High Efficiency Active Clamp Forward Converter with Synchronous Switch Controlled ZVS Operation

An active clamp ZVS PWM forward converter using a secondary synchronous switch control is proposed in this paper. The proposed converter is suitable for low-voltage and high-current applications. The structure of the proposed converter is the same as a conventional active clamp forward converter. However, since it controls the secondary synchronous switch to build up the primary current during a very short period of time, the ZVS operation is easily achieved without any additional conduction losses of magnetizing current in the transformer and clamp circuit. Furthermore, there are no additional circuits required for the ZVS operation of power switches. Therefore, the proposed converter can achieve high efficiency with low EMI noise, resulting from soft switching without any additional conduction losses, and shows high power dens~ty, a result of high efficiency, and requires no additional components. The operational principle and design example are presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed converter can achieve an excellent ZVS performance throughout all load conditions and demonstrates significant improvement in efficiency for the 100W (5V, 20A) prototype converter.