Resonant DC-DC Converter Research Articles

A Review on State-of-the-Art Power Converters: Bidirectional, Resonant, Multilevel Converters and Their Derivatives

With the rapid development of modern energy applications such as renewable energy, PV systems, electric vehicles, and smart grids, DC-DC converters have become the key component to meet strict industrial demands. More advanced converters are effective in minimizing switching losses and providing an efficient energy conversion; nonetheless, the main challenge is to provide a single converter that has all the required features to deliver efficient energy for different types of modern energy systems and energy storage system integrations. This paper reviews multilevel, bidirectional, and resonant converters with respect to their constructions, classifications, merits, demerits, combined topologies, applications, and challenges; practical recommendations were also made to deliver clear ideas of the recent challenges and limited capabilities of these three converters to guide society on improving and providing a new, efficient, and economic converter that meets the strict demands of modern energy system integrations. The needs of other industrial applications, as well as the number of used elements for size and weight reduction, were also considered to achieve a power circuit that can effectively address the identified limitations. In brief, integrated bidirectional resonant DC-DC converters and multilevel inverters are expected to be well suited and highly demanded in various applications in the near future. Due to their highlighted merits, more studies are necessary for achieving a perfect level of reducing losses and components.

Quasi-Boundary Method for Design Consideration of Resonant DC-DC Converters

The paper presents a new unified method for designing the two basic types of serial resonant DC-DC converters (series and with a parallel-loaded capacitor). The method is based on the use of a simplified generalized approach for the analysis of this type of power electronic devices. It is characterized by the fact that regardless of the specific operating mode, with a control frequency below or above the resonant of the series resonant circuit to determine the relationship between input and output voltage or current, it is assumed that the converter operates in resonance. In this sense, it is called a quasi-boundary method for analysis and design. The use of the quasi-boundary method significantly accelerates and facilitates the design of the considered power circuits, which is very useful for the purposes of engineering practice, as well as in the training of power electronics. The applicability of this approach is proven by the methods of mathematical modeling and computer simulations.

High Frequency MOSFET Charging Circuit Using Series Parallel DC-DC Resonant Converter for Wireless Power Application

This paper proposes a new circuit topology of high frequency switching DC-DC Series Parallel Loaded Resonant Converter (SPLRC). The circuit is proposed to be used for a wireless power transmission application that required fast-charging operation. Most of the components used here are low-cost and commercially available in the market. Then, the purpose circuit is transformed into a different equivalent circuit that can efficiently analyze AC and DC modes. For each model, the operation for the converter is first described and explained. A full detailed circuit simulation is then carried out to find out the workability of the purpose converter. From the simulation, optimization is carried out. Here the components value is obtained. MATLAB R2018A is used for simulation purposes rather than being tested again using PSIM software to further prove the validity of the model. All the finding is explained and discussed, here, from the simulation result, it is confirmed that a high-frequency switching circuit is operated as expected.

Design of LLC Resonant Type Full-Bridge DC-DC Converter

In order to develop and utilize renewable energy reasonably, the problems such as the increasingly intensive power load, insufficient power supply capacity and short power supply radius in major cities should be overcome. In this paper, a LLC resonant DC-DC converter is proposed for low voltage distribution network. Firstly, the energy transmission model and mathematical model of DC-DC converter under different modes are analysed. Secondly, the parameters of the resonator are designed. Finally, the simulation platform is built, and the simulation and experiment of DC-DC converter under different working conditions are carried out to verify the correctness of the proposed scheme.

Research on CLLLC Resonant Bidirectional DC-DC Converter

Based on the single-phase full-bridge LLC DC-DC converter, the LC series resonant network is introduced in the secondary side of the high frequency transformer to form the bidirectional CLLLC resonant DC-DC converter. Firstly, the bidirectional CLLLC resonant DC-DC converter was used for mathematical modeling. By extending the description function, the large-signal steady-state model of the converter was obtained, and the DC voltage gain when the DC-DC converter was running forward was deduced. The gain characteristics and frequency characteristics of the model are compared with those of the basic wave equivalent model. Secondly, the small-signal perturbation model of CLLLC DC-DC converter is modeled, and the small-signal perturbation is brought into the large-signal steady-state solution to obtain the transfer function when the CLLLC resonant converter is running forward. Finally, a 20kW CLLLC DC-DC converter is designed, and the simulation analysis is carried out to verify the correctness of the proposed scheme.

Design and Implementation for the High Voltage DC-DC Converter of the Subsea Observation Network

The subsea observation network has become an indispensable means of ocean exploration worldwide. However, the scale of the subsea observation network is limited by the power supply voltage and power level. Hence, to promote the development of a subsea observation network, this paper investigates the underwater high voltage DC-DC converter (HVC), which greatly improves the voltage and power level of the subsea observation network. The traditional series-parallel converter based on multi-module is faced with many technical problems, such as difficult transformer isolation, many fault points, low power density under higher input voltage level, and higher output power. The subsea HVC of this paper adopts a modular multilevel resonant DC-DC converter. The main circuit of HVC is designed in detail, including a module circuit, a resonant circuit, and a control scheme. Through the combination of the sub-module removal voltage regulation and closed-loop control, the converter can still output a stable voltage of 375 V when the input voltage changes. The modular sub-module and centralized transformer structure enables the converter to isolate high voltage easily, small volume, and high power density. The simulation and experiment results show the proposed HVC meets the design requirements and has good application prospects. It can be applied to submarine power transmission and distribution needs because of its wide range, large transformation ratio, and high efficiency.

Efficiency Optimization Design of L-LLC Resonant Bidirectional DC-DC Converter

The new type of L-LLC resonant bidirectional DC-DC converter (L-LLC-BDC) has merits of high efficiency, high-power density and wide gain and power ranges, and it is suitable for energy interface between energy storage systems and DC micro grid. However, the resonances are sensitive to the parasitic parameters, which will deteriorate the efficiency. This paper investigates the intrinsic mechanism of parasitic parameters on the L-LLC-BDC operating principle and working characteristics based on the analysis of working modes and resonance tank. By taking the oscillation of parasitic parameters produced in the stage for the freewheeling stage into consideration, a parameter optimization method is proposed to reduce the resonant current oscillation while maintaining the characteristic of the natural soft switching. The experiment results not only validated the proposed parameter optimization design method, but also testified to the improvement of the efficiency through the minimization of the conduction and switching loss.

Wide Range Series Resonant DC-DC Converter with a Reduced Component Count and Capacitor Voltage Stress for Distributed Generation

This paper proposes a galvanically isolated dc-dc converter that can regulate the input voltage in a wide range. It is based on the series resonance dc-dc converter (SRC) topology and a novel boost rectifier. The proposed topology has a smaller number of semiconductors than its SRC-based existing topologies employing an ac-switch in the boost rectifier. The proposed dc-dc converter comprises only two diodes and one switch at the output side, while the existing solutions use two switches and two diodes to step up the voltage. The proposed converter boosts the input voltage within a single boosting interval in the positive half-cycle of the switching period. In addition, the resonant current in the negative half-cycle is sinusoidal, which could enhance the converter efficiency. The resonant capacitor voltage is clamped at the level of the output voltage. Therefore, the voltage stress of the capacitor could significantly reduce at various input voltage and power levels. This makes it perfect for distributed generation applications such as photovoltaics with wide variations of input voltage and power. The converter operates at the fixed switching frequency close to the resonance frequency to obtain the maximum efficiency at the nominal input voltage. The zero-voltage switching (ZVS) feature is achieved in the primary semiconductors, while the diodes in the output-side rectifier turn off at nearly zero current switching. The mathematical model and design guidelines of the proposed converter are discussed in the paper. The experimental results confirmed the theoretical analysis based on a 300 W prototype. The maximum efficiency of the converter was 96.8% at the nominal input voltage, and the converter has achieved a wider input voltage regulation range than that with the boosting cell comprising an ac-switch.

The Phase Shifting Soft Startup of L-LLC Resonant Bidirectional DC-DC Converter Based on Current-Limiting Curve

The new L-LLC resonant bidirectional DC-DC converter (L-LLC-BDC) will produce a large resonance current and voltage inrush during the startup, posing a threat to the safe operation of the power device. Although a very high starting frequency can effectively suppress the inrush, it will also increase the output current demand of the driving ICs. This paper proposes a phase-shifting soft-start control strategy based on the current-limiting curve. Using operating mode analysis, the peak value of the resonant current is limited according to the output voltage and the phase shift angle of the switch, with the limit current curve at the startup stage drawn. By this current curve, a one-to-one correspondence between the output voltage and the phase shift angle of the switch is obtained. The phase-shifted soft-start control strategy can quickly establish the output voltage on the basis of a resonant frequency and can effectively suppress the resonance current inrush. An experimental prototype with a power of 6 kW and an input of 760 V and an output of 380 V is built. The experimental results prove the correctness and effectiveness of the soft start control strategy proposed in this paper.

ANN-Based MPPT Controller for PEM Fuel Cell Energized Interleaved Resonant PWM High Step Up DC-DC Converter with SVPWM Inverter Fed Induction Motor Drive

ANN-Based MPPT Controller for PEM Fuel Cell Energized Interleaved Resonant PWM High Step Up DC-DC Converter with SVPWM Inverter Fed Induction Motor Drive

Portable DC Supply Based on SiC Power Devices for High-Voltage Marx Generator

The paper describes major issues related to the design of a portable SiC-based DC supply developed for evaluation of a high-voltage Marx generator. This generator is developed to be a part of an electromagnetic cannon providing very high voltage and current pulses aiming at the destruction of electronics equipment in a specific area. The portable DC supply offers a very high voltage gain: input voltage is 24 V, while the generator requires supply voltages up to 50 kV. Thus, the system contains two stages designed on the basis of SiC power devices operating with frequencies up to 100 kHz. At first, the input voltage is boosted up to 400 V by a non-isolated double-boost converter, and then a resonant DC-DC converter with a special transformer elevates the voltage to the required level. In the paper, the main components of the laboratory setup are presented, and experimental results of the DC supply and whole system are also shown.

Design of a Resonant Converter for a Regenerative Braking System Based on Ultracap Storage for Application in a Formula SAE Single-Seater Electric Racing Car

Electric mobility can represent a game changing technology for the long-term sustainability of the transportation sector. Pursuing this target, a model to simulate an Electric Vehicle (EV) for Formula SAE Electric competition is herein proposed: all the subsystems of the EV and the hybrid storage of the Li-ion batteries and Ultra-Capacitors (UCs) are implemented, in order to store the kinetic energy of the regenerative braking in the storage system through the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). A bidirectional DC-DC resonant converter is herein applied to the KERS to manage the UC pack. The operational limits of the proposed system, keeping the soft-switching properties, are discussed, and the results show the capability of the converter to operate under resonant mode in both boost and buck mode. A drawback is the presence of high current peaks in the resonant inductor. The use of more than one converter in interleaving and the adoption of a suitable capability factor ensure the proper operation of the system.

DC-DC High Voltage Gain Switched Capacitor Converter With Multilevel Output Voltage and Zero-Voltage Switching

This paper presents the concept and results of a novel resonant DC-DC converter which achieves high voltage gain at a low number of utilized switches, low voltage stress on transistors, ZVS and ZCS operation, high efficiency and variable voltage gain. The converter uses resonant switched-capacitors (SC) circuits with five switches which allows it to reach a six-fold voltage gain. By the application of adequate switching patterns, seven levels of voltage adjustment can be achieved. The basic operation mode of the converter is at zero current switching (ZCS) but a part of the existing transitions can be switched-on at a zero drain-source voltage. Zero voltage switching (ZVS) allows for a reduction of $C_{\mathrm {oss}}$ losses and a decrease in disturbances of voltages and currents. In the proposed converter, voltage stress on switches are noticeably lower than the output voltage which is beneficial from viewpoint the cost reduction and switching quality improvement. The converter output stage consists of two series connected capacitors which allows for a supply of 3-level NPC inverters. Resonant inductors, used in the proposed topology, store very low amount of energy and their volume is significantly lower than in case of chokes typically used in switch-mode converters. Qualities of the converter such as low switch count, efficiency, ZCS and ZVS operation as well as voltage gain variation are demonstrated in this paper. Furthermore, an impact of MOSFET transistors type on the efficiency of the converter is investigated. The design based on low $C_{\mathrm {oss}}$ superjunction (SJ) MOSFETs is compared with the implementation where $R_{\mathrm {ds(on)}}$ of switches is minimized. Due to low voltage stress, application of Schottky rectifiers is also demonstrated in the converter. The concept of the topology and switching patterns is verified by the results of analysis, simulations and experiments.

Research on Synchronous Rectification Driver Technology of High-Frequency DC-DC Resonant Converter Based on GaN Devices

With the increase of switching frequency to tens of MHz, the synchronous rectification faces many new challenges, among which a significant one is the design of the driver circuit for the synchronous rectification with wide bandgap gallium nitride (GaN) devices. According to the self-resonant driving theory, this paper proposes an in-phase feedback synchronous rectification driver circuit (SRDC) based on GaN devices and the driver chip. In this SRDC, the nonlinear parasitic capacitors are replaced with external capacitors, and the synchronous driving signal is in-phase with the excitation source. The new scheme can provide precise driving timing, stable driving amplitude and flexible phase-shifting characteristics for the synchronous rectification of a high-frequency DC-DC resonant converter (HFDRC) based on GaN devices. In this paper, a detailed parameter design method is introduced by analyzing the characteristics of the feedback network. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed SRDC are verified on a 20 MHz prototype with 18 V input and 5 V / 2 A output.

Optimization of LLC Resonant Converter With Two Degrees of Freedom Based on Operation Stage Trajectory Analysis

LLC resonant DC-DC converter has been widely used in high power density and high efficiency applications. Pulse frequency modulation (PFM) is commonly applied due to its wide soft-switching range. In some special cases, phase shift modulation (PSM) is applied to widen voltage regulation range, improve light-load efficiency, or implement a soft start-up process. Because LLC is with 2 control degrees of freedom (2DOFs), switching frequency and duty ratio, a unified analysis and optimization for LLC with 2DOFs is desired. This paper makes an effort to present a unified time domain operation stage trajectories (OSTs) analysis of LLC. On this basis, a unified numerical optimization method is proposed with arbitrarily designed optimization objectives. With the proposed optimization method, the optimized LLC with 2DOFs is with better performance compared to conventional PFM and PSM, which is verified by the experimental results.

Multilevel inverter for grid interconnection with square wave voltage sources and minimisation of active filter capacity

This paper proposes an integrated micro-inverter using a multiple-step controlled voltage source and an active filter connected in series. Recently, a micro-inverter based on an isolated resonant DC-DC converter is widely used. A typical micro-inverter can achieve a high efficiency around 97%. In addition, a micro-inverter system can achieve high efficiency of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) thanks to its small photovoltaic area. The proposed circuit is a combination of a multiple-step controlled voltage source, an active filter connected in series and an unfolding circuit. This circuit reduces the power to be converted to 1/8 compared to a conventional inverter. The control strategy for the proposed circuit is also discussed in this paper. Finally, the grid connected operation is verified through circuit simulation.

Comparative Performance and Assessment Study of a Current-Fed DC-DC Resonant Converter Combining Si, SiC, and GaN-Based Power Semiconductor Devices

This paper focuses on the main reasons of low efficiency in a current-fed DC-DC resonant converter applied to photovoltaic (PV) isolated systems, comparing the effects derived by the overlapping time in the gate-signals (gate-source voltage) combining silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN)-based power devices. The results show that unidirectional switches (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) plus diode) present hard switching as a result of the diode preventing the MOSFET capacitance of being discharged. The effectiveness of the converter was verified with a 200-W prototype with an input voltage range of 0–30.3 V, an output voltage of 200 V, and a switching frequency of 200 kHz. The reduction losses by applying GaN versus Si and SiC technologies are 66.49% and 53.57%, respectively. Alternatively, by applying SiC versus Si devices the reduction loss is 27.84%. Finally, according to the results, 60% of losses were caused by the diodes on both switches.

Performance of Isolated Soft Switching Current Fed Lcc-T Resonant Dc-Dc Converter for Pv/Fuel Cell Applications

In this paper, the design and evaluation of isolated soft switching current LCC-T Resonant DC-DC Converter for PV/Fuel cell applications. For the front end inverter switches, zero voltage switching (ZVS) is used for conversion. For voltage double diodes, Zero-Current Switching (ZCS) is used. Earlier, DC-DC converter provides high harmonic currents, so to overcome that, proposed converter is introduced. The proposed converter will improve the content of harmonic current based on the input variations and wide load. To get the required output voltage, transformer ration will be reduced. Because of the, for PV/ Fuel cell applications have better foot Print and high potential. The proposed converter operates in two modes mainly; they are constant frequency mode and constant duty cycle mode. These modes mainly depend on the load demand. At last from results it can observe that gives satisfying proposed theory.

Design and hardware investigation of a new configuration of an isolated DC-DC converter for fuel cell vehicle

The Electric vehicle supplied by the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell is characterized by its efficiency as well as by lower air pollution in comparison with the classical vehicles. This paper will shed the light on the modelling and the realization of a DC/DC isolated converter connected to a fuel cell for electric hybrid vehicle. The input energy in the electrical vehicle is prod uced by two main independent power supplies, which are fuel cell and an ultra capacitor. An isolated unidirectional DC-DC converter, supplied by a fuel cell stack, is studied. The analytical models of the main source and the medium model presentation of the Isolated DC-DC converter are given. The Simulation results which were done under the Matlab-Simulink environment reveal that the proposed converter is effective and it is a better candidate for electrical vehicle application. The dynamic behaviours of the electrical vehicle drives are tested for a given driving cycle. The proposed DC-DC resonant converter has been realized and the control algorithm has been built using the dSPACE 1104 board.

Wide Input Voltage Range Operation of the Series Resonant DC-DC Converter with Bridgeless Boost Rectifier

The series resonant DC-DC converter (SRC) can regulate the input voltage in a wide range at a fixed switching frequency. In this work, the bridgeless rectifier, which is utilized intensively in the applications of the power factor correction, has been integrated into the SRC as a voltage step-up cell at the output-side of the SRC. It is shown that the conventional overlapping pulse-width modulation (PWM) of the two metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors MOSFETs in this rectification cell limits the input voltage regulation range of the converter due to excessive power losses in abnormal operating conditions. The abnormal operating conditions occur when the instantaneous voltage across the resonant capacitor is larger than the secondary voltage of the isolation transformer. This happens at high values of the DC voltage gain, i.e., low input voltages and high currents, which causes the resonant current to flow in the reverse direction in the same half-cycle through a parasitic path formed by overlapping PWM of the rectifier MOSFETs. The abnormal operation results in additional conduction loss in the converter as the MOSFETs of the bridgeless boost rectifier turn on at high current at the beginning of each half of the switching period. Accordingly, the overall efficiency of the converter significantly deteriorates. This paper proposes the hybrid PWM aiming to improve the efficiency of the SRC with a bridgeless boost rectifier in a wide input voltage regulation range. The converter swaps between the overlapping and the proposed short-pulse PWM schemes to drive the MOSFETs in the bridgeless boost rectifier. The transition between the two PWM schemes is defined according to the boundary condition that relies upon the operating point of the converter power and the input voltage. The proposed hybrid PWM scheme is analyzed and compared to the overlapping PWM at different levels of the input voltage and the load power. A 300 W prototype was studied in the laboratory to show the feasibility of the proposed hybrid PWM scheme with the closed-loop control system to switch between the two PWM schemes.