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This paper proposed a new topology that can achieve high-step-down conversion compared with traditional buck converter. A coupled inductor is employed to extend duty cycle which is for high-step-down applications. Soft-switching of all switches can be achieved. A prototype with 24 V input 5 V/2 A output is given to verify the circuit operation. Switching frequency is up to 1.3 MHz to minimize magnetics size. The peak efficiency can reach to 87 %.

This paper introduces a novel isolated hybrid resonant converter with smooth transition between multiple operating modes. With the simple addition of a bidirectional ac switch, the highly-efficient series resonant converter operating in the discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) is combined with a phase-shifted full-bridge buck converter and a pulse width modulated (PWM) boost converter in order to provide high power conversion efficiency over a wide input-voltage operating range utilizing a simple topology and simple control techniques. First, the topology is introduced and the converter's operating modes are discussed. Next, closed-loop input-voltage controllers are designed for the different operating modes and a smooth transition technique is introduced using a two-carrier modulation scheme. Experimental results are provided to verify the proposed system using a 300-W prototype that achieved a 97.5% California Energy Commission (CEC) weighted efficiency with a 30-V input including all auxiliary and control losses.

Modular photovoltaic (PV) power conditioning systems (PCSs) require a high-efficiency dc-dc converter stage capable of regulation over a wide input voltage range for maximum power point tracking. In order to mitigate ground leakage currents and to be able to use a high-efficiency, nonisolated grid-tied inverter, it is also desirable for this microconverter to provide galvanic isolation between the PV module and the inverter. This paper presents a novel, isolated topology that is able to meet the high efficiency over a wide input voltage range requirement. This topology yields high efficiency through low circulating currents, zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and low-current switching of the primary side devices, ZCS of the output diodes, and direct power transfer to the load for the majority of switching cycle. This topology is also able to provide voltage regulation through basic fixed-frequency pulsewidth modulated (PWM) control. These features are able to be achieved with the simple addition of a secondary-side bidirectional ac switch to the isolated series resonant converter. Detailed analysis of the operation of this converter is discussed along with a detailed design procedure. Experimental results of a 300-W prototype are given. The prototype reached a peak power stage efficiency of 98.3% and a California Energy Commission (CEC) weighted power stage efficiency of 98.0% at the nominal input voltage.

This paper presents a hybrid switch that parallels a power MOSFET and an insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) as the main switch of a zero-voltage switching (ZVS) inverter. The combination features the MOSFET conducting in the low-current region and the IGBT conducting in the high-current region, and the soft switching avoids the reverse recovery problem during the device turn-on. A custom hybrid switch module has been developed for a variable-timing-controlled coupled-magnetic-type ZVS inverter with a nominal input voltage of 325 V and the continuous output power of 30 kW for a traction motor drive. Experimental results of the hybrid-switch-based inverter with the total loss projected by temperature indicate that the inverter achieves 99% efficiency at the nominal condition and demonstrate ultrahigh-efficiency operation over a wide load range. At 375-V input, the maximum measured efficiency through temperature projection and loss separation analysis is 99.3%.

Photovoltaic (PV) source simulators serve as a convenient tool for the dynamic evaluation of solar power conditioning systems and maximum power point tracking algorithms. High efficiency and fast transient response time are essential features of any PV source simulator. This paper proposes a new type of PV source simulator that incorporates the advantages of both analog and digital-based simulators. The proposed system includes a three-phase ac-dc dual boost rectifier cascaded with a three-phase dc-dc interleaved buck converter. The selected power stage topology is highly reliable and efficient. Moreover, the multiphase converter helps improve system transient response though producing low output ripple which makes it adequate for PV source simulators. The simulator circuitry emulates precisely the static and the dynamic characteristics of actual PV generators under different load and environmental conditions. Additionally, the system allows the creation of the partial shading and bypass diodes effect on PV characteristics. The paper investigates the dynamic performance of a commercial solar power inverter using the proposed PV source simulator in steady-state and transient conditions. Closed-loop output impedance of the proposed PV source simulator has been measured and verified at different operating regions. The impedance profile--magnitude and phase--matches the output impedance of actual PV generators. Mathematical modeling and experimental validation of the proposed system is thoroughly presented based on a 2.0 kW hardware prototype. The proposed simulator efficiency, including the active-front-end rectifier and the converter stages, peaks at 96.7%.

This paper proposes a pulsewidth-modulation strategy to achieve balanced line-to-line output voltages and to maximize the modulation index in the linear modulation range where the output voltage can be linearly adjusted in the multilevel cascaded inverter (MLCI) operating under unbalanced dc-link conditions. In these conditions, the linear modulation range is reduced, and a significant output voltage imbalance may occur as voltage references increase. In order to analyze these effects, the voltage vector space for MLCI is evaluated in detail. From this analysis, the theory behind the output voltage imbalance is explained, and the maximum linear modulation range considering an unbalanced dc-link condition is evaluated. After that, a neutral voltage modulation strategy is proposed to achieve output voltage balancing as well as to extend the linear modulation range up to the maximum reachable point in theory. In the proposed method, too large of a dc-link imbalance precludes the balancing of the output voltages. This limitation is also discussed. Both the simulations and the experiments for a seven-level phase-shifted modulated MLCI for electric vehicle traction motor drive show that the proposed method is able to balance line-to-line output voltages as well as to maximize the linear modulation range under the unbalanced dc-link conditions.

This paper presents the benefits of interleaving three phase voltage source converters (VSCs) to improve the power density. The output harmonics are also analyzed in frequency domain, then design and optimization of coupled inductor and output filter are given. Verifications are carried out through electrical circiut and electromagnetic's FEM simualtions. Finally, the inductor weight are compared with and without interleaving.

This paper presents a new overall control strategy for small-scale wind energy conversion systems (WECS). The purpose of the proposed strategy is to utilize a maximum power point tracking control (MPPT) to maximize the captured energy when the wind speeds are below the rated speed. For high wind speed region; two stall controllers are developed: The constant speed stall controller which will limit the rotational speed of the generator to its rated value, and the constant power stall controller, which will regulate the captured power to be within the system rating. For the MPPT control, a modified perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm is utilized, where the dc side current is used as a perturbation variable and the dc-link voltage slope information is used to enhance the tracking speed and stability of the algorithm. For the speed and power regulation operation during high wind speeds, the system is controlled in the stall region to limit the rotational speed and the power of the generator. A stabilizing control loop is proposed to compensate for the stall region instability. A new mode transfer control strategy is developed to effectively control the transition between different modes of operation while ensuring the system stability without using any preknowledge of the system parameters. A 1 kW hardware prototype is developed and tested to validate the proposed new control strategy.

This paper presents a zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) full-bridge dc-dc converter combing resonant and pulse-width-modulation (PWM) power conversions for electric vehicle battery chargers. In the proposed converter, a half-bridge LLC resonant circuit shares the lagging leg with a phase-shift full-bridge (PSFB) dc-dc circuit to guarantee ZVS of the lagging-leg switches from zero to full load. A secondary-side hybrid-switching circuit, which is formed by the leakage inductance, output inductor of the PSFB dc-dc circuit, a small additional resonant capacitor, and two additional diodes, is integrated at the secondary side of the PSFB dc-dc circuit. With the clamp path of a hybrid-switching circuit, the voltage overshoots that arise during the turn off of the rectifier diodes are eliminated and the voltage of bridge rectifier is clamped to the minimal achievable value, which is equal to secondary-reflected input voltage of the transformer. The sum of the output voltage of LLC resonant circuit and the resonant capacitor voltage of the hybrid-switching circuit is applied between the bridge rectifier and the output inductor of the PSFB dc-dc circuit during the freewheeling phases. As a result, the primary-side circulating current of the PSFB dc-dc circuit is instantly reset to zero, achieving minimized circulating losses. The effectiveness of the proposed converter was experimentally verified using a 4-kW prototype circuit. The experimental results show 98.6% peak efficiency and high efficiency over wide load and output voltage ranges.

This paper proposes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm for small-scale wind energy conversion systems. The proposed algorithm uses the dc current as the perturbing variable. The algorithm detects sudden wind speed changes indirectly through the dc-link voltage slope. The voltage slope is also used to enhance the tracking speed of the algorithm and to prevent the generator from stalling under rapid wind speed slowdown conditions. The proposed method uses two modes of operation: A perturb and observe (P&O) mode with adaptive step size under slow wind speed fluctuation conditions, and a prediction mode employed under fast wind speed change conditions. The dc-link capacitor voltage slope reflects the acceleration information of the generator, which is then used to predict the next step size and direction of the current command. The proposed algorithm shows enhanced stability and fast tracking capability under both high and low rate of change wind speed conditions and is verified using a 1.5 kW prototype hardware setup.

This paper analyzes the effect of the admittance component for the digitally controlled single-phase bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) converter. To do this, it is shown how the digital delay effects such as the digital pulse-width modulation (DPWM) and the computation delays restrict the bandwidth of the converter. After that, the admittance effect of the entire digital control system is analyzed when the bridgeless PFC converter which has the limited bandwidth is connected to the grid. From this, the waveform distortion of the input current is explained and the compensation method for the admittance component is suggested to improve the quality of the input current. Both the simulations and the experiments are performed to verify the analyses taken in this paper for the 1 kW bridgeless PFC converter prototype.

This paper presents a high-reliability single-phase transformerless grid-connected inverter that utilizes superjunction MOSFETs to achieve high efficiency for photovoltaic applications. The proposed converter utilizes two split ac-coupled inductors that operate separately for positive and negative half grid cycles. This eliminates the shoot-through issue that is encountered by traditional voltage source inverters, leading to enhanced system reliability. Dead time is not required at both the high-frequency pulsewidth modulation switching commutation and the grid zero-crossing instants, improving the quality of the output ac-current and increasing the converter efficiency. The split structure of the proposed inverter does not lead itself to the reverse-recovery issues for the main power switches and as such superjunction MOSFETs can be utilized without any reliability or efficiency penalties. Since MOSFETs are utilized in the proposed converter high efficiency can be achieved even at light load operations achieving a high California energy commission (CEC) or European union efficiency of the converter system. It also has the ability to operate at higher switching frequencies while maintaining high efficiency. The higher operating frequencies with high efficiency enables reduced cooling requirements and results in system cost savings by shrinking passive components. With two additional ac-side switches conducting the currents during the freewheeling phases, the photovoltaic array is decoupled from the grid. This reduces the high-frequency common-mode voltage leading to minimized ground loop leakage current. The operation principle, common-mode characteristic and design considerations of the proposed transformerless inverter are illustrated. The total losses of the power semiconductor devices of several existing transformerless inverters which utilize MOSFETs as main switches are evaluated and compared. The experimental results with a 5 kW prototype circuit show 99.0% CEC efficiency and 99.3% peak efficiency with a 20 kHz switching frequency. The high reliability and efficiency of the proposed converter makes it very attractive for single-phase transformerless photovoltaic inverter applications.

This paper presents a nonisolated, high boost ratio hybrid transformer dc–dc converter with applications for low-voltage renewable energy sources. The proposed converter utilizes a hybrid transformer to transfer the inductive and capacitive energy simultaneously, achieving a high boost ratio with a smaller sized magnetic component. As a result of incorporating the resonant operation mode into the traditional high boost ratio pulsewidth modulation converter, the turn-off loss of the switch is reduced, increasing the efficiency of the converter under all load conditions. The input current ripple and conduction losses are also reduced because of the hybrid linear-sinusoidal input current waveforms. The voltage stresses on the active switch and diodes are maintained at a low level and are independent of the changing input voltage over a wide range as a result of the resonant capacitor transferring energy to the output of the converter. The effectiveness of the proposed converter was experimentally verified using a 220-W prototype circuit. Utilizing an input voltage ranging from 20 to 45 V and a load range of 30–220 W, the experimental results show system of efficiencies greater than 96% with a peak efficiency of 97.4% at 35-V input, 160-W output. Due to the high system efficiency and the ability to operate with a wide variable input voltage, the proposed converter is an attractive design for alternative low dc voltage energy sources, such as solar photovoltaic modules and fuel cells.

Effective photovoltaic power conditioning requires efficient power conversion and accurate maximum power point tracking to counteract the effects of panel mismatch, shading, and general variance in power output during a daily cycle. In this paper, the authors propose an integrated boost resonant converter with low component count, galvanic isolation, simple control, as well as high efficiency across a wide input and load range. Provided is a discussion of the converter synthesis, key operational features, converter design procedure, and loss analysis, as well as experimental verification by way of a 250-W prototype with a California Energy Commission efficiency of 96.8%.

This paper first presents a hybrid-switching step-down dc-dc converter, and then, by introducing transformer isolation, a novel hybrid-switching phase-shift full-bridge dc-dc converter is derived for electric vehicle battery chargers. The proposed converter provides wide zero-voltage-switching range in the leading-leg switches, achieves zero-current-switching for lagging-leg switches, and uses a hybrid-switching method to avoid freewheeling circulating losses in the primary side. Because the resonant capacitor voltage of the hybrid-switching circuit is applied between the bridge rectifier and the output inductor for the duration of the freewheeling intervals, a smaller sized output inductor can be utilized. With the current rectifier diode of the hybrid-switching circuit providing a clamping path, the voltage overshoots that arise during the turn-off of the rectifier diodes are eliminated and the voltage stress of bridge rectifier is clamped to the minimal achievable value, which is equal to secondary-reflected input voltage of the transformer. The inductive energy stored in the output inductor and the capacitive energy stored in the resonant capacitor of the hybrid-switching circuit are transferred to the output simultaneously during the freewheeling intervals with only one diode in series in the current path, achieving more effective and efficient energy transfer. The effectiveness of the proposed converter was experimentally verified using a 3.6-kW prototype circuit designed for electric vehicle onboard chargers. Experimental results of the hardware prototype show that the converter achieves a peak efficiency of 98.1% and high system efficiencies over wide output voltage and power ranges.

A novel soft-switching hybrid converter combining the phase-shift full-bridge (FB) and half-bridge (HB) LLC resonant converters' configuration with shared zero-voltage switching (ZVS) lagging leg is proposed to ensure the switches in the lagging leg operating at fully ZVS condition. The dual outputs of the proposed hybrid FB-HB converter are connected in series and the whole dc-output voltage can be regulated by the PWM phase-shift control within the desired voltage range. A resonant circuit is used in the secondary side of the FB converter to reset the primary current during the freewheeling period, as well as to transfer more input energy and clamp secondary rectifier voltage. The proposed converter is attractive for hybrid electric vehicle/electric vehicle on-board charger applications. The principle of operation, the validity, and performance are illustrated and verified on a 3.7-kW experimental circuit. Experimental results show that the proposed converter can get good efficiency curves at different operation points, and the maximum efficiency is 98.30%.

This paper presents a unique modulation method for extending the input range of pulse-width modulation (PWM)-integrated resonant converters, such as the isolated boost resonant converter, while maintaining high conversion efficiency. The technique includes primarily the hybridizing of constant-on, constant-off, and fixed-frequency control depending only on the required duty cycle. The modulation scheme reduces core loss and conduction loss dramatically by decreasing the applied volt-seconds at the transformer and improving the switching period utilization. With hybrid-frequency control, the circuit also maintains zero current switching for the output diodes, minimizes switching loss, and eliminates circulating energy at the transformer across the entire operating range. It also allows for a predictable voltage gain, dependent only on duty cycle and transformer turns ratio. A detailed loss analysis is provided and verified against a 180 W experimental prototype, with an input range of 12-48 V and a switching frequency range of 30-70 kHz. Implementation issues are also handled with a variety of solutions for realizing the modulation scheme. Experimental results show greater than 4% weighted efficiency improvement in the prototype using the proposed method.

This paper investigates a plug-in repetitive control scheme for bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) converters to mitigate input current distortions under continuous conduction mode and discontinuous conduction mode operating conditions. From the PFC converter model and the fact that a type-II compensator is used, a design methodology to maximize the bandwidth of the feedback controller is suggested. After that, the error transfer function including the feedback controller is derived, and the stability of the repetitive control scheme is evaluated using the error transfer function. The implementation of the digital repetitive controller is also discussed. The simulation and experimental results show that the input current THD is significantly improved by using the proposed control scheme for a 1-kW single-phase bridgeless PFC converter prototype.

A novel soft-switching converter combining resonant half-bridge and phase-shifted pulsewidth modulation (PWM) full-bridge configuration is proposed to ensure the switches in the leading-leg operating at zero-voltage switching from true zero-load to full-load, and the switches in the lagging leg working at zero-current switching with minimum duty cycle loss and circulating conduction loss by significantly reducing leakage or series inductance. Experimental results of a 3.4-kW hardware prototype show that the circuit achieves true full-range soft switching with 98% peak efficiency. The hybrid resonant and PWM converter is attractive for electrical vehicle battery charger application.

In this paper, a new cascade active-front-end converter based on dual-boost/buck converters is proposed for an intelligent universal transformer (IUT), which allows adjusting the power factor to control both the active and reactive powers between medium and low voltage levels. Compared to the traditional cascade H-bridge converter, it has much enhanced system reliability owing to no shoot-through problems and lower switching loss with the help of using power MOSFETs. In addition, a unified control scheme is proposed for active-reactive power control and individual voltage balancing control, which is modular and easy to implement. In the end, a laboratory three-unit cascade active-front-end converter based on the half-bridge dual-boost/buck converter is constructed and tested. The experimental results verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed active-front-end converter and the unified control scheme for IUT.

In modular photovoltaic conditioning system (PCS), microinverter is the important device to convert solar energy to grid electricity. A hybrid resonant microconverter served as front-end converter in a two-stage microinverter with two different modes was proposed previously [1]. The topology with two operating modes can achieve wide-input regulation and maintain high-efficiency over a wide input range. This paper derives the linearized models and control-to-input transfer functions of two operating modes for this high-efficiency hybrid resonant microconverter. Voltage controllers and a smooth transition are designed based on proposed models. The derived linearized models matched well with simulations. Experimental results with a 300 W prototype verify the performance of voltage controllers and transition.

Phase-shift transformers have been widely used for harmonic cancellation in a large-scale three-phase motor drive system. For a shipboard with multiple sources and loads, a shunt-connected phase-shift transformer can serve as harmonic path to conduct certain harmonic contents. This paper shows how the harmonics can be cancelled in a dual drivetrain system of a shipbboard. A laboratory scale of two 7.5-kW systems was set up for experimental verification of harmonic trapping. Both simulation and experimental results verify the harmonic trapping principle through square-wave analysis. With experimental the same harmonic cancellation performance, the kVA capacity of the shunt-connected phase-shift transformers will be compared to that of the conventional series connected Δ-Δ and Δ-Y transformer pair to show significant advantage of using this recently proposed system in a dual or multiple drivetrain system.

Power density has become increasingly important for applications where weight and space are limited. New wide-bandgap (WBG) devices, combined with softswitching, now allow inverters to shrink in size by pushing to higher switching frequencies while maintaining efficiency. This paper proposes a novel interleaved auxiliary resonant snubber for high-frequency soft-switching to reduce volume while maintaining efficiency. The design of an auxiliary resonant snubber is discussed; this allows the main GaN MOSFETs to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS). The auxiliary switches and SiC diodes achieve zero current switching (ZCS). While soft-switching minimizes switching loss, conduction loss is simultaneously reduced for high-power applications by interleaving two high frequency legs.

Torque ripple and acoustic noise are two major drawbacks to switched reluctance motors. The abrupt change of phase current is main cause of acoustic noise, while both commutation and current wave shape are two major factors contributing to high torque ripple. In order to simultaneously reduce torque ripple and noise, a specific current modulation based on real inductance profile can be employed to recently proposed pseudo-sinusoidal switched reluctance motor (PSSRM). Performance comparison including torque ripple, acoustic noise and efficiency with conventional square and half-sine current modulations are investigated. The performance of the specific current modulation is verified by simulations and experiments with a 12/16, three phase 0.4-hp PSSRM. The results show torque ripple and acoustic noise can be simultaneously reduced with a comparable efficiency by the proposed current modulation method.

Due to its high conversion efficiency and high power density, interleaved critical-mode converter is widely employed by modern power converters. This topology is utilized in ac-dc, dc-dc, and dc-ac converters. Because of the variable switching-frequency operation, phase-shift control is a challenge in the design of critical-mode power converters. This paper presents a triangle phase-shift control strategy for interleaved critical-mode power converters. Based on circuit parameters of the topology and current information of the master phase, a control ramp is derived to control the current phase of slave phase. Based on the proposed control ramp, triangle phase-shift control is proposed. The proposed control strategy is experimentally verified on a dual-phase interleaved dc-dc converter.

This paper presents the extraction of common mode (CM) and differential mode (DM) inductances of a common mode choke (CMC) using 3D finite element method (FEM). For optimal performance of the CMC, the effects of CM and DM currents on the magnetic core saturation are investigated. As the parasitic capacitance of a CMC is a critical parameter that affects its high frequency performance, the parasitic capacitances of the turn-to-turn and the turn-to-core capacitances of different winding layouts are also extracted for comparison. Finally, different core structures are modeled and simulated for performance evaluation.

Since parabolic current control has fast transient response and high control precision with constant switching frequency, it is an attractive current control strategy for voltage source inverters. The employment of parabolic current control delivers great performance on current waveform control or voltage waveform control. The implementation of parabolic current control usually requires high speed digital-to-analog converters (DACs) to generate a pair of parabolic carriers as the control band. With increases in switching frequency, this requirement becomes more critical because the speed of DAC limits the update rates of the parabolic carriers. This impacts the smoothness and punctuality of the parabolic control band. To solve this issue, a parabolic current control based digital current control strategy is proposed in this paper. The proposed method uses the sensed current of the output inductor to calculate the next duty-cycle. To improve the transient response speed, a duty-cycle adjustment is presented. The performance of the proposed digital control method is verified in simulation.

This paper discloses the development of 15-kV class intelligent universal transformer (IUT) to show system level design, circuit topology, and prototype test results. The complete system is split into two stages: (1) high-voltage ac to low-voltage dc and (2) low-voltage dc to low-voltage ac. With the adoption of silicon carbide (SiC) devices, the high-voltage front-end ac to low voltage dc conversion stage achieves 98.4% efficiency, and the complete power stage can be naturally cooled. With the adoption of auxiliary resonant soft-switching inverter, the second stage achieves 99.2% efficiency. Overall the system has been demonstrated at 97.5% efficiency without forced-air cooling. Extended 8-hour testing was conducted to ensure long-term operation reliability. Overall efficiency and voltage regulation were compared with that of a conventional transformer for justification of IUT adoption.

One important type of power conditioning systems in photovoltaic (PV) application is the string inverter which requires small input voltage and current ripple. In addition, high-efficiency and high-power density are also the critical requirements for string inverter system. So the input voltage and current ripple cannot be easily rejected by paralleling large conventional electrolytic capacitors in the inverter input side only, since the huge electrolytic capacitors will limit the efficiency and power density. This paper presents a control strategy to limit the input double-line frequency ripple with a high-efficiency and high-power density front-end buck-type dc/dc converter. The double-line frequency energy is stored at the DC bus capacitor with the control strategy employed and the input current and voltage ripple are highly reduced compared with traditional electrolytic capacitor filter. Experimental results based on a 2-kW 6.6 inch3 hardware prototype with 99.6% peak efficiency are provided to validate the proposed double-line frequency ripple rejection control method.

In this paper, a digital controller design procedure is presented for single-phase voltage-doubler boost rectifiers (VDBR). The model derivation of the single-phase VDBR is performed in the s-domain. After that the simplified equivalent z-domain models are derived. These z-domain models are utilized to design the input current and the output dc-link voltage controllers. For the controller design in the z-domain, the traditional K-factor method is modified by considering the nature of the digital controller. The frequency pre-warping and anti-windup techniques are adapted for the controller design. By using the proposed method, the phase margin and the control bandwidth are accurately achieved as required by controller designers in a practical frequency range. The proposed method is applied to a 2.5 kVA single-phase VDBR for Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) applications. From the simulation and the experimental results, the effectiveness of the proposed design method has been verified.

This paper proposes a three-phase current reconstruction technique with an online current offset compensation function for three-phase inverter applications utilizing only a single current sensor. In the proposed current sensing method, a phase current and a branch current are simultaneously measured twice in a switching period by using a single current sensor. After that, the current reconstruction algorithm is applied to obtain the three-phase current information. Compared to previous single current sensor strategies, in the proposed method, the sensor output is regularly sampled, and the dead zone is located near the boundary of the voltage vector space instead of near the origin and the borders of each sector. This boundary-neighbored dead zone makes the proposed method more attractive in extremely low modulation index cases because it avoids periodical dead zones which have been an issue in the existing methods. Moreover, the online compensation method for a current measurement offset makes it possible to achieve purely balanced three-phase current control without an offset component. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified through simulations and experiments by measuring and reconstructing three-phase currents under various conditions.

The high-brightness white-light-emitting diode (LED) has attracted a lot of attention for its high efficacy, simple to drive, environmentally friendly, long lifespan, and compact size. The power supply for LED also requires long life, while maintaining high efficiency, high power factor, and low cost. However, a typical power supply design employs an electrolytic capacitor as the storage capacitor, which is not only bulky, but also with a short lifespan, thus hampering performance improvement of the entire LED lighting system. In this paper, a novel power factor correction (PFC) topology is proposed by inserting the valley-fill circuit in the single-ended primary inductance converter (SEPIC)-derived converter, which can reduce the voltage stress of the storage capacitor and output diode under the same power factor condition. This valley-fill SEPIC-derived topology is, then, proposed for LED lighting applications. By allowing a relatively large voltage ripple in the PFC design and operating in the discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), the proposed PFC topology is able to eliminate the electrolytic capacitor, while maintaining high power factor and high efficiency. Under the electrolytic capacitor-less condition, the proposed PFC circuit can reduce the capacitance of the storage capacitor to half for the same power factor and output voltage ripple as comparing to its original circuit. To further increase the efficiency of LED driver proposal, a twin-bus buck converter is introduced and employed as the second-stage current regulator with the PWM dimming function. The basic operating principle and analysis will be described in detail. A 50-W prototype has been built and tested in the laboratory, and the experimental results under universal input-voltage operation are presented to verify the effectiveness and advantages of the proposal.

This paper presents a 55-kW three-phase inverter based on soft-switching modules for hybrid electric vehicle drives at high-temperature conditions. The main switch of the module is composed of the hybrid switch, which is composed of parallel IGBT and MOSFET. Highly integrated soft-switching modules have been employed to achieve switching loss as well as conduction loss reduction. The operation principle of the proposed inverter is analyzed in detail. Experimental evaluations of the inverter have been conducted through both inductive load and motor-dynamometer load at coolant temperatures ranging from 25°C to 90°C. Efficiency measurement using power meter showed that the peak efficiency is around 99%, and it drops slightly at lower speed and higher temperature conditions. To ensure measurement fidelity, a double-chamber differential calorimeter system was designed and calibrated for the inverter testing. Through long-hour testing, the measured efficiencies consistently showed 99% and higher. The soft-switching inverter has been operated reliably and demonstrated high efficiency at different temperature and test conditions.

This paper presents a new type of cascade inverter based on dual buck topology and phase-shift control scheme. The proposed cascade dual buck inverter with phase-shift control inherits all the merits of dual buck type inverters and overcomes some of their drawbacks. Compared to traditional cascade inverters, it has much enhanced system reliability thanks to no shoot-through problems and lower switching loss with the help of using power MOSFETs. With phase-shift control, it theoretically eliminates the inherent current zero-crossing distortion of the single-unit dual buck type inverter. In addition, phase-shift control and cascade topology can greatly reduce the ripple current or cut down the size of passive components by increasing the equivalent switching frequency. A cascade dual buck inverter has been designed and tested to demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of the system by comparing single-unit dual buck inverter, 2-unit and 3-unit cascade dual buck inverters at the same 1 kW, 120 V ac output conditions.

This paper presents a new type of three-phase voltage source inverter (VSI), called three-phase dual-buck inverter. The proposed inverter does not need dead time, and thus avoids the shoot-through problems of traditional VSIs, and leads to greatly enhanced system reliability. Though it is still a hard-switching inverter, the topology allows the use of power MOSFETs as the active devices instead of IGBTs typically employed by traditional hard-switching VSIs. As a result, the inverter has the benefit of lower switching loss, and it can be designed at higher switching frequency to reduce current ripple and the size of passive components. A unified pulsewidth modulation (PWM) is introduced to reduce computational burden in real-time implementation. Different PWM methods were applied to a three-phase dual-buck inverter, including sinusoidal PWM (SPWM), space vector PWM (SVPWM) and discontinuous space vector PWM (DSVPWM). A 2.5 kW prototype of a three-phase dual-buck inverter and its control system has been designed and tested under different dc bus voltage and modulation index conditions to verify the feasibility of the circuit, the effectiveness of the controller, and to compare the features of different PWMs. Efficiency measurement of different PWMs has been conducted, and the inverter sees peak efficiency of 98.8% with DSVPWM.

In this paper, a single-phase grid-connected transformerless photovoltaic inverter for residential application is presented. The inverter is derived from a boost cascaded with a buck converter along with a line frequency unfolding circuit. Due to its novel operating modes, high efficiency can be achieved because there is only one switch operating at high frequency at a time, and the converter allows the use of power MOSFET and ultrafast reverse recovery diode. It also features a robust structure because the phase leg does not have a shoot-through issue. This paper begins with theoretical analysis and modeling of this boost-buck converter-based inverter. And the model indicates that small boost inductance will lead to an increase in the resonant pole frequency and a decrease in the peak of Q, which results in easier control and greater stability. Thus, interleaved multiple phases structure is proposed to have small equivalent inductance; meanwhile, the ripple can be decreased, and the inductor size can be reduced as well. A two-phase interleaved inverter is then designed accordingly. Finally, the simulation and experiment results are shown to verify the concept and the tested efficiency under 1-kW power condition is up to 98.5%.

A bidirectional on-board charger (BODC) using a full-bridge bidirectional dc-ac inverter and a bidirectional CLLLC dc-dc converter has been designed and built for electric vehicle (EV) on-board charger applications. The dc-ac inverter can be operated in ac-dc with power factor correction (PFC) function. The CLLC dc-dc converter is modified from LLC converter with two separate resonant capacitors on both side of the transformer. A 3.3 kW bidirectional on-board charger prototype has been designed and built. Experimental results show al different operating modes including (1) battery charging mode, (2) vehicle to grid (V2G) mode, and (3) vehicle to house (V2H) mode.

Burst mode control is widely employed by power converters to improve the light load efficiency. One drawback of burst mode control is that the burst frequency changes with different load, which would introduce audible noise to the system. In order to solve the frequency variation problem of burst mode controlled converters, a parabolic voltage control method is proposed in this paper. By the use of a pair of parabolic carriers as the control bands, the burst frequency is controlled to be constant and audible noise can be eliminated. The derivation of the proposed parabolic voltage control is conducted and operating principles are discussed. The performance of the proposed control method is experimentally verified by the use of a burst mode boost converter.

For the series resonant converter (SRC), the voltage gain defined as voltage conversion ratio is one when the switching frequency is equal to resonant frequency. However, it can be greater than one at light load condition especially in the high step-up SRC, which is caused by the high voltage side devices output capacitance. Also the current through the resonant tank is no longer the sinusoidal waveform. The steady-state analysis of this phenomenon based on the state trajectories is presented in this paper. The relationship between voltage gain and device output capacitance is given. The experimental results of 300-W hardware prototype with 30-V normal input and 380-V output validated the derived voltage gain under the effect of devices output capacitance.

This paper proposed a high efficiency standalone inverter design for Google Little Box Challenge (LBC). A full bridge inverter is designed with two high frequency legs and one low frequency leg. To improve the system efficiency, asymmetrical unipolar modulation is utilized and interleaved switching is used. The synchronization between high switching frequency leg and low switching frequency leg is studied and implemented based on a TI micro-controller, which minimized the zero-crossing distortion on the output voltage waveform. A prototype hardware utilizing GaN devices has been developed and tested. A peak efficiency with 99.30% and a CEC efficiency with 99.26% are both achieved.

An improved twin-bus converter using n + 1 active switches is proposed for the n-string LEDs to be dimmable from true zero to the rated current level. The n-switches that perform the current-loop regulation can operate at very high frequency because of significantly reduced voltage stresses, while achieving high efficiency over a wide load range. The dimming switch, however, can operate at a low frequency to ensure high-efficiency operation without light flicker. The detailed power stage operating principle and control scheme of the individual string current for the presented converter are described. Experimental results of a 3-string 50-W LED driver hardware prototype show that the independent string current can be regulated from zero to the desired 350 mA for dimming control. A peak efficiency of 98.3% was achieved with 1.08-MHz switching frequency.

A novel, high-efficiency inverter using MOSFETs for all active switches is presented for photovoltaic, nonisolated, ac-module applications. The proposed H6-type configuration features high efficiency over a wide load range, low ground leakage current, no need for split capacitors, and low-output ac-current distortion. The detailed power stage operating principles, pulsewidth modulation scheme, associated multilevel bootstrap power supply, and integrated gate drivers for the proposed inverter are described. Experimental results of a 300 W hardware prototype show that not only are MOSFET body diode reverse-recovery and ground leakage current issues alleviated in the proposed inverter, but also that 98.3% maximum efficiency and 98.1% European Union efficiency of the dc-ac power train and the associated driver circuit are achieved.

Lithium-ion-based battery energy storage system has started to become the most popular form of energy storage system for its high charge and discharge efficiency and high energy density. This paper proposes a high-efficiency grid-tie lithium-ion-battery-based energy storage system, which consists of a LiFePO4-battery-based energy storage and a high-efficiency bidirectional ac-dc converter. The battery management system estimates the state of charge and state of health of each battery cell and applies active charge equalization to balance the charge of all the cells in the pack. The bidirectional ac-dc converter works as the interface between the battery pack and the ac grid. A highly efficient opposed-current half-bridge-type inverter along with an admittance-compensated quasi-proportional resonant controller is adopted to ensure high power quality and precision power flow control. A 1-kW prototype has been designed and implemented to validate the proposed architecture and system performance.

This paper presents a high-efficiency grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) module integrated converter (MIC) system with reduced PV current variation. The proposed PV MIC system consists of a high-efficiency step-up DC–DC converter and a single-phase full-bridge DC–AC inverter. An active-clamping flyback converter with a voltage-doubler rectifier is proposed for the step-up DC–DC converter. The proposed step-up DC–DC converter reduces the switching losses by eliminating the reverse-recovery current of the output rectifying diodes. To reduce the PV current variation introduced by the grid-connected inverter, a PV current variation reduction method is also suggested. The suggested PV current variation reduction method reduces the PV current variation without any additional components. Moreover, for centralized power control of distributed PV MIC systems, a PV power control scheme with both a central control level and a local control level is presented. The central PV power control level controls the whole power production by sending out reference power signals to each individual PV MIC system. The proposed step-up DC–DC converter achieves a high-efficiency of 97.5% at 260 W output power to generate the DC-link voltage of 350 V from the PV voltage of 36.1 V. The PV MIC system including the DC–DC converter and the DC–AC inverter achieves a high-efficiency of 95% with the PV current ripple less than 3% variation of the rated PV current.

A novel soft-switching inverter using two small coupled magnetics in one resonant pole is proposed to ensure the main switches operating at zero-voltage switching from zero load to full load and the auxiliary switches at zero-current switching with load adaptability and small current stress. Since independent coupled magnetics structure avoids the unwanted magnetizing current freewheeling loop, the size of the coupled magnetics can be minimized with low magnetizing inductance, and the saturable inductor can be eliminated. Detailed circuit operation is described, and voltage-second balance condition of the magnetics is expressed mathematically. A 4-kW hardware prototype has been designed, fabricated, and tested to verify the validity of the novel circuit and the improved performance of the proposed soft-switching inverter. Experimental results show an excellent agreement with analytical results. Since the measured efficiency from 20% to 100% load consistently shows above 97.8% and peaks at 98.2%, the proposed inverter is very attractive for high-efficiency applications where energy saving is a major concern.

This paper first introduces the design of an ultrahigh efficiency 50-kW bidirectional dc-dc converter at zero-voltage-switching operation, and then, a high-precision efficiency measurement method using a regenerative approach. The ultrahigh efficiency bidirectional dc-dc converter is achieved with 1) the use of CoolMOS as the main switch under zero-voltage soft switching condition; 2) multiple-phase legs for current sharing to reduce the conduction loss; and 3) coupling inductors between each two-phase legs to reduce the core loss. Two identical hardware prototypes were designed, fabricated, and tested for performance evaluation. In order to precisely measure the converter efficiency, the two identical bidirectional dc-dc converters are tested with one as the device under test and the other as the regenerative unit. With the use of ± 0.5% current shunt and regenerative measurement, the relative efficiency error stays below ±0.025%. Measured efficiency with load from 20% to 100% consistently shows above 97.50%. At the 50 kW full-load condition, the efficiency is 99.05% with ±0.01% efficiency relative error.

In this paper, smooth mode transfers and accurate current sharing are performed in a multi-inverter-based microgrid system by the designed system level controls with control area network communication. Controllers of individual inverters within the microgrid in both grid-tie and islanding modes are also designed to ensure high-quality output waveforms. The mode transfer tests are conducted with an inverter-simulated grid to define the proper transfer procedures. Experimental results show that the inverters can provide stable outputs in different basic microgrid operation modes. With the designed current sharing scheme, the output current is equally shared among paralleled inverters without noticeable circulating current. Both the simulation and experimental results of mode transfer show that the multi-inverter-based microgrid system is able to smoothly switch between the grid-tie and islanding modes to guarantee an uninterrupted power supply to the critical loads within the microgrid.

The analysis and design of an adaptive maximum power point tracking (MPPT) scheme using incremental impedance are presented. A small-signal model is mathematically derived, and the impact of two major design parameters, which are scaling factor and sampling interval, is analyzed in the frequency domain. Four factors which specifically affect the MPPT response are also clearly addressed. Based on this analysis, a design methodology to achieve a desirable transient response, while retaining system stability, is developed. The design methodology is implemented and verified with hardware experiments on a thermoelectric generator battery energy storage system, which indicate agreement between dynamic response and target bandwidth.

This article provides an overview of PCS architectures and circuit topologies for low-voltage energy source in single-phase grid-tie applications. The discussion was focused on those relatively new but practical system architectures and circuit topologies including dc-dc converters and dc-ac inverters.

A wide-range active and reactive power flow controller is designed to operate the inverter in pure leading, pure lagging, and the mix with active and reactive power conditions. The key to achieving lagging power flow control is to ensure sufficiently high enough DC bus voltage to avoid duty cycle saturation. The key to achieving precision power flow control for a wide range of power level is to adopt the quasi-proportional resonant controller for the current loop and the admittance compensator to cancel the grid-voltage-induced negative power flow. In this paper, the current loop transfer function has been systematically derived for the controller design purpose. Phasor analysis was adopted to explain the need of dc bus voltage requirement. A 5-kVA grid-tie fuel cell inverter was used as the platform to show current loop controller design and admittance compensation. The proposed controller has been simulated, and the same parameters have been used for a DSP-based controller. Both simulation and hardware experimental results agree well with the theoretical analysis.