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Abstract This study investigates a hybrid zero‐voltage switching converter for dc–dc converters on railway vehicle applications or solar PV power conversion applications. The dc–dc converters used in railway applications demand to have at least 30% to 40% input voltage variation in order to meet the international standard EN50155. However, the main nominal dc input voltages of power converters on railway applications are from 24 to 110 V. To overcome the wide voltage operation problem, a hybrid power converter with the combination of boost and resonant circuits is proposed and investigated to accomplish a wide input voltage operation (10–160 V) on railway vehicle applications. Under low‐voltage input case (Vin = 10–40 V), both boost and resonant circuits are activated to have high voltage gain. For medium‐voltage input case (Vin = 40–80 V), only full‐bridge resonant circuit is operated to achieve soft switching operation on active devices. Under high‐voltage input case (Vin = 80–160 V), the half‐bridge type resonant circuit is activated to achieve less voltage gain. The circuit performance and effectiveness are provided and evaluated by experiments.

A new hybrid DC converter is proposed and implemented to have wide voltage variation operation and bidirectional power flow capability for photovoltaic power applications. The hybrid DC converter, including a half- or full-bridge resonant circuit, is adopted to realize the bidirectional power operation and low switching losses. To overcome the wide voltage variation problem (60 V–480 V) from photovoltaic panels due to sunlight intensity, the full-bridge structure or half-bridge structure resonant circuit is used in the presented converter to implement high or low voltage gain under a low or high input voltage condition. Using a pulse frequency modulation (PFM) scheme, the voltage transfer function of the resonant circuit is controlled to regulate the load voltage. Due to the symmetric circuit structures used on the primary and the secondary sides in the proposed converter, the bidirectional power flow can be achieved with the same circuit characteristics. Therefore, the proposed converter can be applied to battery stacks to achieve charger and discharger operations. Finally, a 400 W prototype is implemented, and the performance of the proposed hybrid DC converter is confirmed by the experiments.

A DC converter with the benefits of reverse power capability, less switching loss and wide voltage operation is presented and implemented for wide input voltage applications such as fuel cell energy, photovoltaic (PV) system and DC wind power. Two full bridge resonant circuits are used in the presented converter to achieve bidirectional power flow capability and reduce switching losses on active devices. To overcome the wide input DC voltage variation problem for fuel cell energy and PV solar panel, the topology morphing between the half bridge circuit and full bridge circuit is adopted on the primary side to obtain low (or high) voltage gain under a high (or low) input voltage condition. Therefore, the stable DC voltage is controlled at the load side by using the variable switching frequency modulation. The studied hybrid CLLC converter is tested by a 1 kW prototype and the performance is verified and confirmed by experiments.

A full-bridge converter with an additional resonant circuit and variable secondary turns is presented and achieved to have soft-switching operation on active devices, wide voltage input operation and low freewheeling current loss. The resonant tank is linked to the lagging-leg of the full bridge pulse-width modulation converter to realize zero-voltage switching (ZVS) characteristic on the power switches. Therefore, the wide ZVS operation can be accomplished in the presented circuit over the whole input voltage range and output load. To overcome the wide voltage variation on renewable energy applications such as DC wind power and solar power conversion, two winding sets are used on the output-side of the proposed converter to obtain the different voltage gains. Therefore, the wide voltage input from 90 to 450 V (Vin,max = 5Vin,min) is implemented in the presented circuit. To further improve the freewheeling current loss issue in the conventional phase-shift pulse-width modulation converter, an auxiliary DC voltage generated from the resonant circuit is adopted to reduce this freewheeling current loss. Compared to the multi-stage DC converters with wide input voltage range operation, the proposed circuit has a low freewheeling current loss, low switching loss and a simple control algorithm. The studied circuit is tested and the experimental results are demonstrated to testify the performance of the resented circuit.

A bidirectional three-level soft switching circuit topology is proposed and implemented for medium voltage applications such as 750 V dc light rail transit, high power converters, or dc microgrid systems. The studied converter is constructed with a three-level diode-clamp circuit topology with the advantage of low voltage rating on the high-voltage side and a full-bridge circuit topology with the advantage of a low current rating on the low-voltage side. Under the forward power flow operation, the three-level converter is operated to regulate load voltage. Under the reverse power flow operation, the full-bridge circuit is operated to control high-side voltage. The proposed LLC resonant circuit is adopted to achieve bidirectional power operation and zero-voltage switching (ZVS). The achievability of the studied bidirectional ZVS converter is established from the experiments.

A new hybrid high-frequency link pulse-width modulation (PWM) converter using voltage balance capacitor and current balance magnetic coupling is proposed to realize low freewheeling current loss and wide load range of soft switching operation. Series-connected H-bridge converter is adopted for high voltage applications. In addition, a voltage balance capacitor and a current balance magnetic coupling core are employed for achieving voltage and current balance. To extend zero-voltage switching (ZVS) range of switches at lagging-leg of phase-shift PWM converter, soft switching LLC converter is linked to the lagging-leg of phase-shift PWM converter. Therefore, the wide ZVS load operation is realized in the presented hybrid converter. The other high freewheeling current disadvantage in conventional phase-shift PWM converter is improved by a snubber circuit used on low-voltage side. Thus, the primary current during the freewheeling state is decreased and close to zero. In addition, the conduction losses on primary-side components of studied converter are reduced. The secondary-sides of phase-shift PWM converter and LLC resonant converter are series-connected to achieve power transfer between input and output sides. Experimental results using a laboratory prototype are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the studied circuit and control algorithm.

A new hybrid inductor-inductor-capacitor (LLC) converter is investigated to have wide voltage input operation capability and zero-voltage turn-on characteristics. The presented circuit topology can be applied for consumer power units without power factor correction or with long hold-up time requirement, photovoltaic energy conversion and renewable energy power transfer. To overcome the weakness of narrow voltage gain of resonant converter, the hybrid LLC converter with different turns ratio of transformer is presented and the experimental investigation is provided to achieve wide voltage input capability (400 V–50 V). On the input-side, the converter can operate as full bridge resonant circuit or half bridge resonant circuit with input split capacitors for high or low voltage input region. On the output-side, the less or more winding turns is selected to overcome wide voltage input operation. According to the circuit structures and transformer turns ratio, the single stage LLC converter with wide voltage input operation capability (400 V–50 V) is accomplished. The laboratory prototype has been developed and the experimental waveforms are measured and demonstrated to investigate the effectiveness of the presented hybrid LLC converter.

A soft switching current-source resonant converter is presented and implemented for wide voltage applications such as fuel cells and solar power. An LLC (inductor–inductor–capacitor) converter is adopted to accomplish zero voltage (current) operation on active switches (diodes). Thus, the circuit efficiency is increased. The interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM) converter is employed on the input side to accomplish low input ripple current. A hybrid LLC converter is adopted to achieve wide voltage operation from Vin, min to 4Vin, min and to improve the weakness of a conventional LLC converter. Half-bridge diode rectification is employed on the output side to decrease power loss on the rectifier diode. To confirm the theoretical analysis and feasibility, experimental verifications with a 500-W prototype are demonstrated in this paper.

A three-leg pulse-width modulation converter with auxiliary windings is provided and investigated to realize wide voltage operation and zero voltage switching characteristics on power switches. The presented converter has three converter legs on the input-side and two sets of winding turns on the output-side. Owing to the on/off states of the three converter legs and the two sets of secondary winding turns, the proposed converter can be operated under three different equivalent circuits to have wide input voltage operation from 30V ~ 240V (Vin,max = 8Vin,min). Compared with the multi-stage converters to realize wide input voltage operation, the proposed circuit topology has fewer circuit components and a simple control algorithm. Conventional duty cycle control with phase-shift between each converter leg is adopted to regulate load voltage and also accomplish zero voltage switching on active switches. The presented three-leg converter is tested with a laboratory circuit. Finally, experiments testify to the performance and validity of the presented converter.

A phase-shift pulse-width modulation converter is studied and investigated for railway vehicle or solar cell power converter applications with wide voltage operation. For railway vehicle applications, input voltage range of dc converters is requested to have 30−40% voltage variation of the nominal input voltage. The nominal input voltages of dc converters on railway vehicles applications may be 37.5 V, 48 V, 72 V, 96 V and 110 V. Therefore, a new dc converter with wide input voltage operation from 25 to 150 V is presented to withstand different nominal input voltage levels such as 37.5−110 V on railway power units. To realize wide input voltage operation, an auxiliary switch and auxiliary transformer windings are used on output side of conventional full-bridge converter to have different voltage gains under different input voltage values. Phase-shift pulse-width modulation is adopted in the developed dc converter to accomplish soft switching operation on power switches. To confirm and validate the practicability of the presented converter, experiments based on a 300 W prototype were provided in this paper.

This paper studied a hybrid resonant converter with three half bridge legs for wide input voltage operation. Compared to the conventional resonant converters with narrow voltage operation, the presented converter can achieve wider voltage operation. On the basis of the proper switching status of power switches, the developed converter can operate at half-bridge resonant circuit under high input voltage range and the other two full-bridge resonant circuits under medium and low input voltage ranges. Each resonant circuit has a 2:1 (Vin,max = 2Vin,min) input voltage operation range. Therefore, the developed converter can achieve an 8:1 (Vin,max = 8Vin,min) wide voltage operation. The main advantage of the studied converter is the single-stage direct current (DC)/DC power conversion instead of the two-stage power conversion to achieve wide voltage operation. Because the equivalent resonant tank of the adopted converter is controlled by frequency modulation, the soft switching operation on power switches or rectifier diodes can be realized to improve circuit efficiency. The performance of the proposed circuit was confirmed and verified by experiments with a laboratory circuit.

A new resonant converter is presented to have the advantages of soft switching operation on power devices, without reverse recovery current loss on power diodes and wide input voltage range operation. Resonant converter with frequency modulation is adopted in the proposed circuit to accomplish the low switching loss on power switches and possible zero current switching operation on fast recovery diodes. To improve the problem of limit voltage range operation in the conventional resonant converter, a new parallel-series structure resonant converter is studied to achieve wide input voltage operation capability, such as from Vin,min to 4Vin,min. A 1.8 kW laboratory circuit is implemented, and the measured results are provided to confirm the theoretical analysis and circuit performance.

A new DC/DC resonant converter with wide output voltage range operation is presented and studied to have the benefits of low switching losses on active devices and low voltage stresses on power diodes. To overcome serious reverse recovery losses of power diodes on a conventional full-bridge pulse-width modulation converter, the resonant converter is adopted to reduce the switching loss and increase the circuit efficiency. To extend the output voltage range in conventional half-bridge or full-bridge resonant converters, the secondary sides of two diode rectifiers are connected in series to have wide output voltage operation. The proposed converter can be either operated at one-resonant-converter mode for low voltage range or two-resonant-converter mode for high voltage range. Thus, the voltage rating of power diodes is decreased. Experiments with the design example are given to show the circuit performance and validate the theoretical discussion and analysis.

In this paper, a direct current (dc) converter with the abilities of bidirectional power transfer and soft switching characteristics is studied and implemented. The circuit schematic of the developed dc converter is built by a half-bridge converter and a center-tapped rectifier with synchronous rectifier. Under forward power transfer, a half-bridge circuit is controlled to regulate the low-voltage side at a stable value. For backward power transfer, a center-tapped rectifier with synchronous rectifier is regulated to control the high-voltage side at the desired voltage value, and the half-bridge circuit is operated as a voltage doubler rectifier. Active power devices are operated at zero-voltage switching using a series resonant technique on the high-voltage side with frequency modulation and inductive load operation. The practicability of the developed converter is established from experiments with a laboratory prototype circuit.

A soft-switching dc–dc converter with bidirectional power flow capability is studied in this paper for energy storage units or electric vehicle applications. The circuit topology of the studied converter is constructed using a dual half-bridge circuit with split capacitors. A series resonant tank with frequency control modulation is employed in the proposed circuit to realize the soft switching characteristics of active devices. Synchronous-rectifier-based Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFETs) are used on the low-voltage side to lessen conduction loss on the power semiconductors. The benefits of the studied circuit are bidirectional power flow capability, high efficiency, low switching loss, and simple circuit structure. The achievability of the developed converter is demonstrated from test results with a scaled-down laboratory prototype.

A high efficiency dc–dc converter is studied for light rail transportation applications on DC microgrid systems. The adopted structure includes two series-connected resonant circuits with single isolated transformer from input 750 V to output 48 V. Two half-bridge resonant circuits and one voltage balance capacitor are used to reduce voltage rating of active devices and to realize split voltages balance. Two series resonant circuits are connected with input-series by single transformer to reduce primary root-mean-square currents. Therefore, power devices with low voltage rating are selected in studied circuit to reduce power loss on sower devices and transformer winding of the isolated transformer. Frequency control approach is adopted to adjust load voltage under different voltage condition and current variations. Since the equivalent resonant tank of the studied circuit is activated under inductive load, active devices are easily operated at zero-voltage switching over wide voltage and current operation range. The feasibility of the studied circuit has been verified with a 1 kW prototype.

This paper studies a frequency-controlled current-fed resonant circuit. The adopted direct current (DC)-to-DC converter contains two boost circuits and a resonant circuit on the primary side. First, two boost circuits are connected in parallel to achieve voltage step-up and reduce input ripple current by using interleaved pulse-width modulation. Therefore, the size and current rating of boost inductors are decreased in the proposed converter. Second, the boost voltage is connected to the resonant circuit to realize the mechanism of the zero-voltage switching of all active switches and zero-current switching of all diodes. Two boost circuits and a resonant circuit use the same power devices in order to lessen the switch counts. The voltage doubler topology is adopted on the secondary side (high-voltage side). Therefore, the voltage rating of diodes on the high-voltage side is clamped at output voltage. The feasibility of the studied circuit is confirmed by the experimental tests with a 1 kW prototype circuit.

This paper studies and presents a series-connected high frequency DC/DC converter connected to a DC microgrid system to provide auxiliary power for lighting, control and communication in a DC light rail vehicle. Three converters with low voltage and current stresses of power devices are series-connected with single transformers to convert a high voltage input to a low voltage output for a DC light rail vehicle. Thus, Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) with a low voltage rating and a turn-on resistance are adopted in the proposed circuit topology in order to decrease power losses on power switches and copper losses on transformer windings. A duty cycle control with an asymmetric pulse-width modulation is adopted to control the output voltage at the desired voltage level. It is also adopted to reduce switching losses on MOSFETs due to the resonant behavior from a leakage inductor of an isolated transformer and output capacitor of MOSFETs at the turn-on instant. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed circuit have been verified by a laboratory prototype with a 760 V input and a 24 V/60 A output.