• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.653-663
• /
• 2017

Multilevel active neutral-point-clamped (ANPC) converter combines the advantages of three-level ANPC converter and multilevel flying capacitor (FC) converter. However, multilevel ANPC converter often suffers from capacitor voltage balancing problems. In order to solve the capacitor voltage balancing problems for five-level ANPC converter, phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) is used, which generally provides natural voltage balancing ability. However, the natural voltage balancing ability depends on the load conditions and converter parameters. In order to eliminate voltage deviations under steady-state and dynamic conditions, the active voltage-balancing control (AVBC) methods of floating capacitors and dc-link capacitors based on PS-PWM are proposed. First, the neutral-point current is regulated to balance the neutral-point voltage by injecting zero-sequence voltage. After that, the duty cycles of the redundant switch combinations are adjusted to balance the floating-capacitor voltages by introducing moderating variables for each of the phases. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed AVBC methods is verified by experimental results.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.160-166
• /
• 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 Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.829-838
• /
• 2016

This paper focuses on the engineering trade-offs in designing capacitor voltage balancing schemes for modular multilevel converters (MMC) HVDC: regulation performance and switching loss. MMC is driven by the on/off switch operation of numerous submodules and the key design concern is balancing submodule capacitor voltages minimizing switching transition among submodules because it represents the voltage regulation performance and system loss. This paper first introduces the state-of-the-art MMC-HVDC submodule capacitor voltage balancing methods reported in the literatures and discusses the trade-offs in designing these methods for HVDC application. This paper further proposes a submodule capacitor balancing scheme exploiting a control signal to flexibly interchange between the on-state and the off-state submodules. The proposed scheme enables desired performance-based voltage regulation and avoids unnecessary switching transitions among submodules, consequently reducing the switching loss. The flexibility and controllability particularly fit in high-level MMC HVDC applications where the aforementioned design trade-offs become more crucial. Simulation studies for MMC HVDC are performed to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed capacitor voltage balancing algorithm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.7
• /
• pp.22-27
• /
• 2015

In this paper, the problem of voltage unbalancing in series-connected multiple electric double-layer capacitors(EDLCs) is studied. Good understanding of this problem is required in order to increase reliability and stability of an energy storage system comprising EDLCs. Existing methods to settle voltage unbalancing cannot mitigate the problem enough for each cell, since most method have been applied to each module. For equalizing between cells, Zener diode which is one of passive method have been well examined in literature. However, Zener have well not used in balancing due to heating problem. In addition, It is difficult to choose Zener diode fitted rating voltage of EDLC, because of its internal resistance. Thus, we proposed passive balancing using Zener diode by analyzing parasitic element of Zener and EDLC. To experimentally confirm the balancing effect, we compared in two occasions which are with and without passive. As a result, proposed passive balancing circuit mitigated unbalanced voltage gap between EDLCs.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.1986-1995
• /
• 2018

In this paper, a novel neutral-point voltage balancing scheme for NPC three-level inverters using carrier-based sinusoidal pulse width modulation (SPWM) method is developed. The new modulation approach, based on the obtained expressions of zero sequence voltage in all six sectors, can significantly suppress the low-frequency voltage oscillation in the neutral point at high modulation index and achieve a fast voltage-balancing dynamic performance. The implementation of the proposed method is very simple. Another attractive feature is that the scheme can stably control any voltage difference between the two dc-link capacitors within a certain range without using any extra hardware. Furthermore, the presented scheme is also applicable to the single-phase NPC three-level inverter. It can maintain the neutral-point voltage balance at full modulation index and improve the voltage-balancing dynamic performance of the single-phase NPC three-level inverter. The performance of the proposed strategy and its benefits over other previous techniques are verified experimentally.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
• /
• v.26 no.6_2
• /
• pp.1083-1095
• /
• 2023

Recently, the demand for low-voltage, high-capacity ESS is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of the e-mobility industry, which is mainly powered by electricity. In addition, the demand for portable power banks is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of leisure industries such as camping and fishing. The ESS with this structure consists of a small number of series cells and many parallel cells, resulting in a system with a large rated current. Therefore, the number of power devices for cell balancing configured in series is small, but a balancing device with a large current capacity is required. Construction of a constant temperature device in such a low-voltage, high-current ESS is difficult due to economic issues. The demand for an active balancing system that can solve the passive balancing heating problem is rapidly increasing. In this paper, propose a power feedback fly-back topology that can solve the balancing heating problem. The characteristic of the proposed topology is that a series-connected voltage sharing voltage is used as the input of the flyback converter, and the converter output is connected to one transformer. In this structure, the converter output for cell voltage balancing shares magnetic flux through one high-frequency transformer, so the cell voltage connected to the converter automatically converges to the same voltage.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.23 no.5
• /
• pp.313-320
• /
• 2018

This study proposes a new voltage balancer with bidirectional DC-DC converter function. The proposed balancer can serve as a voltage balancer and a bidirectional DC-DC converter. Thus, the balancer can be applied to battery management systems or fast chargers in electric vehicles (EVs) charging stations while balancing bipolar DC bus voltages. The proposed system has unlimited voltage balancing range unlike the conventional voltage balancing control using a three-level DC-DC converter. A comparison of the voltage balancing range between the proposed and conventional scheme is explored to confirm this superiority. Simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed system.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.348-355
• /
• 2022

A bipolar DC distribution system suffers from an imbalance in voltages when asymmetric loads are connected at the outputs. Dedicated voltage balancers are required to address the imbalance in bipolar voltage levels. However, additional components eventually increase the cost and decrease the efficiency and power density of the system. Therefore, to deal with the imbalance in output voltages without adding any extra components, this study presents a coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique with a dual-output CLL resonant converter. The proposed coupled inductor does not require extra magnetic components to balance the output voltages because it is the result of resonant inductors of the CLL tank circuit. It can also avoid complex control schemes applied to voltage balancing. Moreover, with the proposed coupled inductor, the CLL converter acquires good features including zero voltage and zero current switching. Detailed analysis of the proposed coupled inductor is presented with different load conditions. A 3.6-kW hardware prototype was built and tested to validate the performance of the proposed coupled inductor-based voltage balancing technique.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.9-17
• /
• 2022

The series-connected semiconductor devices structure is one way to achieve a high voltage rating. However, a problem with voltage imbalance exists in which different voltages are applied to the series-connected switches. This paper proposed a new voltage balancing technique that controls the turn-off delay time of the switch by adding one bipolar junction transistor to the gate turn-off path. The validity of the proposed method is proved through simulation and experiment. The proposed active gate driver not only enables voltage balancing across a variety of current ranges but also has a greater voltage balancing performance compared with conventional RC snubber methods.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.379-384
• /
• 2012

This paper presents the power source of wireless sensor node (WSN) using supercapacitors and a solar cell. Supercapacitors have high lifetime cycling compared to that of batteries. Supercapacitors are connected in series to achieve higher voltage and a voltage balancing circuit is required to ensure that no individual cell goes overvoltage. We employ an active balancing circuit that draws minimal current by using transistors. A diode is connected in series with each supercapacitor. A new balancing circuit that equalize the cells-voltage reduces energy consumption of supercapacitors. Voltage of operating WSN is applied 2.2-3.3V by DC/DC converter and supercapacitor voltage 2.2-5.1V. Maximum operating time of wireless sensor node is about 16 hours in full charging.