Two-Mode Low-Voltage DC/DC Converter With High and Wide Input Voltage Range

Abstract

It has been proposed that the main battery voltage of electric vehicles should be increased to increase the driving distance and decrease the charging time. Thus, a low-voltage dc/dc converter (LDC) with high and wide input voltage range is required for electronic loads. This article proposes a two-mode LDC and the entire input range is divided into two low and high input voltage ranges. The converter has two operating modes corresponding to these input voltage ranges. In the low input voltage range, it operates as a three-switch double-ended active clamp forward converter. In the high input voltage range, it operates as an asymmetric half-bridge converter. Changing the operating mode according to the input voltage, the proposed converter can have low-voltage stresses on the switches and a low dc offset current of the transformer resulting in high efficiency for the entire input voltage range. In order to confirm the validity of the proposed converter, a 600 W prototype is implemented and experimented.