An Improved Soft-Switching Buck Converter With Coupled Inductor

This letter presents a novel topology for a buck dc-dc converter with soft-switching capability, which operates under a zero-current-switching condition at turn on and a zero-voltage-switching condition at turn off. In order to realize soft switching, based on a basic buck converter, the proposed converter added a small inductor, a diode, and an inductor coupled with the main inductor. Because of soft switching, the proposed converter can obtain a high efficiency under heavy load conditions. Moreover, a high efficiency is also achieved under light load conditions, which is significantly different from other soft-switching buck converters. The detailed theoretical analyses of steady-state operation modes are presented, and the detailed design methods and some simulation results are also given. Finally, a 600 W prototype is built to validate the theoretical principles. The switching waveforms and the efficiencies are also measured to validate the proposed topology.