Sunil Tiwari

Analysis and design of an LCL-T resonant converter as a constant-current power supply

An LCL-T resonant converter (LCL-T RC) is shown to behave as a current source when operated at resonant frequency. A detailed analysis of the LCL-T RC for this property is presented. Closed-form expressions for converter gain, component stresses, and the condition for converter design optimized for minimum size of resonant network is derived. A design procedure is illustrated with a prototype 200-W 20-A current-source power supply and experimental results are presented. The LCL-T RC as a current source offers many advantages such as easy parallel operation and low circulating currents at light load. Additionally, with appropriate phase shift in paralleled modules, the peak-peak ripple in output current is reduced and the ripple frequency is increased, reducing filtering requirements. The leakage inductance of a transformer can be advantageously integrated into the resonant network. These merits make the topology applicable in various applications such as magnet power supply, capacitor charging power supply, laser diode drivers, etc.

A Full-Bridge DC–DC Converter WithZero-Voltage-Switching Overthe Entire Conversion Range

A new topology of full-bridge dc-dc converter is proposed featuring zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) of active switches over the entire conversion range. In contrast to conventional techniques, the stored energy in the auxiliary inductor of the proposed converter is minimal under full-load condition and it progressively increases as the load current decreases. Therefore, the ZVS operation over the entire conversion range is achieved without significantly increasing full-load conduction loss making the converter particularly suitable in applications where the output is required to be adjustable over a wide range and load resistance is fixed (e.g., an electromagnet power supply). The principle of operation is described and the considerations in the design of converter are discussed. Performance of the proposed converter is verified with experimental results on a 500-W, 100-kHz prototype.

LCL-T Resonant Converter With Clamp Diodes: A Novel Constant-Current Power Supply With Inherent Constant-Voltage Limit

The LCL-T resonant converter behaves as a constant-current (CC) source when operated at the resonant frequency. The output voltage of a CC power supply increases linearly with the load resistance. Therefore, a constant-voltage (CV) limit must be incorporated in the converter for its use in practical applications wherein the open-load condition is commonly experienced by a CC power supply, such as in an arc welding power supply. A novel LCL-T resonant converter with clamp diodes is proposed in this paper, which has built-in CC-CV characteristics. Since the CC-CV characteristics are inherent to the converter, and complex feedback control is not required, the proposed converter is rugged and reliable. The principle of operation of the converter is explained. Experimental results on a 500-W prototype are presented to demonstrate the inherent CC-CV behavior of the converter. Simple extensions of the topology featuring variable CV limits are described

Design of LCL-T Resonant Converter Including the Effect of Transformer Winding Capacitance

The transformer winding capacitance, which is significant in high-voltage power supplies, is not gainfully utilized in an LCL-T resonant converter (RC). A simplified analysis presented in this paper predicts the severe degradation of output current regulation of an LCL-T RC due to transformer winding capacitance. The presence of winding capacitance, in fact, changes the third-order LCL-T resonant tank into fourth-order LC-LC topology. Using an AC analysis, it is shown that, under the derived design conditions, LC-LC RC also exhibits constant output current and in-phase source voltage and current, simultaneously at all loading conditions. Thus, the transformer leakage inductance and winding capacitance are gainfully utilized as a part of a resonant network, resulting in improved output characteristics. Closed-form expressions for the converter gain and component stresses are derived. The condition for converter design optimized for the minimum size of the resonant network is obtained. Experimental results on a prototype 100-mA 2-kV DC power supply confirm the observations of analysis.

A passive auxiliary circuit achieves zero-voltage-switching in full-bridge converter over entire conversion range

A passive auxiliary circuit is proposed to achieve zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) over the entire conversion range in a full-bridge (FB) pulse-width modulated (PWM) converter (FBZVS converter) with minimum conduction loss penalty. The stored energy in the auxiliary circuit is minimal under the full-load condition. It increases progressively as the load current decreases. The proposed auxiliary circuit is passive, simple and can be viewed as an add-on to the conventional FBZVS converter. The principle of operation is described and the performance is demonstrated on a 100 kHz, 500 W prototype.

Characteristics and Design of an Asymmetrical Duty-Cycle-Controlled LCL-T Resonant Converter

The characteristics of an asymmetrical duty cycle (ADC) controlled LCL-T resonant converter operating at the resonant frequency are studied by solving the state-space model of the converter. Four operating modes are identified having different circuit waveforms representing different device conduction sequences, thereby creating different conditions during the device switching. The mode boundaries are obtained and plotted on the D-Q plane. A region on the D-Q plane is identified for the converter design, where the switches operate under zero-voltage-switching condition. A prototype 500 W, 100 kHz converter is designed and built to experimentally demonstrate the operating modes, control characteristics, and performance of ADC-controlled LCL-T resonant converter.

Resonant Immittance Converter Topologies

An immittance converter (IC), in general, is a two-port network, in which input impedance is proportional to the load admittance connected across the output terminals and is useful in transforming a voltage source into a current source and vice versa. In this paper, a family of lumped-element resonant IC (RIC) topologies is identified by investigating the transmission parameters of various topological structures of electrical networks. In all, 24 RIC topologies have been identified with three and four reactive elements. The operating point and the design condition, under which these topologies exhibit immittance conversion characteristics, are derived. The suitability of these topologies in terms of absorbing parasitic components and providing inherent dc blocking to the transformer is examined. The analysis and design is illustrated with a newly identified four-element RIC topology as a constant-current power supply and validated with experimental results on a 250-W 105-kHz prototype converter.

Common-mode noise source and its passive cancellation in full-bridge resonant converter

In this paper the results of systematic investigation into identification of dominant source of CM noise generation in a full bridge resonant converter are presented. It is shown that a small mismatch in an apparently symmetrical circuit can result in large CM injection. Mathematical analysis to predict the CM current injection is presented and is validated using SPICE simulation. For cancellation of dominant CM injection simple passive techniques are suggested. Experimental results on 18 kW LCC resonant magnet power supply for INDUS-2 are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of proposed passive techniques.

Approximate Equivalent-Circuit Modeling and Analysis of Type-II Resonant Immittance Converters

Resonant immittance converter (RIC) topologies can transform a current source into a voltage source (Type-I RICs) and vice versa (Type-II RICs), thereby making them suitable for many power electronics applications. RICs are operated at a fixed frequency where the resonant immittance network (RIN) exhibits immittance conversion characteristics. It is observed that the low-frequency response of Type-II RINs is relatively flat and that the state variables associated with Type-II RINs affect the response only at the high frequencies in the vicinity of the switching frequency. The overall response of a Type-II RIC is thus dominated by the filter response, which is particularly important for the controller design. Therefore, an approximate equivalent circuit model and a small-signal model of Type-II RICs are proposed in this paper, neglecting the high-frequency response of Type-II RINs. While the proposed models greatly simplify and speed-up the analysis, it adequately predicts the open-loop transient and small-signal ac behavior of Type-II RICs. The validity of the proposed models is confirmed by comparisons of their results with those obtained from a cycle-by-cycle simulation and with an experimental prototype.

On the Development of High Power DC-DC Step-Down Converter with Energy Recovery Snubber

The effect of switching losses on the efficiency of a switch mode power converter and methods adopted for its improvement using an energy recovery lossless snubber has been presented. A comparative analysis of various types of soft switching techniques along with effects of dissipative and nondissipative snubbers on efficiency of the converter has been carried out before zeroing in on the selected scheme. The selected snubber serves the dual function of a turn-on and turn-off snubber and thereby reducing the switching losses both during turn-on and turn-off transients, resulting in improved efficiency of the converter. A detailed design procedure of the snubber for high-power applications taking into account various effects such as diode reverse recovery, diode voltage stress, and minimum and maximum duty cycle limits, has been presented in this paper. Importance of practical aspects in layout to minimize wiring inductance is also highlighted. A high-power prototype of buck converter has been developed to experimentally validate the theoretical design and analytical observations.