Abstract
The forward converter is divided into two circuit topologies depending on the method of resetting the energy stored in the magnetizing inductance of the transformer: a single-ended structure using a reset circuit and a double-ended structure called a two-switch forward converter and, accordingly, a difference occurs in the operational mode. Generally, forward converters are designed with low power of less than 500 W and are sold at low prices, so it is common to replace them in case of failure. However, in terms of environmental conservation through resource saving, it is desirable to design with as high reliability as possible. In this paper, reliability is analyzed for the two representative circuit topologies of forward converters. The conventional PCA (part count failure analysis) method determines the failure rate only by the number of circuit components constituting the converter and the correlation between the components, but the FTA (fault-tree analysis) method can additionally consider the operation risk of the converter according to the circuit configuration and operation. Therefore, it is possible to analyze the failure rate according to the operating characteristics of the two converters from the difference in the failure rate obtained by the two methods. In addition, the two converters were manufactured as a 300 W prototype, respectively, and the volume, weight, and power loss were compared, and the economic feasibility was analyzed based on the cost model.
Highlights
As the use of DC power sources increases, the use of DC-to-DC converters has increased
Various studies have been conducted for the purpose of increasing the power density [1,2,3,4,5,6], miniaturization and weight reduction [7,8,9,10,11,12], costsaving [13,14], and output voltage ripple improvement of converters [15,16,17], but few studies have been conducted from the viewpoint of reliability [13,18,19,20,21]
The forward converter has a single-ended structure using a reset circuit and a double-ended structure called a two-switch forward converter depending on the method of resetting the energy stored in the magnetizing inductance of the transformer [23]
Summary
As the use of DC power sources increases, the use of DC-to-DC converters has increased. Reliability analysis methods for DC-to-DC converters include part count failure analysis (PCA), binary distribution analysis, Markov analysis, fault-tree analysis (FTA), and so on [25,26,27,28,29,30]. Since the FTA method analyzes the failure rate based on the fault-tree including the cause of the failure and the result of the failure, the risk due to the operation of the converter can be considered in addition to the conventional reliability analysis results. We present the comparison results for the failure rate, cost, power loss, volume, and weight, which are useful when selecting the circuit topology of forward converter
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