Single Stage PFC Flyback AC-DC Converter Design

This paper discusses a 100 W single stage Power Factor Correction (PFC) flyback converter operating in boundary mode constant ON time methodology using a synchronous MOS-FET rectifier on the secondary side to achieve higher efficiency. Unlike conventional designs which use two stage approach such as PFC plus a LLC resonant stage or a two stage PFC plus flyback, the proposed design integrates the PFC and constant voltage regulation in a single stage without compromising the efficiency of the converter. The proposed design is advantageous as it has a lower component count. A design of 100 W flyback operating from universal input AC line voltage is demonstrated in this paper. The experimental results show that the power factor (PF) is greater than 0.92 and total harmonic distortion (iTHD) is less than 20% for a load varying from 25 % to 100 %. The experimental results show the advantages of a single stage design.Comment: Published in: 2020 IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Computing and Communication Technologies (CONECCT

Model predictive current control of a proposed single-switch three-level active rectifier applied to EV battery chargers

This paper presents a model predictive current control applied to a proposed new topology of single-switch three-level (SSTL) active rectifier, which is exemplified in an application of single-phase battery charger for electric vehicles (EVs). During each sampling period, this current control scheme selects the state of the SSTL active rectifier that minimizes the error between the grid current and its reference. Using this strategy it is possible to obtain sinusoidal grid currents with low total harmonic distortion and unitary power factor, which is one of the main requirements for EVs chargers. The paper presents in detail the principle of operation of the SSTL active rectifier, the digital control algorithm and the EV battery charger (where is incorporated the SSTL active rectifier) that was used in the experimental verification. The obtained experimental results confirm the correct application of the model predictive current control applied to the proposed SSTL active rectifier.This work was supported in part by the FCT–Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in the scope of the project: PEst UID/CEC/00319/2013. Vítor Monteiro was supported by the scholarship SFRH/BD/80155/2011 granted by the FCT agency

Sliding mode control of an innovative single-switch three-level active rectifier

This paper presents the sliding mode control (SMC) applied to an innovative active rectifier. This proposed active rectifier is constituted by a single-switch, and operates with three voltage levels, evidencing a set of advantages when compared with conventional approaches of power factor correction topologies. Taking into account the diversity of applications for this type of power converter, the SMC is used in order to obtain a robust current tracking. Since the active rectifier is controlled according to the ac grid-side current, the error between such current and its reference is determined, and by employing the SMC, this error is minimized during each sampling period with the objective of selecting the state of the single-switch. A comprehensive description about the SMC implementation, supported by the overall operation of the active rectifier, is presented throughout the paper. The obtained computational results for a set of different operating conditions, comprising significant power ranges and sudden variations, confirm the accurate application of the SMC when applied to the proposed single-switch three-level active rectifier. A comparison is also established with other current control, allowing to confirm the precise application of the SMC strategy.This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019. This work has been supported by FCT Project newERA4GRIDs PTDC/EEI-EEE/30283/2017, and by the FCT Project DAIPESEV PTDC/EEI-EEE/30382/2017. Tiago Sousa is supported by the doctoral scholarship SFRH/BD/134353/2017 granted by FCT

A Novel Adaptive Synchronous Rectification System for Low Output Voltage Isolated Converters

The design of efficient isolated low output voltage converters is a major concern due to their widespread use. One of the preferred methods used to maximize their efficiency is synchronous rectification (SR), i.e., the replacement of the secondary side diodes with MOSFETs to decrease conduction losses. However, depending on the topology being used, SR might not provide the required efficiency improvement or even be easily implemented. This paper presents a novel SR system that can be applied to converters with symmetrically driven transformers and to converters from the flyback family; in both cases, the proposed system adaptively generates a control signal that controls a synchronous rectifier MOSFET placed in parallel with each diode, turning it on during the conduction intervals of the diodes. The proposed system uses only information from the secondary side, thus avoiding breaking the isolation barrier; it can be built using a few low-cost analog components, is reliable and simple, and could be easily implemented in an integrated circuit. Up to a 3% improvement is demonstrated in a 3.3-5-V 120-W push-pull converter, and up to a 2.5% improvement is obtained in a 5-V 50-W flyback converter, with both of them designed for telecom application

Single-stage single-switch PFC flyback converter using a synchronous rectifier

A single-stage single-switch power factor correction (PFC) flyback converter with a synchronous rectifier (SR) is proposed for improving power factor and efficiency. Using a variable switching-frequency controller, this converter is continuously operated with a reduced turn-on switching loss at the boundary of the continuous conduction mode and discontinuous conduction mode (I)CM). The proposed PFC circuit provides relatively low dc-link voltage in the universal line voltage, and also complies with Standard IEC 61000-3-2 Class D limits. In addition, a new driving circuit as the voltage driven-synchronous rectifier is proposed to achieve high efficiency. In particular, since a driving signal is generated according to the voltage polarity, the SR driving circuit can easily be used in DCM applications. The proposed PFC circuit and SR driving circuit in the flyback converter with the reduced switching loss are analyzed in detail and optimized for high performance. Experimental results for a 19 V/90 W adapter at the variable switching-frequency of 30 similar to 70 kHz were obtained to show the performance of the proposed converter.X1197sciescopu

Single-Stage Power Electronic Converters with Combined Voltage Step-Up/Step-Down Capability

Power electronic converters are typically either step-down converters that take an input voltage and produce an output voltage of low amplitude or step-up converters that take an input voltage and produce an output voltage of higher amplitude. There are, however, applications where a converter that can step-up voltage or step-down voltage can be very useful, such as in applications where a converter needs to operate under a wide range of input and output voltage conditions such as a grid-connected solar inverter. Such converters, however, are not as common as converters that can only step down or step up voltage because most applications require converters that need to only step down voltage or only step up voltage and such converters have better performance within a limited voltage range than do converters that are designed for very wide voltage ranges. Nonetheless, there are applications where converters with step-down and step-up capability can be used advantageously. The main objectives of this thesis are to propose new power electronic converters that can step up voltage and step down voltage and to investigate their characteristics. This will be done for two specific converter types: AC/DC single-stage converters and DC-AC inverters. In this thesis, two new AC/DC single-stage converters and a new three-phase converter are proposed and their operation and steady-state characteristics are examined in detail. The feasibility of each new converter is confirmed with results obtained from an experimental prototype and the feasibility of a control method for the inverter is confirmed with simulation work using commercially available software such as MATLAB and PSIM

High Efficiency Power Converters for Vehicular Applications

The use of power electronics in the electrical propulsion systems leads to the optimal and efficient utilization of the traction motors and the energy sources (batteries and/or fuel cells) through the recourse to suitable power converters and their proper control. Power electronics is also used for implementing the multiple conversions of the energy delivered by the sources to feed the various loads, most of them requiring different waveforms of voltage (ac or dc) and/or different levels of voltage. This work focuses on the solutions aimed at improving the efficiency of power converters for vehicular applications, which is of great importance because of the limited amount of energy that can be stored in the electric vehicles. The study takes into consideration both the traction applications and the battery charging applications whether it is done by conductive means or by wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. The improvement in traction drive efficiency results in an increment of the drivetrain efficiency of the vehicle, leading to an extension in the driving range, while the employment of efficient power converters is required to charge batteries with increasingly large capacity. The losses of power devices are even more significant when they operate at high frequencies to compact the size of the filter elements and/or the transformers. The losses of power devices can be minimized by making the commutation soft or by replacing the conventional devices with the new generation devices based on wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor materials. In this work, the properties of the WBG semiconductor materials are illustrated and the operation of the devices based on these materials are analyzed to grasp better their characteristics and performance. The losses of individual devices (i.e. diode, IGBT, MOSFET) as well as the operation of power converters for various applications are examined in detail. To evaluate the performance of the SiC devices in electric vehicle applications, an AC traction drive for the propulsion of a typical compact C-class electric car has been considered. Two versions of the inverter have been investigated, one built up with conventional Si IGBTs and the other one with SiC MOSFETs, and the losses in the semiconductor devices of the two versions have been found along the standard New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). By comparing the results, it is emerged that the usage of the SiC MOSFETs reduces the losses in the traction inverter of about 5%, yielding an equal increase in the car range. To complete the study, calculation of the efficiency has been extended to the whole traction drive, including the traction motor and the gear. Afterwards, a power factor correction (PFC) circuit, which is commonly used to mitigate the distortion in line current, has been studied. The study is started by considering the basic and the interleaved PFC configurations and by defining their circuit parameters. After selecting the interleaved configuration, the magnitude of voltages and currents in the PFC rectifier has been determined and the values obtained have been verified by a power circuit simulation software. The digital signal processing (DSP) has been also studied as it is used for the control operation of the PFC. At last, a prototype of PFC rectifier with interleaved configuration is designed. The design process and the specification of the components are described in brief. A prototype of synchronous rectifier (SR) is designed for the output stage of a WPT system. With respect to conventional rectifiers, in SRs the diodes are replaced by MOSFETs with their antiparallel diodes. MOSFETs are bidirectional devices that conduct with a low voltage drop. During the dead time, the diodes in antiparallel to the MOSFETs are conducting. At the end of dead-time, signals are applied at the MOSFET gates that make conducting all along the remaining period, thus reducing the conduction losses. The dead-time length is optimized by using fast switching devices based on SiC semiconductor materials. The prototype is designed and tested at the line frequency. The experimental results obtained from the prototype corroborate both the analytical results and the simulation results. As SR exhibits is working with high efficiency at the line frequency, it is expected that at the higher operating frequencies of the WPT systems, the performance of SR will be even better. A DC-DC isolated power converters used to setup the battery charger through wire system are studied. Two topologies of DC-DC converters, i.e. Dual Active Bridge (DAB) and Single Active Bridge (SAB) converters, are considered. For both the topologies operation are described at steady state. For SAB converter, two possible modes of operation are examined: discontinuous current conduction (DCM) and continuous current conduction (CCM). Soft-switching operation of both SAB and DAB converters, obtained by the insertion of auxiliary capacitors, is analyzed. Moreover, the soft-switching operating zone for the two converters are found as a function of the their output voltages and currents. Finally, the comparative analysis of soft-switching operation of SAB versus DAB converter is presented. The thesis work has been carried out at the Laboratory of “Electric Systems for Automation and Automotive” headed by Prof. Giuseppe Buja. The laboratory belongs to the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Padova, Italy