Medium Voltage Resonant Converter with Balanced Input Capacitor Voltages and Output Diode Currents

Abstract

This paper presents a 1.92 kW resonant converter for medium voltage applications that uses low voltage stress MOSFETs (500V) to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) turn-on. In the proposed converter, four MOSFETs are connected in series to limit the voltage stress of the power switches at half of the input voltage. In addition, three resonant circuits are adopted to share the load current and to reduce the current stress of the passive components. Furthermore, the transformer primary and secondary windings are connected in series to balance the output diode currents for medium power applications. Split capacitors are adopted in each resonant circuit to reduce the current stress of the resonant capacitors. Two balance capacitors are also used to automatically balance the input capacitor voltage in every switching cycle. Based on the circuit characteristics of the resonant converter, the MOSFETs are turned on under ZVS. If the switching frequency is less than the series resonant frequency, the rectifier diodes can be turned off under zero current switching (ZCS). Experimental results from a prototype with a 750-800 V input and a 48V/40A output are provided to verify the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed converter.