Two-Stage Soft-Switching High-Frequency Inverter with Simple PFC Function for Consumer IH Cooking Appliances

In recent years, consumer induction-heating (IH) cooking appliances have grown increasingly popular because of their easy cleaning, high efficiency, safety, and controllability. IH food cooking system for consumer home use are indispensable to heat various metallic pans, such as aluminum, copper, stainless steel, and iron cast for further diffusing. Furthermore, these appliances have to satisfy the utility AC grid harmonics regulations of IEC61000-3-2. To meet these requirements, this paper proposes a two-stage soft-switching high-frequency inverter with simple PFC function that is suitable for consumer IH cooking appliances. The proposed system comprises a soft-switching chopper based boost PFC converter with passive snubber and phase-shifted PWM controlled ZVZCS high-frequency inverter. In order to satisfy the utility AC grid current harmonic regulations, a simple PFC control technique with discontinuous current mode is introduced. This technique as well as the fundamental operating performances of the proposed IH system is tested. The effectiveness of proposed IH system is substantially proved from a practical point of view on the basis of the experimental results.