LLC Resonant Current Doubler Converter

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Electrical Engineering
Degree name
Master of Engineering
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Electrical and Computer Engineering
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2013
Authors
Chen, Haoning (William)
Abstract

The telecommunications market is one of the large rapidly growing fields in today’s power supply industry due to the increasing demand for telecom distributed power supply (DPS) systems. The half-bridge LLC (Inductor-Inductor-Capacitor) resonant converter is currently the most attractive topology for the design and implementation of 24V/48V DC telecom power converters. The current doubler rectifier (CDR) converter topology was invented and described in the early 1950s which can offer the unique characteristic of halving the output voltage while doubling the output current compared to a standard rectifier. In this thesis, the current doubler converter topology with its unique characteristic is evaluated as a complementary solution to improve the LLC resonant converter performance, especially for the low output voltage and high output current telecommunication applications. A novel half-bridge LLC resonant current doubler converter (LLC-CDR) is proposed in this thesis which can offer several performance benefits compared to conventional LLC-standard rectifier design . The unique characteristics of the LLC-CDR topology can offer significant improvements by transformation of a 48V converter into a 24V converter with the same power density. This thesis introduces a new SPICE-based simulation model to analyse the operation of this novel LLC-CDR converter circuit design. This model can be used to define the critical component parameters for the LLC -CDR circuit output inductor values. It can also be used to predict the circuit overall performance under different load conditions. Both time-domain based transient simulation analysis and frequency-domain based AC analysis provided by this simulation model showed favourable results in comparison to bench measurement results on a prototype. The model provides a valuable insight to reveal some of the unique characteristics of this LLC -CDR topology. It demonstrates a proof of concept that the conventional LLC resonant converter can be easily redesigned for low voltage, high current applications by using the LLC-CDR topology without requiring a new design for the LLC resonant stage components and the power transformer. A new magnetic integration solution was proposed to significantly improve the overall performance in the LLC-CDR topology that had not been published before. The LLC-CDR converter hardware prototypes with two output inductors coupled and uncoupled configurations were extensively modelled, constructed and bench tested.Test results demonstrated the suitability of an integrated coupled inductors design for the novel LLC-CDR converter application. The integrated coupled inductors design can significantly improve the LLC-CDR converter frequency-domain based AC simulation analysis results. In addition, these results also illustrate the potential benefit of how the magnetic integration design in general could reduce the magnetic component size, cost, and weight compared to the uncoupled inductors design. Finally, a hardware prototype circuit was constructed based on a commercial 1800 W single phase telecom power converter to verify the operation of this novel half bridge LLC-CDR topology. The converter prototype successfully operated at both no load and full load conditions with the nominal output voltage halved from 48VDC to 24VDC, and doubled the output current to match the same output power density. It also demonstrates that the efficiency of this novel half bridge LLC –CDR is 92% compares to 90% of EATON’s commercial 24VDC LLC resonant converter, which can fulfill the research goals.

Description
Citation
Keywords
LLC, Resonant, Telecom, Half bridge, Curren doubler, DC-DC converter, LLC-CDR topology, Integrated coupled inductor, Magnetic integration, SPICE based simulation
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Haoning (William) Chen