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The dual-active bridge (DAB) topology is commonly preferred in bidirectional applications due to several attractive features, including auto-adjust of power flow, galvanic insulation, wide voltage gain, and zero voltage switching (ZVS) capability over some power ranges. However, the efficiency of the converter drops at light loads because the ZVS range is directly dependent on the circulating current. Assuming that the processed power is variable, the DAB converter's design must find a compromise between extending ZVS ranges and reducing the reactive power processing to ensure higher efficiency. Aiming this compromise, many papers propose hybrid approaches in which the modulation strategy is selected according to the processed power. However, this is not a simple solution because it demands multivariable control and offline optimizations. This paper proposes a modulation strategy to ensure ZVS and reduce the circulating current for the DAB converters. While the usual phase-shift modulation provides ZVS operation in a range of 40% to 100% of rated power, the proposed asymmetrical pulse-width modulation can obtain ZVS operation in a range of 2% to 100% of rated power. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed strategy improves the converter efficiency for all power ranges, especially at light loads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]