• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.587-601
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• 2015

A high step-up dc-dc converter is proposed for photovoltaic power systems in this paper. The proposed converter consists of an input current doubler, a symmetrical switched-capacitor doubler and an active-clamp circuit. The input current doubler minimizes the input current ripple. The symmetrical switched-capacitor doubler is composed of two symmetrical quasi-resonant switched-capacitor circuits, which share the leakage inductance of the transformer as a resonant inductor. The rectifier diodes (switched-capacitor circuit) are turned off at the zero current switching (ZCS) condition, so that the reverse-recovery problem of the diodes is removed. In addition, the symmetrical structure results in an output voltage ripple reduction because the voltage ripples of the charge/pump capacitors cancel each other out. Meanwhile, the voltage stress of the rectifier diodes is clamped at half of the output voltage. In addition, the active-clamp circuit clamps the voltage surges of the switches and recycles the energy of the transformer leakage inductance. Furthermore, pulse-width modulation plus phase angle shift (PPAS) is employed to control the output voltage. The operation principle of the converter is analyzed and experimental results obtained from a 400W prototype are presented to validate the performance of the proposed converter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.280-289
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• 2015

A high-efficiency full-bridge DC-DC converter with a current-doubler rectifier and an asymmetric pulse-width modulation is proposed. Through the asymmetric pulse-width modulation, the proposed converter achieves zero-voltage switching of power switches without the circulating currents. The proposed converter reduces the output current ripple through the current-doubler rectifier. A control strategy is suggested for the proposed converter to charge battery banks. A constant current and constant voltage charging is performed. The proposed converter achieved a higher efficiency compared with the conventional full-bridge DC-DC converter with a phase-shift modulation. The performance of the proposed converter is evaluated by the experimental results for a 1.0 kW prototype circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.440-449
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• 2014

This study proposes an LLC series resonant converter with a current doubler using a coupled inductor as a rectification circuit for the secondary side. The current doubler circuit is generally used for a high-voltage input and low-voltage output circuit to obtain high efficiency with small transformer turn ratio. However, an inductive circuit is not generally used in the secondary side of an LLC series resonant converter. If inductive components exist on the secondary side, the resonant characteristics are changed through the secondary inductive circuit. Mathematical analysis shows that the secondary-side current doubler with coupled inductor is not affected by the resonant characteristic of the primary LLC if leakage inductance occurs in the coupled inductor. Results of the analysis are proven by simulation; an experiment is also conducted for the proposed circuit.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.1099-1107
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• 2019

A soft switching converter with wide voltage range operation is investigated in this paper. A series resonant converter is implemented to achieve a high circuit efficiency with soft switching characteristics on power switches and rectifier diodes. To improve the weakness of the narrow voltage range in LLC converters, an alternating current (ac) power switch is used on the primary side to select a half-bridge or full-bridge resonant circuit to implement 4:1 voltage range operation. On the secondary-side, another ac power switch is adopted to select a full-wave rectifier or voltage-doubler rectifier to achiever an additional 2:1 output voltage range. Therefore, the proposed resonant converter has the capacity for 8:1 (320V~40V) wide output voltage operation. A single-stage hybrid resonant converter is employed in the study circuit instead of a two-stage dc converter to achiever wide voltage range operation. As a result, the study converter has better converter efficiency. The theoretical analysis and circuit characteristics are verified by experiments with a prototype circuit.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.61-72
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• 2007

This study proposed a high efficiency DC-DC converter with a new current doubler rectifier for fuel-cell systems for use with the Nexa(310-0027) PEMFC from the Ballard Co. The proposed high efficiency DC-DC converter for the fuel-cell system generated ZVS by applying partial resonance and using a phase shift PWM control method. Constantly switching frequency, loss of switching, peak current, and peak voltage were reduced by this system. In addition to this system, two inductors were attached to a rectifier circuit allowing it to be able to provide the direct current(DC) and DC voltage safely to a load with reduced ripple components. Also, by using the newly proposed current doubler rectifier, the high frequency DC-DC converter for the fuel cell system was capable of reaching a highest efficiency of 92[%] as compared to 88.3[%] efficiency in previous results, which means that efficiency increased 3.7[%]. The overall results were confirmed by a simulation and laboratory experiment.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.183-190
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• 2003

We report the performance of an open-frame type low-voltage high-current DC-DC converter module developed using an active clamp forward converter circuit and current doubler rectifier. The converter module is designed with the specifications of an 1.8V output voltage, 25A output current, and 36-75V input voltage. The synchronous rectifier is used to reduce the conduction fuss at high current level and current-mode control is adapted to enhance the flexibility in the system configuration. A prototype converter module is successfully implemented within 10mm height and half brick size (58${\times}$61mm), and recorded an 84% efficiency and 4% voltage regulation for the entire input voltage range, thereby demonstrating its application potentials to future telecommunication electronics.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers A
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.183-183
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• 2003

We report the performance of an open-frame type low-voltage high-current DC-DC converter module developed using an active clamp forward converter circuit and current doubler rectifier. The converter module is designed with the specifications of an 1.8V output voltage, 25A output current, and 36-75V input voltage. The synchronous rectifier is used to reduce the conduction fuss at high current level and current-mode control is adapted to enhance the flexibility in the system configuration. A prototype converter module is successfully implemented within 10mm height and half brick size (58×61mm), and recorded an 84% efficiency and 4% voltage regulation for the entire input voltage range, thereby demonstrating its application potentials to future telecommunication electronics.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.81-88
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• 2007

This paper proposes a coupled inductor-based rectifier of a Three-Level (TL) DC/DC converter and compares the rectification methods of a TL converter. The CICDR- TL (Coupled Inductor Current Doubler Rectifier Three-Level) converter achieves ZVS (Zero Voltage Switching) for the switches in a wide load range. CDR (Current Doubler Rectifier) and CICDR Three-Level converter have low voltage and current ripple. Advantages and disadvantages of topology compared to the rectifier of bridge, center-tap, CDR, and CICDR are discussed. Experimental estimation results are obtained on a 27V, 60A DC/DC TL converter prototype for the 1.8kW, 40kHz IGBT based experimental circuit.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.894-904
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• 2016

This study examines the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation of an active-clamped forward converter (ACFC) with a current-doubler rectifier (CDR). The ZVS condition can be obtained with a much smaller leakage inductance compared to that of a conventional ACFC. Due to the significantly reduced leakage inductance, the design is optimized and the circulating loss is reduced. The operation of the ACFC with a CDR is analyzed, and a detailed ZVS analysis is conducted on the basis of a steady-state analysis. From the results, a design consideration for ZVS improvement is presented. Loss analyses of the converters shows that enhanced soft-switching contributes to an efficiency improvement under light-load condition. Experimental results from a 100-W (5-V/20-A) prototype verify that the ACFC with a CDR can attain ZVS across an extended load range of loads and achieve a higher efficiency than conventional ACFCs.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.51 no.10
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• pp.581-586
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• 2002

To improve the current waveform of diode rectifiers, we propose a new operating principle for the voltage-doubler diode rectifiers. In the conventional voltage-doubler rectifier circuit, relatively large capacitors are used to boost the output voltage, while the proposed circuit uses smaller ones and a small reactor not to boost the output voltage but improve the input current waveform. A circuit design method is shown by experimentation and confirmed simulation. The experimental results of the proposed diode rectifier satisfies the harmonic guide lines. A high input power factor of 97(%) and an efficiency of 98[%] are also obtained. The new rectifier with no controlled switches meet the harmonic guide lines, resulting in a simple, reliable and low-cost at-to dc converters in comparison with the boost-type current-improving circuits. This paper proposes a nonlinear impedance circuit composed by diodes and inductors or capacitors. This circuit needs no control circuits and switches, and the impedance value is changed by the polarity of current or voltage. And this paper presents one of these applications to improve the input current of capacitor input diode rectifiers. The rectifier using the nonlinear impedance circuit is constructed with four diodes and four capacitors in addition to the conventional rectifiers, that is, it has eight diodes and five capacitors, including a DC link capacitor. It makes harmonic components of the input current reduction and the power factor improvement. Half pulse-width modulated (HPWM) inverter was explained compared with conventional pulse width modulated(PWM) inverter. Proposed HPWM inverter eliminated dead-time by lowering switching loss and holding over-shooting.