• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2018

This paper proposes a transformer design of a direct cell-to-cell active cell balancing circuit with a multi-winding transformer for battery management system (BMS) applications. The coupling coefficient of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of MOSFETs significantly affect the balancing current transfer efficiency of the cell balancing operation. During the operation, the multi-winding transformer stores the energy charged in a specific source cell and subsequently transfers this energy to the target cell. However, the leakage inductance of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of the MOSFET induce an abnormal energy transfer to the non-target cells, thereby degrading the transfer efficiency of the balancing current in each cell balancing operation. The impacts of the balancing current transfer efficiency deterioration are analyzed and a transformer design methodology that considers the coupling coefficient is proposed to enhance the transfer efficiency of the balancing current. The efficiency improvements resulting from the selection of an appropriate coupling coefficient are verified by conducting a simulation and experiment with a 1 W prototype cell balancing circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.279-285
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• 2019

This study proposes an enhanced switching pattern that can improve energy transfer efficiency in an active cell-balancing circuit using a multiwinding transformer. This balancing circuit performs cell balancing by transferring energy stored in a specific cell with high energy to another cell containing low energy through a multiwinding transformer. The circuit operates in flyback and buck-boost modes in accordance with the energy transfer path. In the conventional flyback mode, the leakage inductance of the transformer and the stray inductance component of winding can transfer energy to an undesired path during the balancing operation. This case results in cell imbalance during the cell-balancing process, which reduces the energy transfer efficiency. An enhanced switching pattern that can effectively perform cell balancing by minimizing the amount of energy transferred to the nontarget cells due to the leakage inductance components in the flyback mode is proposed. Energy transfer efficiency and balancing speed can be significantly improved using the proposed switching pattern compared with that using the conventional switching pattern. The performance improvements are verified by experiments using a 1 W prototype cell-balancing circuit.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.367-376
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• 2016

This paper presents a cell balancing method for a single switch flyback converter with a multi-winding transformer. The conventional method using a flyback converter with a multi-winding transformer is simple and easy to control, but the voltage of each secondary winding coil might be non-uniform because of the unequal effective turn-ratio. In particular, it is difficult to control the non-uniform effect using turn-ratios because secondary coil has a limited number of turns. The non-uniform secondary voltages disturb the cell balancing procedure and induce an unbalance in cell voltages. Individual cell control by adding a switch for each cell can reduce the undesirable effect. However, the circuit becomes bulky, resulting in additional loss. The proposed method here uses the conventional flyback converter with an adjustment made to the output filters of the cells, instead of the additional switch. The magnitude of voltage applied to a particular cell can be reduced or increased according to the adjusted filter and the selected switching frequency. An analysis of the conventional converter configuration and the filter design method reveals the possibility of adequate cell balancing control without any additional switch on the secondary side.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.315-323
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• 2014

An optimized space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) method with common mode voltage elimination and neutral point potential balancing is proposed for an open-end winding induction motor. The motor is fed from both of the ends with two neutral point clamped (NPC) three-level inverters. In order to eliminate the common mode voltage of the motor ends and balance the neutral point potential of the DC link, only zero common mode voltage vectors are used and a balancing control factor is gained from calculation in the strategy. In order to improve the harmonic characteristics of the output voltages and currents, the balancing control factor is regulated properly and the theoretical analysis is provided. Simulation and experimental results show that by adopting the proposed method, the common mode voltage can be completely eliminated, the neutral point potential can be accurately balanced and the harmonic performance for the output voltages and currents can be effectively improved.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.1812-1820
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• 2017

This paper analyzes a symmetric active cell balancer for a battery management system. The considered cell balancer uses a forward converter in which the circuit structure is symmetric. This cell-balancing method uses fewer switches and is simpler than the previously proposed active cell-balancing circuits. Active power switches of this cell-balancing circuit operate simultaneously with the same pulse width modulation signals. Therefore, this cell-balancing circuit requires less time to be balanced than a previous bidirectional-forward-converter-based cell balancer. This paper analyzes the operational principles and modes of this cell balancer with computer-based circuit simulation results as well as experimental results in which each unbalanced cell is equalized with this cell balancer. The maximum power transfer efficiency of the investigated cell balancer was 87.5% from the experimental results. In addition to the experimental and analytical results, this paper presents the performance of this symmetric active cell-balancing method.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2015

This study proposes an improved cell balancing circuit for fast equalization among lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. A simple voltage sensorless charge balancing circuit has been proposed in the past. This cell balancing circuit automatically transfers energy from high-to low-voltage battery cells. However, the circuit requires a switch with low on-resistance because the balancing speed is limited by the on-resistance of the switch. Balancing speed decreases as the voltage difference among the battery cells decrease. In this study, the balancing speed of the cell balancing circuit is enhanced by using the auxiliary circuit, which boosts the balancing current. The charging current is determined by the nominal battery cell voltage and thus, the balancing speed is almost constant despite the very small voltage differences among the batteries. Simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed cell balancing circuit.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.259-267
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• 2008

Power quality improvement in a three-phase four-wire system is achieved using a new topology of DSTATCOM (distribution static compensator) consisting of a star/delta transformer with a tertiary winding and a three-leg VSC (voltage source converter). This new topology of DSTATCOM is proposed for power factor correction or voltage regulation along with harmonic elimination, load balancing and neutral current compensation. A tertiary winding is introduced in each phase for a delta connected secondary in addition to the star-star windings and this delta connected winding is responsible for neutral current compensation. The dynamic performance of the proposed DSTATCOM system is demonstrated using MATLAB with its Simulink and Power System Blockset (PSB) toolboxes under varying loads. The capacitor supported DC bus of the DSTATCOM is regulated to the reference voltage under varying loads.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.04c
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• pp.129-131
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• 2007

In this paper, we research improvement in efficiency of single-phase induction motor by adapting the condition of the balanced and quasi-balanced operation. we maintain turns of auxiliary winding of the motor and adjust resistance and reactance. In this condition, resistance value and copper loss are much gloater. Namely, this is the condition only for balancing MMF without consideration of copper loss of stator winding. To make more practical design, therefore, we will perform winding design which is based on balanced operation condition and applies copper loss minimum. The problem of deterioration of starting torque is completed by rotor bar shape design.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.1011-1019
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• 2019

In this paper, a buck-flyback (fly-buck) stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) system for charge balancing with a differential power processor (DPP) circuit is proposed. Conventional feed-back DPP converters draw differential feed-back power from the output of a string converter. Therefore, the power is always through the switches and diodes of the string converter. Because of the returning conduction path, there are always power losses due to the resistance of the switch and the forward voltage of the diode. Meanwhile, the proposed feed-back DPP converter draws power from the magnetically-coupled inductor in a string converter. This shortens the power path of the DPP converter, which reduces the power losses. In addition, the extra winding in the magnetically-coupled inductor works as a charge balancer for battery-stacked stand-alone PV systems. The proposed system, which uses a single magnetically-coupled inductor, can control each of the PV modules independently to track the maximum power point. Thus, it can overcome the power loss due to the power path. It can also achieve charge balancing for each of the battery modules. The proposed topology is analyzed and verified using 120W hardware experiments.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.732-741
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• 2018

In order to maximize the usable capacity of a BMS (battery management system) that uses several battery cells connected in series, a cell balancing technique that equips each cell with the same voltage is needed. In the active cell balancing circuit using a multi-winding transformer, a balancing circuit that transfers energy directly to the cell (cell-to-cell) is composed of a PMOS switch and a gate driving chip for driving the NMOS switch. The TLP2748 photocoupler and the TLP2745 photocoupler are required, resulting in increased cost and reduced integration. In this paper, instead of driving PMOS and NMOS switching devices by using photocoupler, we proposed 70V BCD process based PMOS gate driving circuit, NMOS gate driving circuit, PMOS gate driving circuit and NMOS gate driving circuit with improved switching time. ${\Delta}t$ of the PMOS gate drive switch with improved switching time was 8.9 ns and ${\Delta}t$ of the NMOS gate drive switch was 9.9 ns.