Lossless snubber cell for a soft-switched bidirectional buck-boost converter

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a lossless snubber cell for a soft-switched bidirectional buck-boost converter (BBC). The proposed snubber cell provides all switches with soft-switching conditions in both the bidirectional power flows of the BBC. In addition, the cell also achieves a relatively low circulating current for the snubber operation over a wide load range. In particular, the reverse recovery problem of the synchronous rectifier can be eliminated with the aid of the snubber inductor. Accordingly, the snubber cell enables high-frequency switching of approximately 60 kHz for all power switches and achieves high efficiency and high power density. Moreover, the proposed snubber cell does not have any auxiliary switch; therefore, complex auxiliary circuits or driving algorithms for the auxiliary switch are not required. Therefore, the proposed snubber cell has a simple structure with high reliability. To confirm the validity of the proposed lossless snubber cell, we provide detailed analyses, design guidelines, and experimental results using a 3-kW laboratory prototype.