Low cost battery equalizer using buck-boost and series
LC converter with synchronous phase-shift control
Weigui Ji1, Xi Lu2, Yuan Ji1, Yingbin Tang1, Feng Ran1, Fang Zheng Peng2
1
School of Mechatronics Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200072, China
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI USA
jiweigui@shu.edu.cn
Abstract—This paper presents a buck-boost and series LC
converter (BBSLCC) with synchronous phase-shift control
(SPSC) for series battery equalizer. Traditionally, to equalize n
series battery cells, buck-boost converter uses 2n-1 switches, but
this BBSLCC can reduce half switch count. Closed-loop
phase-shift controller based on a feed-forward method is
extremely hard to implemented, but this proposed SPSC method
is much easier to be achieved by just sensing the zero current
through series LC circuit. A theoretical analysis shows that it
take much shorter time to equalize batteries using this BBSLCC
with SPSC compared with a single BBSLCC without SPSC. It
also offers a solution to bypass the open circuit faulty cell. The
simulation and experimental results verify the operating
characteristics of this proposed topology and method, and show
that it features straightforward and low cost implementation.
I. INTRODUCTION
In these years, series battery string is widely used in power
tool, such as uninterruptible power supply (UPS), hybrid
electric vehicle (HEV). As we all know, each battery cell is
different from others because batteries have inevitable
chemical and electrical characteristics. This mismatch
problem will become worse and worse after several charge
and discharge cycles. In the worst case, batteries will explode
or on fire, so battery equalizer is indispensable to protect
battery and prolong battery lifetime[1]. Many balance
topologies have been proposed and well summarized [2-31].
All the balance topologies can be divided into two
methods: dissipative [18] and nondissipative [3-17, 19-31].
Dissipative method will take more power dissipation,
compared to nondissipative method. In the same way, thermal
issue and low efficiency are its drawbacks, so most researches
are focusing on nondissipative methods now. Isolated DC-DC
converter was proposed to shunt current around lower voltage
cells [5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 17, 28, 32]. Switched-capacitor [3, 8, 9,
12, 13, 23, 24, 27, 31, 33], switching buck-boost [25, 28] and
cuk [15] converters were proposed to reduce switching loss
for high efficiency performance. Zero voltage switching
(ZVS) or zero current switching(ZCS) are widely used in
these converters, and they provide ultra low switching losses
[7, 26, 30]. Then higher switching frequency can be used to
minimize the dimension and cost of converters. However,
Shanghai Annual Plan for Absorption and Innovation of
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most of them do not offer a loop to bypass the open-circuit
cells, and their costs are the significant drawbacks because of
the count of switch [3-20, 22-31].
In order to offer a loop to bypass the open-circuit faulty
cells, buck-boost + Cuk converter referred to Fig. 1 was
proposed to save 50% switch count [21]. It has minimum
switch count with one switch per cell, so the cost is
competitive. And it is suitable for high voltage battery pack
due to lower device voltage stress and its modularization
advantage which is convenient to add or remove cells from the
string. In fact, the capacitor in Fig. 1 acts as a switching
capacitor, so the capacitor charged/discharged current is much
larger, then higher current stress switch is needed.
To overcome larger capacitor current, BBSLCC with
SPSC is proposed in this paper for series battery equalizer.
The proposed converter not only inherits all the benefits from
buck-boost + cuk converter, but also it has other distinctive
features:
• It can achieve smaller switching current for higher
efficiency and better electromagnetic interference
(EMI) performances.
• The phase-shift time is determined by zero current,
which is easier to be implemented compared with
other complicated methods [24, 27].
• Equalization is very fast because of SPSC.
II. PROPOSED BUCK-BOOST AND SERIES
RESONANCE CONVERTER
A. Circuit Description
To analysis the operation principles of BBSLCC, a 4-cell
battery pack is taken as an example in this paper. The 4 cells
are divided into 2 groups, which are upper group and lower
group. The upper group includes C1 and C2, and the lower
group includes C3 and C4. Fig. 1 shows the circuit
configuration of buck-boost +cuk converter, and the duty
cycle of all the switches is 50% [21]. To overcome its
shortcomings, BBSLCC is proposed in Fig. 2. Only one series
inductor is added; this inductor will result in a great
suppression of transferring current, power losses, and EMI
issues. Additionally, SPSC is added to improve energy
transferring speed between two groups. The series LC
resonant frequency is fr, and the switching frequency fSW
should be higher than fr to make sure the series LC circuit
acting as inductive impedance. The following analysis is
based on the assumption of (V1+V2) > (V3+V4).
Where: (
f r = 1 2π Lr Cr ) (1)
In state Ⅱ from t1 to t2, S2 and S3 are turned on, while
S1 and S4 are turned off. SLCC is shorted. Cr is charged by Lr,
and ir decreases to zero. In this period, energy is transferred
from Lr to Cr.
In state from t2 to t3, S2 and S4 are turned on, while S1
and S3 are turned off. SLCC is connected to B3 and B4. B3
and B4 are charged by Cr, and ir decreases from zero. In this
period, energy is transferred from Cr to B3, B4 and Lr.
In state from t3 to t4, S2 and S4 are turned on, while S2
and S3 are turned off. SLCC is connected to the battery pack.
B1, B2, B3 and B4 are charged by Lr and Cr, and ir increases
to zero. In this period, energy is transferred from Lr and Cr to
B1, B2, B3 and B4.

S1 S1
V1 B1 D1 V1 D1
L1 L1

V2 B2 S2 D2 Lr V2 S2 D2 Lr

Cr Cr
V3 B3 S3 D3 V3 S3 D3
L2 L2

V4 B4 S4 D4 V4 S4 D4

Fig. 1 Buck-Boost + Cuk Converter

State Ⅰ State Ⅱ
S1 S1
V1 D1 V1 D1
L1 L1

V2 S2 D2 Lr V2 S2 D2 Lr

V3 S3 D3 Cr V3 S3 D3 Cr
L2 L2

V4 S4 D4 V4 S4 D4

State Ⅲ State Ⅳ
Fig. 3 Operating stages of Buck-Boost and Series LC
Converter
III. DERIVATION OF THE PHASE-SHIFT TIME AND
Fig. 2 Buck-Boost and Series LC Converter TRANSFER ENERGY
B. Phase-shift control A. Derivation of the synchronous phase-shift time
The operation of the BBSLCC can be described into 4 ir is the current through Lr, VC is the voltage of Cr and Vr is
states in Fig3, with different switches turned on or off. S1 and the voltage of SLCC. Then the equations are as follows:
S2, or S3 and S4 are controlled by a pair of complementary dVc
signals. Fig4 shows the switching sequence and waveforms of Cr = ir (2)
SPSC. dt
Series LC circuit (SLCC) is connected to B1 and B2. So dir
Cr is charged by B1 and B2, and ir increases from zero. In this Lr = Vr − Vc (3)
period, energy is transferred from B1 and B2 to Lr and Cr. dt

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 ⎛T ⎞
Vc ⎜⎜ SW − TS ⎟⎟ = Vc (0 ) −
⎝ 2 ⎠
⎡ ⎛T ⎞ ⎤
[ ]
Lr C r V1 + V2 − Vc (0 ) ⎢cos ω r ⎜⎜ SW − TS ⎟⎟ − 1⎥ (7)
⎣ ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎦
(V1 + V2 + V3 + V4 )
Vc ( 0 ) = (8)
2
In state , to simplify the calculation, ir is approximately
linear because the ripple of Vc(t) is very small, and Vr(t) is 0,
so
dir ⎛T ⎞
Lr = Vr (t ) − Vc (t ) = −Vc (t ) = −Vc ⎜ SW − TS ⎟ (9)
dt ⎝ 2 ⎠
dir
ΔI L = *TS (10)
dt
⎛T ⎞
Vc ⎜ SW − TS ⎟
2
Then ΔI L = − ⎝ ⎠ *T
S (11)
Lr

T T
ir ( SW ) = ir ( SW − TS ) + ΔI L (12)
2 2
Fig. 4 Switching sequence and waveforms of SPSC Substituting (6) and (11) into (12), then
⎛T ⎞ ⎛T ⎞
This is second order differential equation. In state I, [ ]
ir ⎜⎜ SW ⎟⎟ = ωr C r V1 +V 2−Vc (0 ) sin ωr ⎜⎜ SW − TS ⎟⎟
assuming the initial values ir =0 and Vc=Vc(0) at t =0, then ir ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎝ 2 ⎠
and Vc are given by
⎛T ⎞
ir (t ) = ωr Cr [Vr − Vc (0)]sin ωr t (4) Vc ⎜⎜ SW − TS ⎟⎟
−
⎝ 2 ⎠ *T (13)
Vc ( t ) = Vc ( 0 ) − Lr Cr ⎡⎣Vr (t ) − Vc ( 0 ) ⎤⎦ [cos ωr t − 1] (5) Lr S

As the switching duty cycle is 50%, then the average Vc(t) ⎛T ⎞

is (V1+V2+V3+V4)/2. In the same way, the ripple of Vc(t) is As ir ⎜ SW ⎟ = 0 , then
⎝ 2 ⎠
much smaller than Vc(t), then Vc(t) can be taken as
(V1+V2+V3+V4)/2 approximately, and Vc(0) equals to Vc(t). (V1 + V2 ) + (V3 + V4 ) ω T ⎛T ⎞
= sin ωr ⎜ SW − TS ⎟ (14)
The Vr added to the series LC circuit changes as follows: (V1 + V2 ) − (V3 + V4 ) r S ⎝ 2 ⎠
TSW V12 replaces (V1+V2), and V34 replaces (V3+V4).
0 TS state Ⅰ
2
TSW TSW To derive Ts, two equations are described as follows, and
0 TS state Ⅱ crossover point is TS.
2 2
TSW V12 + V34
TSW TS state Ⅲ y1 = ωr t (15)
2 V12 − V34
TSW TS TSW state Ⅳ
Then, ⎛T ⎞
y2 = sinωr ⎜ SW − t ⎟ (16)
⎛T ⎞ ⎛T ⎞ ⎝ 2 ⎠
ir ⎜ SW − TS ⎟ = ωr Cr ⎣⎡V1 + V2 − Vc (0)⎦⎤sin ωr ⎜ SW − TS ⎟
⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎝ 2 ⎠ As fSW is higher than fr, then
(6)
ωr TSW
<π (17)
2

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 V12 + V34 International Rectifier). All the initial conditions are the same
>1 (18) with simulation. Fig8 shows the experimental waveforms.
V12 − V34
Obviously, the proposed BBSLCC runs in 4 states, which is
Then Ts can be derived as analytical expression in terms of the same as the analysis in paragraph Ⅱ . The initial
Kapteyn series [34]. experimental phase-shift time is 240ns, showed in Fig9. About
the equalization performance, please refer to Fig10. The initial
+∞ upper battery group voltage (V1+V2) is 8.2V, initial lower
−2π (−1)n ⎛ n(V12 − V34 ) ⎞ ⎛ nωrTSW ⎞
TS =
ωr ∑ n
Jn ⎜ ⎟ sin ⎜
⎝ V12 + V34 ⎠ ⎝ 2
⎟ (19)
⎠
battery group voltage (V3+V4) is 7.63V, and it takes 70minutes
n=1

Where is the Bessel function of the first kind. And

a solution in terms of Bessel functions of the first kind was
given in his memoir in 1893 by Kapteyn [15].
1 π
Jn ( x) =
π ∫0 cos ( xsin (θ ) − nθ ) dθ (20)

B. Derivation of the transfer energy in one cycle

Then, transfer energy in one cycle is derived.
1
( )
WS = V12 − V34 *V34 * Cr *
2
⎡ ⎛ TSW ⎞ 1 V −V 2 ⎛T ⎞⎤
⎢1 − cosωr ⎜⎜ − TS ⎟⎟ + 12 34 sin ωr ⎜⎜ SW − TS ⎟⎟⎥
⎢⎣ ⎝ 2 ⎠ 2 V12 + V34 ⎝ 2 ⎠⎥⎦
(21)
The series LC circuit acts as inductive impedance because
the switching frequency fSW is higher than fr. Without
phase-shift control, ir lags Vr referred to Fig5, and the Fig. 5 Simulation waveforms of the BBSLCC without
transferred energy in one cycle is much smaller than the one phase-shift control
with phase-shift control. In Fig6, when B3 and B4 are
connected to LC circuit, they are discharged at the beginning,
and then are charged later. However, B3 and B4 are always
charged by LC circuit in state and state with SPSC
referred to Fig4.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
To verify all the analysis results derived above, a Saber
simulation was performed with proposed BBSLCC, which has
4 series battery cells. Initial conditions are assumed as
follows:

V1 = 4.2V , V2 = 4V , V3 = 3.89V , V4 = 3.74V ,

Lr = 3.3μH , C r = 3.3μF , L1 = L2 = 10 μH ,
f SW = 60kHz.
The simulation will focus on the verification of proposed
theories. And the simulation results referred to Fig6 are
consistent with the theoretical analysis, which verifies the
aforementioned analysis.
To verify all the analysis results derived above, a prototype
was performed with proposed BBSLCC. In this prototype
referred to Fig7, 4 battery cells are Li-ion polymer
(PL-9059156-1C from AA Portable Power Corp), and the
switching devices are four super low on-resistance Fig. 6 Simulation waveforms of the BBSLCC with phase-shift
NMOSFETs (24V 1.35mohm IRF1324SPbF from control

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to bring the voltage difference of the two battery groups to Fig. 9 Experimental waveforms related to the initial
zero. At the end, both voltages change to 7.9V. Larger phase-shift time
capacitor Cr and smaller inductor Lr can increase the speed of
energy transfer. However, the equalization time is longer for 4.3
two larger capacity battery groups. 4.2
4.1
4
3.9
3.8
3.7
3.6
3.5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Fig. 10 Equalization performance of the BBSLCC

prototype

Fig. 7 Prototype of the Buck-Boost and Series LC

Converter V. CONCLUSION
The design concept of a series battery equalizer using
S1(10V/div) buck-boost and series LC converter (BBSLCC) with
synchronous phase-shift control has been studied in this paper.
S1 This solution not only inherits the advantages of buck-boost +
cuk converter to save half switch count, but also uses a low
S1(10V/div) cost and easy implemented method to control the phase-shift
time for fast energy transfer. In the same way, switching
S3 current is smaller, EMI performance is better, and equalization
speed is faster.
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