A ZVS‐ZCS phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converter with secondary‐side control for battery charging applications

The output power requirement of battery charging circuits can vary in a wide range, hence making the use of conventional phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converters infeasible because of poor light load efficiency. In this paper, a new ZVS‐ZCS phase shift full bridge topology with secondary‐side active control has been presented for battery charging applications. The proposed circuit uses 2 extra switches in series with the secondary‐side rectifier diodes, operating with phase shift PWM. With the assistance of transformer's magnetizing inductance, the proposed converter maintains zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the primary‐side switches over the entire load range. The secondary‐side switches regulate the output voltage/current and perform zero current switching (ZCS) independent of the amount of load current. The proposed converter exhibits a significantly better light load efficiency as compared with the conventional phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converter. The performance of the proposed converter has been analyzed on a 1‐kW hardware prototype, and experimental results have been included.     

A high‐voltage gain nonisolated noncoupled inductor based multi‐input DC‐DC topology with reduced number of components for renewable energy systems

This paper proposes a modular nonisolated noncoupled inductor‐based high‐voltage gain multi‐input DC‐DC converter. Despite the high‐voltage gain of the proposed topology, the average of normalized voltage stress (NVS) on its switches/diodes is low. This property leads to less loss and cost of switches/diodes. Using the same number of components, the proposed topology produces higher voltage gains, in comparison with recently presented high step‐up topologies. Also, the proposed topology utilizes less number of components (capacitors, inductors, diodes, and switches) for producing a desired voltage gain, which can reduce the size, mass, cost, complexity, and losses and improve the efficiency of converter. Continuous current of input sources is another main advantage of the proposed topology. All the abovementioned characteristics have made the proposed topology very suitable for renewable energy systems (or even hybrid/electric vehicles). Design considerations of the proposed topology have also been presented. For better evaluation, the proposed topology has been compared with some of recently presented high step‐up structures, from viewpoints of producible voltage gain, number of components, and normalized voltage stress (NVS) on switches/diodes. Finally, the prototype of 2‐input version has been experimentally implemented. Obtained experimental results confirm appropriate performance of the proposed topology.     

Analysis and design of an active‐clamping zero‐voltage‐switching isolated inverse‐SEPIC converter

This paper presents an active‐clamping zero‐voltage‐switching (ZVS) isolated inverse‐SEPIC converter. The high voltage spikes when turning off the switches are eliminated. The energies stored in the parasitic elements can be recycled to achieve the ZVS of switches. Therefore, the conversion efficiency increases substantially, yet with a reduced circuit cost. Detailed analysis and design of the proposed topology are described. Experimental results are recorded for a prototype converter with a DC input voltage ranging from 130 to 180 V, an output voltage of 12 V and a rated output power of 120 W, operating at a switching frequency of 65 kHz. The average active‐mode efficiency is above 88%. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implementation of an interleaved pulse‐width modulation converter for renewable energy conversion

This paper presents an interleaved soft switching converter to achieve the features of zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn‐on for power switches, zero current switching turn‐off for rectifier diodes at full load, less transformer secondary winding with full‐wave diode rectifier topology, and balance primary currents with series connection of the transformer secondary windings. Two circuit modules are adopted in the proposed circuit, and they are operated with an interleaved pulse‐width modulation. Thus, ripple currents at the input and output sides are reduced. In each module, two ZVS converters using the same switches are operated with interleaved half switching cycle. The secondary windings of transformers are connected in series in order to ensure that the primary side currents are balanced. The full‐wave diode rectifier topology is used on the output side such that the voltage stress of rectifier diodes equals output voltage, rather than being two times the output voltage as in a conventional center‐tapped rectifier topology. Laboratory experiments with a 1000‐W prototype are provided to describe the effectiveness of the proposed converter. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A soft‐switching high step‐up DC‐DC converter with a single magnetic component

A soft‐switching high step‐up DC‐DC converter with a single magnetic component is presented in this paper. The proposed converter can provide high voltage gain with a relatively low turn ratio of a transformer. Voltage doubler structure is selected for the output stage. Due to this structure, the voltage gain can be increased, and the voltage stresses of output diodes are clamped as the output voltage. Moreover, the output diode currents are controlled by a leakage inductance of a transformer, and the reverse‐recovery loss of the output diodes is significantly reduced. Two power switches in the proposed converter can operate with soft‐switching due to the reflected secondary current. The voltages across the power switches are confined to the clamping capacitor voltage. Steady‐state analysis, simulation, and experimental results for the proposed converter are presented to validate the feasibility and the performance of the proposed converter. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis and implementation of a high step‐up converter for fuel cell power‐generation systems

This paper presents a high step‐up converter, which utilizes a three‐winding coupled inductor and a rectified voltage‐doubler circuit to obtain high step‐up gain for fuel cells. The proposed converter functions as an active‐clamp circuit, which relieves large voltage spikes across the power switches. Thus, power switches with low‐voltage‐rated can be utilized to reduce conduction losses and circuit cost. Energy stored in leakage inductances of the coupled inductor is recycled to the output terminal, resulting in efficiency improvements. In addition, the coupled inductor in the presented converter can also have extra windings in order to achieve higher voltage gain. Finally, a prototype circuit with an input voltage of 60 V and an output voltage of 380 V is developed for a 1000 W‐rated fuel cell power‐generation system to validate its performance, and experimental waveforms and measured efficiency under different input voltages and output power level are demonstrated. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A single‐stage LED streetlight driver with PFC and digital PWM dimming capability

This paper proposes a single‐stage light‐emitting diode (LED) driver that offers power‐factor correction and digital pulse–width modulation (PWM) dimming capability for streetlight applications. The presented LED streetlight driver integrates an alternating current–direct current (AC–DC) converter with coupled inductors and a half‐bridge‐type LLC DC–DC resonant converter into a single‐stage circuit topology. The sub‐circuit of the AC–DC converter with coupled inductors is designed to be operated in discontinuous‐conduction mode for achieving input‐current shaping. Zero‐voltage switching of two active power switches and zero‐current switching of two output‐rectifier diodes in the presented LED driver decrease the switching losses; thus, the circuit efficiency is increased. A prototype driver for powering a 144‐W‐rated LED streetlight module with input utility‐line voltages ranging from 100 to 120 V is implemented and tested. The proposed streetlight driver features cost‐effectiveness, high circuit efficiency, high power factor, low levels of input‐current harmonics, and a digital PWM dimming capability ranging from 20% to 100% output rated LED power, which is fulfilled by a micro‐controller. Satisfying experimental results, including dimming tests, verify the feasibility of the proposed LED streetlight driver. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A high step‐up half‐bridge DC/DC converter with a special coupled inductor for input current ripple cancelation and extended voltage doubler circuit for power conditioning of fuel cell systems

This paper presents a high step‐up soft switched dc–dc converter having the feature of current ripple cancelation in the input stage that is specialized for power conditioning of fuel cell systems. The converter comprises a special half‐bridge converter and a rectifier stage based upon the voltage‐doubler circuit, in which the coupled‐inductor technology is amalgamated with switched‐capacitor circuit. The input current with no ripple is the principal characteristics of this topology that is achieved by utilizing a small coupled inductor. In addition, the low clamped voltage stress across both power switches and output diodes is another advantage of the proposed converter, which allows employing the metal–oxide–semiconductor field‐effect transistors with minuscule on‐state resistance and diodes with lower forward voltage‐drop, and thereby, the semiconductors' conduction losses diminish considerably. The inherent nature of this topology handles the switching scheme based on the asymmetrical pulse width modulation in order for switches to establish the zero voltage switching, leading to lower switching losses. Besides, because of the absence of the reverse‐recovery phenomenon, all diodes turn off with zero current switching. At last, a 250‐W laboratory prototype with the input voltage 24 V and output voltage 380 V is implemented to verify the especial features of the proposed converter. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A highly efficient single‐phase sine‐wave inverter with single‐switch high‐frequency modulation

This paper presents a highly efficient single‐phase sine‐wave inverter with single‐switch high‐frequency modulation. In this topology, a control circuit is connected at the lower arm of a full‐bridge inverter to control the output voltage across the full‐bridge inverter. The switch at the lower arm of the full‐bridge inverter controls the output voltage of the full‐bridge inverter by increasing or reducing the voltage level at the lower arm of the inverter. This switch of lower arm is controlled by a high‐frequency sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) switching signal, while the power switches of the full‐bridge inverter operate with a square‐wave switching signal at the line frequency to unfold DC–AC inversion, thus producing a sinusoidal voltage at the load. Both computer simulation and experiment are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed topology. Experimental results from a 1000‐W laboratory prototype are presented to testify and validate the analysis, design, and performance of the proposed topology. The results show that the proposed topology has nearly sinusoidal output voltage and current waveforms with a total harmonics distortion of less than 5%. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An interleaved high step‐up DC‐DC converter with double boost paths

This paper proposed a novel high step‐up converter with double boost paths. The circuit uses two switches and one double‐path voltage multiplier cell to own the double boost and interleaved effects simultaneously. The voltage gain ratio of the proposed DC‐DC converter can be three times the ratio of the conventional boost converter such that the voltage stress of the switch can be lower. The high step‐up performance is in accordance with only one double‐path voltage multiplier cell. Therefore, the number of diodes and capacitors in the proposed converter can be reduced. Furthermore, the interleaved property of the proposed circuit can reduce the losses in the rectifier diode and capacitor. The prototype circuit with 24‐V input voltage, 250‐V output voltage, and 150‐W output power is experimentally realized to verify the validity and effectiveness of the proposed converter. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A half‐bridge resonant DC/DC converter with satisfactory soft‐switching characteristics

In this paper, a half‐bridge resonant DC/DC converter with constant output voltage is proposed, which possesses good soft‐switching characteristics. At rated operating point, the switches can operate almost without switching‐on and off losses. Further, at whole working range, both zero‐voltage‐switching mode of switches and zero‐current‐switching mode of diodes are maintained. Thus, the converter can achieve a high efficiency. Experimental results verify the low switching losses and high efficiency characteristics based on a 200 W prototype. System efficiency is as high as 96% and always above 90% when output power changes from 100% to 20%. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A single‐stage phase‐shifted full‐bridge AC/DC converter with variable frequency control

This letter presents a single‐stage soft‐switched full‐bridge AC/DC converter for low‐voltage/high‐current output applications. A phase‐shifted method with a variable frequency control is used to regulate the DC bus voltage and the output voltage of the single‐stage AC/DC converter. The proposed circuit topology and control scheme exhibit superior performances (i.e. high power factor, high‐efficiency, and ring‐free features). Correspondingly, a laboratory prototype, 500 W 5V/100A AC/DC converter, is implemented to verify the feasibility of the proposed design. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Analysis and design of a ZVS converter for high voltage input–low voltage output application

This paper proposes a full‐bridge (d = 50%) cascaded buck topology which is a very suitable circuit for high voltage input–low voltage output applications with high output current. Benefiting from working under a large duty cycle, the proposed converter can easily achieve zero voltage switching turn‐on and turn‐off of active switches in a full bridge. Small‐signal model of this topology is analyzed through its corresponding peak current mode control. Its small‐signal transfer function is given, and the control loop design is discussed. Advantages of this topology and operation principles are analyzed. Design guidelines, drawn from this analysis, are applied on a low‐voltage (3.3 V) output voltage prototype to validate the proposed concept. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

High‐efficiency current‐doubler rectifier with low output current ripple and high step‐down voltage ratio

This paper presents a current‐doubler rectifier with low output current ripple and high step‐down voltage ratio. In the proposed rectifier, two extra inductors are introduced to extend the duty ratio of the switches, which in turn reduces the peak current through the isolation transformer as well as the output current ripple; two extra diodes are used to provide discharge paths for the two extra inductors. To highlight the merits of the proposed rectifier, its performance indexes, such as voltage gain function, secondary winding peak current of the isolation transformer, and output current ripple, are analyzed and compared with the conventional current‐doubler rectifier. In this paper, a zero‐voltage‐switching phase‐shift full‐bridge converter with the proposed rectifier with an input voltage of 400 V, output voltage of 12 V, and full load power of 500 W has been implemented and verified, and experimental results have shown that 90% conversion efficiency could be achieved at full load. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Pulse current regenerative resonant snubber‐assisted two‐switch flyback‐type ZVS PWM DC‐DC converter

In this paper, a two‐switch high‐frequency flyback transformer‐type zero voltage soft‐switching PWM DC‐DC converter using IGBTs is proposed. Effective applications for this power converter can be found in auxiliary power supplies of rolling stock transportation and electric vehicles. This power converter is basically composed of two active power switches and a flyback high‐frequency transformer. In addition to these, two passive lossless snubbers with power regeneration loops for energy recovery, consisting of a three‐winding auxiliary high‐frequency transformer, auxiliary capacitors and diodes are introduced to achieve zero voltage soft switching from light to full load conditions. Furthermore, this power converter has some advantages such as low cost circuit configuration, simple control scheme, and high efficiency. Its operating principle is described and to determine circuit parameters, some practical design considerations are discussed. The effectiveness of the proposed power converter is evaluated and compared with the hard switching PWM DC‐DC converter from an experimental point of view, and the comparative electromagnetic conduction and radiation noise characteristics of both DC‐DC power converter circuits are also depicted. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 152(3): 74–81, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20081     

Analysis and implementation of a high‐efficiency zero‐voltage‐zero‐current‐switching DC–DC converter

A high‐efficiency zero‐voltage‐zero‐current‐switching DC–DC converter with ripple‐free input current is presented. In the presented converter, the ripple‐free boost cell provides ripple‐free input current and zero‐voltage switching of power switches. The resonant flyback cell provides zero‐voltage switching of power switches and zero‐current switching of the output diode. Also, it has a simple output stage. The proposed converter achieves high efficiency because of the reduction of the switching losses of the power switches and the output diode. Detailed analysis and design of the proposed converter are carried out. A prototype of the proposed converter is developed and its experimental results are presented for validation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new single‐phase high‐power‐factor converter with buck and buck–boost hybrid operation

In recent years, a wide variety of high‐power‐factor converter schemes have been proposed to solve the harmonic problem. The schemes are based on conventional boost, buck, or buck–boost topology, and their performance, such as output voltage control range in the boost and buck topology or efficiency in the buck–boost topology, is limited. To solve this, the authors propose a single‐phase high‐power‐factor converter with a new topology obtained from a combination of buck and buck–boost topology. The power stage performs the buck and buck–boost operations by a compact single‐stage converter circuit while the simple controller/modulator appropriately controls the alternation of the buck and buck–boost operation and maintains a high‐quality input current during both the buck and buck–boost operations. The proposed scheme results in a high‐performance rectifier with no limitation of output voltage control range and a high efficiency. In this paper, the principle and operation of the proposed converter scheme are described in detail and the theory is confirmed through experimental results obtained from 2‐kW prototype converter. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 131(3): 91–100, 2000     

High‐power‐factor single‐switch AC to DC converter for LED lighting

In this paper, we report a novel single‐switch AC to DC step‐down converter suitable for light emitting diodes. The proposed topology has a buck and a buck–boost converter. The circuit is designed to operate in the discontinuous conduction mode in order to improve the power factor. In this topology, a part of the input power is connected to the load directly. This feature of the proposed topology increases the efficiency of power conversion, improves the input power factor, produces less voltage stress on intermediate stages, and reduces the output voltage in the absence of a step‐down transformer. The theoretical analysis, design procedure, and performance of the proposed converter are verified by simulation and experiment. A 36 V, 60 W prototype has been built to demonstrate the merits of this circuit. © 2017 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Analysis,design and implementation of a high‐voltage gain DC‐DC converter

An interleaved DC‐DC converter with soft switching technique is presented. There are two converter modules in the adopted circuit to share the load power. Since the interleaved pulse‐width modulation (PWM) is adopted to control two circuit modules, the ripple currents at input and output sides are naturally reduced. Therefore the input and output capacitances can be reduced. In each circuit module, a conventional boost converter and a voltage doubler configuration with a coupled inductor are connected in series at the output side to achieve high step‐up voltage conversion ratio. Active snubber connected in parallel with boost inductor is adopted to limit voltage stress on active switch and to release the energy stored in the leakage and magnetizing inductances. Since asymmetrical PWM is used to control active switches, the leakage inductance and output capacitance of active switches are resonant in the transition interval. Thus, both active switches can be turned on at zero voltage switching. The resonant inductance and output capacitances at the secondary side of transformer are resonant to achieve zero current switching turn‐off for rectifier diodes. Therefore, the reverse recovery losses of fast recovery diodes are reduced. Finally, experiments based on a laboratory prototype rated at 400 W are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel prototype of auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg link snubber‐assisted soft‐switching sine‐wave PWM inverter

This paper proposes a new circuit topology of the three‐phase soft‐switching PWM inverter and PFC converter using IGBT power modules, which has the improved active auxiliary switch and edge resonant bridge leg‐commutation‐link soft‐switching snubber circuit with pulse current regenerative feedback loop as compared with the typical auxiliary resonant pole snubber discussed previously. This three‐phase soft‐switching PWM double converter is more suitable and acceptable for a large‐capacity uninterruptible power supply, PFC converter, utility‐interactive bidirectional converter, and so forth. In this paper, the soft‐switching operation and optimum circuit design of the novel type active auxiliary edge resonant bridge leg commutation link snubber treated here are described for high‐power applications. Both the main active power switches and the auxiliary active power switches achieve soft switching under the principles of ZVS or ZCS in this three‐phase inverter switching. This three‐phase soft‐switching commutation scheme can effectively minimize the switching surge‐related electromagnetic noise and the switching power losses of the power semiconductor devices; IGBTs and modules used here. This three‐phase inverter and rectifier coupled double converter system does not need any sensing circuit and its peripheral logic control circuits to detect the voltage or the current and does not require any unwanted chemical electrolytic capacitor to make the neutral point of the DC power supply voltage source. The performances of this power conditioner are proved on the basis of the experimental and simulation results. Because the power semiconductor switches (IGBT module packages) have a trade‐off relation in the switching fall time and tail current interval characteristics as well as the conductive saturation voltage characteristics, this three‐phase soft‐switching PWM double converter can improve actual efficiency in the output power ranges with a trench gate controlled MOS power semiconductor device which is much improved regarding low saturation voltage. The effectiveness of this is verified from a practical point of view. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 155(4): 64–76, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20207