Outphasing Control of Gallium Nitride based Very High Frequency Resonant Converters

Abstract

In this paper an outphasing modulation control method suitable for line regulation of very high frequency resonant converters is described. The pros and cons of several control methods suitable for very high frequency resonant converters are described and compared to outphasing modulation. Then the modulation technique is described and the design equations given. Finally a design example is given for a converter consisting of two class E inverters with a lossless combiner and a common half bridge rectifier. It is shown how outphasing modulation can be used for line regulation while insuring equal and purely resistive loading of the inverters. Combined with a proper design of the inverters that, insures they can achieve zero voltage switching across a wide load range, and gallium nitride FETs for the switching devices, this makes it possible to achieve more than 90% efficiency across most of the input voltage range with good line regulation.