• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.570-578
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• 2002

Cathodic protection is widely used to prevent corrosion of steel materials buried in the underground and sea. As a rectifier for cathodic protection, the conventional phase-controlled rectifiers have been used so far in spite of such shortcomings as large volume, heavy weight and floor power factor. In order to overcome such disadvantages, this paper proposes a new module-type switching rectifier for cathodic protection, which is composed of two parts, namely, AC/DC converter and module- type DC/DC converter. The AC/DC converter is a single-phase IGBT PWM rectifier, thus resulting in almost unity power factor and controlled DC output voltage. The module-type DC/DC converter operates under ZVS/ZCS switching condition to permit high frequency switching operation. It enables to use high-frequency transformer for electrical isolation, thus reducing volume and weight of overall system and improving system efficiency. It should be anticipated that the proposed rectifier techniques apply to the similar technical areas.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.216-225
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• 2006

This paper presents a new circuit topology of DC busline switch and snubbing capacitor-assisted full-bridge soft-switching PWM inverter type DC-DC power converter with a high frequency link for low voltage large current applications as DC feeding systems, telecommunication power plants, automotive DC bus converters, plasma generator, electro plating plants, fuel cell interfaced power conditioner and arc welding power supplies. The proposed power converter circuit is based upon a voltage source-fed H type full-bridge high frequency PWM inverter with a high frequency transformer link. The conventional type high frequency inverter circuit is modified by adding a single power semiconductor switching device in series with DC rail and snubbing lossless capacitor in parallel with the inverter bridge legs. All the active power switches in the full-bridge inverter arms and DC busline can achieve ZVS/ZVT turn-off and ZCS turn-on commutation operation. Therefore, the total switching losses at turn-off and turn-on switching transitions of these power semiconductor devices can be reduced even in the high switching frequency bands ranging from 20 kHz to 100 kHz. The switching frequency of this DC-DC power converter using IGBT power modules is selected to be 60 kHz. It is proved experimentally by the power loss analysis that the more the switching frequency increases, the more the proposed DC-DC converter can achieve high performance, lighter in weight, lower power losses and miniaturization in size as compared to the conventional hard switching one. The principle of operation, operation modes, practical and inherent effectiveness of this novel DC-DC power converter topology is proved for a low voltage and large current DC-DC power supplies of arc welder applications in industry.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2013

This paper studies a soft switching DC/DC converter to achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) for all switches under a wide range of load condition and input voltage. Two three-level PWM circuits with the same power switches are adopted to reduce the voltage stress of MOSFETs at $V_{in}/2$ and achieve load current sharing. Thus, the current stress and power rating of power semiconductors at the secondary side are reduced. The series-connected transformers are adopted in each three-level circuit. Each transformer can be operated as an inductor to smooth the output current or a transformer to achieve the electric isolation and power transfer from the input side to the output side. Therefore, no output inductor is needed at the secondary side. Two center-tapped rectifiers connected in parallel are used at the secondary side to achieve load current sharing. Due to the resonant behavior by the resonant inductance and resonant capacitance at the transition interval, all switches are turned on at ZVS. Experiments based on a 1kW prototype are provided to verify the performance of proposed converter.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.335-342
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• 2012

This paper is studied on a new DCM-ZVS step up-down AC-DC converter of high performance, that is, high system efficiency and power factor correction (PFC). The switching devices in the proposed converter are operated by soft switching technique using a new quasi-resonant circuit, and are driven with discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) according to pulse width modulation (PWM). The quasi-resonant circuit uses a step up-down inductor and a loss-less snubber capacitor. The proposed converter with DCM also simplifies the requirement of control circuits and reduces the number of control components. The input AC current waveform in the proposed converter becomes a quasi-sinusoidal waveform proportional to the magnitude of input AC voltage under constant switching frequency. As a result, the proposed converter obtains low switching power loss and high efficiency, and its input power factor is nearly in unity. The validity of the analytical findings is confirmed by some computer simulation results and experimental results.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.256-260
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• 2001

This paper presents boost and buck and buck-boost DC-DC converter circuit topologies of high-frequency soft switching transition PWM chopper type DC-DC high power converters with a single auxiliary passive resonant snubber. In the proposed boost power converter circuits operating under a principle of ZCS turn-on and ZVS turn-off commutation schemes, the capacitor and inductor in the auxiliary passive resonant circuit works as the loss less resonant snubber. In addition to this, the switching voltage and current peak stresses as well as EMI and RFI noises can be basically reduced by this single passive resonant snubber. Moreover, it is proved that converter circuit topologies with a passive resonant snubber are capable of solving some problems of the conventional hard switching PWM processing based on high-ferquency pulse modulation operation principle. The simulation results of this converter are discussed as compared with the experimental ones. The effectiveness of this power converter with a single passive resonant snubber is verified by the 5kW experimental breadboad set up.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 1997.07a
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• pp.276-279
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• 1997

본 논문은 통신용전원장치와 같은 대용량의 DC 전원 장치에 적용하기 위하여 3상용 6 Switch로 구성된 Bridge로써 대용량 DC-DC converter에 적합한 Topology에 관한 것이다. 기본 동작은 기존의 Phase shifted ZVS PWM 방식을 사용하며, Bridge의 바깥쪽 양쪽암의 펄스폭을 제어하는데, 같은 펄스를 동시에 주는 방식과 각각 별도로 제어하는 방식, 두암의 위상을 지연시키는 방식에 관하여 연구하였다. 제안된 Topology들은 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션을 수행하여 그 동작특성을 확인하였고, 대용량에 적용할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 장치의 용량은 출력 500[A]/30[V] 회로를 구성하여 각각의 경우에 대하여 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션 결과를 제시하였다.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.249-257
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• 2012

An interleaved PWM converter is proposed to implement the features of zero voltage switching (ZVS), load current sharing and ripple current reduction. The proposed converter includes two ZVS converters with a common clamp capacitor. With the shared capacitor, the charge balance of the two interleaved parts is automatically regulated under input voltage and load variations. The active-clamping circuit is used to realize the ZVS turn-on so that the switching losses on the power switches are reduced. The ZVS turn-on of all of the switching devices is achieved during the transition interval. The interleaved pulse-width modulation (PWM) operation will reduce the ripple current and the size of the input and output capacitors. The current double rectifier (CDR) is adopted in the secondary side to reduce output ripple current so that the sizes of the output chokes and capacitor are reduced. The circuit configuration, operation principles and design considerations are presented. Finally experimental results based on a 408W (24V/17A) prototype are provided to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.89-97
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• 2007

This paper presents a new circuit topology of active edge resonant snubbers assisted half-bridge soft switching PWM inverter type DC-DC high power converter for DC bus feeding power plants. The proposed DC-DC power converter is composed of a typical voltage source-fed half-bridge high frequency PWM inverter with a high frequency planar transformer link in addition to input DC busline side power semiconductor switching devices for PWM control scheme and parallel capacitive lossless snubbers. The operating principle of the new DC-DC converter treated here is described by using switching mode equivalent circuits, together with its unique features. All the active power switches in the half-bridge arms and input DC buslines can achieve ZCS turn-on and ZVS turn-off commutation transitions. The total turn-off switching losses of the power switches can be significantly reduced. As a result, a high switching frequency IGBTs can be actually selected in the frequency range of 60 kHz under the principle of soft switching. The performance evaluations of the experimental setup are illustrated practically. The effectiveness of this new converter topology is proved for such low voltage and large current DC-DC power supplies as DC bus feeding from a practical point of view.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.187-194
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• 2006

A new asymmetrical pulse width modulation (PWM) half bridge converter with improved ZVS performance is proposed. The ZVS operation of the proposed converter can be maintained from no load to full load conditions since the magnetizing current of the transformer contributes to the ZVS operation at light loads without considerable conduction loss of the transformer and switch. Synchronous rectification is employed to reduce the rectification loss. Operational principles, large signal modeling, ZVS analysis and design equations are presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed converter can achieve a large ZVS range and significant improvement in efficiency for a 100W (5V, 20A) prototype converter.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.384-394
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• 1999

This paper deals with a fixed frequency full-bridge inverter type DC-DC high-power converter with high frequency high voltage(HFHV) transformer-coupled stage, which operates under quasi-resonant ZVS transition priciple in spite of a wide PWM-based voltage regulation processing and largely-changed load conditions. This multi-resonant(MR) converter topology is composed of a series capacitor-connected parallel resonant tank which makes the most of parasitic circuit reactive components of HFHV transformer and two additional quasi-resonant pole circuits incorporated into the bridge legs. The soft-switching operation and practical efficacy of this new converter circuit using the latest IGBTs are actually ascertained through 50kV trially-produced converter system operating using 20kHz/30kHz high voltage(HV) transformers which is applied for driving the diagnostic HV X-ray tube load in medical equipments. It is proved from a practical point of view that the switching losses of IGBTs and their electrical dynamic stresses relating to EMI noise can be considerably reduced under a high frequency(HF) switching-based phase-shift PWM control process for a load setting requirements.