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This paper describes a flow control of the dye in the paper mill with the quasi-Z-source indirect matrix converter (QZSIMC) fed induction motor drive. More than a decade the voltage-source inverter (VSI) and current-source inverter (CSI) have been used to control the speed of the induction motor, which in turns controls the flow of dye. Recently, the matrix converter (MC) has been an excellent competitor for the VSI or CSI for its compactness. The voltage transfer ratio of the VSI, CSI, and MC has been limited to 0.866. Thus, the efficiency of these converters is less. To improve the voltage transfer ratio the quasi-Z-source network (QZSN) is to be used between voltage source and indirect MC (IMC). The modification in the shoot-through duty ratio of the QZSN varies the voltage transfer ratio greater than 0.866. Different voltage transfer ratios are needed for different voltage sag conditions. For a variation of the duty ratio of the QZSN, the fuzzy logic controller has been presented. To control the IMC vector control with space vector modulation has been presented. This paper proposes the implementation of QZSIMC adjustable speed drive for the flow control of dye in paper mill during different voltage sag conditions. A 4-kW prototype has been built and the effectiveness of the proposed system is verified with simulation results and experimental setup. Simulation is done in MATLAB, Simulink platform. Experimental setup is done with the aid of a TMS320F2812 (Texas Instrument) processor. The experimental results validate the maintenance of the speed of an induction motor at the set condition, thus controlling the perfect flow of dye in paper manufacturing technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel polygonal voltage space vector structure (SVS) having 30 sides, for a star-connected induction motor drive. The SVS eliminates the presence of harmonics up to 25th order from motor phase voltage throughout the entire modulation range, providing a torque profile devoid of lower order pulsations. Linear modulation is extended till 99.63% of base speed without exceeding the motor phase voltage rating. Topology consists of a dc-link fed primary inverter and two equal low voltage modular capacitor fed secondary inverters. Here the harmonics generated by the primary inverter is canceled by the secondary inverter which acts as a switched capacitive filter. Detailed description of the SVS generation and timing calculations are provided in this paper. Effectiveness of the proposed scheme is validated using experimental results, inverter loss calculations, and harmonic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The series bridge converter (SBC) is a modular multilevel converter (MMC) recently developed to enhance power density in high-voltage high-power applications. The MMC is a well-established solution, widely researched, and exploited in practical HVdc connections, thanks to its high power quality and high efficiency. However, the main limitation of the MMC is the relatively large energy storage, also due to the fact that power ripples in the submodule capacitors include a component at the fundamental ac frequency. As a result, volume becomes critical in applications such as offshore or city center in-feeds, where space is restricted and expensive. The SBC offers a more compact footprint by exploiting a series connection on the dc side and by operating the submodules with rectified waveforms, thus moving the minimum component of the instantaneous power to twice the ac fundamental and reducing capacitors size. The drawback of the converter is a more complex energy control compared to the MMC. This paper proposes the first experimental validation of the SBC, using a 2-kW laboratory-scale prototype. Since the basic converter design has been discussed in previous papers, the focus of this paper is on converter control design and experimental validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four-level hybrid-clamped inverter is a newly proposed topology that can operate under a wide voltage range without switches connected in series. However, when it is applied in medium voltage high power conversions, the flying capacitors in each phase will occupy a huge volume and a high switching frequency is required to restrain the voltage ripples. In order to overcome this drawback, a four-level active neutral-point clamped inverter is discussed in this paper, which consists of only six switches and no diodes or flying capacitors are required. In order to balance the neutral-point voltages under the full power factor and modulation index range, a capacitor voltage balance method based on carrier-overlapped pulsewidth modulation is proposed in this paper. The upper and lower dc-link capacitor voltages are balanced by zero-sequence voltage injection and the central dc-link capacitor voltage is balanced by adjusting the duty cycles of switching signals slightly. Simulation and experimental results are presented to confirm the validity of this method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main technical challenge of the medium-voltage motor drives with modular multilevel converter (MMC) is the serious low-frequency fluctuation on the capacitor voltages, and the existing suppression methods inevitably inject high-frequency circulating currents in MMC. However, the output currents are evidently distorted by the large injected components, while little research has been done to study and solve this problem. This paper analyzes and proves the essential interactions between the output current distortion and the injected components, and the specific dominant output harmonic groups are derived and summarized, revealing the nature of the problem, and it can be taken as a favorable reference for the controller designing. Based on the derivations, this paper proposes a novel suppression method for the greatly improved harmonic characteristics of the output currents during the low-frequency operation. The output harmonics can be accurately measured by the proposed control and effectively suppressed for much lower current total harmonic distortion, benefiting for the superior output control performances with improved efficiency. The simulation results on PSCAD/EMTDC and experimental verifications on a 2.2 kW MMC-based motor drive prototype prove the validity of the presented harmonic analysis and suppression method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to increase the efficiency of modern microprocessor power supplies used in data centers, 380-V dc power distribution systems have been attracting attention due to their high efficiency and high reliability. This paper presents an innovative single-stage approach for 380-V voltage regulator modules (VRMs) based on a quasi-resonant multilevel topology constant on-time operation. The proposed topology inherently integrates the multiphase approach, providing fast phase shedding and flat high-efficiency curves even at light-load conditions. This is a unique advantage, which is not possible to establish in the two-stage approach, which is very important in server architectures, and where high efficiency is required even at light-load conditions. This paper analyzes the circuit topology and proposes a control architecture for fast transient response, including current-sharing capabilities. The digital controller has been implemented in 0.16- $\mu$ m lithography together with a digital pulsewidth modulation with a 195-ps resolution and a 40-MS/s 7-bit analog-to-digital converter. Experimental results show an efficiency of 93% for a 120-A 380–1.8-V VRM power supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a fifth-order resonant immittance network based dual-active-bridge (DAB) converter and an optimal modulation method that will ensure high-efficiency operation of the converter under wide-range variations in voltage ratio and output power level. The proposed modulation method is based on the concept of total power loss minimization, where a loss model is developed and an optimization algorithm is formulated to compute the optimal set of internal and external phase shift parameters that will lead to the maximum efficiency for a given set of operating parameters including voltage ratio and output power level. It is found that to maintain high-efficiency operation under wide-range variations in voltage ratio and output power level, the DAB converter is required to switch between different operation modes and neither soft-switching operation nor unity-power-factor operation is able to achieve wide-range high efficiency performance when used alone. The importance of $reconfigurability$ of operation mode for achieving wide-range high efficiency performance is clearly illustrated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-objective optimization of power converters is a time-consuming task, especially when multiple operating points and multiple converter topologies must be considered. As a result, various steps are often taken to simplify the design problem and restrict the size of the design space prior to going through an optimization procedure. While this saves time, it produces potentially sub-optimal designs, and existing approaches must tradeoff between running time and design optimality. This paper presents an optimization-oriented method for modeling power converters and their components as posynomial functions, allowing multi-objective optimization of converters to be formulated as a geometric program, a type of convex optimization problem. This allows the use of fast, powerful solvers that guarantee global optimality of solutions. The method is demonstrated using the example of low-power multi-level flying capacitor step-down converters. Results show that, using geometric programming, sets of globally Pareto-optimal designs of two-, three-, and four-level converters with respect to efficiency and power density, for one design space and one operating point, can be generated in as little as 25 s, on a mid- to upper range laptop computer. Thus, optimal designs for three different converter topologies for hundreds of different operating points and/or design spaces can be generated in several hours—less than the time required to globally optimize one converter topology at one operating point for one design space using currently prevalent methods. This paper also demonstrates how geometric programming can be used to quickly perform sensitivity and tradeoff analysis of optimal converter designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of applications which require high-voltage switches has created a tendency to use semiconductor device series stacks. These series stacks permit operation at blocking voltages above semiconductor elements’ nominal voltage. Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT) are currently utilized for controllability and switching speed, when these topologies are employed. The main challenge therewith is guaranteeing voltage balance between IGBTs, both when blocked and when switching transistors. Most of the methods which have been proposed to mitigate static and dynamic voltage unbalances increase transistor losses. The series stack loss-less high voltage switch (LHVS) which mitigates voltage unbalances, thus reducing switching losses, is presented in this paper. LHVS consists of a circuit, which ensures soft IGBT switching, an energy recovery circuit, and a gate delay compensation circuit. Additionally, the insulation voltage level is guaranteed to be equal between control circuit and high-voltage side of each IGBT. The operating principle of the LHVS is detailed in this paper, as is experimental validation which has been performed for three series stack modules. Static unbalances are reduced to 1%, while the differences between collector–emitter voltage curves in switching “on” do not surpass 8 ns, and switching losses are reduced by 41%, as compared to the hard-switching topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a current control of dual three-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) based on five-leg inverter. The five-leg inverter can be utilized to drive dual three-phase PMSM with full torque at slow speed when the conventional dual three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI) has a faulty inverter leg. Usually, the common leg in the five-leg inverter may have severe current stress. By dedicated selection of which two phases as a pair to share the common leg, its current rating is approximately half of current rating of other legs. Meanwhile, the five-leg inverter can fully fulfill the vector space decomposition control for dual three-phase PMSM, which has the same dynamical performance as the conventional dual three-phase VSI. However, due to the asymmetry of five-leg inverter non-linearity, the currents of dual three-phase PMSM are unbalanced. To mitigate this issue, the five-leg inverter non-linearity compensation is also introduced and investigated in this paper, whose effectiveness is verified by comparative experiments on a prototype dual three-phase PMSM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fault tolerance in wind turbines is considered crucial to increase their reliability and availability levels. This paper presents a fault-tolerant direct-drive permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) using new direct control techniques, with the ability to handle power semiconductor open-circuit faults in the full-scale back-to-back converter. The fault-tolerant topology consists of a five-leg converter, with a shared leg connected to a generator phase and to its corresponding grid phase, through a triode for alternating current (TRIAC). The main contribution of this paper consists of the development of an alternative direct torque control and direct power control schemes for both machine-side converter and grid-side converter, respectively. Moreover, a reliable fault diagnostics algorithm without requiring additional sensors is also integrated, providing the information required to instantaneously trigger fault-tolerant remedial strategies. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed fault-tolerant PMSG drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel seven-level inverter topology for medium-voltage high-power applications. It consists of eight active switches and two inner flying capacitor (FC) units forming a similar structure as in a conventional active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) inverter. This unique arrangement reduces the number of active and passive components. A simple modulation technique reduces cost and complexity in the control system design without compromising reactive power capability. In addition, compared to major conventional seven-level inverter topologies, such as the neutral point clamped, FC, cascaded H-bridge, and ANPC topologies, the new topology reduces the dc-link voltage requirement by 50%. This recued dc-link voltage makes the new topology appealing for various industrial applications. Experimental results from a 2.2-kVA prototype are presented to support the theoretical analysis presented in this paper. The prototype demonstrates a conversion efficiency of around 97.2% ± 1% for a wide load range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents bidirectional grid-connected modular multilevel converters (MMC) with direct digital control and division-summation processes to achieve power-injection and rectification functions. A direct digital control is developed to track current references, regulate dc-bus voltage and cell voltage, and balance the upper and lower dc-bus voltages. It can accommodate wide filter-inductance variation and take care of source voltage harmonics to achieve tight current tracking and low distortion output current. Based on the power-balance principle, the commands of arm currents can be determined directly. In this paper, the MMC configuration is introduced first, and then the control laws for current tracking and voltage regulation are derived in detail. Experimental and simulated results obtained from two 50 kW MMCs operated in power-injection and rectification modes have verified the analysis and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel pulsewidth modulation (PWM) scheme for the decoupled and coordinated control of two parallel connected split-phase induction machines is discussed in this paper for the first time. Both the motors are operated from a single six-phase voltage source inverter which acts as a power source, and two switched capacitor-fed auxiliary inverters to limit the flow of nontorque producing currents in each motor. Both the motors can be operated at its full rated power with low switching frequency, and decoupled control for full power range can be achieved with the proposed topology. This is possible because the individual machines do not carry the load/harmonic currents of other machine (unlike the conventional series or parallel connected systems). The converters can be modulated using sine-triangle PWM or space vector pulsewidth modulation (SVPWM). Furthermore, two different schemes of SVPWM techniques are proposed and compared in this paper. Exhaustive experimental results for all the modulation schemes are provided for steady state and transient operating conditions including start-up to validate the proposed topology and modulation schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single-stage TRIAC (TRIode for alternating current switch) dimmable LED (light emitting diode) driver using a buck converter fed through a capacitor input rectifier provides many advantages such as small-scale implementation, low output current ripple, and stable dimming operation. This circuit topology, however, has a serious issue: A large inrush current to the smoothing capacitor. To solve this issue, this paper focuses on a bleeder circuit in the TRIAC dimmable LED driver. This paper presents the mechanism of the large inrush current issue and its relationship to a conventional bleeder circuit. Moreover, this paper proposes a turn-off delay controlled bleeder circuit. The proposed bleeder circuit is analyzed by using its discrete-time state-space model in order to set proper circuit parameters for inrush current reduction. Experimental results demonstrate the inrush current reduction by the proposed method, which leads to a 37% reduction of maximum input current, as well as proper dimming operation and low output current ripple. The proposed method achieves further small-scale implementation, which enhances the advantages of the intended main circuit topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an interleaved boost converter with a bifold Dickson voltage multiplier suitable for interfacing low-voltage renewable energy sources to high-voltage distribution buses and other applications that require a high-voltage-gain conversion ratio. The proposed converter was constructed from two stages: an interleaved boost stage, which contains two inductors operated by two low-side active switches, and a voltage multiplier cell (VMC) stage, which mainly consists of diodes and capacitors to increase the overall voltage gain. The proposed converter offers a high-voltage-gain ratio with low voltage stress on the semiconductor switches as well as the passive components. This allows the selection of efficient and compact components. Moreover, the required inductance that ensures operation in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) is lower than the one in the conventional interleaved boost converter. The distinction of the proposed converter is that the inductors’ currents are equal, regardless of the number of VMCs. Equal sharing of interleaved boost-stage currents reduces the conduction loss in the active switches as well as the inductors and thus improves the overall efficiency, as the conduction power loss is a quadratic function. In this paper, the theory of operation and steady-state analysis of the proposed converter are illustrated and verified by simulation results. A $\text{200-W}$ hardware prototype was implemented to convert a $\text{20-V}$ input source to a $\text{400-V}$ dc load and validate both the theory and the simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multilevel inverters (MLIs) are being used in wide range of power electronic applications. These converters have attracted a lot of attention during recent years and exist in different topologies with similar basic concepts. This paper presents five main submodules (SMs) to be used as the basic structures of MLIs. The paper reviews the common MLI topologies from the structural point of view. The topologies are divided into the different SMs to show conventional MLI configurations and future topologies that can be created from the main SMs. A comparative study between different topologies is performed in detail. The MLIs are categorized and investigated with from different perspectives such as the number of components, the ability to create inherent negative voltage, working in regeneration mode and using single dc source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In medium-voltage drives, multistep model predictive control (MPC) can lower the total harmonic distortion of the stator currents and thereby reduce losses and improve efficiency. However, from the point of view of implementation, there is still uncertainty as to whether transients have a major adverse effect on achieving this improved steady-state performance. The time-varying nature of machine drives, initialization of the optimization process, and limited computational resources are identified as key factors. This paper analyzes the link between these key factors in detail, thus a suitable reformulation and selective initialization approach is designed to enable the deterministic use of multistep finite-control-set MPC irrespective of the drive system conditions. Guidelines to select the prediction horizon, weighting factor, and minimum switching frequency considering the control platform limitations are presented. The significant impacts of transients on the design and experimental validation, covering several drive conditions, are evaluated in a scaled-down three-level induction machine drive switching at 350 Hz. This paper is accompanied by a video demonstrating the real-time implementation of multistep MPC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a balancing algorithm for the so-called Director Switch, a controlled, reverse conducting, self-powered, high-voltage switch, using series-connected insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). This is a key component on two new voltage-source, high-voltage direct current (HVDC) converter topologies. These, which promise efficiency, cost, and size reductions, are an alternate arm converter and a series bridge converter. One of the main design challenges of the director switch is how to supply the IGBT gate drivers, and other auxiliary electronics while overcoming the high-voltage insulation barrier to ground level. In this paper, this is achieved by using the energy stored in a capacitive clamp snubber circuit, which also helps with the overvoltage mitigation during rare hard-switching events. However, the clamp capacitor and by proxy the IGBT voltages become highly unbalanced during operation, compromising the integrity of the switch. This paper presents a balancing strategy that consists in applying a controlled delay in the switching of the IGBT levels, in a way that forces a voltage balance on all the switch levels. The paper explains the unbalance. Then, the balancing strategy is explained and validated on simulation and on a high-voltage experimental rig, on switches comprising two and three series-connected IGBTs, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new class of topologies of single-stage high-frequency ac-link power converters, which is capable of providing both voltage step up/down within a wide frequency and voltage ranges. The proposed family, which supports bidirectional power flow, can interface various single/multi-port dc and/or single/multi-phase ac systems to provide dc–dc, dc–ac, ac–dc, or ac–ac power conversion. In this family of converter, which offers a very modular structure, a small inductor that forms the link exchanges power entirely or partially between the source and load. The proposed family can function in buck, boost, and/or buck–boost modes of operation, and a combination of these modes of operation is also feasible. In comparison to the parallel inductive four-quadrant link converters, the proposed family features a significantly reduced link peak current, reduced switch ratings, and reduced total number of power switches. These features enhance the efficiency, reduce the total cost, and increase the power density of the system. In order to further improve the overall efficiency of the system, minimize the current/voltage stress over all utilized semiconductor devices, and lower electromagnetic interference (EMI), a small capacitor is placed in parallel with the link inductor to realize soft-switching operation for the proposed configurations. Moreover, the proposed converters have the potential to incorporate a lightweight single-phase high-frequency transformer for electrical isolation. The proposed circuit topologies prevent reverse recovery issues and eliminate losses corresponding to body diodes of power switching devices via utilizing power switches in conjunction with external fast recovery diodes. The proposed family offers a very high level of reliability owing to its immunity from short circuit of input and output terminals and open circuit of the link inductor, which may occur in other power converters due to commutation problem resulting from a short deadtime or an overlap time between switches, unwanted control command, delay in electronic circuits, or EMI noise's misgating on or off, in addition to the absence of electrolytic capacitors in the power circuit. A control approach is also developed to regulate input and output currents in one stage of power conversion. A detailed theoretical analysis, operation, design methodology, and control strategy of the proposed family are provided in this paper, and the effectiveness and performance of the proposed converter family are verified via simulation results and experimentally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In low-power applications of photovoltaic (PV) systems, the transformerless grid-connected inverters have been preferred to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost, size, and power losses when they are compared to the ones with the transformer. A transformerless single-phase inverter topology with a single dc-link capacitor for the grid-connected PV systems is proposed in this paper. The proposed inverter has been simulated by using a cooperation process of the MATLAB and SPICE package programs and it has been implemented for experimental verification. The proposed inverter reduces the high-frequency common-mode leakage current caused by parasitic capacitances of PV panels, whereas it is controlled with the unipolar sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation. Also, the results show that the common-mode voltage remains constant. The efficiency of the proposed inverter has been compared to that of the most common topologies having the dc-link decoupling during the zero voltage states. This paper is accompanied by a video file demonstrating the power loss distribution in the inverter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing proliferation of variable speed drive, the demand for the more reliable drive is also on the rise. Despite the growing interest on more advanced motors like permanent magnet and flux switching motors, three-phase induction motors (3ph-IMs) are still the main workhorse in the industry and hence the fault-tolerant control of these motor drives remains an interesting and important topic. In this paper, a simple fault-tolerant field-oriented control technique for 3ph-IMs is presented. It is shown that by injecting zero-sequence compensation voltage in a feedforward manner, open-circuit faults can be effectively tolerated. Compared to the previous feedforward fault-tolerant control methods, the proposed approach does not require the knowledge of the magnetizing inductance, which is tricky to be obtained in induction motors. Furthermore, the unified feedforward approach allows the same control structure to be used for different fault-tolerant 3ph-IMs drive topologies, with minor modifications to the feedforward terms. In addition, the effect of inverter non-idealities on the performance of the proposed control method is also highlighted and addressed. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is verified using MATLAB simulation and further validated using experimental tests. This paper is accompanied by a video demonstrating the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel high-conversion-ratio isolated bidirectional dc–dc converter for distributed energy storage systems is proposed. In the buck mode, the proposed converter is equivalent to that of a cascade consisting of an isolated buck–boost converter and a buck converter, thus achieving a high step-down ratio. Likewise, in the boost mode, the converter is equivalent to the cascaded structure consisting of a boost converter and an isolated buck–boost converter, and then, a high step-up ratio is achieved. Therefore, the proposed topology exhibits a high conversion ratio with low transformer turns ratio, improving the efficiency of high-frequency transformers and the integration and reliability of the control system. In addition, voltage spikes caused by the leakage inductance can be avoided as the leakage inductance energy is released to capacitors in a high-voltage side or a low-voltage side. Moreover, a zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation reduces switching losses and improves the conversion efficiency. The operating principles and theoretical derivations of the proposed converter along with ZVS implementations are discussed in detail in this paper. Furthermore, the validity and performance of the proposed converter are verified using a prototype with 600-V high voltage, 48-V low voltage, and 2-kW output power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new class of bidirectional partial-resonance power converters is presented. The proposed family can be configured to interface single- or multi-port dc, single- or multi-phase ac systems at input-side and/or output-side. The proposed family offers a very modular structure, which can lead to cost reduction from a common designed module. In this converter, which accomplishes power conversion in a single stage, a small inductor placed in series with the input and output switch-bridges forms the link. This small link inductor is responsible for transferring power between different ports of the system. The proposed topologies can operate in buck, boost, and buck–boost modes of operation to step up and/or step down the voltage. In buck–boost mode of operation, the converter is controlled such that the power is entirely transferred through the link inductor; whereas, in buck or boost modes of operation only a fraction of the power is transferred through the link inductor, and the remaining power is directly transferred from input phases to the output phases. Galvanic isolation, which is typically a prominent factor contributing to power density of a converter, can be provided by means of a compact and lightweight single-phase high-frequency transformer added to the link. In comparison with earlier generations of partial-resonance inductive-link power converters, in the proposed converter, the level of link peak current and consequently power-loss, as well as voltage and current stress of switches are dramatically decreased. A very small film capacitor can be placed in parallel with the link inductor to facilitate zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) operation for all the switches/diodes. Apart from increasing the overall efficiency, minimized dv/dt stress and improvement in power density are achieved by adding the link capacitor. The proposed converter employs four-quadrant switches, i.e., bidirectional-conducting bidirectional-blocking switches, and charges the link inductor in both positive and negative directions in each cycle. In view of this, better utilization of the link inductor and lower total harmonic distortion (THD) are offered. Furthermore, two distinct switching algorithms are developed for the proposed family of converters. In this paper, the detailed behavior of the proposed family is investigated analytically, and simulation and experimental results are presented to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed converter. A low-power proof-of-concept prototype with input voltage of 59 V/161 V, load voltage of 178 V/73.5 V, maximum switching frequency of 4.9 kHz/3.65 kHz at 215 W/450 W in a step-up/step-down operation is considered for the experimental verification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a dc-link voltage control method of a single-phase back-to-back cascaded H-bridge inverter (SBCI) for a medium-voltage motor drive system. The main advantage of the SBCI topology over the conventional regenerative cascaded H-bridge topology with a three-phase active front-end (AFE) is a simple system structure, which is composed of an input transformer, a power cell, a current sensor, etc. However, the challenging points of the SBCI are larger voltage ripple in the dc-link capacitor and imbalance of dc-link voltages of each phase. The asymmetric dc-link voltage of each power cells could cause unstable operation such as over-modulation due to the lack of the dc-link voltage of a particular phase and result in over-voltage or under-voltage faults. In this paper, the control strategy of the dc-link voltage for the SBCI that uses the negative-sequence voltage of the converter is described. The proposed control method is verified with a computer simulation whose target is a 6.6-kV–1.25-MW medium-voltage drive system. Also, through the experimental setup with the prototype SBCI whose power rating is 16.2 kVA, the dc-link voltage of each AFE has been controlled within a 0.5% error of its reference value at the full load. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a novel bidirectional isolated dc–dc converter with high voltage gain and wide input voltage, which can be applied to bidirectional power conversion systems. The proposed topology is composed of a bidirectional buck-boost converter and a forward-flyback converter; it has the advantage of higher voltage gain and has continuous current characteristic of the low-side port in step-up and step-down mode. In addition, the proposed topology also has the function of leakage inductance energy recovery, which can improve the efficiency of the converter, reduce the voltage surges on switches, and have the characteristics of zero voltage switching on certain switches. Finally, this paper implements a 500-W bidirectional dc–dc converter to verify the feasibility of the proposed topology. The low-side voltage of the proposed topology is 24, 48, and 55 V; the maximum efficiency in step-up mode are 94.2%, 95.6% and 96.9%, and the maximum efficiency are 92.6%, 94.2% and 94.5% in the step-down mode, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolated, zero-voltage-switching dc–dc converter topologies represent attractive solutions in the continuous run toward higher switching frequencies, allowing more compact power supplies. Among them, the asymmetrical half-bridge flyback converter represents an interesting option, featuring simple duty-cycle control at constant switching frequency, as opposed to the popular LLC converter. The majority of papers dealing with this topology consider an approximated voltage gain similar to that of an isolated buck converter operating in continuous conduction mode, i.e., proportional to the duty cycle and, practically, load independent. On the contrary, the true voltage gain is nonmonotonic at high duty-cycle values. Anytime the converter is designed for a resonant operation, as is advisable to eliminate any reverse recovery problem of the rectifier diode, the voltage gain not only increases, but also becomes a function of the switching frequency. This article investigates the converter's voltage gain in detail, deriving a theoretical framework capable of capturing its real behavior and dependencies. The proposed analytical model has been verified through simulations as well as experimental measurements taken on a 160-W prototype working at 400 kHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photovoltaic (PV) output voltage varies over a wide range depending on operating conditions. Thus, the PV-connected converters should be capable of handling a wide input voltage range while maintaining high efficiencies. This paper proposes a new series resonant dc–dc converter for PV microinverter applications. Compared with the conventional series resonant converter, a dual-mode rectifier is configured on the secondary side, which enables a twofold voltage gain range for the proposed converter with a fixed-frequency phase-shift modulation scheme. The zero-voltage switching turn-on and zero-current switching turn-off can be achieved for active switches and diodes, thereby, minimizing the switching losses. Moreover, a variable dc-link voltage control scheme is introduced to the proposed converter, leading to a further efficiency improvement and input-voltage-range extension. The operation principle and essential characteristics (e.g., voltage gain, soft-switching, and root-mean-square current) of the proposed converter are detailed in this paper, and the power loss modeling and design optimization of components are also presented. A 1-MHz 250-W converter prototype with an input voltage range of 17–43 V is built and tested to verify the feasibility of the proposed converter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the driving of white light emitting diodes (LEDs) from very low voltages in the 1.2 to 2 V range. The proposed idea is based on replacing the standard Schottky diode used in conventional converter topologies (i.e., buck, buck–boost, and boost) with an LED while shortcutting the output of the converter. In this configuration, the LED works both as the load and the rectifier diode of the converter, hence switching the LED at high frequencies (>100 kHz). Moreover, a thorough analytical study is carried out for the two topologies proposed in this paper, emphasizing in particular their static analysis and the obtaining of the boundaries between the different conduction modes. Finally, the idea is experimentally validated by means of the boost converter variation (i.e., the DL//S ac-LED driver). The DL//S ac-LED driver was also compared with a dc–dc boost converter, showing a better luminous efficacy while disposing of the Schottky diode and the output capacitor. The analysis was carried out when connected to a Li-ion battery using a simple control and integrated circuit for its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is regarded as a promising topology in high-voltage direct current systems. However, the MMC consists of numerous submodules (SMs) and switching devices, which lead to a considerable switching loss, and increased cost and size of the heat sink. To mitigate these issues, this paper presents a novel modulation method composed of fundamental frequency modulation (FFM) and multicarrier-based sinusoidal pulsewidth modulation schemes. The main purpose of this modulation method is the reduction of switching loss while maintaining good harmonic performance. However, the FFM scheme leads to the unbalanced capacitor voltage of each SM in the MMC. Accordingly, this paper additionally proposes the rotation method and selective voltage balancing control for SMs to ensure effective performance of the method. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness and performance of the proposed modulation scheme through switching loss and spectral analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel dc power electronic transformer (DCPET) topology for locomotive, ac/dc hybrid grid, dc distribution grid, and other isolated medium-voltage and high-power applications. Compared with conventional PET topology, the proposed DCPET has fewer power semiconductor devices and high-frequency isolation transformers, which can improve the power density and reliability. Fault handling or redundancy design can be achieved to further improve the reliability when some dc–dc modules break down. Also, input voltage sharing control can be omitted to simplify the control system and improve the stability. Meanwhile, soft switching is guaranteed for all the switches, which is beneficial to increase switching frequency and improve power density. In this paper, the principle, evolution, and control of the proposed DCPET are respectively presented and studied in detail. Finally, a prototype of the proposed DCPET is built and the experimental results verify the validity and superiority of the proposed topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a high-power-density and reliable inverter topology, which transfers the maximum power of a PV array to the load in one power conversion stage. The single-stage power conversion, along with the soft-switching capability of the proposed three-phase PV inverter promises high efficiency at all operating points. Instead of a capacitive dc link that decouples the dc–dc converter and the voltage source inverter in traditional two-stage PV inverters, a high-frequency capacitive ac link is employed in the proposed inverter, which enables exploiting a very small film capacitor, rather than a bulky electrolytic capacitor, for transferring power. Eliminating electrolytic capacitors prolongs the lifetime of this inverter. Considering the long lifetime of PV modules, this feature is of high importance in PV applications. The high-frequency ac link also allows using high-frequency transformers for providing galvanic isolation. Therefore, this inverter is expected to have a very high power density. This paper presents principles of the operation and control, design, and analysis of this inverter, and verifies the performance of the inverter through two prototypes: a 2-kW Si-based prototype and a 2-kW SiC-based prototype operating at different switching frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enhancement of dc bus voltage utilization for a five-level inverter with single dc source and capacitor-fed H-bridge (CHB) units is investigated in this paper. A carrier-based modulation technique is used for boosting the dc bus utilization, which is established by providing detailed mathematical analysis. The five-level inverter used here is realized by cascading a CHB unit to each phase of a three-level neutral point clamped inverter. The increase in dc bus voltage utilization owes to the pole voltage redundancies offered by CHB units. The floating capacitors of H-bridge units are balanced within a quarter fundamental cycle using the switching state redundancies of pole voltage levels. The aforementioned modulation technique allows the inverter to enhance the dc bus utilization from 0.577 $\text{V}_{\text{dc}}$ to 0.63 $\text{V}_{\text{dc}}$ under unity power factor. This enhancement is obtained in the linear modulation range without increasing the dc bus voltage, and thus, the inverter can operate without the presence of low-order harmonics in its phase voltages. The strength of this paper lies in its detailed mathematical analysis for finding out the limiting modulation index and power factor condition in the light of floating capacitor voltage balancing issue. Simulation as well as experimental verification of the modulation scheme is carried out on an induction motor drive under various operating conditions. It is shown that this carrier-based modulation technique is suitable for any single source inverter topology with one CHB unit per phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new six-level flying capacitor based (FC-based) multilevel converter with one dc source and the capability of operating in all power factors and modulation indexes. Multilevel converters with one dc voltage source are attractive in many applications as they do not need rather expensive and bulky multiwinding input transformer connection at the dc side. On the other hand, not all classic multilevel converters with one dc source can produce any desirable number of output voltage levels at all power factors and/or modulation indexes. In this paper, a hybrid structure is proposed in which six voltage levels can be realized at the ac terminals. The modulation technique and the control strategy for the FC voltage balancing are presented. To show the advantages of the proposed converter, different performance criteria, such as switch count and rating, the size of capacitors, switching frequency, and power losses, are compared with other existing six-level topologies. The results indicate that the proposed structure is superior to other six-level converters from different standpoints. Simulation results are used to further evaluate the performance of the proposed converter. A laboratory-type experimental setup is used to validate the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single-stage three-phase ac–ac converter benefiting from a high-frequency alternating link voltage is proposed in this paper. In this converter, a very small film capacitor can transfer the energy from the input to the output, owing to the high-frequency alternating voltage of the link. This eliminates the need for large electrolytic capacitors that are typically used in dc-link ac–ac converters. Moreover, a compact high-frequency transformer at the link can replace the bulky low-frequency transformers, in case isolation is required. These features increase the power density as well as reliability of the proposed converter in comparison with the conventional dc-link converters. The number of required switches in the proposed converter is 12, which is less than the number of switches needed in matrix converters, leading to lower switching and conduction losses. Despite being single-stage, the proposed ac–ac converter is capable of both stepping up and stepping down the voltage and also frequency transformation. This eliminates the need for using cascaded power converters. In this paper, the operation principles of the proposed ac–ac converter are investigated, and variable switching frequency and fixed switching frequency control methods for operating this converter are introduced. The performance of the converter is verified through simulation and experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new structure for a nonisolated boost dc–dc converter is proposed. The proposed converter generates higher voltage gain than some conventional nonisolated boost dc–dc converters. In this paper, the voltage and current equations of the elements and voltage gain in continuous conduction mode and discontinuous conduction mode are extracted. Then, the critical inductance converter is extracted and the current stresses in the switches are calculated. To achieve high voltage gain, a generalized structure based on the proposed structure generates for dc–dc converters. Meanwhile, the root mean square current relations of devices are obtained for an extended structure. Finally, the results of PSCAD/EMTDC software and laboratory prototype are used to reconfirm theoretical concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial induction heating (IH) is a key manufacturing process due to its benefits in terms of efficiency, accurate output power control, and high performance. These features have made possible the extension of this technology to a wide range of industries from automotive to aeronautic, domestic, or renewable energies. One of the main challenges still present is the design of a high-performance and cost-effective process for those induction targets with complex geometries exposed to the magnetic field, being the most representative example gears present in most mechanical systems. Usually, in order to optimize the heating process, multifrequency IH systems are used, being often expensive and/or difficult to tune and control. The aim of this paper is, consequently, to propose a family of power converters able to supply the inductor system with two simultaneous frequencies in order to improve the heating process of the induction target. The proposed converter takes advantage of a multiresonant network allowing full control of the output power delivered at each frequency and, at the same time, a compact and cost-effective implementation. The proposed converter is analyzed, designed, and implemented, and experimental verification of its operation is provided in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a novel method for instantaneous balancing of neutral-point (NP) voltages with stacked multilevel inverters (MLIs) for variable-speed drives. The stacked MLI uses series-connected dc sources and NPs (connecting points of dc sources) to obtain the desired levels. The balancing of NP voltages are obtained by using a low-voltage-capacitor-fed cascaded H-bridge (CHB) per phase of a symmetrical six-phase induction machine (IM), which ensures zero current drawn from NPs (at any given instant). Since no current is drawn from NPs, the single dc-link operation with stacked capacitors is also possible. The scheme is suitable for applications, where low-voltage dc sources and batteries are stacked to form a dc link. A variable-speed operation is done using a seven-level inverter scheme for a symmetrical six-phase IM, which is formed by three dc-link stacked capacitors cascaded with two low-voltage-capacitor-fed CHBs per phase. Furthermore, the method is extended for an open-end IM to obtain a seven-level common-mode eliminated space vector structure using a single dc link. The generalization of this method for any stacked $n$ -level inverter without NP voltage deviation is also presented in this paper. The experimental results and analysis are included to validate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonregenerative pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) rectifiers are increasingly being considered for applications, where the power flow is unidirectional, such as power supplies for telecommunications, X-ray, the machine-side converter for wind energy conversion systems, etc. They use fewer active switches, which increase their power density and reduce cost. This paper proposes a novel reduced switch topology for a multilevel (five-level or higher) nonregenerative PWM rectifier. It uses only four controlled switches and eight diodes per phase for a five-level rectifier. Half of the diodes are naturally commutated (zero current switching) at the line frequency, which reduces switching losses. This topology has several other advantages compared to similar topologies reported in the literature, such as minimum voltage stress across the devices, elimination of transient voltage-balancing snubbers, no extra hardware for balancing the flying capacitors, the dc-link mid-point voltage, etc. In this paper, switching cycle average modeling and the carrier-based modulation strategy for this rectifier are also presented to maintain a balanced dc link and to regulate flying capacitor voltages, while achieving unity displacement factor at the rectifier input terminals. The overall performance of the rectifier is verified by experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel single-stage soft-switched high-frequency-link three-phase dc–ac converter topology. The topology supports unidirectional dc to ac power flow and is targeted for applications like grid integration of photovoltaic sources, fuel cell, etc. The high frequency magnetic isolation results in reduction of system volume, weight, and cost. Sine-wave pulsewidth modulation is implemented in dc-side converter. Though high-frequency switched, dc-side converter is soft switched for most part of the line cycle. The ac-side converter active switches are line frequency switched incurring negligible switching loss. The line frequency switching of ac-side converter facilitates use of high voltage blocking inherently slow semiconductor devices to generate high voltage ac output. In addition, a cascaded multilevel structure is presented in this paper for direct medium-voltage ac grid integration. A detailed circuit analysis considering nonidealities like transformer leakage and switch capacitances, is presented in this paper. A 6-kW three-phase laboratory prototype is built. The presented simulation and experimental results verify the operation of the proposed topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-level neutral-point clamped voltage source converter (3L-NPC-VSC) is widely used in high-power and medium-voltage (MV) applications and the most used multilevel VSC topology. 3L-Active-NPC-VSC (3L-ANPC-VSC) was introduced to overcome the unequal losses distribution as main structural drawback of the 3L-NPC-VSC. During the switching event of semiconductor devices, the stray inductance takes a special role in the commutation path of the switching current. Mutual coupling inductance between the components participating in the commutation path has to be considered for a theoretical assessment of the total stray inductance of each commutation path. Besides, the measurement of the commutation path stray inductance has to be carried out during the turn-on of the semiconductor device, instead of during the turn-off, to consider the reverse blocking voltage of the opposite switching semiconductor device. This paper shows how a dual 3L-ANPC-VSC phase-leg has been carefully designed and assembled to build a ±10 MVAr five-level VSC for MV-static synchronous compensator applications. The minimization of the stray inductance, the equalization of the total switching power losses for all commutation paths and power density maximization with snubberless operation are within the main technical design requisites. On the basis of the theoretical analysis, the stray inductance of all the commutation paths has been extracted, considering mutual coupling effect, by means of three-dimensional finite-element-analysis simulations. Once the design concept is theoretically validated, the estimated values have been compared with the experimental results obtained from the performance of double-pulse tests for each commutation path. This paper presents, for the first time, all the analysis details of the 3L-ANPC-VSC commutation behavior using 4.5-kV and 1.5-kA trench high-voltage insulated-gate bipolar transistor modules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The doubly fed induction machine has been traditionally adopted in adjustable-speed ac power generation drives in order to take advantage of the reduced rating for the power electronic interface. Aside this well-established application where the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) is controlled by a back-to-back converter, recent literature records a growing interest toward un-conventional DFIG drives for dc power generation, combining DFIG high control freedom with simplified power electronic interfaces to achieve an overall cheap and fully controllable system. Despite several concepts have been demonstrated on small-scale rigs, there is a lack of systematic comparison among different topologies and control solutions. This paper bridges this gap by providing a review of recent topologies, their control, design and performance, and operation issues. As major novelties, this paper includes off-spec performance comparison of different torque-ripple mitigation strategies, discussion of sizing requirements for generator and power electronics, fundamental aspects of the behavior under voltage dips, and priorities and challenges for future research on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the digital implementation of a boundary controller with unipolar switching characteristic for single-phase voltage source full-bridge inverters. This paper expands the application of a second-order switching surface-based control method to unipolar switching of single-phase voltage source inverters (VSIs) using a finite-state machine. The finite-state machine has been formulated considering four different states of the inverter; positive,zero1, negative, andzero2. The second-order boundary control governs the current state of the system and provides proper switching action to keep the system within the desired reference. The control law is implemented digitally in F28m35x digital control card. A full-bridge inverter topology is used to achieve the three-level voltage switching. Various simulations and experiments were performed in a 550 VA, 120 V, 60 Hz VSI with a digitally implemented controller to verify the theoretical predictions. A high-quality voltage output was obtained for various loading conditions. The transient performance of the controller was investigated using a reference and load changes. A comparison of the implementation was made with the existing classical controllers to verify the fast-dynamic response of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive optimization control scheme to improve efficiency and dynamic response of dual-active-bridge (DAB) dc–dc converters. Unified-phase-shift (UPS) control is widely used to increase the efficiency of DAB dc–dc converters by minimizing the peak current, but dynamic performance of the converters needs to be further enhanced. In this paper, to gain superior dynamic performance of DAB dc–dc converters, an equivalent power-balancing (PB) model is employed, which is capable of predicting dynamic behavior of converter output voltages due to input voltage fluctuation and load disturbance. And then, combining the UPS control and the PB control, a comprehensive UPS and PB (UPS-PB) scheme is proposed to improve the efficiency and dynamic performance simultaneously. This work also includes the detailed inductance parameter sensitivity of the proposed UPS-PB scheme and a zonal voltage control strategy to further improve dynamic responses of the output voltage under the start-up process or a large step change of the output voltage reference. Moreover, the variant of UPS-PB scheme for constant power load is analyzed in the experimental part. Finally, experimental results have verified the excellent performance of the proposed UPS-PB scheme and correctness of theoretical analysis in this work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In dc distribution networks, the parallel H-bridge dc/dc converters (HBDCs) are widely adopted to convert voltage levels with the higher power rating and reliability, in which the parallel HBDCs are naturally connected in input-parallel output-parallel (IPOP) form. However among IPOP HBDCs, there are complicated circulating currents that will influence the safe and steady operation of dc distribution networks. This paper focuses on the suppression of these circulating currents. First, the detailed mathematic models of circulating currents among IPOP HBDCs are derived. Through the model, it is found that various types of circulating currents exist in the system, including the circulating currents within the single HBDC and the circulating currents among the multiple HBDCs. Hence, the suppression of circulating currents among IPOP HBDCs is a multiobjective control problem. In this paper, it is proven that the conventional one degree of freedom control based on the bipolar modulation cannot eliminate all the circulating currents. Second, a novel two degrees of freedom control method is proposed to suppress all kinds of circulating currents based on the improved modulation way of HBDCs, which consists of two parts. The droop based control is used to suppress the circulating currents among the multiple HBDCs, whereas the common mode control is used to control the circulating currents within the single HBDC. All the theoretical analyses are verified by the real-time hardware-in-loop tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modular smart transformer (ST) is composed by several basic converters rated for lower voltage and power. In this paper, the quadruple active bridge (QAB) is used as the basic block for the modular ST. In this application, the efficiency and cost are the most important design parameters. Therefore, the paper focus on the design of the converter, with the aim to optimize its efficiency, taking the cost into consideration. To do so, the losses of all components are carefully modeled and a computer-aided design is used, where an algorithm to calculate the losses and cost is developed, allowing to perform multiobjective optimization. Additionally, silicon IGBTs and silicon carbide mosfets are considered for the design and the performance of the converter using both semiconductors technology is compared. Experimental results obtained for the optimized 20 kW QAB converter has shown an efficiency of 97.5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new bidirectional single-phase inverter topology. The proposed topology has three ports: a dc port, an ac port, and a ripple port. The ac and dc ports are bidirectional to support rectifier or inverter operation. A small inductor, which is of alternating current, exchanges power between different ports of the single-phase system. The proposed topology is capable of accomplishing voltage step-up or step-down, suppressing the ripple power, and performing inversion or rectification operation in one stage of power conversion. The proposed configuration offers an active decoupling function, which not only eliminates the double-frequency ripple power at the dc port but also achieves minimum capacitance requirements to minimize the size of the decoupling capacitor. This facilitates the use of a very small thin-film capacitor, which offers a much longer life-cycle and higher reliability compared with a bulky electrolytic capacitor. A control approach is also developed to regulate the dc-port and ac-port currents and manage the ripple power through proper distribution of power between each port. Moreover, a very small capacitor can be placed in parallel with the inductor to reinforce the proposed configuration with soft-switching operation, which enhances the overall efficiency and minimizes the voltage stress over the semiconductor devices. This converter is capable of accommodating an arbitrary number of dc or single-phase ac sources and/or loads configuring a multiple-input multiple-output inverter without introducing any additional passive elements or sacrificing the performance of the inverter. The primary focus of this paper is dc-to-ac conversion mode of operation, in spite of the fact that it can easily be configured to serve as a rectifier. Experimental and simulation results are presented to validate the operation of the proposed topology and its control strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the two-stage converters for electric bike battery charging comprise of a boost converter for power factor correction (PFC) followed by a dc–dc converter with universal input voltage. These two-stage conversions suffer from poor efficiency and increased component count. In this paper, a single-stage switched inductor Cuk converter based PFC converter is proposed, which offers high step-down gain, low current stress, high efficiency, and reduced component count. The operational analysis and design equations for various components of the proposed converter are carried out in continuous current mode. This paper presents mathematical modeling, analysis, simulation, and experimentation on the proposed converter rated for 500 W, 48 V/10.4 A. The performance investigation of the proposed converter with respect to power quality indices like voltage total harmonic distortion (THD), current THD, and total power factor is carried out with various types of loads such as resistive load and battery load in both constant voltage (CV) and constant current (CC) mode. Furthermore, the dynamic performance of the proposed converter with battery charging is investigated in CV mode and CC mode with respect to the wide range of supply variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dual active bridge (DAB) based converters offer the benefit of smaller volume due to high-frequency isolation and controllability of active power flow, making them attractive for various applications, such as renewable energy generation, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and distribution systems. This paper presents a novel converter topology along with a modulation strategy for a DAB-based three-phase ac to dc converter. The major benefits are single-stage conversion, no unreliable intermediate dc-link capacitor, reduced number of switches, i.e., only two active switches on the ac side, simple control scheme, open-loop unity power factor operation, bidirectional power flow, and partial soft-switching. This paper presents the analysis of all the operating modes of the converter, resulting in the analytical estimation of power transfer and rms winding current and investigation of soft-switching conditions for the power devices. Simulation and experimental results have been presented to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed technique and accuracy of the analysis.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a unified framework for the modeling, analysis, and design of load-independent Class E and Class EF inverters and rectifiers. These circuits are able to maintain zero-voltage switching and, hence, high efficiency for a wide load range without requiring tuning or use of a feedback loop, and to simultaneously achieve a constant amplitude ac voltage or current in inversion and a constant dc output voltage or current in rectification. As switching frequencies are gradually stepping into the megahertz (MHz) region with the use of wide-bandgap (WBG) devices such as GaN and SiC, switching loss, implementing fast control loops, and current sensing become a challenge, which load-independent operation is able to address, thus allowing exploitation of the high-frequency capability of WBG devices. The traditional Class E and EF topologies are first presented, and the conditions for load-independent operation are derived mathematically; then, a thorough analytical characterization of the circuit performance is carried out in terms of voltage and current stresses and the power-output capability. From this, design contours and tables are presented to enable the rapid implementation of these converters given particular power and load requirements. Three different design examples are used to showcase the capability of these converters in typical MHz power conversion applications using the design equations and methods presented in this paper. The design examples are chosen toward enabling efficient and high-power-density MHz converters for wireless power transfer (WPT) applications and dc/dc conversion. Specifically, a 150-W 13.56-MHz Class EF inverter for WPT, a 150-W 10-MHz miniature Class E boost converter, and a lightweight wirelessly powered drone using a 20-W 13.56-MHz Class E synchronous rectifier have been designed and are presented here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]