Unifying the Transformer Current in Multiple Phase Modulation Without Current Spike During Load Transients

Abstract

To accelerate the dynamic response in a dual active bridge converter, feed-forward control can be applied in parallel to the conventional PI controller for closed-loop control. The transformer current thus changes significantly due to the phase shift change. A current spike can appear during load transients, particularly when using multiple phase shift modulation. Effort has been made in the previous literature to implement active compensation between two different steady-state operations to eliminate the transformer current spike; however, this results in a complicated control structure. This letter thus proposes a novel modulation method unifying the transformer current for dual phase shift and triple phase shift modulation to mitigate the transformer current spike when switching among various phase shift controls during load transients. By applying the proposed pulsewidth modulation strategy, the instantaneous value of the transformer current stays the same at the beginning of the switching period even with different steady-state modulation techniques. Also, full-operation-range zero-voltage switching can be realized for the primary side or the secondary side switches by combining with the proposed modulation strategy. An experimental prototype demonstration validates the proposed modulation strategy.