Analysis, Design and Implementation of a Soft Switching DC/DC Converter

Abstract

This paper presents a soft switching DC/DC converter for high voltage application. The interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM) scheme is used to reduce the ripple current at the output capacitor and the size of output inductors. Two converter cells are connected in series at the high voltage side to reduce the voltage stresses of the active switches. Thus, the voltage stress of each switch is clamped at one half of the input voltage. On the other hand, the output sides of two converter cells are connected in parallel to achieve the load current sharing and reduce the current stress of output inductors. In each converter cell, a half-bridge converter with the asymmetrical PWM scheme is adopted to control power switches and to regulate the output voltage at a desired voltage level. Based on the resonant behavior by the output capacitance of power switches and the transformer leakage inductance, active switches can be turned on at zero voltage switching (ZVS) during the transition interval. Thus, the switching losses of power MOSFETs are reduced. The current doubler rectifier is used at the secondary side to partially cancel ripple current. Therefore, the root-mean-square (rms) current at output capacitor is reduced. The proposed converter can be applied for high input voltage applications such as a three-phase 380V utility system. Finally, experiments based on a laboratory prototype with 960W (24V/40A) rated power are provided to demonstrate the performance of proposed converter.