Application of spread-spectrum techniques to class-E DC/DC converters: some preliminary results

Spread spectrum clocking (SSC) has recently emerged as a very effective solution to mitigate electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues. In last years it has been widely used in switching dc/dc converters, in particular in class-D ones, i.e., that based on pulse-width modulation. Conversely, it finds no application in resonant ones. Within this paper we investigate the effects of applying SSC techniques to a recently introduced resonant class-E converter. Intensive SPICE simulations using both basic and advanced SSC techniques show not only that SSC is effective in mitigating EMI issues in this class of converters, but also that the most important circuit figures of merit such as conversion efficiency are not affected.