• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.193-199
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• 2014

The series connected battery cells are mainly used in high voltage battery pack application. However parameter inequality of each battery cell makes battery voltage imbalance problem. In this paper, a new balancing circuit utilizing converter scheme for the series connected battery cells is proposed. Proposed circuit offers easy control and fast equalization time. Moreover the circuit can be used in a practical application because it has high modularity and can operate during the charging/discharging cycle. To show its superiorness and effectiveness, the principle of proposed circuit is explained with computer simulation and experiment is carried out using lithium-ion battery.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.869-877
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• 2012

This paper presents a current-balancing circuit for security lights that uses parallel-connected LEDs. The parallel connection of LEDs causes current differences between the LED strings because of characteristic deviations. These differences can reduce the lifespan of a particular point of LEDs by thermal spotting. They can also cause non-uniform luminance of the lighting device. Among the different methods for solving these problems, the method using current-balancing transformers makes it easy to compensate for current differences and it has a simple circuitry. However, while the balancing transformer has been applied to AC light sources, LEDs operate on a DC source, so the driving circuitry and the design method have to be changed and their performances must be verified. Thus in this paper, a design method of the balancing transformer network and the driving circuitry for LEDs is proposed. The proposed design method could have a smaller size than the conventional design method. The proposed circuitry is applied to three types of 100-watt LED security lights, which use different LEDs. Experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the designed driving circuits.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2016

This paper proposes an energy storage-assisted, series-connected module-integrated power conversion system that integrates a photovoltaic power conditioner and a charge balancing circuit. In conventional methods, a photovoltaic power conditioner and a cell-balancing circuit are needed for photovoltaic systems with energy storage devices, but they cause a complex configuration and high cost. Moreover, an imbalanced output voltage of the module-integrated converter for PV panels can be a result of partial shading. Partial shading can lead to the fault condition of the boost converter in shaded modules and high voltage stresses on the devices in other modules. To overcome these problems, a bidirectional buck-boost converter with an integrated magnetic device operating for a charge-balancing circuit is proposed. The proposed circuit has multiple secondary rectifiers with inductors sharing a single magnetic core, which works as an inductor for the main bidirectional charger/discharger of the energy storage. The secondary rectifiers operate as a cell-balancing circuit for both energy storage and the series-connected multiple outputs of the module-integrated converter. The operating principle of the cell-balancing power conversion circuit and the power stage design are presented and validated by PSIM simulation for analysis. A hardware prototype with equivalent photovoltaic modules is implemented for verification. The results verify that the modularized photovoltaic power conversion system in the output series with an energy storage successfully works with the proposed low-cost bidirectional buck-boost converter comprising a single magnetic device.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.194-201
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• 2014

To increase the capacity of secondary cells, an appropriate serial composition of the battery modules is essential. The unbalance that may occur due to the series connection in such a serial composition is the main cause for declines in the efficiency and performance of batteries. Various studies have been conducted on the use of a passive or active topology to eliminate the unbalance from the series circuit of battery modules. Most topologies consist of a complex structure in which the Battery Management System (BMS) detects the voltage of each module and establishes the voltage balancing in the independent electrical power converters installed on each module by comparing the module voltage. This study proposes a new magnetic flux sharing type DC/DC converter topology in order to remove voltage unbalances from batteries. The proposed topology is characterized by a design in which all of the DC/DC convertor outputs connected to the modules converge into a single transformer. In this structure, by taking a form in which all of the battery balancing type converters share magnetic flux through a single harmonic wave transformer, all of the converter voltages automatically converge to the same voltage. This paper attempts to analyze the dynamic properties of the proposed circuit by using a Programmable Synthesizer Interface Module (PSIM), which is useful for power electronics analysis, while also attempting to demonstrate the validity of the proposed circuit through experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1999.07a
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• pp.206-209
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• 1999

There exists an acute need for high voltage solid-state-switches in a broad area of applications. With the proposed method using simple voltage balancing circuit with series connected IGBTs, it is realized high voltage semiconductor switches with working voltages of several order kilo-volts. The operation principle of the proposed circuit is explained and analyzed. Transient and static voltage-balancing is tested on a experimenta 3kV/45A switch with four series-connected IGBTs.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2010.07a
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• pp.228-229
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• 2010

This paper presents an active voltage balancing approach using a forward fly-back power converter. In the proposed balancing scheme, cell with the higher voltage is selected to extract the extra energy and then a proportion of this extracted energy is distributed to other supercapacitors via the proposed circuit. A system structure consisting of five supercapacitors is built up to verify operation of the proposed scheme.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1876-1879
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• 2003

Due to the conventional half-bridge switch-mode converters for dc motor drive have been usually using unbalanced circuit topologies which generate common-mode currents through parasitic capacitors distributed between the ground and the dc motor frame such as the heat-sink of switching devices or the frame of the dc motor. This paper describes methods that cancel common-mode current generated in half-bridge switch-mode converters by using circuit balancing technique. The circuit balancing is to make the noise pickup or occurring in both conductor lines, signal and return pathes, is equal in amplitude and opposite in phase so that it will be canceled out in the ground plane. The common-mode current cancellation in the proposed converter is confirmed by experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2015.07a
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• pp.401-402
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• 2015

In this paper a direct cell-to-cell charge balancing circuit which can transfer the charge from any cell to any cell in the battery string is introduced. In the proposed topology the energy in the high voltage cell is transferred to the low voltage cell through the simple operation of a dc-dc converter to get fast equalization. Furthermore, the charge equalization can be performed regardless of the battery module operation whether it is being charged, discharged or relaxed. The monitoring circuit composed of a DSP and a battery monitoring IC is designed to monitor the cell voltage and protect the battery. In order to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed topology, a prototype circuit was designed and applied to 12 Lithium-Ion battery module. It has been verified with the experiments that the charge equalization time of the proposed method was shortest compared with those of other methods.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.347-349
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• 2007

Charge equalization scheme for HEV lithium-ion battery system is proposed in this paper, where all the primary windings with in parallel bi-directional switches are coupled in series to provide the equalizing energy from the whole battery string to the specific under charged cells. Moreover, to realize minimized size of equalization circuit employing the proposed cell balancing scheme, the optimal power rating design rule according to equalization time and SOC distribution of imbalance is proposed. A prototype of HEV lithium-ion battery system of four cells shows the outstanding charge equalization performance while maintaining greatly reduced size of cell balancing circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2018

Recent trends in high-power-density applications have highlighted the importance of designing power converters with high-frequency operation. However, conventional LLC resonant converters present limitations in terms of high-frequency driving due to switching losses during the turn-off period. Switching losses are caused by the overlap of the voltage and current during this period, and can be decreased by reducing the switch voltage. In turn, the switch voltage can be reduced through a series connection of four switches, and additional circuitry is essential for balancing the voltage of each switch. In this work, a three-level LLC resonant converter that can operate at high frequency is proposed by reducing switch losses and balancing the voltages of all switches with only one capacitor. The voltage-balancing principle of the proposed circuit can be extended to n-level converters, which further reduces the switch voltage stress. As a result, the proposed circuit is applicable to high-input applications. To confirm the validity of the proposed circuit, theoretical analysis and experimental verification results from a 350 W-rated prototype are presented.