Improvement of Power-Conversion Efficiency of a DC–DC Boost Converter Using a Passive Snubber Circuit

Abstract

This paper proposes a method of improving the power-conversion efficiency of a direct-current-direct-current boost converter. The proposed method uses a passive snubber circuit, which consists of two inductors, a capacitor, and a diode, to reduce switching loss. The proposed boost converter was built and tested on 42-, 47-, and 55-in edge-lit light-emitting-diode (LED) backlight units (BLUs). The power-conversion efficiency for an input voltage of 24 V was measured as 96%, 95.1%, and 93.7% for the 42-, 47-, and 55-in edge-lit LED BLUs, respectively; these values were 2.3%, 2.2%, and 2% higher than those of the conventional boost converters in the corresponding BLUs. The proposed boost converter ensured reliable operation and high-power efficiency under a +/- 10% variation of input voltage and a +/- 20% variation of the passive snubber component values.