Joy Iong-Zong Chen

J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

Regular paper
A High Efficiency Full-bridge
Converter

JES
Journal of
Electrical
Systems

A high efficiency full-bridge converter is implemented with a ZVS (zero voltage switching) fullbridge converter developed by Intersil IC (integrated circuit), ISL 6754 , in this paper. For the
comparaison purpose the data results from measuring the other one that implemented by IC
UCC 3895 converter is also presented. Normally, the implementation of a ZVS full-bridge
converter is mainly for supplying the power to telecommunication system operating in BS (base
station) resources, file server machines, or/and industrial applications. In addition, for a power
supply system a Z0VS converter is mostly either applied in the rear stage controller to arrive at
the null voltage switching or in the later stage to use as a control transistor to obtain the
synchronization. In the contribution a fact was validated by this implementation that the
efficiency of over 96% without unnecessary loss caused in the conversion procedure can be
reached, as the IC ISL6754 is taken to serve as ZVS full-bridge converter and synchronization
filter. Moreover, this investigated and implemented converter can obtain over 96% power
efficiency in conversion procedure when compared with that of 90% which were ever published
by the conventional techniques. Apart from, a L-C resonance circuit was developed and
embedded into the popular PWM (pulse width modulation) power converter, which is referred as
the soft-switching, so as to down sizing the volume of the IC which can totally reduce the power
losses caused in the duration of a semi-conductor switching.

Keywords : Full-bridge converter, PWM (pulse width modulation), Synchronization filter, ZVS (Zero
voltage switching).

1. Introduction

The related industrial of green energy is expected able to solve the problems of
environmental pollution, to save power, and to play an alternative energy. For the reason of
saving the energy to require much higher efficiency in power generating is becoming an
important issue. It is known that the hardware switching technique has become as softswitching technique in the design of power supply system. On the other hand, the power
transfer techniques of the former one, which is by using of PWM (pulse width modulation)
technique, transmits to the scheme with switching method for the latter one [1-4]. Thus, the
efficiency in generating energy for a power supply system should be improved definitely.
On the basis of aforementioned concept a high efficiency (96%) full-bridge converter is
designed and implemented with soft-switching technique which is referred as ZVS (zero
voltage switching) full-bridge converter. Furthermore, in this paper a high efficiency fullbridge converter is not only completed with IC (integrated circuit) ISL6754 , but its system
performance also compared to one that completed with UCC 3895 is.
Recently, the technique of IC is developed so fast as to the cost down quickly. By the
way, the related products of the IC become much diversity. Therefore, in order to satisfy
huge of the IC specifications and/or power assumption which could be ranged from the
lowest value 1.5V up to the highest above 380V. Traditionally, a power supply with linear
specification has the characters of lower power density, larger volume, and achieving the
*
Corresponding author: Joy Iong-Zong Chen, 168 University Rd. Dasung 51505 Chunghua, Department of
Electrical Engineering Dayeh University, Taiwan ROC, E-mail: jchen@mail.dyu.edu.tw

Copyright JES 2012 on-line : journals/esrgroups.org/jes

J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

increasing and decreasing voltage at the output terminal by using of PWM scheme to
handle with the conducting time of power transistors. Especially, there will exists the
parasitic capacitance and/or parasitic inductance inside the transistor when it is acting as a
power switch, that is, the voltage and current happen at the terminal of an power transistor
are not null at the switching instant. Thus, this fact will cause a huge of switching losses.
Even that the more switching frequencies, the more power amount in switching losses will
be. Certainly, it is gradually replaced with high frequency switching power supply in order
to promote full efficiency in power generating and cost effective [5-11]. Moreover, the L-C
resonance circuit is usually took into account the work for the reasons described as follows:
to down size the full volume of the new style of power supply system, to reduce the power
losses in switching interval with semiconductor components, and to increase the efficiency
during power conversion. The resonance circuit illustrated previously is also referred as soft
switching technique [22, 23] which includes phase-controlled and forearm modulation all
can be obtained by ZVS and ZCS (zero current switching) results [16-18]. However, the
power losses generated except in the switching interval, there is still another one so-called
transmission power losses which is usually incurred from the losses of the resistor or/and
the semiconductor components appear during the power conversion. The former one power
loss can be solved by the means described previously, i.e., ZVS or ZCS. The advance
techniques presented in this paper are used to mitigate the transmission power losses and
the line winding loses which is caused at the secondary side of a high frequency
transformer and a post-stage rectifier diode during the conversion interval. On the other
hand, there are large amounts of transmission power losses will be generated due to both
the semiconductors characteristics and the forward voltage happens at the power-on
duration. Hence, these transmission power losses are equivalent to the production of
forward voltage and forward current. One who can make sense that the transmission power
losses occupy most of the part of all the power losses when the conversion is processing,
since the increase of the loading current occurred at the output when some of the rectifier
diodes are applied. Therefore, it is known that the transmission power losses are playing a
key parameter which deteriorates the efficiency of a power supply circuit [19-21].
However, such post stage transmission power losses aforementioned may be removed by
replacing with a synchronization rectifier embedded in a circuit [5-11]. This mean is not
only able to improve the secondary power losses, but also have the advantages of lower
conduction voltage losses and faster reaction speed compared to the general rectifier with
diode [8]. By the way, transistors are the main components utilized to act as rectifying role
for the synchronization rectifier of the post stage. Hereafter, the meaning of
synchronization stands for that the inversion of the switch timing of a transistor equal to
the switch frequency of a switching power supply, and the primitive purpose is to reduce
the high power losses caused by the larger current at the rectifying diode [10].
In this letter we aim in studying and implementing a power converter with high
efficiency (above 96% in measuring with 120W loading), and the ZVS full-bridge
converter IC ( ISL6754 ) [14], which was developed by Intersil Company, is applied. The
reasons for selecting this conversion device are that it can be adopted in several fields of
the power supply developing, such as power for telecommunication and information,
power of base station, power of file server, and even power of industry. Besides, it can
either obtain null voltage between switching state when applied in the pre-stage control or

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

it can also applied in the post-stage for controlling a transistor to act as a rectifier. Thus,
by utilizing ISL6754 for both investigating the synchronization rectifier to improve the
efficiency in transmission and implementing a full-bridge power converter with less 120W
to reach at the total efficiency above 96%. The implementing results shown that the total
efficiency can be reach approximate above 90% when the loading is within the interval of
120W~720W without large power losses. It is worthy to note that for comparison purpose
there is another resonance power sub-system implemented with UCC 3895 taken into
account the designed implementation [15]. These completed systems are compared with
all the same conditions, that is, with 120W~720W power output loading, and both of them
can gain high efficiency in above 90%~97% under the loading of 120W~720W. Such a
high efficiency power converter implemented with synchronization rectifier technique
definitely obtains the affect of saving power. The rest of the paper is organized as follows.
In section 2 the preliminary includes the introduction of power converter and its control
techniques are presented. In section 3 the procedures of implementation and measurement
for the designed converter circuits are illustrated. Some measured waveforms and
numerical data in the experiment are shown and explained in section 4. A brief conclusion
is drawn in section 5.
2. Preliminary

2.1. The Construction of a ZVF Circuit

It is known that the ZVF converter generally has much complicate structure, since it is
built up by at least 4 power transistors for switching. A basic construction of such
configuration is shown in Fig. 1. Comparing to the configuration of a half-bridge voltage
converter which has to bear larger current since it is just constructed by the transistors with
lower voltage. Inversely, the specified current can be selected in lower value but higher
voltage for the transistor utilized in a push-pull converter. In words, if the advantages
described previous can be combined together, then a high power converter could be
implemented by the transistor with both lower voltage and smaller current, and such a
circuit structure is referred as full-bridge converter. A basic full-bridge converter is shown
in Fig. 1 in which 4 MOSFET-type transistors marked in QA, QB, QC, QD are designed in
the primary side of a transformer. When a paired switching transistor, for instance, QA and
QD or QB and QC, are triggered on, the relative generating energy will be passed over the
secondary side of the transformer. In other words, the converter will stay in the state of socalled flying-wheel model in which the paired switching transistor at the same side will be
turned on simultaneously, e.g. the two QA and QC at the upper arm or QB and QD at the
lower arm. The null voltage happens at the state of flying-wheel model because the primary
of the transformer becomes as short circuit. In addition, a short period of delay time should
be added into the signal duration as the switching state, i.e. the 4 transistor are both staying
in cut-in or cut-off state for the reason to generate resonance function in the circuit.

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J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

Fig. 1 Basic structure of ZVF converter

2.2 .The Requirements for Switching Power Transistors
In the paper two types of power converter are implemented for comparing purpose and
established with the likely structure, that is, the first one implemented in the condition of
higher power output. Thus, the converter IC, ISL6754 developed by Intersil, provides with
synchronization rectifier is implied in such a converter. The converter IC, UCC 3895
developed by Texas Instruments, supports for resonance circuit is applied in the other type
of power converter. Consider the switching speed happens on the high frequency switching
circuit, the power MOSFET transistors are the most frequently for usage because it has the
shorter switching duration. By the way, the main concerning focus on the conducting
resistance of a switching transistor, hence, the type number IRFP460 is adopted in this
implementation and some parameters of this MOSFET are listed in Table 1.
Table 1. Some important parameters of IRFP460
Type number

VDSS

ID

RDS ( on )

Ciss

Coss

IRFP460

500V

20A

0.270

4100pf

480pf

Qg

120nC

2.3 The Designing in High Frequency Transformer

The main function of a transformer is to pull up the output voltage, to transmit the
energy, and to reach at the isolation between the input and the output in the ZVF.
Accordingly, the core of a transformer should not only be selected with high conduct
magnetic coefficient, but the saturation flux density also should be the necessary condition.
Thereafter, the larger operation space of flux can be obtained. A high frequency transformer
with EE-type core is applied in the study so as to gain high capacity above 720 W, the
operating frequency and the efficiency are about 100KHZ and 90%, respectively. The
output capacitor is another factor needs to remind, normally, it is applied to store the energy
for the purpose of keeping the output voltage on the continuity and stability state. Since the
ESR (equivalent serial resistance) caused by the output capacitor will directly affect the
ripple voltage value at the output, the output capacitor with less capacity should be adopted,

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

e.g. the parallel of combining tantalum capacitor or ceramic electric capacitor with
polypropylene membrane is the best method.
3. Procedures of Implementation and Measurement

Not only the larger power converter adopted in the implementation is necessary, but
also to note the promotion in the efficiency is important. In such situation a converter
embedded with synchronization rectifier converter and the other one equipped with
resonance converter are built to compare the functions each other. In the implementation
the former and the latter construction are completed with a synchronization rectifier
converter IC, Intersil ISL6754 , and a resonance converter IC, Texas Instruments
UCC 3895 , respectively. Moreover, all the specifications of the two converter IC are
describer as follows, input voltage ( Vin ) DC0V ~ DC300V, output voltage ( Vout )
DC120V, maximum output current I out = 6 A , switching frequency f s = 100 KHZ , and
the output power range is 120W~720W.
3.1 Designing ISL6754 Circuit
In this subsection including pre-stage input, post-stage output circuits and the frequency
of ISL6754 , and IR 2110 driver are planned. The planning circuit of ISL6754 is shown in
Fig. 2 in which the output voltage can handled by adjusting the VERR voltage values, i.e. the
output voltage of OUTULOUTUROUTLLOUTLROUTULOUTURs could be
controlled as periodical rectangular waveforms. The 4 output points of ISL6754 , OUTLL,
OUTLR, OUTUL, and OUTUR are applied to control 4 MOSFETs.

C1

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

VR1
10K

104

VREF
VERR
CTBUF
RTD
RESDEL
CT
FB
RAMP
CS
IOUT

SS
VADJ
VDD
OUTLL
OUTLR
OUTUL
OUTUR
OUTLLN
OUTLRN
GND

20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11

+12
Bi
Di
Ai
Ci
Fi
Ei

C5
104

C4
104

ISL6754

R1 46K
C3
C2
331
104
R2 10K
R4 10K

R3 10K

Fig. 2 ISL6754 control circuit

As shown in Fig. 3 the waveforms of OUTUL OUTUR OUTLL OUTLR are
different each other and those waveform depend on the voltage value of VERR which is
arranged in the interval 1~5V. The least energy state stays at VERR = 1V in which OUTLR
and OUTLL modulate OUTUR and OUTUL, respectively as shown in Fig. 5. The other

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state stays at VERR = 5V presented in Fig. 4 in which the output energy has the biggest
value OUTLR and OUTLL are corresponding to modulate OUTUL and OUTUR,
respectively.

OUTUL
OUTLL
OUTUR
OUTLR

Fig. 3 Four different output waveforms of ISL6754 , when VERR = 1V

OUTUL
OUTLL
OUTUR
OUTLR

Fig. 4 Four different output waveforms of ISL6754 , when VERR = 5V

3.1.2 The Synchronization Rectifier Circuit
The sequences of synchronization rectifier for ISL6754 are achieved by OUTLLN and
OUTLRN. Hence, the rectifying diodes in the post-stage have to be replaced by MOSFET
in order to active as a rectifier. The waveforms of OUTLLN and OUTLRN are measured
and illustrated in Fig. 5 with the value of VERR = 1V . In Fig. 5 the waveform of OUTUL is
marked 1, waveform of OUTLR is marked with 2, and waveform of OUTLLN and
OUTLRN are marked 3 and 4, respectively. Alternately, in Fig. 6 shows the waveforms
with the condition of VERR = 5V , and the shown order is same as that of Fig. 5.

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

OUTUL
OUTLL
OUTUR
OUTLR

Fig. 5 Four measured waveforms with VERR = 1V

OUTUL
OUTLL
OUTUR
OUTLR

Fig. 6 Four measured waveforms with VERR = 5V

3.2 Designing UCC 3895 Circuit
Four divisions are planned for the implemented circuit with UCC 3895 including prestage input, post-stage output, UCC 3895 switching, and driver with IR 2110 .
3.2.1 Planning the UCC 3895 Driver for Full-bridge Converter
The IC UCC 3895 is one controller used to modulate the phase shifter with the scheme
of PWM (Pulse width modulation). The turn on and/or off a half-bridge converter circuit
corresponding to the other one is the technique to realize full-bridge power conversion. The
scheme of permanent pulse width modulation combined with resonance null voltage
switching is adopted as a current or a voltage control model for providing with high
efficiency operation. The oscillator output with a UCC 3895 is shown in Fig. 7 in which the
components CT and RT are constructed to adjust the operation frequency. The full
implemented circuit is shown in Fig. 8. The operation frequency can be determined by
5R C
Tosc = T T + 120 (ns)
(5)
48
For example, the operation frequency TOSC = 90 KHZ can be figured out by the
substitution of CT = 70 pf and RT = 120 K into the previous equation.

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J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

Fig. 7 The oscillator circuit with UCC 3895

R35
390R
VOF
R41
9K1

C47
331

Z2
Comment: 5V

C1
104

R1
10K

OV1

/+12

U1

PWM

C2
103
C10
471

4
2
1
20
19
7
3
8
9
10

VREF
EAO
EAEA+
SOFT
CT
RAMP
RT
DELAB
DELCD

VDD
PGND
SYNC
OUTA
OUTB
OUTC
OUTD
ISNS
ADS
GND

15
16
6
18
17
14
13
12
11
5

/+12
4.7UF/50V
C71
104

Ai
Bi
Ci
Di

C22
104

C3

G1

UCC3895

R4
120K
R5
7.5K
R6
7.5K

Fig. 8 The complete implemented circuit

Several different frequencies generate in UCC 3895 are obtained and listed in Table 2
by measuring and calculating in the experimental procedure. Once the fixed frequency is
decided, the values of CT and RT can to be calculated. Some referenced values of CT is
listed in Table 3. Hence, the RT is also can be determined by the formula written as

RT

0.47 + 0.07 47.17 5 104 CT f osc

CT f osc

(6)

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

Table 2 Measured and calculated frequencies values in UCC 3895

CT
450PF

Frequencies by measuring

RT

100K
120K
200K

107K
90K
55K

Frequencies by calculating
104K
87K
52.6K

Table 3 The decision range of C T

Range of frequencies

Values of CT

f osc < 30KHZ

2.2nF

30KHZ < f osc < 100KHZ

680 pF

100KHZ < f osc

200 pF

The simulation waveform results from the experimental procedure of implementing the
circuit for UCC3895 are measured and shown in Fig. 9. Four different output waveform are
illustrated as OUTAiOUTBi OUTCi OUTDi. It is clear to understand that the phase
shift happens in OUTAi OUTBi is caused by OUTCiOUTDi, respectively, and this is
completed (or modulated) at the pin 20 of UCC 3895 . However, the values of phase shift
change insignificantly, see Fig. 10, when try to increase the loading and the loading
feedback voltage is adjusted to VERR = 1V . On the other hand, the output waveforms are
going become as presented in Fig. 11 after the loading feedback voltage is modified as
VERR = 5V . This explains that the energy stored in the ZVS may release under the
conditions that OUTCi to OUTAi, OUTDi to OUTBi are corresponding each other.

OUTAi
OUTBi
OUTCi
OUTDi

Fig. 9 Four output waveforms in UCC 3895

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J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

Fig. 10 Four output waveforms in UCC 3895 when VERR = 1V

Fig. 11 Four output waveforms in UCC 3895 when VERR = 5V

3.2.2 Description of Pre-stage Input and Post-stage Output
The pre-stage input and post-stage output are isolated by a frequency transformer. The
former stage mainly consisted of driver, which is constructed by two IC marked as
IR 2110 , and full-bridge converter illustrated in Fig. 12. The rectifier and filter circuits
shown in Fig. 13 are involved in the post-stage, and in which are composed by a
U30D60D diode and a -type filter, respectively.
Vad

Q1
Vad

Ao2

Vad

Q3
25NM50N
R9

10K

Q1_1

Co2
Ao1 Bo1

Q3_1

25NM50N
10K R10

XL6
15UH
XL5
15UH
XL4

Q2
Bo2

Q4

15UH

Co2_1
25NM50N
10K R9_1
D4
C20
Co2 Do2
Ao1 Bo1
U30D60D
205
Q2_1

Do2
25NM50N
10K R12

25NM50N
25NM50N
10K R11

10K

10K R12_1

25NM50N
R10_1
Q4_1

Do2_1
25NM50N
10K R11_1

Fig. 12 The structure of full-bridge converter

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

Vab

C21
2UF

C23
104/630V

Ao1_Bo1

T1

XL1
150UH

TB1
1
2
3
4

C13
470UF/400V

4PIN

3
Co2_Do2

D3
U30D60D

C14
D5

Vin+
VinVout+
Vout-

C69
104K/PP630V

2UF

XL2
10UH

U30D60D

GAP_IN+
C68
104K/PP630V

C69
XL3
10UH

104K/PP630V
GAP_IN-

Fig. 13 Rectifier and filter circuit

It is worthy to note that the post-stage is always burn down before the C49 is installed.
By measuring with the OSC scope, the phenomena looked for the reason that caused by the
burst waveforms as shown in Fig. 14 (a). However, it disappears after C49 is installed and
this normal waveform shown in Fig. 14 (b)

Burst waveform

Fig. 14 The waveforms before 14 (a) and after 14 (b) C49 installed
3.3 The Implementation Circuit with IR2110 Driver
It is well known that a MOSFET is driven by the voltage when it is play as a switch,
i.e., there exists a cross threshold voltage between the gate and source of the MOSFET
and which needs keep the threshold voltage then the MOSFET can keep in working state.
Thus, in this implementation the cross threshold voltage of the MOSFET in the full-bridge
converter is applied to promote the input voltage from 5V to 15V. The main specifications
of IR 2110 are claimed as follows, (1) a dual input and dual output IC, (2) null dead time
embedded, (3) the difference voltage can approach to 500V, (4) output voltage is
measured about 10V~20V, (5) the switch time is ton / toff = 120ns / 94ns . It needs to plan
one half-bridge circuit as illustrated in Fig. 15. Then the full-bridge converter is

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comprised by these two aforementioned. The measured waveforms from the converter are
presented in Fig. 16.
C6

C8

/+12

104

Vab
Q3
IRF460

104
9
3

D2
31DF4
C12
104

H0
L0
NC
NC
NC

7
1
4
14
8

R7
R8

3W 10R Co2
Do2
3W 10R

Co2
R10

10K

D4

U3
IR2110

U30D60D

C20
Co2_D

13

C11
104

HIN
LIN
SD
Vb
Vs

VDD COM
2
VCC VSS

OUTUR 10
OUTLR 12
11
6
5

/+12

Q4
IRF460

205

Do2
R11

10K

Fig. 15 One half-bridge converter

Hi
Lo
Hi
Lo

Fig. 16 Waveforms from the measurement of converter

4. Experimental Results

The implementation of the converter developed in this paper can be applied in high
power converter. The circuit configuration is so-called pull-up synchronizing rectifier fullbridge converter which is implemented by using of post-stage synchronizing rectifier to
promote the full efficiency. The adjustable output voltage, Vout , is obtained by the pull-up
converter to pull up the input voltage. A synchronizing rectifier with the unchangeable
duty-cycle 50% for the main switch is built up at post-stage.
4.1 Analysis of the Measured Data
In this subsection the measured data of two power converters, which has the same power
conversion range 120W~720W, are compared and analyzed. In the first one, the conversion
switch UCC 3895 is employed to set up a power switch which applies the traditional power
control, and the U30D60D is adopted as a power diode set up at the post-stage. Then, the

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other one built up with Intersil ISL6754 named as ZVS power converter in which the
PWM scheme is used as the power controlled switch, and the usage of MOSFET is to
complete the function of synchronizing rectifier. The specifications of these two power
converters are figured out as follows, input DC voltage Vin = 0 ~ 300V , output DC
voltage Vout = 120V , switching frequency f s =100 KHz , and the transformer core is
EE55. The resistance loading applied to the implementation and the rearrangement are
shown in Fig. 17 in which each branch resistance is assigned to 120/200W so as to use
just one resistance loading for the case of loading is equivalent to 120W.

Fig. 17 Designated resistance loading

The two power converters are implemented and completed in a broad plane shown in
Fig. 18 in which all the circuit are same in the pre-stage, but the post-stage circuit are with
different PWM switch scheme. The different PWM control, ISL6754 or UCC 3895
switching power MOSFET, and driver circuit are included in the pre-stage. Furthermore,
the rectifier circuit and output filter circuit are included in the post-stage as shown in Fig.
19. Certainly, the post-stage is configured with MOSFET (IRF460) components when the
ISL6754 is employed to PWM, in contrast, the diode (U30D60D) is set up at the post-stage
when UCC 3895 is used to control PWM.

POWER MOSFET
CKT IRF460

Driver CKT
IR2110
PWM IC CKT
ISL6754

PWM IC CKT
UCC389

Fig. 18 pre-stage circuit

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Rectifier
U30D60 or
IRFP460

High frequency
Transformer

Filter

Fig. 19 post-stage circuit

4.1.1. Results from the Applied of UCC 3895

The data listed in Table 4 is the measured data comes from input voltage and output
current of UCC 3895 and the input/output power can be consequently calculated as from
120W to 720W. With the lower and higher loading, the output power may be evaluated as
123.83W and 685.58W, respectively. Accordingly, it is clear to make sense that the output
efficiency becomes inferior when the output is beyond 400W.
4.1.2 Results from the Applied of ISL6754
The measured data results from input voltage and output current of ISL6754 converter
are listed in Table 5, and the output power is arranging in same as that of UCC 3895 . In
words, the power generated at output are 128.06W and 696.33W corresponding to the lower
value and higher loading value. This trend of the fact is same as that of UCC 3895 ,
however, the conversion efficiency can be still always kept in about 90% when the power is
over 600W.
Table 4 The measured results of the implementation of UCC 3895
120W

240W

360W

480W

600W

720W

52.58

60.64

66.93

74.25

80.9

87.31

2.473

4.177

5.775

7.13

8.209

8.966

in

128.13

253.29

386.52

529.4

664.1

782.82

out

120.7

119.4

121.2

120.6

121.5

121.5

1.026

1.952

2.909

3.96

4.898

5.666

123.83

233.06

352.57

477.57

595.1

685.58

96.64

92.01

91.21

90.20

89.6

87.57

Assigned power
Measured Power
V in (V)

I (I)
P (W)
V (V)
I (I)
P (W)
in

out

out

in

100

P P

out

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Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

4.2 The Comparison of Power Efficiency

As the fact claimed in Fig. 21 that the conversion efficiency will decrease to below
90% when the power converted is implemented by UCC 3895 . Thus, the efficiency will
approach to much less while the loading increase. In contrast, the conversion efficiency
can be still always kept in about 90% when the power is over 600W for ISL6754 .
Therefore, the results from the comparison between ISL6754 and UCC 3895 are shown
in Fig. 20, i.e. the almost same values of power can be achieved with different IC such as
UCC 3895 and ISL6754 as long as the values at Pin1 and Pin2 are almost equivalent. In
addition, such as the cases of Pout1 and Pout2 shown in Fig. 20 where the output power
approximately equals with the condition of the output voltage is assigned at DC 120V.
Apart from the analysis of the power efficiency for the two different scenario are
presented in Fig. 21 in which Pin1 and Pout1 are assigned as input power and output
power of the converter UCC 3895 , respectively. With the same assignment Pin2 and
Pout2 indicates the input and output power of the converter ISL6754 , respectively.
The loading range at the output is controlled in the interval 120~20 for the two
converters, and the current is held over 1A~6A. It is reasonable to describe some facts
from Fig. 21 as follows: (1) the converter equipped with ISL6754 , which has the ability
of synchronizing rectifier, can gain high electrical conversion, since above 90%
conversion efficiency can be obtained in such an implementation, (2) both the switch can
arrive at the rules of ZVS for whichever of UCC 3895 or ISL6754 converter during the
switching time, and the highest power efficiency of 96.64% and 97.13% can be achieved
respectively. This fact describes that the soft switching technique can be definitely
employed to improve the problem of switching power losses, (3) in terms of solving the
critical issue of conduction losses caused by the rectifying diode with heavy loading, the
ISL6754 converter illustrates more significant in improving the power efficiency than
that of UCC 3895 , since the former one has the ability of synchronizing rectifier.
Table 5 The measured results of the implementation of ISL6754
Assigned

120W

240W

360W

480W

600W

720W

52.32

60.52

66.82

74.52

80.82

87.42

I (A)

2.52

4.18

5.73

8.07

8.81

P (W)
V (V)

131.84

252.97

382.87

524.62

652.21

770.17

120.7

120.2

120.6

120.3

120.4

120.1

I (A)
P (W)
= P P

1.061

1.994

2.933

3.994

4.973

5.798

power
Measured data
V in (V)
in

in

out

out

456

in

100

out

out

7.04

128.06

239.6

353.71

480.47

598.74

696.33

97.13

94.72

92.38

91.58

91.8

90.41

J. Electrical Systems 8-4 (2012): 442-458

Measured
power

900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Pin1

Pout1

664.1
524.62

782.82
529.4 770.17
652.21

685.58
386.52
595.1 696.33
253.29 382.87
477.57 598.74
480.47
128.13252.97
352.57
131.84
233.06 353.71
123.83239.6
128.06
120W 240W 360W 480W 600W 720W Assigned
Power

Fig. 20 The comparison of input-output voltages for two different circuits

Efficiency

100
95
90
85

97.13
96.64
94.72 92.38 91.58 91.8 90.41
92.0 1
91.21
90.2 89.6
87.57

80
120W 240W 360W 480W 600W 720W

Power

Fig. 21 The comparison of efficiency between 1: UCC 3895 , 2 : ISL6754

5. Conclusion and Suggestion

A high power efficiency full-bridge converter is investigated and implemented with an

experiment in which a ZVS full-bridge converter IC, ISL6754 developed by Intersil, is
adopted as a main component controller in this paper. On the other hand, the measured data
result from the other one implemented by IC UCC 3895 converter is to compare with that
of the converter aforementioned.
It is well known that the converter with a synchronizing rectifier can create high
conversion efficiency just when the loading is light. Nevertheless, it should be possible to
developed an alternative way which the synchronizing switch can be powered off during
the loading is lower than a threshold value, and in order to break off the synchronizing
switch just by using parasitic diode to establish a complete rectifier for saving the switching
losses. The volume size is also a problem for considering in cost effective direction.
Finally, to joint PFC (power factor correction) technique for developing high quality power
converter providing to all the consumers is one of the important targets for all the countries
in the world. Certainly, one part is to promote the capacity in power supporting and the

457

Joy I.-Z. Chen et al: A High Efficiency Full-bridge Converter

other part to increase both the power factor and the power efficiency are necessary for the
best total solution.
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