.  Radio frequency dc-dc power conversion , 2006 .

[31]  D.J. Perreault,et al.  New Architectures for Radio-Frequency DC – DC Power Conversion , 2006 .

[32]  D.J. Perreault,et al.  Transistor Selection and Design of a VHF DC-DC Power Converter , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics.