A method of power regulation applied to the high frequency inverter for the

IH home appliances

Hiroyasu KIFUNE and Yoshihiro HATANAKA

Tokyo Univ. of Marine Science and Technology
Etchujima 2-1-6, Koto-ku
Tokyo, JAPAN
Tel.: +81 / (3) – 5245-7412.
Fax: +81 / (3) – 5245-7412
E-Mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www2.kaiyodai.ac.jp/~kifune/

Keywords
PDM, high frequency inverter, induction heating, home appliances, soft switching

Abstract
This paper describes a power regulation concept; CFPDM (Commercial Frequency Pulse Density
Modulation) of the high frequency inverter for induction heating home appliances. CFPDM is a new
type of PDM and it is easy to put CFPDM into practical use for any circuit topologies without any
additional switches and passive components. Conventional PDM (Pulse Density Modulation) enables
the high frequency inverter to control the output power over a broad range and to realize high power
conversion efficiency at the same time. However, the resonant frequency of non-smoothing filter is
close to the duty frequency of PDM, which may cause other harmonic current problems. In CFPDM,
the duty frequency is set to lower than the line frequency unlike PLL. Therefore CFPDM surpass the
advantages of PDM and also avoids generating harmonic current. This paper shows the sample of
CFPDM controller and the operation principle by using simulated results. A prototype soft switching
SEPP high frequency inverter controlled by CFPDM has been tested. Some experimental results of it
are shown finally.

Power converter system for IH home appliances

The passive rectifier using the diode bridge can serve smoothed DC voltage by employing large
capacitor. However it is well known the line current flowing into the diode bridge is distorted and the
power factor becomes low. Therefore large numbers of power factor correction converters has been
proposed and discussed. The home appliances take power from the single line and its rated power is
several kW. In almost all IH appliances, changing the amplitude of the load voltage does not matter
unlike other electric devices like DC-DC converter because the time constant of heat transfer in the IH
load is big enough. Consequently the passive diode rectifier is served for high frequency inverter of IH
home appliances by using small capacitor so that the output DC bus voltage is not smoothed (see Fig.
1) [1]. When the line frequency is 50Hz, the high frequency load voltage and current of the high
frequency inverter have ripple at 100Hz as well as DC bus voltage. This circuit system has advantages
that THD of the line current (iline) is restrained and high input power factor can be achieved.

Power control method of the high frequency inverter for IH

Several output power control methods have been proposed for the high frequency inverters depending
on various IH loads. PFM (Pulse Frequency Modulation) is widely used in the industrial IH
applications for instance hardening, annealing, welding, and melting [2][3]. On the other hand, as it is
well known, the high frequency inverter in the IH home appliances like multi-burner type IH cooking
heater is required to have a power control function under constant frequency in order to prevent
generating the beat sound. The power control methods under constant frequency which has been
proposed are Asy-PWM (Asymmetric Pulse Width Modulation)[4], PS-PWM (Phase Shift Pulse
Rectifier with Gate pulse
iline non-smoothing filter iinv Inverter

vline vDC vo IH-Load

iload
vline vDC vo

iline iinv
Non-smoothed iload
Line voltage inverter input High frequency
& current voltage & current voltage & current
Fig. 1: General high frequency inverter system for IH home appliances

Width Modulation) [5], and PDM [6]. Some of these have been put into practical use. PWM type
methods complete its operation for power control in one switching cycle of the high frequency inverter,
which then realizes high speed response of the power control. But it is difficult for the high frequency
inverter to operate under soft switching condition in whole power regulation range.

Advantages and disadvantages of PDM

PDM doesn’t complete its power control in one switching cycle of the high frequency inverter but
operates in 10 to 20 cycles called “duty cycle”. Fig. 2 shows the principle of PDM. The power
injection cycle is the term that gate pulses are given to the switches of an inverter. The inactive cycle
is the term that gate pulses to switches are cut off. And the load power is defined as an average of
electric energy which is supplied from the high frequency inverter during the duty cycle.

Duty cycle of PDM

power injection cycle inactive cycle

vG1

vG2

Fig. 2: Principle waveforms of PDM power control method

The duty of PDM (DPDM) is defined as follows.

DPDM = (power injection cycle) / (duty cycle)
When the DPDM is high, the average power is increased. PDM is not adequate as the regulation method
for DC-DC converters which are required to operate in high speed response because the duty
frequency of PDM is lower than the switching frequency of the high frequency inverter considerably.
However it is not necessary to regulate with fast response for loads using heat like IH appliances.
Therefore the high frequency inverters for IH appliances has to have a high speed shut off function
and does not need to have a high speed power regulation function. From these points, it is clear that
the PDM power control method is adequate enough for the high frequency inverters of IH appliances.
Generally, the power conversion efficiency of any high frequency inverter is high when its power is
large. But the efficiency tends to decrease when the power is low. It is thought that power loss on the
switching devices is increased by increasing reactive power in the high frequency inverter. On the
other hand, the PDM controlled high frequency inverter is able to maintain high power conversion
efficiency at any power condition because it operates at rated power condition during the power
injection cycle and no current flows while it is inactive.
On the down side, it has been reported that the PDM controlled high frequency inverter with non-
smoothing filter causes the harmonic current [7]. Fig. 3 shows the line current iline, the gate signals vG1
vG2, the load current iload, the voltages of switches vS1 vS1, and the currents flowing through switching
device iS1 iS2 calculated by a simulation. The simulated circuit is shown in Fig. 4. The simulation
condition is the switching frequency; fs=20kHz, DPDM=0.6, the frequency of duty cycle; fPDM=2kHz,
Lload =40mH, Rload=2W, Cr=3.0mF, Csn=0.05mF, Lf=1.15mH, Cf=4.5mF.

Fig. 3: Operation waveforms of the PDM controlled high frequency inverter with non-smoothing filter

iline D1 IH load
S1
Lf vS1
Cf iS1 iload
vline
iS2
D2 work coil
S2
(Lload, Rload)
vS2 Csn Cr

Fig. 4: SEPP high frequency inverter for IH appliances

Although the non-smoothing filter cut out the frequency derived from the switching operation of the
high frequency inverter, however the frequency originated from the duty cycle of PDM is not filtered
because it is close to the resonant frequency of the non-smoothing filter. To solve this problem, [7]
proposed to optimize the design of non-smoothing filter. But the method is complicated and its effect
is limited.
Many resonant inverters operate in the lagging phase for ZVZCS turn-on switching operation and
achieve ZVS turn-off switching operation by employing Csn. The PDM controlled high frequency
inverter maintains soft switching operation in almost power injection cycle. Nevertheless it can not
achieve soft switching operation at a first cycle in a power injection cycle because the rush current
flows through the switches at turn-on transition (refer iS1 in Fig. 3). Hence it is difficult to expect the
improvement of the power conversion efficiency by soft switching depending on the duty for power
control.

Proposed CFPDM method

This paper describes the CFPDM (Commercial Frequency Pulse Density Modulation) method
which solves the problems which PDM controlled inverters have. As mentioned before, the duty cycle
of the conventional PDM is 10 to 20 times of inverter’s switching cycle. On the contrary, the duty
cycle of CFPDM is integral multiples of a commercial line cycle (20ms @50Hz).
The duty of CFPDM is also defined as follows like PDM.
DCFPDM =(power injection cycle)/(duty cycle)
Fig. 5 illustrates a principle of this power control method by using a simulated data. The duty of
CFPDM is 6/10 and the high frequency inverter operates for 6 cycles of commercial line. In this
scheme, it is clear that the power regulation frequency of duty cycle of CFPDM is lower than the line
commercial frequency. Basically CFPDM doesn’t generate the harmonic current originated from the
frequency of duty cycle of CFPDM. Therefore the line current achieves low THD while the high
frequency inverter operates in the power injection cycle.

Duty cycle of CFPDM

power injection cycle inactive cycle

vline
iline

sig.1

sig.2

iload

sig.3

vG2
inactive cycle (inverter is off)
vG1

vS1
iS1

vS2
iS2

Fig. 5: Principle of CFPDM and operation waveforms

 Fig. 6 illustrates the schematic diagram of the power control circuit for implementing the CFPDM
method. The signal which is synchronized to the commercial line voltage is reformed to the PDM
signal (sig.2) through the counter which is given a modulation command. The high frequency pulse is
tuned in a little high than the resonant frequency of the resonant circuit including IH load, so that
switches can achieve ZVS condition by a lagging phase. The conjunction of the PDM signal and the
high frequency (switching frequency) pulse is delivered to the switches with a certain dead time. This
proposed power control method can be implemented to any circuit topologies for instance SEPP
(Single Ended Push Pull), HB (Half Bridge), and FB (Full Bridge).

synch. Pulse sig.3

HF oscillator
vline generator
Utility line sig.1
vG2
Dead time Gate at S2

Modulation vG1
Counter sig.2 Dead time Gate at S1
Command

Fig. 6: Schematic diagram of CFPDM method

Advantages of CFPDM
As mentioned before, the PDM controlled high frequency inverter can not avoid the rush current if
it has a loss-less snubber capacitor for ZVS turn-off operation, and it is inevitable to generate the
power dissipation at a first cycle every duty cycle of PDM. CFPDM controlled inverter can also not
avoid the rush current, and the rush current flows at first cycle every duty cycle of CFPDM as well as
PDM. However, the frequency of duty cycle of PDM is considerably low compared to conventional
PDM and the number of times which the rush current flows is decreased by CFPDM. As a result, the
power dissipation by the rush current is decreased in the CFPDM controlled high frequency inverter
compared to PDM one.
To compare the PDM and the CFPDM, the simulations were implemented. In the simulation, the
switching frequency is fs=21kHz, the duty of power regulation is DPDM= DCFPDM=6/10, Lload=40mH,
Rload=2W, Cr=3.0mF, Csn=0.05mF, Lf=1.15mH, Cf=4.5mF. Fig. 7 (a) shows the simulated line voltage
and the line current in the SEPP high frequency inverter (refer Fig. 4) which is operated under
CFPDM control. The line current waveform under PDM control, shown in Fig. 7 (b), is distorted. Fig.
8 shows the FFT results of simulated line current in duty=6/10. From Fig. 8 (b), it can be seen that the
line current includes the harmonic current originated from the frequency of conventional PDM duty
cycle (around 2kHz).
On the other hand, the line current under CFPDM control doesn’t include higher harmonic current
as shown in Fig. 8 (a).

(a) under CFPDM control (b) under PDM control

Fig. 7: Simulated line voltage and current in duty=6/10
(a) under CFPDM control (b) under PDM control
Fig. 8: FFT results of simulated line current in duty=6/10

Experiment results and evaluations

A prototype was built to evaluate the proposed CFPDM method. The circuit topology is SEPP type
high frequency inverter same as Fig. 4. In the prototype 2-in-1 module IGBT (2MBI100-060) is used
for the switches, bridge diode (GBPC2502) is used for the rectifier. The duty cycle is set in 10 cycles,
and the switching frequency is 22.5 kHz.
Fig. 9 (a) indicates the average power of the prototype circuit controlled by CFPDM method. The
average power is controlled in proportion as the duty of CFPDM. Fig. 9 (b) shows observed
waveforms of line voltage and current when the duty of CFPDM is 0.6. These waveforms correspond
to the simulation results shown in Fig. 7. It can be confirmed the non-smoothing filter which consist of
Lf and Cf works as it is expected and harmonic current derived from CFPDM duty cycle was not
observed.

2.5
Average power, kW

1.5

0.5

0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Duty of CFPDM

(a) measured average power under CFPDM method (b) observed line voltage and current
Fig. 9: Experimental results of prototype high frequency inverter controlled by CFPDM method

Conclusion
This paper described the conceptual power regulation method of the high frequency inverter for IH
home appliances. The non-smoothing filter is utilized to eliminate the high frequency noise derived
from the switching frequency, but it doesn’t work effectively to prevent the flowing of the current
from the PDM power regulation frequency. The basic idea of the proposed CFPDM method is that the
frequency of duty cycle for power regulation is set lower than a commercial line frequency. As a result,
the line current becomes free from the harmonic current. To implement the CFPDM method, no
additional switches and no passive components are needed. Therefore the circuit topology of the high
frequency inverter is simplified by adopting the CFPDM method and at the same time low THD is
realized.
Although general power electronics has pushed for high frequency control method in order to
achieve high speed and high quality performance, however proposed the CFPDM method has a lower
speed and lower frequency than the conventional PDM method. Therefore the CFPDM method is not
useful as the regulation method to a DC-DC converter which is required to operate in high speed
response. On the other hand, it is not necessary to regulate with fast response for loads using heat like
IH appliances, because the time constant of a heat transfer is big enough in IH loads and a function of
precise temperature control is not expected. Therefore the high frequency inverters does not need to
have high speed power regulation function, though they has to have a high speed shut off function.
From these points, the CFPDM method enables the high frequency inverter to control its output
power under constant switching frequency, to restrain a higher harmonic current, to achieve soft
switching condition for improving power conversion efficiency, and to simplify circuit topologies
without additional circuit components. Hence it is clear that CFPDM power control method is
adequate enough for the high frequency inverters of IH appliances.

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