A comparison of active and passive soft switching methods for PWM converters

Abstract

This paper performs a comparison of the efficiencies of active and passive soft switching methods for PWM converters. The losses in both methods were theoretically itemized and experimentally measured. The values of the resonant elements were experimentally optimized so that both methods were compared on their best conditions. A boost converter was built and tested under the static and dynamic PFC operation condition as well as DC-DC operation condition. Studies show that the passive method has better efficiency in the high power operation region, while the active method outperforms the passive method in the low power region.