Optimization Control Strategy for Light Load Efficiency of Four-Switch Buck-Boost Converter

Abstract

The four-switch buck-boost (FSBB) converter usually adopts a pseudo-continuous conduction mode (PCCM) soft switching (ZVS) control strategy, but there is a problem with the low efficiency of FSBB converters under light loads. Firstly, the constraints that the control variables of the FSBB converter need to satisfy are analyzed, and it is pointed out that the fixed frequency constraint is not necessary. Then, the switching frequency is used to control the degree of freedom, and the quantitative relationship between the FSBB converter loss and the switching frequency is obtained. Finally, for different input voltages and loads, the switching frequency corresponding to the minimum power loss is calculated offline. By optimizing the switching frequency, the light-load efficiency of the FSBB converter is improved. A prototype with an input voltage range of 210 V–330 V, an output voltage of 270 V, and an output power of 3 kW was developed. The loss was reduced by 15% at 20% load, and the peak efficiency of the converter reached 99.23%. The experimental results verified the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

Keywords

• four-switch buck-boost
• zero-voltage-switching
• efficiency optimization