3748 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO.

7, JULY 2014

Design and Control of a Bidirectional Resonant

DC–DC Converter for Automotive Engine/Battery
Hybrid Power Generators
Junsung Park, Student Member, IEEE, and Sewan Choi, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, a bidirectional dc–dc converter is pro- IL m Magnetizing inductor current of the SRC.
posed for the automotive engine/battery hybrid power generators. IL r Resonant current of the SRC.
The two-stage bidirectional converter employing a fixed-frequency ISH High side switch current of the SRC.
series loaded resonant converter is designed to be capable of operat-
ing under zero-current-switching turn-on and turn-off regardless ISL Low side switch current of the SRC.
of voltage and load variation, and hence its magnetic components Lk p Primary side leakage inductance of the SRC.
and EMI filters can be optimized. Also, a new autonomous and Lk s Secondary side leakage inductance of the SRC.
seamless bidirectional voltage control method that combines two Lm Magnetizing inductance of the SRC.
individual controllers for low-voltage side control and high-voltage Lr Resonant inductance of the SRC.
side control by introducing a variable current limiter is proposed
to provide uninterrupted power to critical ac loads and reduce M Gain of the SRC (M = VL /Vi ).
the size of the dc bus capacitor and the transition time. Experi- PB Input power of the battery.
mental results from a 5-kW prototype are provided to validate the PBDC High side input power of the BDC.
proposed concept. PG Output power of the engine generator.
Index Terms—Bidirectional dc–dc converter (BDC), hybrid Pi High side input power of the SRC.
power generator, seamless transition, series loaded resonant con- PLoad,ac Demanded ac load power.
verter (SRC), zero-current switching (ZCS). PLoad,dc Demanded dc load power.
ttran Mode transition time.
VH High side voltage of the BDC.
NOMENCLATURE
Vi High side voltage of the SRC.
COSSp Primary side MOSFETs’ output capacitance.
VL Low side voltage of the SRC (battery voltage).
COSSs Secondary side MOSFETs’ output capacitance.
VSH High side switch voltage of the SRC.
Cr Resonant capacitance (Cr = Cr 1 + Cr 2 ).
VSL Low side switch voltage of the SRC.
Dd Ts Dead time of the SRC.
DTs On-time duty cycle of the SRC.
fr Resonant frequency.
I. INTRODUCTION
fr (eff ) Effective resonant frequency.
TANDBY or emergency generators are often used as
fs1
fs2
IL
Switching frequency of the SRC.
Switching frequency of the nonisolated converter.
Low side current of the SRC.
S backup power supplies for buildings, industrial facilities,
and power plants in the event of a loss of utility power [1].
ILB Inductor current of the nonisolated converter. In addition, remote power generation for military, industrial,
ILB,H Input to the variable current limiter. and personal use requires a reliable, compact, and a lightweight
ILB+ Positive limit of the variable current limiter. power generation system. The diesel generation system has been
ILB+,pk Peak value of the positive limit of the variable current used as backup power supplies or remote power generators [2].
limiter. Since the engine generator may not be able to respond to sudden
ILB−,pk Peak value of the negative limit of the variable current load changes, energy storage devices should be used along with
limiter. the engine generator to level out the erratic changes in power
balance between the generation and load consumption [3], [4].
Energy storage device is used along with a bidirectional dc–
Manuscript received February 18, 2013; revised May 7, 2013 and June 26, dc converter (BDC) in order to match the voltage level and/or
2013; accepted September 2, 2013. Date of current version February 18, 2014. achieve efficient charging and discharging operation [2].
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor D. Xu.
J. Park is with the Power Electronics & Fuel Cell Power Conditioning Fig. 1 shows an automotive engine/battery hybrid power gen-
Laboratory, Department of New Energy Engineering, Seoul National Univer- eration system. The BDC is located between the high-voltage
sity of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), Seoul 139-743, Korea (e-mail: dc bus and the low-voltage battery which is also connected to
pjs09507@seoultech.ac.kr).
S. Choi is with the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, the dc loads such as antilock brakes, electric power steering,
Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul Tech), Seoul 139- heated seats, electronic ignition, and HVAC in the vehicle. The
743, Korea (e-mail: schoi@seoultech.ac.kr). dc–ac inverter converts the dc power to ac power to supply the
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. critical ac load in the vehicle such as broadcasting equipment
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2281826 of outside broadcast van and communications equipment of
0885-8993 © 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
PARK AND CHOI: DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A BIDIRECTIONAL RESONANT D–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 1. Automotive engine/battery hybrid power generation system.
tactical vehicle. The ac–dc converter converts the ac power from
the engine generator to the dc power, regulating the high-voltage
dc bus [5].
If the engine generator is capable of supplying the total de-
manded power of ac and dc loads, the ac–dc converter will be
able to regulate the high-voltage dc bus, and the BDC will de-
liver the power from the engine generator to the low-voltage
side. If the engine generator is shut down or the total demanded
power of the ac and dc loads is greater than the maximum power
of the engine generator, high side bus voltage will drop off to a
voltage depending on the capacitances of the dc bus capacitor.
Then, the BDC is required to take over the regulation duty of the
high-voltage dc bus by changing over from VL control (battery
charging) to VH control (battery discharging) so that it should
be able to deliver power from the battery to the ac load.
Therefore, in order to provide uninterrupted power to the
critical ac loads and reduce the size and cost of the dc bus ca-
pacitor, the transition from VL control to VH control of the BDC
should be seamless and as short as possible. This is a crucial
performance of the BDC, especially, in the automotive applica-
tion where electrolytic capacitors cannot be used due to limited
lifespan and bulky nature [6]–[9]. A seamless changeover of the
control target from VL control to VH control or vice versa has
not been discussed so far.
The BDC should provide a galvanic isolation and a high
step up/down voltage conversion ratio in the application where
the low-voltage battery is used. Typical topology candidates
with these requirements include half-bridge, full-bridge, and
push-pull pulse width modulation (PWM) converters [10], [11],
dual active bridge (DAB) converters [12], [13], and two-stage
converters [14], [15]. The PWM converters usually necessitate
passive or active clamping on the low-voltage side to clamp
the surge voltage generated by the leakage inductance of the
transformer. The active clamping technique makes the converter
not only clamp the surge voltage, but achieve zero-voltage-
switching (ZVS) turn-on of all the switches. A drawback of the
active clamped PWM converter is high turn-off switching losses
[16]. The DAB has a modular and symmetric structure and can
achieve ZVS turn-on without auxiliary components. However,
the DAB has limited ZVS range and high-circulating currents
for applications requiring wide voltage variation. The ripple
current of the DAB converters is high and especially problem-
atic in the low-voltage applications [17]. Two-stage converters
consist of a nonisolated stage and an isolated stage. Since the
nonisolated stage is operated to regulate the voltage and power
3749
Fig. 2. Proposed two-stage BDC.
flow, the isolated stage can be designed with minimum com-
ponents’ rating. Even though the power is passing through
two conversion stages, the two-stage converter could achieve
a higher efficiency especially in a wide voltage range applica-
tion [14], [15].
In this paper, a two-stage BDC is proposed for automotive
engine/battery hybrid power generators.
The proposed two-stage BDC consists of a nonisolated con-
verter and a fixed-frequency SRC. The SRC is designed to be
capable of operating under ZCS turn-on and turn-off regardless
of voltage and load variation in both forward and reverse op-
eration. A method of adjusting dead time of the SRC will be
presented to minimize the turn-on switching losses associated
with energy stored in MOSFET’s output capacitances during
the ZCS turn-on process. Also, a new autonomous and seamless
bidirectional voltage control strategy is proposed to provide un-
interrupted power to the critical ac loads and reduce the size of
the dc bus capacitor and the transition time.
II. PROPOSED BDC
The proposed BDC consists of two power conversion stages:
a nonisolated converter and a fixed-frequency SRC, as shown in
Fig. 2. Since the SRC is operated at fixed frequency and fixed
duty, all components can be designed with minimum voltage
and current rating. The nonisolated converter is operated to
regulate either high side voltage VH or low side voltage VL
according to the demanded load power and availability of the
engine generator.
Figs. 3 and 4 show key waveforms and operation states of the
proposed SRC, respectively. The angular resonant frequency of
the resonant circuit can be expressed as
1
ωr = 2πfr = √ (1)
Lr · Cr
where resonant inductance and resonant capacitance can be de-
termined, respectively, by
Lm · n2 Lk s
Lr = Lk p + (2)
Lm + n2 Lk s
Cr = Cr 1 + Cr 2 . (3)
It is seen from Figs. 3 and 4 that the low side current iL (=iS L 2 )
at Mode I(t0 −t1 ) becomes purely sinusoidal if the on-time
duty cycle is selected such that DTs = 0.5/fr . Then it can be
expressed as
πIL ,dc
iL (t) = sin ωr t. (4)
2
3750 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014

Also, voltage across Lm can be expressed as

 
diL
vL m (t) = −n VL + Lk s . (5)
dt
Therefore, from (4) and (5), the magnetizing current at Mode I
(t0 −t1 ) can be expressed using iL m (t0 ) = – iL m (t1 ) by
 
nπVL nVL nπLk s IL ,dc
iL m (t) = − t+ sin ωr t. (6)
2ωr Lm Lm 2Lm
The resonant current can then be obtained using (4) and (6) by
 
nπVL nVL nπLk s IL ,dc πIL ,dc
iL r (t) = − t+ − sin ωr t.
2ωr Lm Lm 2Lm 2n
(7)
Neglecting voltage oscillation after turning ON of SL 2 , the volt-
age across low side switch SL 1 at Mode I (t0 −t1 ) is expressed
as
diL
vSL1 (t) = 2VL + Lk s . (8)
dt
The turn-off voltage of low side switch can be obtained by
πωr Lk s IL ,dc
VSL,off = 2VL − . (9)
2
It should be noted that VSL,off should be greater than zero for the
proposed operation. Therefore, from (4) and (9) the secondary
side leakage inductance should be limited such as
4VL
Lk s < . (10)
πωr IL ,dc
Switch SH 1 is turned OFF at t1 , and turn-off current of the high
side switch, ISH,off , becomes equal to the peak magnetizing
current IL m ,pk . Since Lm is made very large in the proposed
Fig. 3. Key waveforms of the proposed SRC.
SRC, IL m ,pk is very small, resulting in negligible switch turn-
off losses.
During Mode II, the output capacitors of SH 1 and SH 2 are
charged and discharged, respectively by IL m ,pk , as shown in
Fig. 3. The charging and discharging operation may not be
completed at the end of Mode II if IL m ,pk is not sufficiently
large, which may lead to a nonzero turn-on voltage of high and
low side switches. The turn-on voltages of the high and low side
switches can be determined respectively by
n2 IL m ,pk Dd Ts
VSH,on = vSH2 (t2 ) = Vi − (11)
2n2 COSSp + 2COSSs
4VL − πωr Lk s IL ,dc
VSL,on = vSL1 (t2 ) =
2
nIL m ,pk Dd Ts
− 2 . (12)
2n COSSp + 2COSSs
Note that SH 2 and SL 1 are turned ON with ZCS, but there exists
turn-on losses of high- and low side switches associated with
energy stored in MOSFET’s output capacitances as follows [18],
[19]:
2
PSH,loss(on) = 0.5COSSp VSH,on fs (13)
Fig. 4. Operation states of the proposed SRC. 2
PSL,loss(on) = 0.5COSSs VSL,on fs . (14)
PARK AND CHOI: DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A BIDIRECTIONAL RESONANT D–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 5. Voltage gain curve (a) charging mode, (b) discharging mode (P o =
5 kW, V i = 280 V, V L = 28 V, fs 1 = 48 kHz, n = 5, L r = 5.8 μH, C r =
1.88 μF).
However, the turn-on losses of the switches may be considerable
in the high-voltage application. The turn-on loss PSL,loss(on) of
the low side switch is negligible since VSL,on is small in this low-
voltage application, and the turn-on loss PSH,loss(on) of the high
side switch is also small due to the two-stage configuration.
In the proposed SRC, PSH,loss(on) can further be reduced by
increasing Dd Ts and, in turn, decreasing VSH,on , as shown in
Fig. 3. However, increasing Dd Ts may cause increased current
ratings and undesired resonance, and hence it should be properly
chosen. Therefore, it is noted that both turn-off and turn-on
switching losses of the proposed SRC are made negligible in
this application.
In the conventional frequency-controlled SRC, in general,
resonant inductance Lr should be made large to reduce the
switching frequency range. In the proposed SRC, on the con-
trary, Lr is chosen to be small since the SRC is not used for
regulation, resulting in a very small gain variation according to
load variation in both the charging and discharging modes, as
shown in Fig. 5. This also allows Lr to be easily embedded in
the transformer. Also, the proposed SRC is able to achieve ZCS
turn-on and turn-off of the switch without regard to voltage or
3751
Fig. 6. Voltage gain and turn-off current according to resonant component
tolerances.
load variation by choosing the resonant frequency fr as follows:
1 1
fr = fs1 = fs1. (15)
2D 1 − 2Dd
Furthermore, small Lr leads to less sensitive resonant compo-
nent tolerances, eliminating the voltage regulation issues and
saturation problem of magnetic devices that were introduced in
the conventional frequency-controlled SRC [20], [21]. In order
to demonstrate the impact of component tolerances on the volt-
age gain and the soft switching characteristics, the following
assumptions are made for the component value:
1) resonant inductance Lr : ±10%;
2) resonant capacitance Cr : ±10%.
The effective resonant frequency is defined by
1
fr (eff ) =  (16)
2π Lr (eff ) · Cr (eff )
where Lr (eff ) and Cr (eff ) are effective resonant inductance and
capacitance, respectively, reflecting component tolerances. As
shown in Fig. 6, the variation in voltage gain of the proposed
SRC according the resonant component tolerances is negligi-
ble [20]. When fr (eff ) > fr , the SRC behaves like region II
operation of LLC converter and is turned OFF with the magne-
tizing current at turn-off instant. Note that the proposed SRC
can be said to be turned OFF with near ZCS since the magnetiz-
ing current of the proposed converter is very small compared to
LLC converter due to the larger magnetizing inductance. When
fr (eff ) < fr , the SRC is operated under inductive region and
turned OFF with hard switching.
III. PROPOSED CONTROL STRATEGY
The high side dc bus is regulated to either 400 V by the ac–
dc converter or 380 V by the BDC, respectively, according to
the condition of VH . The conventional control of the BDC is in
general realized with the two individual controllers of VL control
for battery charging and VH control for battery discharging, and
therefore may not be able to avoid large transient during the
transition from VL control to VH control of the BDC.
3752 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014

Fig. 7. Control block diagram of the proposed battery charger.

In this paper, a new autonomous and seamless bidirectional

voltage control strategy, as shown in Fig. 7, is proposed to pro-
vide uninterrupted power to the critical ac loads and reduce
the size of the dc bus capacitor. The two outer loop voltage
controllers for VL control and VH control are combined by vari-
∗
able current limiter (VCL) whose output ILB is automatically
selected to be either ILB,H , the output of the high side volt-
age controller, or ILB+ , the positive limit of VCL which varies
with the output of the low side voltage controller. This makes
it possible to share inner-loop current controller, resulting in
autonomous and seamless transition from VL control (charging
mode) to VH control (discharging mode), and vice versa.
The peak values of the positive and negative limits, ILB−,pk
and ILB+,pk , of the VCL are determined by

Pi
ILB+,pk = ILB−,pk = . (17)
Vi
According to C-rate of the battery used, ILB+,pk may be chosen
smaller than (17). ILB+ varies with magnitude of VL , while ILB−
is always fixed at ILB−,pk . The antiwindup is used to prevent
the saturation of the controllers. For the sake of simplicity, it is
assumed that the dc-load is constant and all the power losses of
the ac–dc converter, the dc–ac inverter, and the BDC in Fig. 1
are neglected. Fig. 8. Simulation waveform of the proposed bidirectional voltage control for
seamless transition from V L control to V H control.
A. Transition From VL Control to VH Control TABLE I
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED BIDIRECTIONAL VOLTAGE CONTROL FOR
Figs. 8 and 9 show PSIM simulation waveforms and operation SEAMLESS TRANSITION FROM V L CONTROL TO V H CONTROL
states of the VCL, respectively, for illustration of the operating
principle of the proposed bidirectional control strategy for tran-
sition from VL control to VH control.
Mode I: Assume that the battery has already been fully
charged. The engine generator is supplying the ac and dc loads
during this mode. VH is regulated to 400 V by the ac–dc con-
verter, and the reference voltage VH∗ of the BDC is set at 380 V.
Since the high side voltage controller GH (s) is saturated, the
∗
reference current ILB of the BDC is determined by IL B + which
is the same as ILoad,dc /M, the dc load current, as shown in
Fig. 9(a).
Mode II: This begins when the ac load increases and the sum
of the ac and dc loads is greater than PG ,m ax , the maximum
power that can be produced by the generator. Then, the ac–dc
converter is not able to regulate the dc bus, and VH drops off
PARK AND CHOI: DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A BIDIRECTIONAL RESONANT D–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 9. Operation states of the variable current limiter for seamless transition from V L control to V H control: (a) Mode I, (b) Mode II, and (c) Mode III.
Fig. 10. Simulation waveform of the proposed bidirectional voltage control
for seamless transition from V H control to V L control.
∗
from 400 V, releasing the saturation of GH (s), which makes ILB
∗ ∗
be changed to ILB,H , as shown in Fig. 8. ILB decreases, changes
its sign, and continuously increases, as shown in Fig. 9(b). This
means that the BDC starts to discharge the battery and regulate
VH to 380 V. As the battery voltage decreases, ILB+ which is
the output of the low side voltage controller GL (s) increases up
to ILB+,pk . This is the end of the mode.
∗
Mode III: ILB is fixed at a constant value since the ac load
is constant, as shown in Fig. 9(c). The BDC keeps discharg-
ing the battery and regulating VH to 380 V. ILB+ is kept at
ILB+,pk .
The characteristics of the proposed bidirectional voltage con-
trol for seamless transition from VL control to VH control is
summarized in Table I.
3753
TABLE II
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED BIDIRECTIONAL VOLTAGE CONTROL FOR
SEAMLESS TRANSITION FROM V H CONTROL TO V L CONTROL
B. Transition From VH Control to VL Control
Figs. 10 and 11 show PSIM simulation waveforms and op-
eration states of the VCL, respectively, for illustration of the
operating principle of the proposed bidirectional control strat-
egy for transition from VH control to VL control.
Mode I: This mode is identical to Mode III of Section III-A.
The BDC is discharging the battery and regulating VH to 380 V.
ILB is determined by ILB,H , and ILB+ is the same as ILB+,pk .
Mode II: This mode begins when the ac load decreases and
the sum of the ac and dc loads becomes smaller than PG ,m ax .
This makes the ac–dc converter capable of regulating VH , recov-
∗
ering it back to 400 V. Therefore, ILB (= ILB,H ) decreases and
changes its sign, meaning that the BDC is able to regulate VL
to 28 V, and continuously increases until it reaches ILB+,pk ,
∗
as shown in Fig. 11(b). Now, ILB is determined by ILB+
(=ILB+,pk ) since the high side voltage controller GH (s) is satu-
rated. Then, the BDC starts to charge the battery with a constant
current of IB ,CC which is determined by
IB ,CC /M = ILB+,pk − ILoad,dc /M. (18)
3754 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014

Fig. 11. Operation states of the variable current limiter for seamless transition from V H control to V L control: (a) Mode I, (b) Mode II, and (c) Mode III.

Fig. 13. Undershoot voltage and transition time according to total high side
capacitance C H , to t in the simulation of Fig. 12.

TABLE III
PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED BDC

Fig. 12. Simulation waveform of mode transition: (a) conventional control
and (b) proposed control.
Mode III: When the battery voltage VL gets close to VL∗ , the
∗
reference current ILB which is determined by ILB+ starts to
decrease, as shown in Fig. 11(c). During this mode, the BDC
charges the battery with a constant voltage of VL∗ .
The characteristics of the proposed bidirectional voltage con-
trol for seamless transition from VH control to VL control are
summarized in Table II.
PARK AND CHOI: DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A BIDIRECTIONAL RESONANT D–DC CONVERTER 3755

Fig. 14. Experimental waveforms of the charging mode: (a) inductor current IL B , switch voltages V S B , 1 and V S B , 2 of the nonisolated converter, (b) primary
current Ip ri , high side switch voltages V S H , 1 and V S H , 2 of the SRC, and (c) primary current Ip ri , low side switch voltages V S L , 1 and V S L , 2 of the SRC.

Fig. 15. Experimental waveforms of the discharging mode: (a) inductor current IL B , switch voltages V S B , 1 and V S B , 2 of the nonisolated converter, (b) primary
current Ip ri , high side switch voltages V S H , 1 and V S H , 2 of the SRC, and (c) primary current Ip ri , low side switch voltages V S L , 1 and V S L , 2 of the SRC.

Fig. 16. Experimental waveforms of transition from V L control for charging to V H control for discharging: (a) high side voltage V H , low side voltage VL , and
inductor current IL B , (b) extended waveforms of inductor current IL B .

Fig. 17. Experimental waveforms of transition from V H control for discharging to V L control for charging (a) high side voltage V H , low side voltage V L , and
inductor current IL B , (b) extended waveforms of inductor current IL B .
3756
Fig. 18. Measured efficiencies of the proposed BDC including gate drive and
control circuit losses.
Fig. 19. Photograph of the proposed BDC prototype.
C. Performance Comparison of the Proposed and
Conventional Control Methods
Fig. 12 shows the simulation waveforms of the conventional
control methods [22], [23] and the proposed control method. VH
was initially being regulated to 400 V by the ac–dc converter and
is changed to be regulated to 380 V by the BDC when the engine
generator is shut down. Considering proper operation of the dc–
ac inverter, the absolute minimum input voltage Vabsolute,m in of
the dc–ac inverter is restricted to higher than 365 V.
In the conventional control, the direction and amount of the
energy flow between the battery and the high side voltage bus is
determined by comparing the bus voltage level VH with thresh-
old values and changing over from a high side voltage con-
troller to a low side voltage controller, or vice versa. As shown
in Fig. 12(a), the BDC starts regulating VH when decreased,
VH becomes smaller than the threshold voltage Vth,dischar
(= 370 V) for mode transition from charging to discharging,
and therefore, the transition time ttran is quite long. In order
to reduce the transition time, total high side capacitor CH ,tot
can be reduced, but this may increase the undershoot voltage,
making the system unstable, as shown in Fig. 12(a). Therefore,
in this example CH ,tot should be selected to be larger than 1 mF.
Furthermore, sudden changeover of the controller could cause a
large inductor current overshoot, as shown in Fig. 12(a), which
may result in damage to components of the BDC.
In the proposed control method, owing to the VCL, the BDC
starts regulating VH from the moment when VH drops off from
400 V. This leads to significantly reduced undershoot voltage of
VH and overshoot of inductor current, resulting in reduced ttran ,
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 7, JULY 2014
as shown in Fig. 12(b). Fig. 13 shows the undershoot voltage
and transition time according to CH ,tot in this simulation. The
undershoot voltage of the proposed control method is smaller
than its limit value without regards to CH ,tot . It is seen from
Fig. 13 that the transition time of the proposed control method
is 1.5 to 2.5 times faster than that of the conventional control
method in the region of CH ,tot > 1000 μF where the undershoot
voltage of the conventional method is smaller than the limit
value.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Parameters of the proposed BDC are listed in Table III.
Figs. 14 and 15 show the key experimental waveforms of the
charging and discharging modes at full load, respectively. As we
can see from Fig. 14(b), (c) and Fig. 15(b), (c), all switches of
the SRC are being turned ON and OFF with ZCS in both charg-
ing and discharging modes. In fact, all switches of the SRC are
always turned ON and OFF with the ZCS without regard to
voltage and load variations.
Figs. 16 and 17 show the experimental waveforms of the mode
transition. A 24 V/100 Ah lead acid battery was used at the low-
voltage side. Fig. 16(a) shows that the BDC is regulating VL to
charge the battery, and VH is regulated to 400 V by the ac–dc
converter. When the engine generator is shut down, VH drops but
is recovered to 380 V since the BDC changes over to VH control
to discharge the battery. It is seen from Fig. 16(b) that there are
no transient current surges during the transition from VL control
to VH control. Fig. 17(a) shows that VH is being regulated to
380 V by the BDC. When the engine generator restarts, VH is
recovered back to 400 V by the ac–dc converter, which makes
the BDC to start regulating VL , charging the battery. It is also
seen from Fig. 17(b) that there are also no transient current
surges during the transition from VH control to VL control.
The efficiency of the proposed BDC including gate drive and
control circuit losses is measured by YOKOGAWA WT3000
and is shown in Fig. 18. The maximum efficiencies are 95.13%
at 1.3 kW in charging mode and 95.08% at 1.5 kW in discharging
mode, respectively. Fig. 19 shows the photograph of the pro-
posed BDC prototype.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper proposes a BDC for automotive engine/battery
hybrid power generators. The features of the proposed BDC are
as follows:
1) The proposed topology preserves the advantages of the
two-stage dc–dc converter: a) The switching method is
simple in that voltage regulation and mode transition are
carried out only by the nonisolated converter. b) All com-
ponents’ ratings of the isolated converter are optimized.
2) Small Lr can be used since the proposed SRC is not used
for regulation, which leads to the following advantages:
a) The SRC has very small gain variation according to load
variation, and therefore the proposed BDC can be designed
for wider voltage range. b) The SRC is less sensitive to
the resonant component tolerances, and therefore suitable
PARK AND CHOI: DESIGN AND CONTROL OF A BIDIRECTIONAL RESONANT D–DC CONVERTER
for high volume manufacturing. c) Small Lr can be easily
embedded in the transformer.
3) The proposed SRC is capable of achieving ZCS turn-on
and turn-off regardless of voltage and load variation. A
method of adjusting dead time of the SRC has been pre-
sented to minimize the switch turn-on losses associated
with energy stored in MOSFET’s output capacitances dur-
ing the ZCS turn-on process.
4) An autonomous and seamless bidirectional voltage control
method with a variable current limiter has been proposed
to provide uninterrupted power to critical ac loads and
reduce the size of the dc bus capacitor.
Experimental results from a 5-kW prototype were provided
to validate the proposed concept. The maximum efficiencies
including gate drive and control circuit losses are 95.13% at
1.3 kW in charging mode and 95.08% at 1.5 kW in discharging
mode, respectively.
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Junsung Park (S’13) received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees from the Seoul National University of Sci-
ence and Technology (Seoul Tech), Seoul, Korea, in
2009 and 2011, respectively. He is currently work-
ing toward the Ph.D. degree at the Power Electronics
& Fuel Cell Power Conditioning Laboratory, Seoul
Tech.
His research interests include high-power dc–dc
converter for electric vehicles and renewable energy
systems.
Sewan Choi (S’92–M’96–SM’04) received the B.S.
degree in electronic engineering from Inha Univer-
sity, Incheon, Korea, in 1985, and the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX, USA, in 1992 and
1995, respectively.
From 1985 to 1990, he was with Daewoo Heavy
Industries as a Research Engineer. From 1996 to
1997, he was a Principal Research Engineer at
Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Korea. In 1997,
he joined the Department of Electrical and Informa-
tion Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology (Seoul
Tech), Seoul, Korea, where he is currently a Professor. His research interests
include power conversion technologies for renewable energy systems and dc–dc
converters and battery chargers for electric vehicles.
Dr. Choi is an Associate Editor of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER
ELECTRONICS and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS.