Abstract
A novel zero voltage soft-switching (ZVS) high-frequency resonant (HF-R) inverter using a reverse-conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (RC-IGBT) for induction heating (IH) applications is presented in this paper. By utilizing the newly developed fixed-frequency phase angle difference (θ) control of two resonant currents, the IH load power can be continuously regulated in the proposed HF-R inverter over a wide range of output power setting under the conditions of ZVS while maintaining high efficiency. Its operating principle is described with theoretical analysis and simulation results, after which the wide-range power regulation and full-range ZVS operations are clarified by theory and analysis. Furthermore, the essential characteristics on the output power regulations, ZVS operations, and actual conversion efficiency are demonstrated in an experiment with a 1kW-60kHz laboratory prototype of the proposed HF-R inverter. Finally, its feasibility is evaluated from a practical point of view.
