Zero-current-switching switched-capacitor

bidirectional DCDC converter

Y.-S. Lee and Y.-Y. Chiu
Abstract: The proposed zero-current-switching switched-capacitor quasi-resonant DCDC converter is a new type of bidirectional power ow control conversion scheme. It possesses the
conventional features of resonant switched-capacitor converters: low weight, small volume, high
efciency, low EMI emission and current stress. A zero-current-switching switched-capacitor stepup/step-down bidirectional converter is presented that can improve the current stress problem
during bidirectional power ow control processing. It can provide a high voltage conversion ratio
using four power MOSFET main switches, a set of switched capacitors and a small resonant
inductor. The converter operating principle of the proposed bidirectional power conversion scheme
is described in detail with circuit model analysis. Simulation and experiment are carried out to
verify the concept and performance of the proposed bidirectional DCDC converter.

Introduction

The switched-capacitor DCDC converter is a nonmagnetic converter that requires only capacitor and
MOSFET switches in the power stage. This converter has
the following features; light weight, smaller size and
fabrication on a semiconductor integrated circuit chip.
However, the larger switching loss and current stress are the
essential drawbacks in the conventional high-frequency
switching DCDC converter [13]. Quasi-resonant converters that are able to operate at constant switching frequency
with zero-current or zero-voltage switching (ZCS or ZVS)
have been used to reduce the switching loss in the converter
to overcome the aforementioned problems. This paper
presents a new zero-current-switching switched-capacitor
quasi-resonant (ZSC SC QR) converter that can operate at
high switching frequency with less switching loss for
increased converter efciency with fewer switches [2, 3].
Although the ZCS SC QR converter has numerous
advantages, its power ow control moves only in the unidirection.
Bidirectional DCDC power conversion is of great
interest in systems fed by DC power, including electric
vehicle hybrid energy systems, fuel-cell systems and aerospace systems [4, 5]. The bidirectionality in these applications involves current ow while the polarity of the DC
voltage at either end remains uncharged. Application in
battery equalisation schemes where the stronger energy of
this system is transferred into the weaker energy subsystem
using the bidirectional power ow control scheme [6].
A class of soft-switching bidirectional DCDC converters
is the expected candidate for applications such as unintrerruptible power supplies (UPS), battery charging and
r IEE, 2005
IEE Proceedings online no. 20050138
doi:10.1049/ip-epa:20050138
Paper rst received 22nd April and in nal revised form 12th July 2005
The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Fu-Jen
Catholic University, 510 Chung-Cheng Rd., Hsin-Chuang, Taipei 24205,
Taiwan, Republic of China
E-mail: lee@ee.fju.edu.tw
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005

discharging systems, auxiliary power supplies in HEV, and

dual voltage automotive systems [4, 6]. A switchedcapacitor-based bidirectional DCDC converter providing
the capability of step-down/step-up voltage is proposed in
[7]. The input/output current pulsating peaks of the
bidirectional SC converter are mitigated, but the switching
losses and the overall converter efciency are not signicantly improved [8, 9].
This paper presents a new switched-capacitor step-up/
step-down DCDC quasi-resonant bidirectional converter
designed to operate at noninverting mode and constant
frequency. The proposed converter scheme can achieve
zero-current soft switching and reduce the MOSFET
switching loss to increase the converter efciency. The
high switching current stresses can also be reduced under
the bidirectional power ow control scheme [10].
The proposed converter can be applied to many other
topologies for varying voltage conversion ratios under
suitable arrangement and designed control strategy of the
switched-capacitor networks. A design example for the
triple-mode-tri-section-mode (three-mode/13 -mode) ZCS SC
QR converter was conducted to verify and validate the
predicted performance under bidirectional power ow
control. The EMI emissions in the power line source can
also be suppressed because of the soft switching and the
source current waveforms along the approximate sinusoidal
function.
2

Topologies description

Figure 1 shows the proposed noninverting type triple-mode/

trisection-mode ZCS SC QR bidirectional converter that
was developed based on the ZCS SC QR converter. The
circuit is composed of four MOSFET main switches
paralleled with Schottky diodes. Only a very small inductor
series connected with a set of switched capacitors is needed
to construct the resonant tanks in the converter. A resonant
inductor Lr is connected in series with the switching
capacitor comprised of C1 and C2 to achieve a resonant
cycle when each of the switches Q1S (contains Q1P and Q1N)
or Q2S (contains Q2P and Q2N) are switched on during the
operating interval. The switches can be designed to switch
1525

D2P
Qa

V1

Q2N
C1
+
Vc1

Da

+
Vc2
Qb

Q2P

C1

+
Vc1

Qab

Q1P

D2N

Db

Qb

D1N

+
V2

D1P
Lr

Dab

C2
+
Vc2

D2N

Q2N

Qa

Da

Db

C2

Q1P

D2P

+ V1

Lr

Dab

Qab

Q1N
D1P

I Lr

Q2P

D1N

Q1N

V2

Fig. 1 Triple-mode/trisection-mode ZCS SC QR bidirectional

DCDC converter
Q1N

D2P

Q2N

Qa
C1

+ V1

1526

Db

Q2P

D1N

Qb

I Lr

V2
b

Q 1N

D2P

V1

Q 2N

Qa
C1
+
Vc1

Da
Q ab

Dab
Db

C2

Q 1P

D2N

+
Vc2
Qb

D1P

Lr

I Lr

Q 2P

D1N
V2

Q 1N

D 2P

V1

Q 2N

Qa
C1
+
Vc1

Da
Q ab

Q 1P

D2N

Dab
Db

C2
+
Vc2

Qb

D 1P

Lr
I Lr

Q 2P

D 1N

The equivalent circuit in Fig. 1 for the proposed noninverting type ZCS SC QR bidirectional converter is shown in
Figs. 2a2d and Figs. 3a3d under the forward and reverse
power ow control scheme for the various operating time
intervals. Some assumptions are necessary to analyse the
dynamic circuit behaviour: (i) the resonant inductor Lr has a
small inductance, neglecting internal resistance; (ii) the
semiconductor switches and diodes are ideal; and (iii) the
capacitors in the switched-capacitor bank are ideal. Therefore, the resonant current ILr is controlled by the MOSFET
switches Q1S and Q2S for the forward and reverse power
ow control modes, respectively. The direction of the
controlled power ow is determined according to the

D2N

Q1P

Lr

Dab

C2

+
Vc2

Circuit analysis

Qab

+
Vc1

Da

on and off at zero-current state with the LrC resonant

current rising and falling to zero to achieve zero current
switching for reducing the MOSFET switching loss. The
switches Qa, Qb and Qab are used to control the switched
capacitors for parallel or series connection during the
charging or discharging states. Figure 2 shows a noninverting type step-up ZCS SC QR DCDC converter under
various operation stages. Turn-on/off switches Q1P or Q1N
and the switched-capacitor switches Qa, Qb, or Qab can
control the forward power ow from the source V1 to the
other source V2 as a triple-mode converter (i.e. V2 3 V1)
shown as Fig. 2. The turn-on/off switches Q2P or Q2N and
the switched-capacitor switching diodes Da, Db, or Dab can
also control the reverse power ow from V2 to V1 as a
trisection-mode converter (i.e. V1 V2/3), shown in Fig. 3.
When the resonant current ILr increases to a peak value and
decreases to zero current, it cannot reverse into negative
current because there is a diode in the resonant circuit loop
of the converter that ceases current reversal. Figures 2a2d
and Figs. 3a3d show the equivalent circuit of the proposed
bidirectional converter under the forward and reverse
power ow control scheme.
The proposed converter topology can be extended
to operate as a noninverting type n-mode/1n - mode and
an inverting type double-mode/half-mode zero-currentswitching switched-capacitor quasi-resonant DCDC
converter for reconstructing the switched-capacitor conguration in the capacitor bank. The following Sections of
this paper analyse the proposed noninverting type triplemode/trisection-mode ZCS SC QR bidirectional DCDC
converter.

D1P

V2
d

Fig. 2 Equivalent circuit of various operation stages for ZCS SC

QR bidirectional DCDC converter with forward power flow
a t0otot1
b t1otot2
c t2otot3
d t3otot4
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005

Q1N

D2P

Q 2N

Qa
C1

V1

+
Vc1

Da
Q ab

D2N

Lr

Dab

C2

Db

+
Vc2

I Lr

Qb
D1N

Q 2P

Q1P

D1P

V2

Q1N

D2P

Q 2N

Qa
C1

V1

+
Vc1

Da
Q ab

Db

I Lr

+
Vc2

Q 2P

D1N

Qb

D2N

Lr

Dab

C2

Q1P

D1P

VC t V1 VC01
V1 cos o1 t

V2

Q1N

D2P

Q2N

Qa

V1

C1

+
Vc1

Da
Qab

D2N

Lr

Db

I Lr

- +

Vc2
Qb

Q1P

Dab

C2
+

D1P

Q2P

D1N

V2

Q1N

D2P

Q2N

Qa

V1

C1

+
Vc1

Da
Qab

D2N

Dab

C2

+
Vc2

D1P

Lr

Db

I Lr

Qb
Q2P

D1N

Q1P

switched-capacitor charging/discharging situation and/or

the desired power ow control orientation for the converter
system. The corresponding switching waveforms of the ZCS
SC QR bidirectional converter are also shown in Figs. 4a
and b under various power ow control schemes. The
detailed equivalent circuits for the proposed converter
scheme are shown in Figs. 2a2d at different time intervals
under forward power ow control mode. The state space
dynamic of all the operation modes are easily analysed in
the following stages:
Stage 1 (Fig. 2a; t0otot1): The main switch Q1P and
switched-capacitor switches Qa, Qb are turned on at t t0,
the source V1 provides current though MOSFET switch
Q1P, D1P, the paralleled C1 and C2, and the resonant
reactance Lr stores the electric energy in the capacitors
Cp C1+C2 2C. The dynamic state equation in this
interval is given by
2
3 2

1 3

#

dI Lr t
 "1
0
I
t
V1
7
6 dt 7 6
0
Lr
L
Lr
1
5 r
4 dV t 5 4 1
V
t
V2
C
C
0 0
0
CP
dt
with the initial conditions ILr (t0) 0 and VC1(t0)
VC2(t0) VC(t0) VC01. The solutions of (1) can be
obtained as
V1
VC01
sin o1 t
2
ILr t
Zr

V2

Fig. 3 Equivalent circuit of various operation stages for ZCS SC

QR bidirectional DCDC converter with reverse power flow
a t0otot1
b t1otot2
c t2otot3
d t3otot4
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005

where the
resonant angular frequency in stage 1 is
p

1=
L
CP , the normalised impedance is Z1
o
1
r
p
Lr =CP . The inductor current ILr (t) will increase to
reach the peak value, and substantially decrease to zero at
t t1.
Stage 2 (Fig. 2b; t1otot2): The main switch Q1P and
switched-capacitor switches Qa, Qb are still turned on, and
the diode D1P cannot reverse into negative current, which
ceases the current reversing in this interval. The inductor
current will still cease at zero state until trt2. The states in
this stage are ILr t 0 and VC1 (t) VC2 (t) VC
(t) VC02.
Stage 3 (Fig. 2c; t2otot3): When Q1N and Qa are turned on
at t t2, V1, C1 and C2 are series connected with the
switches, Q1N and Qa, and the resonant inductor Lr.
Therefore, the stored energy is transferred into the source
V2 through the LrCS resonant tank circuit. The dynamic
state equation in this interval can be expressed by
3
2
3 2
2

dILr t

6 dt 7 6 0 Lr 7 ILr t
7
6
7 6
5 V t
4 dVC t 5 4
1
C
0
4
dt
C
2
3
1
1

V1
4 Lr Lr 5
V2
0
0
where C Cp
C2, the resonant angular frequency in stage
1

CS
3 is o3 1= Lr CS ,p
C1 C2 =C1 C2 , the normalised
impedance is Z3 Lr =CS . The initial conditions of the
different equations are ILr (t2) 0, and VC1(t2)
VC2(t2) VC(t2) VC02. The solutions of (4) can be
obtained as
V1
V2
VC02
sin o3 t
5
ILr t
Z3
VC t VC02 V1
V2
VC02 cos o3 t
1

6
1527

15V

15V
Vgs _ Q1P

10V
5V

5V

0V

0V
15V

15V
Vgs _ Q1N

10V

Vgs _ Q2N

10V

Vgs _ Q2P

10V

5V

5V

0V

0V

10A

10A

I D_ Q1P

I D_ Q2P

0A

0A

10A
10A

10A
10A

I D_ Q1N

0A

0A

10A

10A
10A

10A
I Lr
0A

0A

10A

10A

30V

I D_ Q2N

I Lr

30V
VC1

20V
10V

10V

0V
30V

0V
30V
VC2

20V

VC1

20V

VC2

20V

10V

10V

0V
38.88V

0V
13.00V
Vo

38.87V
19.988

Vo

12.98V
t0

t1 t2

t3 t4

20.00

19.988

time

Fig. 4

t0

t1 t2

t3 t4

20.00

time

Typical switching and simulation waveforms of triple-mode/trisection-mode ZCS SC QR DCDC converter

a Forward power ow control

b Reverse power ow control

The inductor current will decrease along the sinusoidal

function to the negative peak value and continuously fall to
zero at t t3. After ILr resonates back to zero, diodes D1N
and D1P are biased in reverse and this operation stage is
terminated.
Stage 4 (Fig. 2d; t3otot4): In this interval, the inductor
current will stay in zero current state, the states are
ILr t 0 and VC1(t) VC2(t) VC (t) VC03. After a
specied time, Q1N and Qa are turned off at zero current
state when t t4. Let the duty ratio of Q1P and Q1N be
denoted by l1P and l1N, respectively. The zero current
switching conditions of Q1P and Q1P are then obtained as
l1PTSZp/o1 and l1NTSZp/o3, where TS is the switching
duty of the proposed bidirectional converter.
Figures 3a3d show the alternating equivalent circuits
of the proposed bidirectional converter under the reverse
power ow control scheme. In stage 1 (Fig. 3a; t0otot1),
when Q2P is turned on at t t0, then D1N and Dab
are forced to turn on, the sources V1 and V2, C1 and C2
are series connected with the switches, Q2P and Dab, and
the resonant inductor Lr. Therefore, the energy is stored to
1528

the C1 and C2 through the LrCS resonant tank circuit.

The dynamic state equation of stage 1 is the same as (4)
with the negative state variables ILr t and VC(t). In
stage 3 (Fig. 3c; t2otot3); the main switch Q2N is turned
on at t t2, then forced to turn on the diodes D2N, Da
and Db. The stored electric energy in the parallel capacitors
Cp C1+C2 2C is discharged to the source V1 through
the switch Q2N, and diodes D2N, Da and Db. The dynamic
state equation in this interval is same as (1) with
the negative states. The typical switching waveforms of
the bidirectional converter are shown in Fig. 4b. The
analytical procedure is similar to that for the bidirectional
converter in the forward power ow control and is omitted
in this paper.
4

Experimental results

To validate the performance of the proposed ZCS SC

QR bidirectional DCDC converter, a PSpice simulation and experiment were carried out for the proposed
triple-mode/trisection-mode noninverting ZCS SC QR
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005

Observations on the proposed ZCS SC QR bidirectional

converter can be summarised as follows:
 The power MOSFETs of the proposed bidirectional
converter are turned on and off in the zero-current state.
The total switching loss and EMI emission can be
signicantly reduced, and the switching frequency can be
further increased and the size of capacitor can be decreased.
 The current stresses of the MOSFETs are signicantly
reduced compared with the conventional switched-capacitor
bidirectional converter.
 The maximum efciency achieved can be about 95 and
93% for the forward and reverse power ow control
schemes, respectively.
 For high-power application, only a small magnetic
component is required in the bidirectional converter.
Therefore, the core size and core losses are also be reduced.
 The proposed converter scheme design can be extended
to a noninverting type n-mode/ 1n -mode bidirectional DC
DC converter for high voltage conversion ratio power
supply applications, as shown in Fig. 6. And the concept

Vgs _ Q2N, V

Vgs _ Q1P, V

DCDC converter. The designed parameters are as follows:

MOSFET switches are IRF3710, Schottky diodes
C1 C2 C 0.33 mF,
are
SBL1060,
Lr 1 mH,
fs 200 kHz, the duty ratios are l1P 0.56 and l1N 0.43
and P0 60 W. The input voltages are V1 14 V and
V2 42 V for forward and reverse power ow control,
respectively. Figures 4a and b show the simulation results
of the proposed triple-mode and trisection-mode ZCS
SC QR converter, respectively. The output voltage of
the proposed converters are slightly less than the designed
values due to the ESR drop of the active and passive devices
in the converter loop. Figures 5a and b show the
experimental results of the corresponding waveforms
and converter efciency of the proposed converter under
forward and reverse power ow control mode. The
measured output voltages of the proposed converter
Vo are 36.3 and 12.4 V under the various directional modes,
respectively. The measurements are slightly less than
the designed values owing to the practical voltage drop of
the active and passive devices. The average efciency
of the forward and reverse power ow control converter
under various load conditions is highFmore than 90%.

5A/div.

20V/div.

time, s

5A/div.

time, s

Vo, V

Vo, V

20V/div.

ILr, A ; Vgs _ Q2N, V ;

ILr, A ; Vgs _ Q1N, V ;

20V/div.

5A/div.

time, s

10V/div.

100
95
90
85

efficiency, %

efficiency, %

I D_Q2N, A ; I D_Q2P, A ;

I D_Q1N, A ; I D_Q1P, A ;

80
75
70
65
60
55
50

time, s

100
95
90
85
80
75
70
65

10

20

30
40
output power, W

50

60

60
55
50

10

Fig. 5

5A/div.

20

30
40
output power, W

50

60

Experimental waveforms and efficiency of ZCS SC QR bidirectional converter

a Forward power ow control

b Reverse power ow control
IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005

1529

Q1N

D2P

Qa
C1
Da
Qb

Dab

Q ab

Vs

Q1P

Lr

Db

Db

Q n-1

Qn-1

D2N

D1P

Qb
C2

Q 2N

V1

Da
Q ab

Cn-1
Dn-1

Dn-1 n

Dn-1
Dn

Q n-1 n
Cn

Qn

Q 1N

Q 2P

D1N

D2P

C2
+
Vc2

C1
+
Vc1
Dab

D1N

Lr

V2

+
Db

Qb

Q 2N

D1P

Fig. 7 Concept applied to inverting type double-mode/half-mode

bidirectional converter

D2N

Q1P

Q 2P

Qa

Vo

Fig. 6 Concept extended to noninverting type n - mode/ 1n -mode

bidirectional converter

can be applied to many other topologies, such as an

inverting type double-mode/half-mode bidirectional converter for battery equailisation applications [6] shown in
Fig. 7.
 The proposed converter scheme is designed to operate as
a non-isolation type triple-mode/trisection-mode bidirectional DCDC converter for high voltage conversion ratio
power supply applications. The inductor current is operated
in an unsymmetrical alternating mode, the reversing current
will automatically demagnetise the residual ux in the
magnetic core of the inductor choke to avoid the risk of
saturation due to cumulative magnetic ux in the core.
There is a small DC current component owing through the
inductor that could produce a saturation problem in the
choke, which will be considered in selecting high ux
magnetic toroidal core (CH270060) for the inductor design
procedure. The maximum output power and voltage
conversion ratio of the proposed converter have some
limitations, subject to the saturation constraint for the
magnetic design of the resonant inductor.
5

Conclusions

A triple-mode/trisection-mode power conversion scheme

based on quasi-resonant zero-current-switching converter
theory for a bidirectional converter has been studied. It was
found that the proposed unit possesses interesting properties
such as reducing the switching loss, increasing the converter
efciency, and signicantly reducing the MOSFET current
stress of the converter. Simulations and experimental results

1530

were performed to verify the theoretical analysis. It was

shown that the proposed ZCS SC QR converter is suitable
for high-frequency and high-efciency bidirectional power
converter applications.
6

Acknowledgment

This work was nancially supported by the National

Science Council of Taiwan, under Grant NSC 93-2218-E030-003.
7

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IEE Proc.-Electr. Power Appl., Vol. 152, No. 6, November 2005