Soft-switched Induction Cooking System with Reduced Switch Count and Independent Control for Multiple Loads

In this paper, a three-load resonant inverter (3LRI) with independent power control is proposed for induction cooking (IC) applications. Resonant inverter circuits are commonly employed in induction cookers due to their superior efficiency and capability for soft switching operation. Among the various topologies, the half-bridge series resonant inverter (HBSR) topology is used for its optimal balance between performance and cost. The major advantages of this inverter circuit with cyclic ON and OFFcontrol include simple, independent power control for every load, high efficiency for wide range of power variations, soft-switching and reduced number of switches per load. This configurationcan be easily extended for multiple loads by addition of another inverter legs. This configuration has been simulated using PSIM software. A 629 W experimental prototype is built to verify thetheoretical analysis. A peak efficiency of 96.1% is obtained. The experimental results confirm that this inverter configuration is a viable approach for multi-load induction cooking applications.