Development of interleaved buck converter using soft-switching for high current applications

Abstract

High current DC supply studied and developed over the several decades for plasma coating system in the high power application. High current supply demands to control the semiconductor switch more deliberately than high voltage supply. But basic converters presented in previous studies only have the range of low-medium power. These converters have a switch to control power. It causes that power limitation of converter by maximum rating of the switch in high power applications. In addition, a switch is suffered stress by high current, and then if its temperature is higher, characteristics of the switch are changed to worse condition. Hence, it's important to distribute the stress of switch included in converter. Interleaved topology has been used to distribute power of converters, that the topology and soft-switching technique are proposed for high current generator. Interleaved buck converter is used to control high current and to reduce the switch stress of converter, furthermore, soft-switching techniques would be proposed and verified with simulation. The interleaved buck converter using soft-switching technique developed in this study is suitable for high current operation, and reduces the losses of switches during transitions. The technique which is proposed in this paper, could be applied for many converters used for high power current.