Single-Switch High-Frequency DC-DC Converter Using Parasitic Components

This paper presents a single-switch isolated dc-dc converter suited for a very high-frequency switching operation, especially above 10 MHz. The converter features a small number of passive components, low-switching loss, and low-voltage stress on the switch. In order to achieve low-voltage stress while maintaining zero voltage switching, the voltage waveform across the switch is shaped by designing the resonant network of the converter. The resonant network includes main parasitic components, such as leakage inductances of the transformer and the junction capacitance of the switch. Furthermore, some resonant elements are entirely replaced by these parasitic components under the specific condition. This paper derives the conditions and then minimizes the number of passive components. To validate the design procedure and the performance of the proposed converter, a GaN-based prototype was implemented. It operates at 10 MHz and provides the output power of 10 W from the dc input voltage of 50 V. The output voltage is regulated to 20 V by the ON-OFF control. Experimental results show that the peak voltage on the switch is reduced to 2.2-2.3 times the dc-input voltage and the efficiency of 69% is achieved under the full load.