• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1315-1324
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• 2018

A novel three-phase four-wire inverter topology is presented in this paper. This topology is equipped with a special capacitor balance grid without magnetic saturation. In response to unbalanced load and unequal split DC-link capacitors problems, a qusi-full-bridge DC/DC topology is applied in the balance grid. By using a high-frequency transformer, the energy transfer within the two split dc-link capacitors is realized. The novel topology makes the voltage across two split dc-link capacitors balanced so that the neutral point voltage ripple is inhibited. Under the condition of a stable neutral point voltage, the three-phase four-wire inverter can be equivalent to three independent single phase inverters. As a result, the three-phase inverter can produce symmetrical voltage waves with an unbalanced load. To avoid forward transformer magnetic saturation, the voltages of the primary and secondary windings are controlled to reverse once during each switching period. Furthermore, an improved mode chosen operating principle for this novel topology is designed and analyzed in detail. The simulated results verified the feasibility of this topology and an experimental inverter has been built to test the power quality produced by this topology. Finally, simulation results verify that the novel topology can effectively improve the inhibition of an inverter with a three-phase unbalanced load while decreasing the value of the split capacitor.

• Journal of international Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.176-183
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• 2014

Three-phase four-wire distribution systems are used for both three-phase three-wire loads and single-phase two-wire consumer appliances in South Korea, Myanmar and other countries. Unbalanced load conditions frequently occur in these distribution systems. These unbalanced load conditions cause unbalanced voltages for three-phase and single-phase loads, and increase the loss in the distribution transformer. In this paper, we propose constant DC capacitor voltage control based strategy for the active load balancer (ALB) in the three-phase four-wire distribution systems. Constant DC capacitor voltage control is always used in active power line conditioners. The proposed control strategy does not require any computation blocks of the active and reactive currents on the distribution systems. Balanced source-side currents with a unity power factor are obtained without any calculation block of the unbalanced active and reactive components on the load side. The basic principle of the constant DC capacitor voltage control based strategy for the ALB is discussed in detail and then confirmed by both digital computer simulations using PSIM software and prototype experimental model. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy for the ALB can balance the source currents with a unity power factor in the three-phase four-wire distribution systems.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.249-257
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• 2012

An interleaved PWM converter is proposed to implement the features of zero voltage switching (ZVS), load current sharing and ripple current reduction. The proposed converter includes two ZVS converters with a common clamp capacitor. With the shared capacitor, the charge balance of the two interleaved parts is automatically regulated under input voltage and load variations. The active-clamping circuit is used to realize the ZVS turn-on so that the switching losses on the power switches are reduced. The ZVS turn-on of all of the switching devices is achieved during the transition interval. The interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM) operation will reduce the ripple current and the size of the input and output capacitors. The current double rectifier (CDR) is adopted in the secondary side to reduce output ripple current so that the sizes of the output chokes and capacitor are reduced. The circuit configuration, operation principles and design considerations are presented. Finally experimental results based on a 408W (24V/17A) prototype are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2020.08a
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• pp.160-162
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• 2020

A control technique for the auxiliary buck/boost converter is proposed herein to improve the load transient response of the buck converter. The proposed technique improves the system efficiency by enabling the soft switching operation of the auxiliary converter. The design guidelines for achieving capacitor charge balance for the output capacitor during the transient are also presented herein. The experimental results revealed that the output voltage undershoot and settling time during the load step-up transient were 40 mV and 14 ㎲, respectively, and the output voltage overshoot and settling time during the load step-down transient were 35 mV and 21 ㎲, respectively. The performance and effectiveness of the proposed technique were experimentally verified using a prototype buck converter with a 15-V input, 3.3-V output, and 200-kHz switching frequency.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.739-747
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• 2012

This paper applies carrier phase shifted pulse-width modulation (CPS-PWM) to transformerless modular multilevel converters (MMC) to improve the output spectrum. Because the MMC topology is characterized by the double-star connection of six legs consisting of cascaded modular chopper cells with floating capacitors, the balance control of the DC-link capacitor voltage is essential for safe operation. This paper presents a leg-balancing control strategy to achieve DC-link voltage balance under all operating conditions. This strategy based on circulating current decoupling control focused on DC-link balancing between the upper and lower legs in each phase pair by considering the six legs as three independent phase-pairs. Experiments are implemented on a 100-V 3-kVA downscaled prototype. The experimental results show that the proposed leg-balancing control is both effective and practical.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.351-356
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• 2010

A new current-balancing multi-channel LED driver is proposed in this paper. The conventional LED driver system consists of three cascaded power conversion stages and its driver stage has the same number of expensive boost converters as those of the LED channels. On the other hand, the proposed LED driver system consists of two cascaded power stages and its driver stage requires only passive devices instead of expensive boost converters. Nevertheless, all of the currents through multi-channel LEDs can be well balanced. Therefore, it features a smaller system size, improved efficiency, and lower cost. To confirm the validity of the proposed driver, its operation and performance are verified on a prototype for a 46" LCD TV.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1486-1495
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• 2019

Dealing with the DC link fault poses a technical problem for an HVDC based on a modular multilevel converter. The fault suppressing mechanisms of several sub-module topologies with DC fault current blocking capacity are examined in this paper. An improved half-bridge sub-module topology with double direction control switch is also designed to address the additional power consumption problem, and a sub-module topology called hybrid double direction blocking sub module (HDDBSM) is proposed. The DC fault suppression characteristics and sub-module capacitor voltage balance problem is also analyzed, and a self-startup method is designed according to the number of capacitors. The simulation model in PSCAD/EMTDC is built to verify the self-startup process and the DC link fault suppression features.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2019

This study presents a new portable eight-output light emitting diode (LED) driver. The eight output-channels are divided into two equal groups, and their output powers can be controlled individually by three active switches. In addition, a simple capacitor-based passive current balancing circuit (CBC) is employed in each port to guarantee that the currents of the four LEDs are the same. When compared with the conventionally used separate two-output isolated converters, the proposed one uses one less active switch. Moreover, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) is achieved, which improves the power efficiency of the driver. Finally, a highly compact prototype is built, which can reach an efficiency of 94.6%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2021

A novel current balancing technique for multichannel light-emitting diode (LED) that uses a series resonance and coupled inductor is proposed in this paper. The proposed LED driver balances output currents through frequency control and enables zero-voltage switching. The proposed converter utilizes the charge balance condition of the resonant capacitor and the current sharing function of the coupled inductor to achieve whole LED current balancing without an additional controller. The proposed coupled inductor can integrate the current balancing function and the resonant inductor, so the power density can be increased by reducing the number of magnetic devices. A 40 W prototype is built to verify the validity of this LED driver, and the experimental results are successfully obtained.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.1242-1252
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• 2016