Review on Different Control Strategies of

LLC Series Resonant Converters

P.Kowstubha 1, K.Krishnaveni 2, K.Ramesh Reddy 3

1, 2
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India
3
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,G.Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science,Hyderabad,India

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Abstract— In this paper, different control strategies for both converters achieve soft-switching, and the use of one over
variable-frequency and constant-frequency operations of LLC the other depends on the requirements of the application [3].
resonant converters are reviewed. LLC resonant converter The increase in switching frequency reduces the passive
provides no-load regulation unlike to a conventional series component size.
resonant converter. The main advantages of this converter are LLC resonant converters are finding more
its higher power density and efficiency within the wide input applications due to its high efficiency. This converter
and output load range. Considering high power factor for the provides both zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) for primary side
LLC resonant tank, the output voltage ripple can be reduced.
switches and zero-current-switching (ZCS) for secondary
Generally all kinds of resonant converters are operated at high
frequencies ranging from kHz to MHZ which results in the side rectifiers [4].
reduction in converter efficiency due to increased turn-off and
gate charge losses. The review indicates that Pulse- Density-
Modulation (PDM) control strategy is advantageous over the
other strategies. In PDM control, the switching frequency is
made equal to resonant frequency and also skipping gate pulses
are made proportional to the load variations. Thus the
controller provides a good selectivity of frequency over wider
line and load variations.

Index Terms— DC-DC power converter, resonant tank, LLC Fig.1.Schematic of half bridge LLC resonant converter
resonant converter, soft-switching, Pulse- Density-Modulation
In general, the LLC resonant converter consists of
1. INTRODUCTION
three stages: a square wave generator, a resonant network
In all conventional Pulse-Width-Modulated (PWM) and a diode rectifier network as shown in Fig.1 [4],[5] with
converters, the controllable switches are generally operated half bridge configuration. In the above Fig.1 Lm is the
in switch mode. However, in this mode the switching magnetizing inductance, Lr is the series resonant inductor
devices are required to turn on and off at the entire load and Cr is the resonant capacitor.
current with a high di/dt value. Therefore, the switches
experiences high switching stress along with the increased The square wave generator produces a square wave
switching losses. These losses increase linearly with the voltage at phase node (ph) by driving switches S1 and S2
increase of switching frequency of PWM. Due to high di/dt alternatively with 50% duty cycle. Now the resonant
and dv/dt caused by this operation, the electromagnetic network filters the higher harmonic currents, such that only
interference produced is large. So to overcome these sinusoidal current is allowed through the resonant network.
disadvantages of PWM converters, Resonant Converters The current so produced Ip lags the voltage applied to the
operating at high frequencies have come into existence. In resonant tank, which allows the MOSFETs to be turned on
resonant converters PWM switch is replaced with resonant with zero voltage. Therefore turn-on loss is minimized. Now
switch, where the current through and the voltage across are the diode rectifier network produces DC voltage which is
forced to pass through zero crossing by creating an LC- suitable for low voltage applications.
resonant circuit [1],[2] . The typical waveforms of LLC resonant converter
There are many resonant tank configurations which such as Ip, Ids2, ID, Vd and gate pulses Vgs1, Vgs2 are shown
falls under either voltage-type or current-type categories. below in Fig.2, where switching frequency is equal to
These categories are mainly determined by the resonant resonant frequency
signal that transfers power. Both the types of resonant
 Fig.2.Typical waveforms of LLC resonant converter Fig.4. Variable frequency control
Here, the compensated output error voltage is fed to
The DC voltage gains of the LLC resonant a voltage controlled oscillator to generate the gate drive
converter versus the normalized switching frequency for signals. Adjusting the switching frequency has the effect of
different values quality factors are shown in Fig.3. changing the impedance of the resonant tank network to vary
or control the gain of the converter which is illustrated in
Fig.4.
A major disadvantage of this control is a wide range
of operating frequencies is required to regulate the output
voltage. This leads to a complexity in the design of magnetic
components.

A.2.Self-Sustained Oscillation Control (SSOC):

In self-sustained oscillation control, the regulation
of the LLC resonant converter is achieved with a smaller
frequency range and at the same time, ZVS is achieved for
all operating points. The schematic of this control is shown
in Fig.5.

Fig.3. DC characteristics of LLC converter

From Fig.3 it is clear that, when the LLC converter

load is decreasing, the quality factor will also decrease, such
that the switching frequency has to be further increased to
achieve the same DC gain.

II.DIFFERENT CONTROL STRATEGIES

This section deals about different control strategies of

LLC resonant converter both for variable frequency and
constant frequency operations. The operational principles,
advantages and disadvantages are discussed in detail. Fig.5 Self-sustained oscillation control

A. Variable Frequency Operation: SSOC works by allowing the converter to operate

in its stable limit cycle at a given operating point. In this
In Variable Frequency operation, the switching control, the compensated output error voltage is used to
frequency is varied either by keeping on-time or off-time control the delay between the zero crossing of the resonant
constant. The control strategies based on this operation is as current and the switching voltage of the chopper. Usually
follows. this delay is minimal at full-load/low-line, implying
operation closer to the resonant frequency and vice-versa.
A.1 Voltage-controlled Oscillation Control:
The disadvantage of this control is the requirement
In voltage-controlled oscillation control, the of a current sensor which increases size and cost. To achieve
frequency of the square wave produced by the chopper ZVS for a wider load range, the operating frequency must be
circuit is varied against line and load variation [1][2]. The far away from the resonant frequency. This increases
schematic of this control is shown in Fig.4 circulating current, which in turn increases conduction losses.
B. Constant Frequency Operation:

In constant frequency operation, the switching The disadvantages of this control are high voltage
frequency is kept constant either by varying on-time or off- stress on the resonant elements and high conduction loss
time. This operation allows synchronization between the incurred during the off intervals. So to prevent wide
power converters with the system clock unlike to variable fluctuations in power, the PDM duty cycle is distributed
frequency operation. The control strategies based on this evenly about the PDM period.
operation is as follows.
B.3 Secondary-Side Control:
B.1 Asymmetrical PWM control:
In the above all mentioned control strategies, the
In Asymmetrical PWM control of LLC resonant primary-side switches implement the control action in the
converter, constant frequency is achieved by controlling the presence of line and load variations. The novelty of this
on-time of the switches. The schematic of this control is control strategy is that the secondary-side switches
shown in Fig.6. In this control, the compensated voltage implement the control action in presence of line and load
error is compared to a sawtooth waveform to generate a variations. So to achieve this, Synchronous Rectifiers (SR) is
pulse train with duty cycle D. The duty cycle variation of the used instead of diode rectifiers which use controllable
main switch varies the shape of the AC waveform incident MOSFET switches [6].
on the tank thus regulating the output voltage. This control
optimizes the magnetic components. In the all above cited isolated converters, crossing
the isolation barrier requires an additional hardware circuitry.
This circuitry is in the form of opto-couplers which
introduces a delay. This delay hinders transient performance
and places a practical limit on the achievable switching
frequency, there by negating the benefits of resonant
converters. So to eliminate the need to cross the isolation
barrier, secondary side control has been implemented. Here
the output voltage is regulated by controlling the on-time of
the synchronous rectifiers. The schematic of this control is
shown in Fig.7.

Fig.6. Asymmetrical pulse-width-modulation

The disadvantage of this control is any reduction of

duty cycle increases harmonic content in the drive voltage
and resonant current.

B.2 Pulse Density Modulation Control (PDM):

In pulse density modulation control, constant

frequency is achieved by controlling the on-time of the
converter thus regulating the output voltage. This control is Fig.7 Secondary-side control
also referred as burst mode control. The schematic of this
control is same as that of Asymmetrical PWM control except
that PWM block is replaced with digital PWM block. In this Synchronous rectifiers were controlled with phase-
control, switching frequency is made equal to resonant shift with respect to the resonant current. Increase in phase
frequency and also skipping gate pulses are made angle reduces the converter gain by allowing negative
proportional to the load variations. This control provides a current to flow through the switches. Thus, providing a path
good selectivity of frequency over wider line and load other than the load for the filter capacitor to discharge.
variations. Many of these controls implement a digital
controller with a PWM cycle 16 times the switching period. The disadvantage of this control is increased filter
In this control output power is controlled but not the voltage. requirements to maintain low ripple.
 III.CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
[5] Weiyi Feng, Daocheng Huang, Paolo Mattavelli, and
The authors wish to thank Chaitanya Bharathi Fred C. Lee, “Digital implementation of driving scheme
Institute of Technology and G.Narayanamma Institute of for synchronous rectification in LLC resonant
Technology and Science authorities for permitting to publish. converters,” in Proc. IEEE ECCE,2010,pp. 256-263.
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