Assessment of the Bootstrap Technique in Single-Phase Current-Fed Full-Bridge Resonant Inverters with Reactive Energy

This paper is aimed to report the consequences in the use of the well-known bootstrap technique in single-phase current-fed full-bridge resonant inverters (SPCFFBRIs) operating with and without reactive energy. Based on both simulations (using the PSPICE (R) software) and experiments it is shown that this technique is not feasible for this type of inverters when the load is predominantly reactive. The bootstrap technique conveniently operates when the load is purely resistive or resonant. The unfeasibility in the use of the bootstrap technique with reactive or nonresonant loads comes from the fact that the load voltage is applied to the bootstrap capacitor and, consequently, to the gate of the floating MOSFET, producing an imminent damage both in the control circuit and in the floating MOSFET. Therefore, other alternatives for feeding the floated MOSFETs must be considered.