• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.1303-1314
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• 2018

To match the dynamic lower voltage of a fuel cell stack and the required constant higher voltage (400V) of a DC bus, an H-type structural Boost three-level DC-DC converter with a wide voltage-gain range (HS-BTL) is presented in this paper. When compared with the traditional flying-capacitor Boost three-level DC-DC converter, the proposed converter can obtain a higher voltage-gain and does not require a complicate control for the flying-capacitor voltage balance. Moreover, the proposed converter, which can draw a continuous and low-rippled current from an input source, has the advantages of a wide voltage-gain range and low voltage stress for power semiconductors. The operating principle, parameters design and a comparison with other converters are presented and analyzed. Experimental results are also given to verify the aforementioned characteristics and theoretical analysis. The proposed converter is suitable for application of fuel cell systems.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.142-151
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• 2020

This paper presents a DC/DC LLC resonant converter with wide input/output voltage gain characteristics and its control method for efficiency improvement. For a wide input/output voltage gain characteristics without designing small transformer magnetization inductance, the proposed converter changes the topology into three modes of operation according to the main switch switching pattern. In each operating mode, variable LINK voltage modulation and frequency modulation were performed to control output voltage and improve operating efficiency. A prototype of a 5-kW DC/DC LLC resonant converter was built and tested to verify the validity and applicability of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-22
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• 2018

This paper presents a single switch, high step-up, non-isolated dc-dc converter suitable for renewable energy applications. The proposed converter is composed of a coupled inductor, a passive clamp circuit, a switched capacitor and voltage lift circuits. The passive clamp recovers the leakage inductance energy of the coupled inductor and limits the voltage spike on the switch. The configuration of the passive clamp and switched capacitor circuit increases the voltage gain. A wide continuous conduction mode (CCM) operation range, a low turn ratio for the coupled inductor, low voltage stress on the switch, switch turn on under almost zero current switching (ZCS), low voltage stress on the diodes, leakage inductance energy recovery, high efficiency and a high voltage gain without a large duty cycle are the benefits of this converter. The steady state operation of the converter in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) is discussed and analyzed. A 200W prototype converter with a 28V input and a 380V output voltage is implemented and tested to verify the theoretical analysis.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.356-366
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• 2022

This paper presents a mode transition method that applies frequency compensation technique of an LLC resonant converter for stable mode transition. LLC resonant converters used in various applications require high efficiency and high power density. However, because of circuit property, a wider voltage gain range equates to a greater circuit loss, so maintaining high efficiency at all voltage gain ranges is difficult. In this case, full bridge-half bridge mode transition method can be used, which maintains high efficiency even in a wide voltage gain range. However, this method causes damage to the circuit through overcurrent by the mode transition. This study analyzes the cause of the problem and proposes a mode transition method that applies frequency compensation technique to solve the problem. The proposed method verifies the stable transition through simulation analysis and experimental results.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.431-432
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• 2007

A general method for both reduced VCO gain ($K_{vco}$) and wide frequency band is to use the switched-capacitor bank LC VCO. However, $K_{vco}$ can fluctuate widely in the wide oscillation frequency range of the VCO. In this paper, a design of wide-band VCO with improved frequency-voltage gain performance is presented. Optimized multiple varacter switching technique is used for reducing its frequency-voltage gain variation.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.343-355
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• 2018

A wide-voltage-conversion range bidirectional DC-DC converter is proposed in this paper. The topology is comprised of one typical LC energy storage component and a special common grounded asymmetric H-bridge with four active power switches/anti-parallel diodes. The narrow output PWM voltage is generated from the voltage difference between two normal (wider) output PWM voltages from the asymmetric H-bridge with duty cycles close to 0.5. The equivalent switching frequency of the output PWM voltage is double the actual switching frequency, and a wide step-down/step-up ratio range is achieved. A 300W prototype has been constructed to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed bidirectional converter between the variable low voltage side (24V~48V) and the constant high voltage side (200V). The slave active power switches allow ZVS turn-on and turn-off without requiring any extra hardware. The maximum conversion efficiency is 94.7% in the step-down mode and 93.5% in the step-up mode. Therefore, the proposed bidirectional topology with a common ground is suitable for energy storage systems such as renewable power generation systems and electric vehicles with a hybrid energy source.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.133-141
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• 2020

The use of high-gain-voltage step-up converters for distributed power generation systems is being popularized because of the need for new energy generation and power conversion technologies. In this study, a new constructed high-gain-boost DC-DC converter was proposed to coordinate low voltage output DC sources, such as PV or fuel cell systems, with high DC bus (380 V) lines. Compared with traditional boost DC-DC converters, the proposed converter can create higher gain and has wider input voltage range and lower voltage stress for power semiconductors and passive elements. Moreover, the proposed topology produces multilevel DC voltage output, which is the main advantage of the proposed topology. Steady-state analysis in continuous conduction mode of the proposed converter is discussed in detail. The practicability of the proposed DC-DC converter is presented by experimental results with a 300 W prototype converter.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.855-860
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• 1998

This paper presents a new structure for a piezoelectric transformer, operating in thickness extensional vibration mode. Modified $PbTiO_3$ family ceramics were used for the piezoelectric transformer, because it was a material with large anisotropy between elecromechanical coupling factors $K_t$ and $K_p$ . The size of piezoelectric transformer was 20mn long, 20mm wide and 3.1mm thick. The second harmonic resonant frequency of thickness extensional vibration mode was 0.72MHz at loading resistance 100[$\omega$], And Voltage gin of piezoelectric ceramics showed 0.53 at resonant frequency of sencond thickness extensional vibration mode.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2173-2181
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• 2016

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) have higher torque and superior output power per volume than other types of AC motors. They are commonly used for applications that require a large output power and a wide range of speed. For precise control of PMSMs, knowing the accurate position of the rotor is essential, and normally position sensors such as a resolver or an encoder are employed. On the other hand, the position sensors make the driving system expensive and unstable if the attached sensor malfunctions. Therefore, sensorless algorithms are widely researched nowadays, to reduce the cost and cope with sensor failure. This paper proposes a sensorless algorithm that can be applied to a wide range of speed. The proposed method features a robust operation at low-speed as well as high-speed ranges by employing a gain adjustment scheme and intermittent voltage pulse injection method. In the proposed scheme the position estimation gain is tuned by a closed loop manner to have stable operation in tough driving environment. The proposed algorithm is fully verified by various experiments done with a 1 kW outer rotor-type PMSM.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2007

LLC resonant converters display many advantages over the conventional LC series resonant converter such as narrow frequency variation over wide range of load and input variation and zero voltage switching even under no load conditions. This paper presents analysis and design consideration for the half bridge LLC resonant converter. Using the fundamental approximation, the gain equation is obtained, where the leakage inductance in the transformer secondary side is also considered. Based on the gain equation, the practical design procedure is investigated to optimize the resonant network for a given input/output specifications. The design procedure is verified through an experimental prototype of the 115W half-bridge LLC resonant converter.