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Analysis and development of a low power high frequency induction heating

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Conference Paper · July 2009

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 AI 19
P207

Analysis and development of a low power-

high frequency induction heating system
Melissa Estopier Castillo, Pedro Bañuelos Sánchez
Electronics, Mechatronics and Computers department. Universidad de las Américas Puebla.
Ex-Hacienda de Santa Catarina Mártir. Cholula, Puebla, México. C.P. 72820
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract— This paper presents the design and implementation With power converters, electrical signals can be completely
of a low power induction heating system. The given conditioned; this leads to a proficient manage of induction
information may be helpful for understanding the induction heating design parameters. Nowadays the topic is to find
heating process and the effect of the parameters involved in new power supplies, which offer higher efficiency rates and
the operation of such systems. Analysis of the behavior of
a more accurate control over the heating process.
electrical signals and efficiency results are also included. In
order to ease the system comprehension, it was divided in two The goal of this project was to heat by induction a
main stages: the power source and the resonant load. For the 20cm diameter-circular-metallic-plate at temperatures over
construction of the power source stage, a high frequency full 150 °C. After a deep research of the induction heating
bridge power inverter was employed. The design of the method, a 6turn-copper-coil was built for inducting the
required circuits and the load compensation are presented at electrical current to the heated piece and a full H bridge
this document. inverter operating at 150kHz was designed for the power
supply of the system.
I. INTRODUCTION Designing and implementing a power converter for an
induction heating application is not a trivial task, even more
Induction is a clean heating method that offers the
when it is required to operate at frequencies over 100 kHz.
possibility to achieve a wide range of temperatures with a
High frequencies operation leads to the reduction of the
high efficiency and controlled heating patterns [1]. The
circuit components size and lower energy losses at the
principal characteristic of induction is that the heated piece
switching elements. But among the reduction of the
does not need to be in contact with the system. Therefore, it
component magnitudes another problem appears. The
is suitable for applications where the heated piece is
resonant load becomes more sensitivity to any small
isolated and cannot be heated by any other method.
alteration of the circuit or environment.
However, for having a complete control over the process,
Through the development of this project the behavior
some requirements must be guaranteed.
of an induction system could be observed and analyzed.
Induction heating is not a recent technology; it has
Afterward, some of the most important activities in the
been developed since early 19th century. In the past, some
circuit are reported and explained.
generators and motors where used as power supplies for
induction systems; as it can be inferred, the electric signal
II. INDUCTION HEATING PRINCIPLES
could not be precisely controlled and the operating
frequencies as well as the efficiency where very low. As
In this section, some essential knowledge for understanding
induction phenomenon is closely related with the
the induction heating process will be established. It is very
characteristics of the electrical current supplied to the load,
important to explain induction from its bases in order to
the control over the process was restricted [1]. Due to the
understand the design requirements for the power
development of semiconductors technology, many power
converter.
converter topologies have been implemented for induction
heating applications [2].
2.1 Induction heating phenomenon
When an alternating electrical current flows through an
electrical conductor it generates a surrounding magnetic
flux. Any piece, also constructed by an electrical conductor,
that is placed inside the generated magnetic flux will be
RVP-AI/2009 – AI-19 PONENCIA RECOMENDADA heated because electrical currents are induced inside it.
POR EL COMITÉ DE APLICACIONES INDUSTRIALES DEL The induced currents are called Foucault currents and
CAPÍTULO DE POTENCIA DEL IEEE SECCIÓN MÉXICO present an opposite direction than that of the current that
Y PRESENTADA EN LA REUNIÓN DE VERANO, RVP-AI’2009, generates them. Heating is produced by means of Joule
ACAPULCO GRO., DEL 5 AL 11 DE JULIO DEL 2009. effect, which is the same principle of operation than that of
a common light bulb.
When the heated material is also ferromagnetic some heat (1)
is generated by hysteresis, but its contribution is almost
negligible [1] [3]. Fig.1 represents the system designed and The energy lost by radiation in the heated piece can be
also illustrates the induction phenomenon. calculated in terms of the Eq. (2), where is the total
surface area of the piece, is the emisivity of the material,
is the Stefan Boltzmann constant, is the surroundings
temperature and finally is the temperature of the heated
piece [1]:
(2)

Power losses in the inductor resistance are given at Eq. (3),

where is the maximum value of the current flowing
through the coil while is the internal implicit resistance
of the inductor [1]. The larger the inductor resistance is, the
hugger the power lost becomes. That is why the inductor is
commonly constructed of copper which has low resistivity.
Fig. 1. Induction heating process. (3)

2.2 Components of the system So, the total energy that the power source must be able to
For simplifying the study and design of the induction supply for the load is the sum of these three powers. In
heating system we will divide it in two different parts: the other words[1]:
power source and the load. Fig. 2 shows the elements of an (4)
induction system.
The operating frequency of the system is related to the skin
effect that explains that the heating temperature is higher at
the surface of the material and decreases as the depth
increases. Skin depth is the distance at which the induced
current decreases a 63% of its value in the surface. Eq. (5)
shows the formula for calculating skin depth in metric units
system [1]:

(5)
Fig. 2. Elements of an induction heating system.
Where , is the electrical resistivity of the heated material,
The power source is the responsible of supplying the
is its permeability and is the frequency of the
appropriate alternating current to the load, for reaching the
alternating current. It was found that at low frequencies (5-
heating purposes. While a good design of the inductor
50 kHz), skin depth is bigger but the heating time is longer,
shape and the heated piece material characteristics are
and at high operating frequencies (larger than 50 kHz) skin
related to the obtained efficiency.
depth is shorter and heating time decrease [1], [2].
All these control parameters make induction method
2.3 Design parameters
suitable for heating applications where the process needs to
For designing a power source of an induction heating be precisely controlled, that is the case of metal treatments.
system it is necessary to identify the characteristics of the
required electrical signal. Obtaining a full mathematical III. POWER SOURCE REQUIREMENTS
analysis for the induced magnetic flux and currents is a
complex assignment. Thus, standard formulas have been From the analysis of power converters commonly
developed and are widely spread for calculating the employed for induction heating applications, the full H
electrical requirements of the signal. bridge series resonant load inverter was selected [4], [5],
The power required for reaching certain temperature [6]. A full wave rectifier is employed to supply the inverter.
values is described by Eq. (1), where is the mass heated Some of the values used as a first guide for the design
per unit time, is the specific heat of the heated material, where selected from the paper references, they were also
and ∆T is the total temperature gradient [1]: helpful for analyzing the proper topology for the
application of this project [8], [9], [10], [11], [12].
3.1 Inverter design inductor value, C is the resonant capacitor value, R is the
equivalent resistance of the heated load, is the switching
The first step is to establish the desired heating conditions;
table 1 presents the heating requirements. The heating frequency, is the resonant frequency, and Q is the
process will be static. Quality factor of the output signal.
Design values calculated for the application are shown
Table 1. Heating requirements. at table 2. As it can be seen, quality factor Q is very low; in
order to improve these results, frequency was set as high as
Material of the possible. The inductor value is the one for the constructed
Carbon steel
heated piece copper coil with six turns and the equivalent resistance is
Weight of the obtained from the total power consumption of the system
200gr
heated piece and the current supplied to the load.
Dimensions of the 20cm diameter,
heated piece 0.9 mm thickness Table 2. Design values for the inverter components.
Heating From Eq. (4): Power= 540 W
Up than 150°C
temperature
Heating From Eq. (10): Q= 0.0588
100 seconds
time From Eq. (8): Vcc= 169.7 V
From Eq. (4), total power needed is: For improving Q: f= 150 kHz
From Eq. (11): R= 43.25 Ω
From constructed
Implemented full H bridge inverter is shown at Fig. L= 2.7 μH
inductor:
3.
From Eq. (10): C= 417 nF

3.2 Rectifier design

Since the input domestic power line is an alternating
monophase signal, it would be necessary to design a
rectifying stage. Fig.4 shows the selected single phase full
wave rectifier, employed to obtain a continuous voltage
Fig. 3. Series resonant load, full H bridge inverter.
value for supplying the inverter.

Design formulas for the inverter design are shown in Eq.

(7)-(12) [4]:

(6)

(7) Fig. 4. Single phase full wave rectifier.

(8) The rectifier was designed for the maximum input voltage
of 169.7V, with a load of 45 Ω designed for the inverter, a
(9) filtering capacitor with a value of 6.28 mF and a voltage
ripple of 5V, obtained from Eq. (12) [4].
(10)

(11) (12)

3.3 Implementation considerations

Where is the input voltage, is the H bridge output
voltage, is the fundamental voltage value, is the It is important to remember that for guaranteeing the
maximum output voltage value, is the output voltage, resonance of the load, the components must be specially
is the output current, is the output power, L is the constructed for high frequency applications. It is necessary
to employ high frequency mosfets with very low turn on-
turn off times to avoid long dead times. Where is the inductor resistance, is the inductor
For this topology, the soul of the circuit is the full H bridge, material resistivity, is the inductor length, is the
the appropriate switching elements are mosfets. The transversal area of the inductor material, is the
switching circuit for this H bridge can become very equivalent resistance of the heated piece, is the output
complex because the specifications of the mosfets are power supplied to the load , is the current flowing in
special, high blocking voltages, high current conduction, the coil and is the coupling efficiency in the load.
high speed switching. Taking into account all the described considerations,
the inductor was constructed with a copper rod, as a
IV. LOAD COMPONENTS DESIGN pancake 6turn-coil shape, with a 15cm diameter and a
coupling distance of 3mm was selected. The total
The power converter that provides a square alternating inductance of the coil is 2.7μH.
current signal, with controlled amplitude and frequency has Searching for a new inductor with reduced size, a
been already designed. For the induction, it is necessary planar pancake copper inductor with almost the same sizes
that the load filters the square voltage signal and transform was constructed. It presented a resulting inductivity of
it into a resonant one. The circuit developed for this project, 3.2μH; the difference in the inductance value from the first
contains a series resonant load. inductor conception is caused by the variation in the turn
separation and in the width of the printed circuit board
4.1 Resonance (PCB) track. Fig. 5 illustrates the designed inductors. Later
A resonant circuit contains passive elements that distort the on, it will be explained why planar inductor was selected
electrical signal, generating periodic variations of voltage for the final prototype.
and current values [4]. A load, considered as resonant,
contains a resistor, an inductor and a capacitor. The
resonant load is also involved with the operating frequency
and the current amplitude of the system, and must be
designed to obtain the desired quality factor of the output
signal.

4.2 Inductor
There exist many inductor shapes used for induction Fig. 5. Designed inductors.
heating; the correct design for a certain application is the
one that has the most similar shape to the required heating From Eqs. (13) to (15) , , and
pattern. Shapes that produce a cancelation of magnetic the load coupling efficiency is for the built
fluxes must be avoided, this happens when the direction of inductors.
the current is opposite between subsequent turns.
The number of turns is related to the intensity of the 4.3 Capacitor
magnetic flux. Each turn increases its concentration thus,
the total energy applied to the heated piece. Coupling The value of the needed resonant capacitor is obtained from
distance between the coil and the heated piece is inversely the design equations of the resonant inverter. Although, the
proportional to the coupling efficiency [1], [2], [7]. final capacitance must be searched in order to compensate
It is important to build the coil with a low resistivity the resonant load and to allow obtaining the required
material, in order to eliminate energy losses at the inductor heating rates.
resistance. Eq. (15) sets the statement that allows us make It is important to remember that due to the high
out the efficiency of energy transfer between the coil and operating frequencies, the capacitors construction needs to
the heated piece, while Eq. (13) and (14) help calculating be special. Commonly employed electrolytic and ceramic
the inductor resistance and equivalent resistance values [1]. capacitors are not able to follow the rapid current polarity
changes, and as a consequence, resonance does not appear.
(13) Thus, polypropylene capacitors were selected for the
resonant load.

(14) 4.4 Heated piece

For the heated piece, many kinds of materials where tested;
(15) only two of them presented high heating temperatures. So
the measurements and tests were done with these pieces.
Such materials are: carbon steel and porcelanited steel.
Once the circuit components design is complete, the inductive current in the coil. That is the reason why many
implementation of the circuit is the next step. It is important tests for different RLC loads must be done until achieving
to take into account that the calculated values are only an the heating objectives.
estimation of the real behavior of the magnetic fluxes and In table 3, the experimental results for the selected
currents of the circuit. Many adjustments must be done load supplied by a fluctuating input voltage are presented.
until the load compensation is achieved for the required As it can be observed, the heating objectives were reached
heating temperatures. for an input voltage of 50 Vrms.
Table 3. Experimental results for the selected resonant load.
V. SYSTEM SIMULATION

From the simulation of the final circuit design for the

resonant inverter circuit presented at Fig.3, the electrical
signals obtained for the circuit output are presented. The
selected design values were: input voltage Vcc =70.7 V,
operation frequency f= 150 kHz, resonant capacitor
C=0.08μF, resonant inductor L=3.2μH and resistor load
R=5.66Ω. Fig. 6 shows the current flowing in the resonant
load and the voltage signal at the full H bridge output.
In Fig. 7 the waveforms for the H bridge output voltage and
the current through the series resonant load are illustrated.
Voltage magnitudes are scaled 1:10, it means that for each
voltage unit the truth value is ten times greater, while
current waveforms are scaled 1:1.

Fig. 6. Load voltage and current signals.

As it can be observed, the H bridge is supplying the

required squared voltage signal, while the RLC resonant
load distorts the waveform and produces a periodic
resonant signal.

VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Fig. 7. H-bridge voltage (1) and resonant load current (2) waveforms.
Once the circuit of the Fig. 3 was implemented, testing of
the resonant load values was done for obtaining the desired It can be clearly observed that these are periodic signals, it
heating temperatures with the lower current consumption as means that the load elements are resonating. Since the load
possible. At higher inductor current values, the heating elements are connected in series, the current waveform is
temperature increases, because the magnetic flux becomes the same for all the elements. The current and voltage
stronger with the raise of the current magnitude. signals are not in phase, power losses at the switching
Ten different values of resonant capacitor were tested elements. The obtained waveforms are far from being
for each inductor. The higher heating temperatures were sinusoidal, it means that some harmonic distortion is
reached with the planar inductor of 3.2μH, with the value of injected to the power line and must be corrected.
0.08μF for the resonant capacitor, operating at 150 kHz. From the obtained output and input voltage and current
The selected heated piece material was porcelain steel values, for the highest heating temperature, power
because it presented the highest heating temperatures with consumption can be calculated. Input power of the system
the same inductor current values. is , output power calculated from Eq. (11)
Resonant circuits operating at high frequencies become is , the total efficiency of the system
very sensitive to changes of the wires length, harmonic resulted in 86% , the equivalent real resistance of the heated
pollution or variations in the electrical line. In the load is 5.66Ω from Eq. (14) and the obtained power factor
implemented circuit, even the connection of some of the resonant circuit is also 86%.
measurement instruments affected the dimensions of the
 Efficiency rates obtained are lower than those of the System for Low Power Induction Heating, PDF, IEEE
commercial induction heating systems, it can be inferred Transactions on Power Electronics, Vol. 15, No. 2, Marzo
that this is caused by the switching power losses. In the 2000.
mosfets, a lot of heat is being dissipated for this design. [9] Youngmin Chae,Joonggi Kwon, Sangyoung Han,
HwanhoSung; A Study on a Hybrid Induction Heating
VII. CONCLUSIONS System for Laser Printer, PDF, IEEE Transactions on
Power Electronics, 2006.
A lot of improvements need to be done to the system: the [10] Mu-Ping Chen, Jan-Ku Chen, Murata, K., Nakahara,
design of a PFC, the construction of a temperature control M., Harada, K.; “Surge analysis of induction heating
device and the elimination of the switching power loss. The power supply with PLL”, IEEE Transactions on Power
deep study of the resonant converter activities sets the Electronics, Septiembre 2001.
guide line for the development of more efficient and stable [11] Zhengshi Wang, Zhenli Lou, Huiming Chen; “A Novel
induction heating systems. The weak points of the design Dual-LLC Resonant Soft Switching Converter for Super
provide the opportunity to continue with the development High Frequency Induction Heating Power Supplies”; IEEE
of the project. PESC 2007, Junio 2007.
Nevertheless, problems related to the instability of the [12] Byoung-Kuk Lee, Jin-Woo Jung, Bum-Seok Suh,
system were detected. During the experimental Dong-Seok Hyun; “A new half-bridge inverter topology
measurements, the shape of the signals was constant but the with active auxiliary resonant circuit using insulated gate
current magnitudes in the inductor presented variations for bipolar transistors for induction heating applications”,
the same input values. This is a serious problem because PESC 1997, Junio 1997.
the behavior of the system is not being controlled.
For guaranteeing the stability of the system, all the
elements of the circuit must be kept constant. To protect the
circuit from line variations, a power factor corrector PFC
would be helpful. When connected to the input of the
power supply, the PFC aids eliminating the electrical line Melissa Estopier Castillo was born in Poza
harmonic distortion. Rica Veracruz, México, on 02 May, 1986.
The main challenge is to obtain a detailed She recibed a technical degree in Mechanics
mathematical analysis for the resonant electrical signals, in at CBTis. 78 in 2004. On May, 2009, she
order to accomplish a complete control over the system obtained an Engineering degree in
performance. A complete mathematical analysis of the Mechatronics, from UDLAP Universidad de las Américas,
electrical signals and magnetic fluxes generated in the Puebla, ,for her investigation about induction heating
circuit will enhance the comprehension of the system technology.
resonance that will guide to the reduction of the switching
losses.

REFERENCES Dr. Pedro Bañuelos Sánchez, obtained a Master in Science

degree from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla in
[1] S. Zinn and S. L. Semiatin; “Elements of Induction 1995, and obtained a PhD degree from Université Paris 6
Heating: Design, Control and Applications”; Electric and Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité, Paris, France in 2001.
Power Research Institute, 1988. He is currently professor of Power Electronics in the
[2]“AN9012 Induction System Topology Review”; Fairchild Electronics Department of at Universidad de las Américas
Semiconductor; November 1999. Puebla. In 2004 and 2005, he received the 2003 and 2004
[3] Douglas C. Giancoli; “Physics Volume II”; Chapter 29 Education Award at the same university. From 2002 to
Pearson Education, 2002. 2005, he was an active member in the National Research
[4] Daniel W. Hart; “Power Electronics”; Pearson System, SNI, Mexico. He has been invited and associated
Education, 2001. professor at international universities such as Universidad
[5] Muhammad H. Rashid; “Power Electronics”; Pearson Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain, Université Paris XI, France,
Education, 1995. Université d’Amiens, France, and CENIDET, Mexico. He
[6] Mohan N., Undeland T.M., Robbins W.P.; “Power is the author of numerous papers in the areas of DC-DC
Electronics”. power converters, power factor correction, passive and
[7] Stanley Zinn and S.L. Semiatin; “Coil design and active filters, and electronic ballast.
fabrication: basic design and modifications”; Heat
Treating, June1988.
[8] Francois Forest, Eric Labouré, Francois Costa &
Yves.Gaspard, Principle of a Multi-load/Single Converter

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