• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.1187-1194
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• 2017

In this paper, a high step-up DC-DC PWM converter with continuous input current and low voltage stress is presented for renewable energy application. The proposed converter is composed of a boost converter integrated with an auxiliary step-up circuit. The auxiliary circuit uses an additional coupled inductor and a balancing capacitor with voltage doubler and switching capacitor technique to achieve high step-up voltage gain with an appropriate switch duty cycle. The switched capacitors are charged in parallel and discharged in series by the coupled inductor, stacking on the output capacitor. In the proposed converter, the voltage stress on the main switch is clamped, so a low voltage switch with low ON resistance can be used to reduce the conduction loss which results in the efficiency improvement. A detailed discussion on the operating principle and steady-state analyses are presented in the paper. To justify the theoretical analysis, experimental results of a 200W 40/400V prototype is presented. In addition, the conducted electromagnetic emissions are measured which shows a good EMC performance.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.161-168
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• 2019

This study introduces a new topology to decrease the voltage stress experienced by a 13.56 MHz electrical variable capacitor (EVC) circuit with an asymmetrical switch structure applied to the impedance matching circuit of a radio frequency (RF) plasma system. The method adopts a symmetrical switch structure instead of an asymmetrical one in each of the capacitor's leg in the EVC circuit. The proposed topology successfully reduces voltage stress in the EVC circuit due to the symmetrical charging and discharging mode. This topology can also be applied to the impedance matching circuit of a high-power and high-frequency RF etching system. The target features of the proposed circuit topology are investigated via simulation and experiment. Voltage stress on the switch of the EVC circuit is successfully reduced by more than 40%.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

Recently, application of non-linear load is gradually increased. Non-linear load produces harmonic components of current during the energy conversion transition. Passive filter is used for reducing of harmonics in the user power systems. This filter, which is composed of capacitor and reactor, frequently get out of order by electrical stress. There are voltage and current increase when capacitor and reactor are applied in the user's filter systems. If increased voltage and current is above stipulated values, they have severely an influences on the life of capacitor and reactor. This paper describes that the voltage and current of capacitor used for filter is within the limits of allowable values, but reactor is beyond the limits and reveals spike voltage. Therefore this phenomenon brings about premature fault of reactor and capacitor.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 2009

Reactors are connected with capacitors to passive filter circuits for reducing harmonics caused by power conversion application. This passive filter frequently gets out of order by voltage and current stress. Especially filter reactor has too much voltage harmonics components, its trouble rate is higher than capacitor. In this paper, we analyzed voltage and current of reactor and capacitor used for passive filter by simulation and measurement. If reactor has a tolerance on variation of reactance value, series resonance frequency is different from originally filter design frequency and parallel resonance can be generated at the close point of the former. Because filter absorbs harmonic component of non-linear load, much of harmonic voltage has been impacted on reactor.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.21-28
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• 2009

Power capacitor has been used to compensate for the low power factor of inductive load and to reduce harmonics generated by the power conversion device with reactor. Power quality is mainly referred to the voltage quality and it is very important for the stable operation of load. But if voltage rms is temporary changed, it acts on capacitor as an electrical stress. In this paper, we analyzed that capacitor can be given by voltage, current and capacity's variance under the sag and swell condition. If reactor is connected at capacitor, sag can be aside from the question. But it can act an amount of stress on capacitor in the swell region.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.436-446
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• 2016

A novel step-up DC-DC converter with a switched-coupled-inductor-capacitor (SCIC) which successfully integrates three-winding coupled inductors and switched-capacitor techniques is proposed in this paper. The primary side of the coupled inductors for the SCIC is charged by the input source, and the capacitors are charged in parallel and discharged in series by the secondary windings of the coupled inductor to achieve a high step-up voltage gain with an appropriate duty ratio. In addition, the passive lossless clamped circuits recycle the leakage energy and reduce the voltage stress on the main switch effectively, and the reverse-recovery problem of the diodes is alleviated by the leakage inductor. Thus, the efficiency can be improved. The operating principle and steady-state analyses of the converter are discussed in detail. Finally, a prototype circuit at a 50 kHz switching frequency with a 20-V input voltage, a 200-V output voltage, and a 200-W output power is built in the laboratory to verify the performance of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.1402-1412
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• 2017

This paper presents a new high step-up dc/dc converter for renewable energy systems in which a high voltage gain is provided by using a coupled inductor. The operation of the proposed converter is based on a charging capacitor with a single power switch in its structure. A passive clamp circuit composed of capacitors and diodes is employed in the proposed converter for lowering the voltage stress on the power switch as well as increasing the voltage gain of the converter. Since the voltage stress is low in the provided topology, a switch with a small ON-state resistance can be used. As a result, the losses are decreased and the efficiency is increased. The operating principle and steady-states analyses are discussed in detail. To confirm the viability and accurate performance of the proposed high step-up dc-dc converter, several simulation and experimental results obtained through PSCAD/EMTDC software and a built prototype are provided.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1735-1742
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• 2016

This paper proposes an interleaved five-level boost converter based on a switched-capacitor network. The operating principle of the converter under the CCM mode is analyzed. A high voltage gain, low component stress, small input current ripple, and self-balancing function for the capacitor voltages in the switched-capacitor networks are achieved. In addition, a three-loop control strategy including an outer voltage loop, an inner current loop and a voltage-balance loop has been researched to achieve good performances and voltage-balance effect. An experimental study has been done to verify the correctness and feasibility of the proposed converter and control strategy.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.587-601
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• 2015

A high step-up dc-dc converter is proposed for photovoltaic power systems in this paper. The proposed converter consists of an input current doubler, a symmetrical switched-capacitor doubler and an active-clamp circuit. The input current doubler minimizes the input current ripple. The symmetrical switched-capacitor doubler is composed of two symmetrical quasi-resonant switched-capacitor circuits, which share the leakage inductance of the transformer as a resonant inductor. The rectifier diodes (switched-capacitor circuit) are turned off at the zero current switching (ZCS) condition, so that the reverse-recovery problem of the diodes is removed. In addition, the symmetrical structure results in an output voltage ripple reduction because the voltage ripples of the charge/pump capacitors cancel each other out. Meanwhile, the voltage stress of the rectifier diodes is clamped at half of the output voltage. In addition, the active-clamp circuit clamps the voltage surges of the switches and recycles the energy of the transformer leakage inductance. Furthermore, pulse-width modulation plus phase angle shift (PPAS) is employed to control the output voltage. The operation principle of the converter is analyzed and experimental results obtained from a 400W prototype are presented to validate the performance of the proposed converter.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.653-659
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• 2015

The aim of this study is to develop a technique for the accelerated life test of the capacitor in a propulsion control device of a traction inverter used for a high-speed train. Using this technique, the accelerated life test can possibly estimate the life cycle of a capacitor under various temperature conditions and irregularly applied voltage. The accelerated life test is conducted for the capacitor of the traction inverter. The common proceedings of this test are selection of failure mechanism, determination of accelerated stress, range determination of the accelerated stress, determination of the test condition, and distribution and determination of the sample. From this result, the continuous applied voltage was not considered for the acceleration factors anymore. Therefore, the final result having an acceleration factor of 9.4 (= 13,626/1,445) was observed. Furthermore, the life-shortening acceleration effect for the irregular applied voltage condition can be applied to various situations.