• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.506-513
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• 2016

In general, LLC converters show great promise in applications that require high efficiency, especially under light load conditions. In particular, LLC converters feature wide gain capability with pulse-frequency modulation and zero voltage switching over entire load conditions. However, output voltage increases in light load conditions. In this study, Bode plot and impedance asymptotes analyses were conducted to obtain insights into the regulation characteristics of LLC converters under light load conditions. To improve the regulation characteristic of LLC converters, a new resonant tank with an additional capacitor is proposed. The design guideline for the proposed LLC converter is determined by the Bode plot and impedance asymptotes analyses. Therefore, the proposed LLC converter achieves the light load regulation while maintaining the advantages of typical LLC converters.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.406-414
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• 2009

To cope with the high power density and low cost in switching power supply, LLC resonant converters with the two resonant tank circuits composed of resonance capacitors and two transformers are proposed in this paper. Each transformers used for the proposed resonant circuits are parallel connected in the primary and series connected in the secondary to reduce the current unbalance. The proposed LLC resonant converters are described and verified on 300W experimental prototype.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.438-444
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• 2019

In this paper, bidirectional LLC resonant DC/DC converters with the primary auxiliary windings in transformers of resonant circuits are proposed. Although the resonant capacitors are used on both the primary and secondary sides, regardless of the direction of power flow, the main feature of the proposed converters exhibits high gain characteristics without any mutual coupling between the resonant capacitors. For one of the proposed converters, an investigation of the operating characteristics in each mode has been carried out. A prototype of a 3.3 kW bidirectional LLC resonant converter for interfacing 750 V DC buses has been built and tested to verify the validity and applicability of the proposed converter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.153-160
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• 2018

Recent trends in high-power-density applications have highlighted the importance of designing power converters with high-frequency operation. However, conventional LLC resonant converters present limitations in terms of high-frequency driving due to switching losses during the turn-off period. Switching losses are caused by the overlap of the voltage and current during this period, and can be decreased by reducing the switch voltage. In turn, the switch voltage can be reduced through a series connection of four switches, and additional circuitry is essential for balancing the voltage of each switch. In this work, a three-level LLC resonant converter that can operate at high frequency is proposed by reducing switch losses and balancing the voltages of all switches with only one capacitor. The voltage-balancing principle of the proposed circuit can be extended to n-level converters, which further reduces the switch voltage stress. As a result, the proposed circuit is applicable to high-input applications. To confirm the validity of the proposed circuit, theoretical analysis and experimental verification results from a 350 W-rated prototype are presented.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.40-47
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• 2014

An average current mode control scheme that consistently offers good dynamic performance for LLC series resonant DC-to-DC converters irrespective of the changes in the operational conditions is presented in this paper. The proposed control scheme employs current feedback from the resonant tank circuit through an integrator-type compensation amplifier to improve the dynamic performance and enhance the noise immunity and reliability of the feedback controller. Design guidelines are provided for both current feedback and voltage feedback compensation. The performance of the new control scheme is demonstrated through an experimental 150 W converter operating with 340 V to 390 V input voltage to provide a 24 V output voltage.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.165-173
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• 2022

The electrification trend of mobility increases every year due to the development of power semiconductor and battery technology. Accordingly, the development and distribution of fast chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) are in demand. In this study, we propose a design and implementation method of an LLC converter for fast chargers. Two 15 kW LLC converters are configured in parallel to have 30 kW rated output power, and the control algorithm and driving sequence are designed accordingly and verified. In addition, the improved power conversion efficiency is confirmed through zero-voltage switching (ZVS) of the LLC converter and reduction of turn-off loss through snubber capacitors. The implemented 30 kW LLC converters show a wide output voltage range of 200-950 V. Experiments applying various load conditions verify the converter performance.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.849-860
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• 2016

The high-switching-frequency operation of power converters can achieve high power density through size reduction of passive components, such as capacitors, inductors, and transformers. However, a small-output capacitor that has small capacitance and low effective series resistance changes the small-signal model of the converter power stage. Such a capacitor can make the converter unstable by increasing the crossover frequency in the transfer function of the small-signal model. In this paper, the design and implementation of a high-frequency LLC resonant converter are presented to verify the power density enhancement achieved by decreasing the size of passive components. The effect of small output capacitance is analyzed for stability by using a proper small-signal model of the LLC resonant converter. Finally, proper design methods of a feedback compensator are proposed to obtain a sufficient phase margin in the Bode plot of the loop gain of the converter for stable operation at 500 kHz switching frequency. A theoretical approach using MATLAB, a simulation approach using PSIM, and experimental results are presented to show the validity of the proposed analysis and design methods with 100 and 500 kHz prototype converters.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.680-685
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• 2010

Although LLC resonant converters have the advantages of a wide operation range and high efficiency, the lack of an analytical solution for the peak gain makes it difficult to optimize the resonant tank design, when considering not only the normal condition but also the holdup time requirement. In this paper, based on a mathematical analysis of a LLC resonant converter at the peak gain point, an analytical solution for the peak gain has been developed. By using the developed analytical solution, the peak gain with given resonant tank parameters can be obtained. To confirm the validity of the developed analytical solution, simulations and experimental results are compared.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.8
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• pp.1101-1107
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• 2013

A light emitting diodes(LED) lighting has been increasingly used due to its low power consumption, long life time, high efficiency, and environment friendly characteristics. Also various power converters has been applied to drive these LED lighting. Among many power converters, a LLC resonant converter could be applied for LED lighting because of its high efficiency and high power density. Furthermore, the function of power factor correction(PFC) might be added. In this paper, 1-stage asymmetrical LLC resonant converter is proposed. The proposed converter performs both input-current harmonics reduction and PFC using the discontinuous conduction mode(DCM). The proposed 1-stage LLC resonant converter approach has the lower voltage stress across switching devices and achieve the zero voltage switching(ZVS) in switching devices. To verify the performance of the proposed converter, simulation and experimental results from a 300[W] prototype are provided.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2016.07a
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• pp.291-292
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• 2016

LLC 컨버터는 간단한 구조와 자화 인덕터를 이용한 모든 부하 영역에서의 영 전압 스위칭으로 인하여 많은 응용분야에서 널리 사용되는 컨버터 토폴로지이다. 본 논문에서는 통상적으로 0.5의 시비율로 동작하는 LLC 컨버터의 성능을 더욱 향상시키기 위하여 PWM 제어방식을 두 가지 응용 분야에 적용한 내용을 소개하고자 한다.