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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPEL.2018.2884937, IEEE
Transactions on Power Electronics
A Single-switched High-switching-frequency Quasi-resonant Flyback Converter
Chong Wang, 1040623911@qq.com; Shen Xu, xus@seu.edu.cn; Weidong Shen, 936361993@qq.com; Shengli Lu,
lsl@seu.edu.cn; Weifeng Sun, Senior Member, IEEE, swffrog@seu.edu.cn;
Abstract: The demand of miniaturization of power systems
has accelerated the research on high-switching-frequency
power converters. A single-switched quasi-resonant flyback
converter that features low switching loss and low switching
noise at high switching frequency is investigated in this
paper. In order to realize near fully soft switching, a
resonant inductor of primary side and a resonant capacitor of
secondary side are utilized to recycle the transformer
leakage energy and realize zero-current-switching (ZCS) at
turn-off and valley switching (VS) at turn-on of the primary
switch, and ZCS at turn-off of diode. The VS is utilized
based on the resonance between the resonant inductor and
the equivalent switch drain capacitor. In the closed loop
control, a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) mode with
time fluctuation of switching period is implemented to
realize VS at turn-on of switch and an on-off control mode
is utilized to improve the overall efficiency. Low cost, low
losses and low switching noise are all realized in the
proposed prototype. The proposed concept has been
validated on a 1MHz 12V/3A prototype with 80V dc input.
The peak efficiency is 90.3% in the on-off mode by using
GaN device without synchronous rectification.
Keywords: Quasi-resonant flyback converter,
single-switched, high-switching-frequency, zero-current
switching, valley switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
Flyback converter topology is widely used in low
power dc-dc supplies. Nowadays, power density is
becoming an important factor for evaluating these
converters. Increasing the switching frequency is a potential
solution to improve power density. In higher switching
frequency converters, lower inductance, smaller capacitance,
and transformer of less turns and smaller cores are used.
Single-switched isolated converters have the
advantages of simple control and high stability. However, at
high switching frequency, recycling the leakage energy of
the transformer, reducing the switching loss, and reducing
the switching noise must be maintained. Applying
Soft-switching, valley-switching techniques and using
quasi-resonant converter are mostly used methods to solve
the problems. However, complex topology, high switching
loss, or large switching noise cannot all be avoided in
single-switched isolated power converters. The efficiency
improvement of signal switch isolated converters in
different literature will be analyzed as follows.
Soft-switching technique is mostly used in high
switching frequency converters [1-5]. A soft-switched
single-switch isolated converter is proposed in [1].
Zero-current switching (ZCS) turn-on and zero-voltage
This work was supported in part by the National Nature Science
Foundation of China under Grant 61674033, and in part by the Natural
Science Foundation of Jiangsu province under Grant BK20161148 and in
part by Key Research & Development Plan of Jiangsu Province
(BE2017083).
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switching (ZVS) turn-off of switch and ZCS turn-off of
diodes are realized. However, three inductors, three
capacitors and four diodes are added compared to forward
converters leading to higher cost. Besides, too much
working intervals and large conducting loss make it hard to
use at high switching frequency. The switching frequency of
the experimental prototype is only 100kHz. Reference [2]
presented an auxiliary circuit containing another transformer
and a capacitor which replaced the resistor capacitor diode
(RCD) snubber network to recycle the leakage energy by
soft-switching technique. However, the turn-on and turn-off
of the switch was still hard switching. The switching losses
still increase with the switching frequency and dv/dt and
di/dt values are not attenuated. In [3], both ZVS turn-on and
turn-off of switch are realized using the parasitic parameters
of flyback converter. The switching loss is reduced. But
ZCS turn-off of switch is not realized and di/dt value is large.
In addition, it introduces large negative current which means
it only fits for small power application.
Valley switching (VS) technique is another method to
reduce the switching loss, attenuate dv/dt value and increase
the switching frequency [6-11]. In [6], an auxiliary circuit is
utilized to realize valley switching technique.
Near-zero-voltage turn-on of switch is accomplished which
greatly reduced the switching loss. But ZCS turn-off of
switch is not realized and large di/dt value is not avoided.
The maximum switching frequency is 340kHz and the peak
efficiency is around 90%. In [7], a single-stage
quasi-resonant flyback converter is proposed for PFC and
constant output voltage regulation. The switch is turned on
at the valley of the resonance between the switch drain
capacitor and the magnetizing inductance. The switching
loss is greatly reduced with VS turn-on of switch. Also the
ZCS turn-off of switch is not realized and it only works in
discontinuous conduction modulation (DCM) mode which
transfers lower power than continuous conduction
modulation (CCM) mode.
Quasi-resonant converter is another option [12-17]
used in single-switched isolated power converters to recycle
the transformer leakage energy and reduce the switching
loss. In [12], a single-switch quasi-resonant forward
converter is realized by adding an inductor and a capacitor.
The energy of leakage inductance is recycled. And the
switching loss is reduced as ZCS turn-off of the switch and
ZCS turn-off of diode are accomplished. di/dt value is
attenuated. But the turn-on of switch is still hard switching
leading to large dv/dt value and large switching loss. The
switching loss increases linearly with the switching
frequency. Thus, high efficiency cannot be maintained and
the maximum switching frequency is around 300kHz. In
addition, large transformer volume is introduced by the large
magnetizing inductance. In [13], an improved flyback
converter is proposed to realize power factor correction and
ZCS turn-off of switch. One inductor, two capacitors and
two diodes are required. The leakage energy of the
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transformer is recycled. However, the turn-on of the switch
is still hard switching. The maximum switching frequency is
also around 300kHz.
This paper proposes a single-switched high-switching
frequency quasi-resonant flyback converter. A resonant
inductor and a resonant capacitor are added to the flyback
converter which eliminates the RCD snubber network for
leakage energy dissipation. ZCS turn-off and VS turn-on of
switch and ZCS turn-off of diode are achieved. Based on the
resonance between the resonant inductor and the equivalent
drain capacitor, VS turn-on of the switch is applied. With VS
at high switching frequency, the switching loss is reduced
and dv/dt value is attenuated. In closed loop control, a pulse
frequency modulation (PFM) mode with time fluctuation is
used to realize VS turn-on of switch and an on-off mode is
proposed to improve the overall efficiency. Besides, gallium
nitride (GaN) switch is also exploited which enables higher
switching frequencies at lower switching losses compared to
silicon power switches. A 1MHz 12V/3A prototype with
80V dc input voltage is applied to verify the proposed
analysis.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II
introduces its detailed operation of the proposed topology.
Section III presents a general design procedure. Section IV
discusses several control methods for closed loop control.
Section V verified the proposed prototype and the measured
results. The paper is concluded in Section VI.
II. Quasi-resonant flyback converter with ZCS and VS
The schematic of the proposed quasi-resonant flyback
converter is presented in Fig. 1. Compared to traditional
flyback converter, the RCD snubber circuit is eliminated. A
resonant inductor Lr and a resonant capacitor Cr are added.
In Fig. 1, the transformer leakage inductance and the
resonant inductance are included in Lr.
In one switching cycle, there are four time intervals as
shown in Fig. 2. vCr is the voltage of capacitor Cr. ip is the
primary winding current of the transformer. im is the
magnetizing current of the transformer. iD is current of
output diode D1, and vds is the switch drain-source voltage.
ZCS turn-off and VS turn-on of switch and ZCS turn-off of
diode are realized. Np and Ns are the turn’s number of
primary winding and secondary winding of the transformer.
The schematic and the equivalent circuit of the four intervals
are shown in Fig. 3.
Mode a: (t0-t1): The steady-state cycle starts at t0 when
the switch M1 is turned on and the output diode D1 is still on.
t0 is the time when the drain-source voltage (vds) is at its
valley, i.e., valley switching at turn-on for low switching
losses. The equivalent circuit can be shown in Fig. 3 (a1).
Np Ns
D1
Lr + im, ip and vCr’ can be calculated as in (3). The analytical
+ iCr
vCr
Lm
Cr
- wave current. When the amplitude of this sine wave current
Vg ip + Vds
Na
vgs
Coss
M1
-
- minus dc voltage. This period ends at t2 when ip increases
Fig. 1 Proposed quasi-resonant flyback converter.
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Transactions on Power Electronics
duty t
vCr t
im
ip t
npsim
iD t
t
vds
t0 t1 t2 t3 t4(t0)
Fig. 2 The steady-state waveforms of the proposed QR flyback converter.
The voltage of resonant capacitor Cr (vCr) is equal to the
sum of the output voltage Vo and the forward voltage of
diode D1 (Vf). Assuming that the output diode is an ideal
device (Vf is zero), the increasing slope of ip and the
decreasing slope of iD can be expressed as in (1). Vg is the
input voltage. Lm is the magnetization inductance of the
transformer and im is the magnetization inductance current.
nps represents the turn’s ratio between the primary winding
and the secondary winding.
The primary current ip increases linearly as the voltage
across Lr is constant. The magnetizing current im decreases
linearly as the voltage across the secondary winding is
minus and constant. Thus, the current flow through output
diode D1 (iD) decreases linearly. This period ends at t1 when
iD reaches zero, and the diode D1 is turned off.
 dip (t )
 Lr dt  Vg  npsVo

 dim(t ) (1)
 Lm  npsVo
 dt
iD (t )  nps (im(t )  ip (t ))


Mode b: (t1-t2): This mode starts at t1. In this period, the
switch is turned on and the output diode D1 is turned off.
The equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 3(b1).
Lr, Lm and Cr start to resonate in this period. For
simplicity, the circuit is simplified as Fig. 3(b2). Cr’ is the
corresponding capacitor of Cr, and vCr’ is the corresponding
iD
voltage of vCr. Cr’ and vCr’ can be expressed in (2).
expression of im, ip and vCr’ can be expressed in (4). ip can be
Cl Rl
seen as the sum of a linearly increasing current and a sine
is large enough, zero current can be obtained, and ZCS
turn-off of switch can be realized. im can also be seen as the
sum of a linearly increasing current and a sine wave current.
vCr can be seen as the sum of a cosine wave voltage and a
from below zero current to above zero current. The time
length of this period t21 is larger than half the resonant
period π/w1 but smaller than one resonant period 2π/w1.
Thus at t2, vCr is increasing but lower than Vo.
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Transactions on Power Electronics

Cr , vCr '  npsvCr (2) is near zero. Near zero voltage switching (VS turn-on of
Cr ' 
nps 2 switch) will be acquired. The switching loss will be reduced
 dim(t ) greatly.
 Lm dt  vCr '(t ) Ip Np Ns ID
+Vo
 Lr +
 dip (t ) (3)
 Lr  Vg  vCr '(t ) Vin VCr
 dt Lp Cr Cl Rl
-
 dvCr '(t ) -
Cr ' dt  im(t )  ip (t ) (a1)
 Ip
 vCr '(t1)  Vge Vg
im(t  t1)   sin( w1(t  t1))  (t  t1)  im(t1) Lr
w1Lm Lm  L r
 Vin
 vCr '(t1)  Vge Vg Lp npsVo
ip (t  t1)  sin( w1(t  t1))  (t  t1)  im(t1)
w 1 Lr L m  Lr

vCr '(t  t1)  (vCr '(t1)  Vge) cos( w1(t  t1))  Vge (a2)
 Ip Np Ns
 +Vo
Lr +
, Vge  Lm Vg , w1  1 ( 1  1 ) (4) VCr
Lm  Lr Vin
Cr ' Lm Lr Lp Cr Cl Rl
Mode c: (t2-t3): This mode starts at t2. In this period, the -
-
switch is turned off and the output diode is off. The (b1)
equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 3(c1). Lr, Lm, Cr and Coss Ip
start to resonate. Coss is equivalent drain-source capacitance. Lr -
The circuit is simplified as in Fig. 3(c2). im, ip and vCr’ can
be calculated as in (5). In this period, ip can be neglected Vin Cr’
Lp
compared to the magnetizing current im. Thus, Cr’ is charged + VCr’
by the magnetizing current im resulting in the fast increase of
vCr’. This period (t32) is very short and variation of im is (b2)
Ip Np Ns
small. +Vo
In t32 period, there are two resonating frequency whose Lr +
analytical expressions are shown in (6). The higher Vin VCr
switching frequency w21 is mainly determined by Lr and Coss, Lp Cr Cl Rl
-
the lower frequency w22 is determined by Lm and Cr’. The -
Coss
switch drain voltage (vds) is composed by one dc voltage, a
resonant voltage of frequency w21 and a resonant voltage of (c1)
Ip
frequency w22. The lower frequency element is always small
and can be ignored. When vCr reaches the output voltage Vo Lr -
at t3, this mode ends and the output diode D1 is turned on. Cr’
Vin
 dim(t ) Lp
 Lm dt  vCr '(t ) + VCr’
 Coss
 Lr dip (t )  Vg  vCr '(t )  vds (t ) (c2)
 dt (5) Ip Np Ns
 +Vo
Cr ' dvCr '(t )  im(t )  ip (t ) Lr +
 dt Vin VCr
 dvds (t ) Lp Cr Cl Rl
Coss  ip (t ) -
 dt -
Coss
b  b 2  4a 1 , (d1)
w22   Ip
2a LmCr '
Lr
b  b 2  4a 1 ,
w22   Vin
npsVo
2a LmCr ' Lp

a  LmCr ' LrCoss , b  LrCoss  LmCr ' LmCoss (6) Coss

Mode d: (t3-t4): This mode starts at t3. In this period, the (d2)
switch is turned off and the output diode is turned on. The Fig. 3 Steady-state operating modes and respective equivalent circuits: (a1)
equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 3(d1). The voltage on the Equivalent circuit in t10; (a2) Simplified circuit in t10; (b1) Equivalent
secondary winding of the transformer is clamped at the circuit in t21; (b2) Simplified circuit in t21; (c1) Equivalent circuit in t32; (c2)
Simplified circuit in t32; (d1) Equivalent circuit in t43; (d2) Simplified circuit
output voltage Vo. Thus, the magnetizing current im in t43.
decreases linearly and the transformer energy is transferred
to the output capacitor. im, ip, vds and vCr’ can be calculated as
in (7). Lr and Coss resonant in this period. The resonant
frequency w3 is shown in (8). This interval ends at t4. vds is at
its valley and the switch is turned on. Assuming the
resonance of vds has no attenuation, the valley voltage of vds

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Transactions on Power Electronics

 dim(t )
 Lm dt  npsVo im
 ip t
 Lr dip (t )  Vg  npsVo  vds (t ) (7)
 dt
 dvds (t )
Coss  ip (t )
 dt vCr t
vCr '(t )  npsVo -Vge

1 (8)
w3 
LrCoss
Based on the above analysis, ZCS turn-off and VS t0 t1 t2 t3 t4(t0)
turn-on of switch and ZCS turn-off of diode are realized in Fig. 4 The critical condition of the proposed method.
the proposed single-switched quasi-resonant flyback
converter. The converter efficiency will be improved, and guaranteed to be lower than the maximum drain-source
dv/dt and di/dt values will be reduced. voltage of the switch.
Vds_max  2(Vg  npsVo) (14)
III. Design of the Converter B. Design Procedure
From the above analysis, ZCS turn-on and VS turn-off If ZCS turn-off of switch is achieved when the average
of switch is realized in the proposed single-switched magnetizing current Im is equal to its maximum value Im_max,
quasi-resonant flyback converter. ZCS turn-off of switch can be guaranteed when Im is smaller
A. Converter behavior than Im_max. Fig. 4 shows this critical condition of the
In Mode b and c, the magnetization current im increases. proposed converter, in which the time-length of the negative
In mode a and d, the magnetization current decreases. current interval of ip in Mode b nears zero and the output
Comparing to traditional flyback converter, Mode b and c is power in this condition should be equal to or larger than the
the equivalent switch-on period ton. ton can be seen as equal maximum output power. The parameter design would be
to t31(t31=t3-t1). Mode a and d can be seen as the equivalent committed in this condition.
switch-off period toff. The equivalent duty ratio Deq can be 1) Parameters design
expressed in (9). When the switching frequency and the equivalent duty
ton ratio Deq is set, ton can be acquired from (9). Considering (4),
ton  t 21  t 32 , toff  t10  t 43 , Deq  (9)
ton  toff the length of Mode b (t21) is three quarters of the resonant
During ton period, the average voltage of vCr in Mode b period in the critical condition. t21 can be expressed in (15).
and c is nearly equal to -LmVg/(nps(Lm+Lr)) based on (4). The length of Mode c (t32) in the critical condition is also
During toff period, vCr is equal to the output voltage. Based calculated as in (16). The total length of the two periods (ton)
on volt-second balance principle, the equivalent duty ratio is calculated as in (17).
Deq can be approximated as in (10). When Deq is set, the 3 LmLr (15)
t 21  Cr '
turn’s ratio will be determined. As too small or too large 2 Lm  Lr
duty ratio will leads to large peak current of primary LmLr
winding current ip or diode current iD, Deq is set between t 32  Cr ' (16)
Lm  Lr
0.4~0.6. Usually, Deq is set around 0.5.
npsVo 3  2 LmLr
Deq  (10) ton  t 31  t 21  t 32  Cr '  DeqTs (17)
VgLm / ( Lm  Lr )  npsVo 2 Lm  Lr
When the equivalent duty ratio Deq is set, as Lr is much In Mode b, the input current ip can be re-expressed as
smaller than Lm, Deq is nearly equal to npsVo/(Vg+npsVo) and in (18). At t2, as in Fig. 4, ip is equal to zero, thus equation
the turn’s ratio can be obtained accordingly. After Lr and Lm (19) is obtained. im1 is the abbreviation of magnetizing
is obtained, the accurate turn’s ratio can be reobtained based current of im at t1. Referring to (18), the input average
on (10). current Iav_in can be derived in (20). Considering energy
After the turn’s ratio is set, the average magnetizing conservation, Iav_in can also be calculated in (13).
current will be calculated as Im in (11). Io is the output Considering (19) and (20), A and k can be obtained as in
current. As Deq is nearly constant, when the output power (21). Based on (18), Lr, Lm and Cr can be calculated from the
increases, Im increases. The maximum value of Im is Im_max given values of A and k. As Iav_in, Ts, t21 and t31 already
which can be calculated from (12). Iav_in is the input acquired from the above design, only im1 not determined.
average current which can be acquired from (13). Vg is the Thus, Lr, Lm and Cr will vary with im1.
input voltage. ηeff is the efficiency of the converter at full ip (t  t 1)  A sin( w1(t  t 1))  k (t  t 1)  im1 ,
load. npsVo  Vge , Vg
Ts A k (18)
1 w1Lr Lm  Lr
Io   iD(t )dt  npsIm(1  Deq) (11)
Ts 0 ip (t 2)   A  kt 21  im1  0 (19)
t4 t3
Iav_in = Im_maxDeq (12) 1 1
Pomax  VoIo   effPin   effVgIav _ in (13)
Iav _ in  
Ts t 0
ip (t )dt   ip (t )dt
Ts t 1 (20)
Referring to (7), the maximum voltage at the drain 1 k 1 k
node of the switch Vds_max can be approximated in (14) while  (im1t 21  t 212  t 32)  ( At 31  t 212 )
Ts 2 Ts 2
the attenuation of the resonance is not considered. It is
determined by the input voltage Vg, the output voltage Vo
and the transformer turn’s ratio n ps . V ds_max must be

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Transactions on Power Electronics

Iav _ inTs  im1t 31 ratio.


k  150
t 21t 31  t 212 / 2 (21)
Lm(uH)


 A  kt 21  im1
100

50
After Lr, Lm and Cr are acquired, the turn’s ratio of the 21.4uH

transformer nps can be obtained. Based on the analysis in 0

8 Lr(uH)
Section II, the voltage of the resonant capacitor vCr can be
expressed as in (22). Based on volt-second balance principle, 6
5.2uH
the integration of vCr in one switching period is zero as in 4
(23), and the accurate value of the turn’s ratio nps can be
obtained as in (24). 2

vcr '(t  t 0)  npsVo, t 0  t  t1 Cr(nF)

vcr '(t  t1)  (npsVo  Vge) cos( w1(t  t1))  Vge, t 1  t  t 2 200


 (22) 100 30nF
 npsVo  Vge
vcr '(t  t 2)  Vge  t 32
(t  t 2), t 2  t  t 3 0 nps=4.5

 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 nps

vcr '(t  t 3)  npsVo, t 3  t  t 4

 Fig. 6 The relationship between different parameters.
t4 npsVo 3  3 Ts
to vcr '(t )dt   2w1  2w1 Vge  npsVo 2  0 (23)
3  3 Ts Vo (24)
nps  Vge / (Vo  )
2w1 2 2w1
When im1 is determined, Lm, Lr, Cr, and nps will be
calculated based on (18), (21) and (24). There are many
choices of the converter parameters when im1 varies. The
power loss calculation of different turn’s ratio nps is shown
in Fig. 5. The total power loss is at its minimal value when
nps is equal to 4.72 (when im1 is equal to 0.76A). For
simplicity, nps is taken as 4.5 (when im1 is equal to 0.54A).
The primary winding turn’s number Np and the secondary
winding turn’s number Ns of the planar transformer are 9
and 2. When nps is equal to 4.5, as in Fig. 6, Lm, Lr, and Cr
can be determined. Lm is 21.4uH, Lr is 5.2uH, and Cr is
30pF.
Fig. 7 Transformer construction. Core: ER13/3.6/13, Core material 3f46.
2) Transformer Design
Based on the above analysis, the maximum LmImmax (25)
Bmax =
magnetizing current immax of the transformer is 2.51A. The NpAe
maximum flux density Bmax can be applied to determine the
turn’s number of the transformer as in (25). Np is the IV. The control of the proposed converter
primary turn’s number; Ae is effective area of the planar After the parameters are set, the closed loop control of
transformer core. The primary winding turns is 9 and the the proposed converter should be considered. Based on
secondary winding turns is 2. The ER23/3.6/13 core from equation (10), when the input and output are set, the stable
Ferroxcube Corporation is chosen due to its large equivalent duty ratio Deq_s and the stable switching period
cross-sectional area and window width and core of 3f46 ts_s are acquired.
material is used as its low core loss at high switching A. PFM control modes
frequency. The detailed description of the transformer is As analyzed above, the equivalent switch-on time ton is
shown in Fig .7. Three PCB boards of four layers are determined by the initial magnetizing current at t1 (im1), only
stacked to form the transformer windings. The primary the switch period ts can be modulated in closed loop control.
winding turns number of the top layer, the middle layer and When the load changes from light to heavy, the average
the bottom layer are 3.5, 3.5 and 2, and these primary vgs
windings of three layers are series connected. The secondary ts
winding turns number of the three layers are all equal to 2. ip
tvalley
These secondary winding of three layers are parallel Δtvalley
connected.
Ploss(W)
3.40 vds
the first valley (n+1)-th valley
(n)-th valley
3.35
(a)
3.30 vgs
3.25
ip
3.20
ts ts
3.15 tvalley Δtvalley
Δtvalley
vds
3.10 P0
the first valley (n)-th valley (n)-th valley (n+1)-th valley

3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 5.2 5.4 5.6 nps (b)
Fig. 5 The relationship between the power loss and the transformer turn’s Fig. 8 Two PFM control methods of the proposed converter: (a) Normal
PFM mode; (b) PFM mode with fluctuation of switching period.

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Transactions on Power Electronics

im Im=Im_pfm Im_max.
The equivalent switching frequency will be reduced in
ip on-off mode. The switching loss, the conduction loss, the
(a) core loss and the diode conduction loss are all reduced
Vomax leading to the reduction of total power loss. The total
Vo
Vomin efficiency is improved compared to the two previous PFM
on-mode off-mode control modes.
The closed loop control methods of the proposed
duty converter can be realized by modulating the switching
Im=Im_max
period. Normal PFM mode can be used in this condition.
However, VS turn-on of switch cannot be guaranteed and
im
tstable
Im=0 the switching loss is unbearable. Thus, a PFM mode with
trise fluctuation of switching period is used to realize VS turn-on
(b) of switch. The switching loss will be reduced greatly. To
Im=Im_max improve the efficiency further, an on-off mode is applied to
im
ip
reduce the equivalent frequency which automatically
(c) reduces the power losses.
Fig. 9 On-off mode using PFM mode with fluctuation of switching period:
(a) Waveform of PFM mode with fluctuation; (b) Waveform of on-off mode; V. Experimental Results
(c) Waveform of on-mode. A 1MHz 12V/3A prototype with 80V dc input voltage
is established to verify the above analysis. The equivalent
magnetizing current Im needs to be improved to maintain
duty ratio Deq is set as 0.5 at full load. The converter
constant output voltage. Im is improved by reducing the
parameters are summarized in Table I. The test board is
switching period ts. When the load changes from heavy to
shown in Fig. 10. The length of the prototype is 93mm, the
light, the switching period ts is improved to reduce Im and
width is 38mm, and the height is 10mm. Since the prototype
reduce the power transferred to the output. Thus, in closed
is just established for experimental verification, the
loop control, the switching period is used to modulate the
optimization of the converter volume is not considered at
average magnetizing current Im and modify the output
present. As the switching frequency is improved to 1MHz,
power.
the volume of the proposed converter can be further reduced
In Fig. 8(a), the switching period ts is used to realize
in the future.
constant output control with pulse frequency modulation
A. Open loop waveforms
(PFM) mode. While the control is stable, the switching
The waveforms of open loop test are verified in this
period ts is stable. As the resonance period tvalley in Mode
part. Fig. 11 shows the waveforms of an open loop test. ip is
d determined by Lr and Coss is unchanged, VS turn-on of
the primary current. vds is the drain-source voltage of the
switch cannot be guaranteed in PFM mode. In Fig. 8(a), the
GaN switch, and vgs is the driver signal of the switch. vCr is
switch is turned on between the (n)-th valley and the
the voltage of the resonant capacitor. The switch is turned on
(n+1)-th valley of the switch drain voltage (vds). And the
at the valley of vds and turned off at zero current. ZCS
switching loss cannot be ignored. Thus, a fluctuation of the
turn-off and VS turn-on of switch and are realized. The
switching period is introduced in PFM mode shown in Fig.
switching loss is greatly reduced and dv/dt and di/dt values
8(b). The switch is turned on at the closest valley of vds near
are both reduced. Additionally, the output diode is turned off
the end of the given switching period ts. Assuming that the
at zero current; ZCS turn-off of diode is achieved. Nearly
time length between the (n)-th valley of vds and the
fully soft-switching is accomplished in the proposed
switch-on interval is Δtvalley. If Δtvalley is lower than half
converter.
of tvalley, the switch will be turned on at the (n)-th valley of
vds. Otherwise, the switch will be turned on at the (n+1)-th TABLE I Parameters of the proposed prototype
valley of vds. VS turn-on of switch is realized and the Quantity Values Remarks
switching loss is greatly reduced. tvalley is calculated by Input voltage Vg= 80V --
comparing the primary winding current ip to zero current. Output voltage Vo=12V --
We defined this improved PFM mode as PFM mode with Output current Io=3A --
Transformer turns Np:Ns=9:2 --
time fluctuation.
Transformer Core ER23/3.6/13 3f46 material
B. On-off control mode Primary inductance Lm=22uH --
Assuming that the average magnetizing current Im is Resonant inductor Lr=5.2uH --
equal to Im_pfm in PFM mode with fluctuation of switching Resonant capacitor Cr=30nF --
period, Im_pfm is smaller than or equal to its maximum value GaN-HEMT GS66504 --
Im_max. To reduce the power loss further, on-off mode is
applied as shown in Fig. 9(b). During on-mode, the average
magnetizing current Im is equal to Im_max. The output voltage
Vo will increase during on-mode as the input power is larger
than the output power. When Vo reaches its upper limit Vomax,
off-mode is used and the switch keeps off. No energy is
transferred to the output and the output voltage Vo decreases.
When Vo is lower than the lower limit Vomin, on-mode will
be activated. In on-mode, Im is first improved from zero to
Im_max during trise period. In tstable period, Im is maintained at Fig. 10 Test board of the proposed topology.

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Transactions on Power Electronics

vgs 5V/grid vgs 10V/grid

iD 5A/grid
ip 2A/grid

vds 100V/grid
vds 100V/grid
vcr 20V/grid

(a) (b)
Fig. 11 Open loop waveforms of the proposed topology: (a) ZCS turn-off and VS turn-on of switch; (b) ZCS turn-off of diode.

ipeak =2.90A ipeak =2.08A

ip 2A/grid ip 2A/grid

vds(on)=182V vds(on)=100V

vds 100V/grid vds 100V/grid

(a) (b)

ipeak_max =3.12A ipeak_max =2.8A

ipeak_min =2.32A ipeak_min =2.00A
ip 2A/grid ip 2A/grid

vds(on)=84V vds(on)=80V

vds 100V/grid vds 100V/grid

(c) (d)
on-mode Vo 5V/grid on-mode
Vo 5V/grid
ipeak_max =3.1A ipeak_max =3.4A
ipeak_min =2.3A ipeak_min =2.4A
ip 2A/grid ip 2A/grid
vds(on)=65V vds(on)=82V

vds 100V/grid
vds 100V/grid

(e) (f)
Fig. 12 Waveforms of different control modes: (a) Normal PFM mode when the load is 4Ω; (b) Normal PFM mode when the load is 10Ω; (c) PFM mode with
fluctuation when the load is 4Ω; (d) PFM mode with fluctuation when the load is 10Ω; (e) On-off mode using PFM mode with fluctuation when the load is 4Ω; (f)
On-off mode using PFM mode with fluctuation when the load is 10Ω.
5Ω 40Ω
40Ω 5Ω △Vo=500mV Vo_max
Vo_max
Vo_min
△Vo=500mV Vo_min Vo 2V/grid
Vo 2V/grid

ip 1A/grid ip 1A/grid

vds 100V/grid Time: 100us/grid vds 100V/grid Time: 200us/grid

(a) (b)
Fig. 13 Load transient response waveforms: (a) Load change from 40Ω to 5Ω; (b) Load change from 5Ω to 40Ω.

B. Closed loop waveforms turn-on of switch cannot be guaranteed. When the load is 4Ω,
The waveforms of closed loop control methods the primary peak current ipeak is 2.90A and the switch is
including the two PFM mode and on-off mode are compared turned on at the peak voltage of vds. The average turn-on
in this part. voltage of vds is 182V. Thus, the switching loss is large in
Fig. 12 shows the switch drain voltage vds and the this condition. The efficiency is 74.1%. When the load
primary winding current of two different loads when normal becomes light, the magnetizing current decreases. As in Fig.
PFM mode is used to modulate the switching period. VS 12(b), the primary peak current drops to 2.08A and the

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turn-on voltage vds(on) drops to 100V when the load is 10Ω.
When PFM mode with fluctuation of switching period
is used, VS turn-on of switch can be guaranteed. Fig. 12(c)
shows the switch drain voltage vds and the primary winding
current ip when the load is 4Ω. The primary peak current
ipeak varies from 2.32A to 3.12A and the average turn-on
voltage vds(on) is 88V. VS turn-on of switch is realized and
the efficiency is 87.9%. When the load becomes light, the
magnetizing current decreases. As in Fig. 12(d), when the
load is 10Ω, primary peak current ipeak varies from 2.32A to
3.12A and the average turn-on voltage vds(on) is 88V. And
the efficiency is dropped to 77.6%.
When on-off mode using PFM mode with fluctuation is
used, VS turn-on of switch is realized. The efficiency
reaches 90.3% when the load is 4Ω. As seen in Fig. 14(e),
ipeak varies from 2.3A to 3.1A when the load is 4Ω. As seen
in Fig. 14(f), ipeak varies from 2.4A to 3.4A when the load is
10Ω. During on-mode, as the magnetizing current varies
around Im_max, the primary peak current variation range is
nearly the same.
The dynamic performance of on-off mode can be
shown in Fig. 13. As the output voltage is sampled by ADC
device. Almost no overshoot voltage or undershoot voltage
is observed.
Fig. 14 Efficiency comparison between the three control methods.
Fig.15 The total efficiency of on-off mode.
7
6 5.98
5 4.69
Power Loss(W)
4 which is eliminated in the proposed converter. In the
3
2.71
2.54
2 the improvement of the switching loss Psw is not large, the
1.421.41
1 0.68 0.79
0.59 0.56
0
Psw Ptrans
Fig. 16 The loss evaluation of normal PFM mode and PFM mode with
fluctuation.
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12V/1.2A without VS turn-on
12V/1.2A with VS turn-on
12V/3A without VS turn-on
12V/3A with VS turn-on
1.51 1.56
0.270.260.390.38
0.060.060.140.14
Pd Plr
C. Efficiency comparison
The efficiencies of the two PFM modes and the on-off
mode are shown in Fig. 13. They are compared in following
part. The efficiency of PFM mode with fluctuation is larger
than the efficiency of normal PFM mode as VS turn-on of
switch is satisfied. In normal PFM mode, the switch is
mostly turned on when the drain voltage vds is at its high
values. Thus, this switching loss is much higher than that of
PFM mode with fluctuation.
In the two PFM modes, when the load becomes light,
the conduction loss is reduced. The transformer core loss is
nearly unchanged as variation of the magnetizing current in
one switching cycle is almost unchanged. The diode
conduction loss also keeps constant as the forward voltage is
nearly constant. Thus, when load becomes light, the
transformer core loss and the diode loss occupy the majority
of total power loss and the efficiencies of the two PFM
modes decrease. The efficiency fluctuation of normal PFM
mode when load becomes light is mainly introduced by the
fluctuation of the switch turn-on voltage (vds(on)).
The efficiency of on-off mode is larger than the
efficiency of PFM mode with fluctuation as the equivalent
switching frequency is reduced. The peak efficiency is 90.3%
in on-off mode at full load. In on-mode period, the power
efficiency in trise period is lower than the power efficiency in
tstable period. When the load becomes light, trise period of
on-mode is constant and tstable period of on-mode becomes
short. Thus, the average power efficiency of on-mode will
decrease when the load becomes light.
The total efficiency of on-off mode from 0% to 100%
load is shown in Fig. 15. The peak efficiency is 90.3% and
the minimum efficiency is 79.2%.
The loss evaluations of normal PFM mode and PFM
mode with fluctuation can be seen as in Fig. 16. Before VS
turn-on of switch is realized in normal PFM mode, the
switching loss Psw occupies nearly half of the total loss. This
is why the switching frequency is not improved to 1MHz in
traditional quasi-resonant flyback converter. The transformer
loss Ptrans are the main loss apart from the switching loss.
The output diode loss Pd is also important which is nearly
proportional to the output current. The loss of the resonant
inductor Lr is Plr and the other loss is Pother. Plr and Pother are
much smaller than other power losses. After VS turn-on of
switch is realized in PFM mode with fluctuation, the
switching loss is reduced greatly and the total loss is
reduced a lot. Thus, the switching frequency can be
improved. The transformer loss Ptrans is the main part of the
power losses. The switching loss Psw and the output diode
loss Pd are also important losses. The switching loss Psw is
nearly unchanged under different load. The output diode
loss Pd is also important which is nearly proportional to the
output current. Plr is much smaller than other power losses
and the other loss Pother can be neglected.
As in Fig. 17, the power loss of the proposed converter
is compared to that of traditional flyback converter. In
traditional flyback converter [18], the power loss from the
leakage inductance Pleak is the main part of the total loss
proposed flyback converter, the switching frequency
increases, Ptrans and Psw increases, Pd is nearly constant. As
switching frequency can be improved up to 1MHz. However,
compared to traditional flyback converter, the proportions of
Pother Ptrans and Psw are increased at high switching frequency.
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TABLE II Comparison with other single switch soft-switched converter

[1] [12] [14] [6] This work
Topology Forward Forward Flyback Flyback Flyback
type converter converter converter converter converter
Circuit Complex Simple Simple Complex Simple
complexity
Soft-switch ZCS turn-on, ZVS ZCS turn-on, ZCS turn-on, VS turn-on, ZVS VS turn-on, ZCS
ing technique turn-off ZCS turn-off ZCS turn-off turn-off turn-off
Maximum 100kHz 300kHz 500kHz 340kHz 1MHz
switching
frequency
Maximum 250W 100W 250W 65W 36W
output Power
Maximum 97.0% 90.0% 92.5% 90.5% 90.3%
efficiency

(a) (b)
Fig. 17 Power loss comparison with traditional flyback converter: (a) Traditional flyback converter at 60W; (b) Proposed converter at 36W.

Thus, the peak efficiency of the proposed converter is lower

Max 94.2 Avg 42.7 Min28.8
than the peak efficiency of other low switching frequency
Transsformer
GaN converters. In the future, when synchronous rectification is
used, Pd will be reduced a lot and the peak efficiency can be
improved to near 93%.
Thermal images of the three closed loop control
methods are shown in Fig. 18. Form the total temperature of
the three conditions, the power loss of on-off mode is the
lowest and the power loss of normal PFM mode is the
Cr highest. The temperatures of the output diode D1, GaN
D1
Lr MOSFET and the transformer are high. From the
temperature comparisons, the switching loss is reduced from
(a)
normal PFM mode to PFM mode with time fluctuation as
Max 79.6 Avg 36.4 Min27.9 GaN device temperature is reduced from about 92°to 80°.
GaN Transsformer Compared to PFM mode with time fluctuation, the
transformer core loss and the switch loss of on-off mode are
reduced obviously. This verified the efficiency improvement
of on-off mode compared to that of PFM mode with time
fluctuation.
D. Comparison with other works
This work is compared with other single switch
D1
Cr soft-switched converters as in Table II. At turn-on of switch,
Lr ZCS turn-on can reduce the switching loss; but the power
loss from the equivalent drain capacitor cannot be reduced.
(b) This drain capacitor loss will increase linearly with the
switching frequency; and it will limit the increase of the
GaN Max 77.8 Avg 34.4 Min27.7 switching frequency. Thus, VS turn-on or ZVS turn-on of
Transsformer
switch is preferred as the drain capacitor loss will be
reduced or removed and dv/dt value is attenuated; and the
switching frequency can be improved further. At turn-off of
the switch, ZVS turn-off can reduce the switching loss but
introduce large di/dt value. ZCS turn-off can reduce the
switching loss and reduce di/dt value. Thus, ZCS turn-off of
Cr
D1 switch is preferred.
Lr Compared to other works, the switching loss of the
proposed work is smaller as VS turn-on of switch is realized;
dv/dt and di/dt values of the proposed work are both small as
(c) VS turn-on and ZCS turn-off of switch are accomplished.
Fig. 18 Thermal images and associated prototypes at 36W: (a) Normal PFM
mode; (b) PFM mode with time fluctuation; (c) On-off mode. Besides, the circuit of the converter is very simple as it has
very few components. While other similar works has more

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Transactions on Power Electronics

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