• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.84-92
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• 2016

Compared with Si MOSFETs, the GaN FET has many advantages in a wide band gap, high saturation drift velocity, high critical breakdown field, etc. This paper compares the electrical properties of GaN FETs and Si MOSFETs. The soft-switching condition and power loss analysis in a flyback-forward high gain DC/DC converter with a GaN FET is presented in detail. In addition, a comparison between GaN diodes and Si diodes is made. Finally, a 200W GaN FET based flyback-forward high gain DC/DC converter is established, and experimental results verify that the GaN FET is superior to the Si MOSFET in terms of switching characteristics and efficiency. They also show that the GaN diode is better than the Si diode when it comes to reverse recovery characteristics.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.157-161
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• 2020

High voltage gain converters are essential for distributed power generation systems with renewable energy sources, such as fuel cells and solar cells, because of their low voltage characteristics. This paper introduces a novel nonisolated DC-DC converter topology developed by combining an inverting buck-boost converter and voltage multipliers. In the proposed converter, the input voltage is connected in series with the output, and the majority of the input power is directly delivered to the load. The voltage multipliers are stacked in series to achieve high step-up voltage gain. The voltage stress across all of the switches and capacitors can be significantly reduced. As a result, the switches with low voltage ratings can be used to achieve high efficiency and low cost. To verify the validity of the proposed topology, a 360-W prototype converter is built to obtain the experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.49-55
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• 2003

This paper presents a novel three-phase current-fed Pulse Width Modulation converter with switched capacitor type resonant DC link commutation circuit operating PWM pattern strategy under a design consideration of low-pass filter, which can operate on the basis of the principle of zero current soft switching commutation. In the first place, the steady state operating principle of this converter with a new resonant DC link snubber circuit is described in connection with the equivalent operation circuit, together with the practical design procedure of the switched-capacitor type resonant DC link circuit is discussed from a theoretical viewpoint on the basis of a design example for high-power applications. The actively delayed time correction method to compensate distorted currents due to a relatively long resonant commutation time is newly implemented in the open loop control scheme so as to acquire the new optimum PWM pattern. Finally, the experiment of set-up in laboratory system of this converter is concretely demonstrated herein to confirm a zero current soft-switching commutation of this converter. The comparative evaluations between current-fed hard switching PWM and soft-switching PWM converters are carried out from a viewpoint of their PWM converter characteristics.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.342-350
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• 2010

Randomizing the switching frequency (RSF) to reduce the electromagnetic interference (EMI) of switching power converters is a well-known technique that has been previously discussed. The randomized pulse position (RPP) technique, in which the switching frequency is kept fixed while the pulse position (the delay from the starting of the switching cycle to the turn-on instant within the cycle) is randomized, has been previously addressed in the literature for the same purpose. This paper presents a double-hybrid technique (DHB) for EMI reduction in dc-dc switching regulators. The proposed technique employed both the RSF and the RPP techniques. To effectively spread the conducted-noise frequency spectrum and at the same time attain a satisfactory output voltage quality, two parameters (switching frequency and pulse position) were randomized, and a third parameter (the duty ratio) was controlled by a digital compensator. Implementation was achieved using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology, which is increasingly being adopted in industrial electronic applications. To evaluate the contribution of the proposed DHB technique, investigations were carried out for each basic PWM, RPP, RSF, and DHB technique. Then a comparison was made of the performances achieved. The experimentally investigated features include the effect of each technique on the common-mode, differential-mode, and total conducted-noise characteristics, and their influence on the converter’s output ripple voltage.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.57-63
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• 2014

In this paper a bidirectional DC-DC converter is proposed for renewable energy systems, eco-friendly vehicles, energy storage systems, uninterruptible power supply(UPS) systems and battery test equipments. The two-stage bidirectional converter employing a fixed-frequency series loaded resonant converter is designed to be capable of operating under zero-current-switching turn on and turn off regardless of voltage and load variation, and hence its magnetic components and EMI filters can be optimized. And efficiencies and volumes of the two-stage bidirectional converters are compared according to configuration of isolated and non-isolated parts and a two-stage topology suitable for low voltage and high current applications is proposed. A 12kW(12V, 1000A) prototype of the proposed converter has been built and tested to verify the validity of the proposed operation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.632-640
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• 2017

Input series output independent (ISOI) dc-dc converter systems are suitable for high voltage input and multiple output applications with low voltage rating switches. This paper proposes a novel control strategy consisting of one output voltage regulating (OVR) control loop and n-1 (n is the number of modules in the ISOI system) input voltage sharing (IVS) control loops. An ISOI system with the proposed control strategy can be applied to applications where the output loads of each module are the same. Under these conditions, IVS can be achieved and output voltages copying can be realized in an ISOI system. In this control strategy there is only one controller for each module and the design process of the control loops is simple. Since no central controller is needed in the system, modularity of the system is improved. The operation principle of the new control strategy is introduced and the control effect is simulated. Then the output power and voltage characteristics of an ISOI system under this new control strategy are analyzed. The stability of the proposed control strategy is explored base on a Hurwitz criterion, and the design guide line of the control strategy is given. A two module ISOI system prototype is fabricated and tested in the laboratory. Experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.579-589
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• 2017

In this study a new high step-up dc-dc converter is presented. The operation of the proposed converter is based on the capacitor switching and coupled inductor with a single active power switch in its structure. A passive voltage clamp circuit with two capacitors and two diodes is used in the proposed converter for elevating the converter's voltage gain with the recovered energy of the leakage inductor, and for lowering the voltage stress on the power switch. A switch with a low $R_{DS}$ (on) can be adopted to reduce conduction losses. In the generalized mode of the proposed converter, to reach a desired voltage gain, capacitor stages with parallel charge and series discharge techniques are extended from both sides of secondary side of the coupled inductor. The proposed converter has the ability to alleviate the reverse recovery problem of diodes with circuit parameters. The operating principle and steady-states analyses are discussed in detail. A 40W prototype of the proposed converter is implemented in the laboratory to verify its operation.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.159-165
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• 2017

Small-signal modeling and controller design methodology are proposed to improve the dynamics and stability of a DC-DC dual active bridge (DAB) converter. The state-space average method has a limitation when applied to the DAB converter because its state variables are nonlinear and have zero average values in a switching period. Therefore, the small-signal model and the frequency response of the DAB converter are derived and analyzed using a generalized average method instead of conventional modeling methods. The design methodology of a lead-lag controller instead of the conventional proportional-integral controller is also proposed using the derived small-signal model. The accuracy and performance of the proposed small-signal model and controller are verified by simulation and experimental results with a 500 W prototype DAB converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.147-159
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• 2018

In this paper, the voltage tracking control of a conventional DC-DC boost converter affected by unknown, time-varying circuit parameter perturbations is investigated. Based on the fundamental property of incremental passivity, a passivity based control law is designed. Then, to obtain a better disturbance rejection property, two generalized proportional integral (GPI) observers are employed to estimate the time-varying uncertainties in the output voltage and inductor current channels, and the estimated values are applied as feedforward compensation. Moreover, the global trajectory tracking performance of a system with disturbances is ensured under the composite controller. Finally, simulation and experiment studies are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed controller delivers a promising disturbance rejection capability as well as a good nominal tracking performance.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.2015-2021
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• 2008

Recently, with the growth of photovoltaic system, many researchers and companies have concerned about the multi-level inverter which has an efficiency of boosting voltage. In this paper a novel structure of multi-level converter for reducing ripple of output voltage is proposed. In the proposed converter Buck converters are connected in series to generate the output voltage and the ripple of output voltage can be reduced compared with the exiting Buck converter. Especially when outputting lower output voltage the number of acting switching elements is less and the result of ripple reducing is more obvious. This paper implements a multi-level switching function based on the FPGA.