Design of Snubber Circuit to Minimize Switching and Conduction Losses in Boost Converter

This paper presents a zero voltage switching (ZVS) passive snubber circuit for the MOSFET used in conventional boost converter which consists of an inductor, a capacitor, a resistance and a diode. It helps in improving the high current and voltage stress. With the help of this circuit, power conversion efficiency is improved by controlling the voltage and current in the switch, thus providing zero-voltage turn-off condition for the MOSFET. By utilizing the inductor the turn on rate is controlled, and with capacitor and diode the turn-off rate is controlled. In the paper the design considerations have been presented in detail. The conventional boost converter with the proposed snubber is able to deliver a load voltage of 300V with reduction in switching and conduction losses when it is tested at 200V input with 180 kHz frequency of switching for 300W output power.