Decentralized Control Strategy for Input-Series-

Output-Parallel Modular LLC Resonant DC/DC Converters

Jianliang Chen, Deshang Sha, and Xiaozhong Liao

School of Automation
Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing, China
chenjl@bit.edu.cn, shadeshang@bit.edu.cn, liaoxiaozhong@bit.edu.cn

Abstract—This paper presents an input-series-output-parallel Compared with centralized control strategy, decentralized
LLC resonant converter suitable for high input voltage control strategy doesn’t need a central controller [5][6] or
applications. A decentralized control strategy is proposed and communications [7] among all the modules. Each module only
analyzed so that each module is self-contained, thus improving sampled its own voltage and current, and the power sharing
the flexibility and reliability. The power sharing including input can also be achieved, which simplifies the system design and
voltage sharing and output current sharing can be achieved only improves the reliability and flexibility.
by sensing the output voltage and current of each module. A
1.25kW two-module experimental prototype with 600V input Several decentralized control methods have been proposed
50V output is fabricated to verify the configuration and the based on the droop control. Literature [8] and [9] regulate the
control strategy. An efficiency of 96% is obtained without output voltage by bringing the input voltage and output
optimization. current of each module into the controller respectively.
However, they are only suitable for PWM converters. As for
I. INTRODUCTION PFM converters, such as the LLC converter, the decentralized
With the increase of the requirement of high input voltage control strategy is seldom discussed. In this paper, the input
power conversion, three-level converters [1], SiC applications impedance characteristic of the LLC converter is analyzed
[2] and input-series-output-parallel (ISOP) converters [3] have first. Then the decentralized control strategy is derived and
drawn more and more attention. However, the voltage stress discussed. Finally, the feasibility is verified by experimental
of three-level converters can only be half of the conventional results.
converter, which is limited in higher voltage applications. II. INPUT IMPEDANCE CHARACTERISTIC OF LLC
Wide band-gap devices such as SiC MOSFET can bear high CONVERTER
voltage stress, but it is still developing, and the cost is much
higher compared with conventional Si devices. Therefore it is
not suitable for cost sensitive products. ISOP configurations
can make use of low voltage rating device in high input
voltage and high output current applications, which has higher
reliability and redundancy.
LLC resonant converter [4] has been widely used in all
kinds of application. It is recognized as a feasible topology to
have high conversion efficiency and power density. All the
switches of it can achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) in a
wide input voltage and load range, while all the diodes can
achieve zero current switching (ZCS) at the same time. This
allows the converter to operate in high switching frequency,
which further decreases the component size. Therefore,
modular LLC resonant converters deserve more attention
compared with other widely used modular PWM converters.
However, few literatures have discussed the stability and
control strategy of it. Figure 1. Modular ISOP LLC converter

This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science Foundation under

Grant No. 3132032, Program for New Century Excellent Talents in
University of China under No. NCET-13-0043, State Key Laboratory of
Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources,
Technology Foundation for Selected Overseas Chinese Scholar (2014).
 Fig. 1 shows an n-module ISOP full-bridge LLC converter. turn on with ZVS. Therefore this side is called ZVS region or
Vin is the total input voltage. Ci is the input dividing capacitor. inductive region. Conversely, the left hand side is called ZCS
Lr, Cr and Lm are the resonant tank elements. Cf is the total region or capacitive region. It should be noted that the critical
output capacitor and Ro is the load resistor. frequency increases from f∞ to f0 as Re decreases, where f∞
indicates the critical frequency of the open-circuited curve,
As for the single LLC resonant converter, the simplified and f0 refers to that of the short-circuited circumstance. They
equivalent model is shown in Fig. 2. Re is the load resistor can be expressed as
reflected to the primary side, and can be expressed as
Re = 8n 2 Ro π 2 . Therefore the input impedance of the f∞ =
1
, f0 =
1 (3)
converter is 2π ( Lr + Lm ) Cr 2π Lr Cr

vab ( jω ) 1 jω Lm Re In other words, the heavier the load is, the higher the
Z i ( jω ) = = + jω Lr + (1)
critical frequency is. Thus if the rated load is given, the
iab ( jω ) jωCr jω Lm + Re
highest critical frequency fcmax can be calculated. By setting
the lower limit of switching frequency as fcmax, whatever the
load is, the monotonicity that higher switching frequency
leads to higher input impedance is achieved. This is an
advantage when LLC converter is applied to the ISOP
configuration. In addition, the converter operates in the
inductive region and all the MOSFETs can realize ZVS.
Considering that the ZCS of the diodes on the secondary
Figure 2. Simplified equivalent model of LLC resonate converter side can’t be achieved when the switching frequency is higher
than f0, the upper limit of the switching frequency is set as f0.
The Bode diagram of the input impedance with different Therefore, the actual operating frequency is between the
Re is shown in Fig. 3. Zi∞ is the open-circuited impedance, critical frequency fcmax and f0.
while Zi0 is the short-circuited impedance. They can be
expressed as On the other hand, the output gain curve with different
loads is illustrated in Fig. 4. The area in red is the ZVS region
1 1 or inductive region, whose boundary is a curve connecting all
Z i∞ ( jω ) = + jω ( Lr + Lm ) , Z i 0 ( jω ) = + jω Lr (2)
jωCr jωCr the peak value of each gain curve. On the left side of the curve,
the converter operates in ZCS region. Therefore, the critical
frequency fc of each curve is where the peak gain occurs. It
can be seen that in ZVS region, the output gain is also a
monotonic function of the switching frequency. The gain
Magnitude(dB)

decreases as the frequency increases. Thus the output voltage

Decreasing Re can be easily controlled only by regulating the switching
Increasing Load frequency.
Zi∞ Zi0

ZVS
Region
Phase(deg)

ZCS Region ZVS Region

Gain

f∞ fc f0 Switching Frequency ZCS

Figure 3. Bode diagram of the input impedance of LLC converter Region
It can be seen that there is only one minimum value of
each magnitude curve, which also corresponds to the zero Increasing Load
crossing point of the phase curve. Therefore they can be
separated into two parts by a critical frequency fc. For example,
the blue dashed line is the critical frequency of the blue curve. 0
Switching Frequency f0
On each side of the curve, the input impedance is a monotonic
function of the switching frequency. On the right hand side, Figure 4. Gain characteristics of LLC converter
the input impedance increases as frequency increases. The
phase is positive, meaning that the primary current lags the The relationship between critical frequency fc and critical
voltage applied to the resonant tank. It permits the switches to load resistor Rcrit can be derived by making the imaginary part
of the input impedance Zi(jω) (1) to be zero. Rewriting Re as
Rcrit and after some simplification, the result is shown in (4).
The critical resistor is only defined between f∞ and f0, whose
curve is shown in Fig. 5. When critical frequency fc is equal to
f0, the critical resistor Rcrit is zero. When fc is equal to f∞, Rcrit is
infinity, which is in line with Fig. 3.
ω L2m Cr − ω 3 Lr L2m
Rcrit = , ω = 2π f c , ( f ∞ < f c < f0 )
ω Lm − 1 ωCr + ω Lr
Figure 5. Critical resistor vs. switching frequency
When a modular ISOP LLC converter is needed to be
implemented, the design procedure is as follows.
a) Choose a desired operating range fcmax to f0 for the
switching frequency.
b) Determine the transformer turns ratio acoording to
the input voltage,output voltage and the number of modules.
c) Substitute fcmax and the rated load resistor RL
(reflected to the primary side) into (4). Change the equal sign
(=) to greater than sign (>). Make sure any normal load
resistor is greater than Rcrit.
d) Acoording to the junction capacitor of the
MOSFETs, choose the magnetizing inductor Lm so as to
achieve ZVS.
e) Acoording to (3), (4) and Lm, figure out Lr and Cr.
f) Check if the parameters are feasible.
III. ANALYSIS OF THE DECENTRALIZED CONTROL
STRATEGY
For ISOP modular converter, input voltage sharing (IVS)
can lead to output current sharing (OCS) and vise verse, and
power sharing can be achieved if either of them is obtained [4].
Due to the fact that all the modules can be seen as series
connected from the input side, if they have the same input
impedance, the input voltage can be shared equally, thus
resulting in power sharing of each converter. However, even if
all the modules are designed to be the same, owing to the
parasitic parameters of the circuits and manufacture
differences, the turns ratio of transformers and the resonant
tank parameters cannot be identical. Therefore, with the
conventional common frequency control, the power can’t be
shared equally among all the modules, and the stability may
be seriously affected. However, with the above analysis, the
problem can be solved by adjusting the switching frequency
and input impedance of each modular LLC converter.
The proposed decentralized control strategy is shown in
Fig. 6. Apart from the conventional control structure, the
output current ion is fed back to the input of the controller with
a positive coefficient rc. Gvo is a voltage compensator,
typically a PI type regulator. The output of the compensator
serves as the period value (PRD) of the carrier wave. The
(4) modulation wave is always half of the period, so that the duty
cycle is 50%.
Figure 6. Proposed decentralized control strategy
The power sharing strategy can be analyzed as follows.
For module #i, in steady state, rcioi + vref − vo is equal to zero.
Since all the modules share the same output voltage and input
current, according to power conservation, higher output
current results in higher input voltage. If the output current of
module #i ioi becomes higher than average due to some
disturbance, the input voltage vini also becomes higher and
rcioi + vref − vo turns to be positive. Then the regulator output
becomes larger, leading to higher switching period, or lower
switching frequency. Thus the input impedance of module #i
is decreased as discussed above. Therefore the input voltage
also decreases resulting in lower output current. Consequently,
the disturbance is suppressed.
It should be noted that with this method, the output voltage
may increase as output current increases. Since rcioi + vref − vo
is equal to zero in steady state, the deviation of output voltage
is determined by the coefficient rc. Although lower coefficient
leads to lower deviation, the power sharing can’t be well
achieved. Therefore, a trade-off must be made between power
sharing and the output-voltage regulation performance when
designing the control circuit.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
A two-module ISOP LLC converter is designed and
fabricated to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control
strategy. The specifications are listed in Table I. In order to
test the feasibility, the turns ratios are purposely set to be
different, with module #1 26:4 and module #2 25:4. Since
there are two modules, the load resistor of each module is
twice of the actual value if power sharing is achieved.
Therefore, the equivalent resistor Re is 137Ω and 126Ω
respectively when Ro is 2Ω. The resonant frequency f0 is 122
kHz according to the resonant tank parameters. Thus in order
to achieve ZVS of MOSFETs and ZCS of diodes and guaranty
the monotonicity of input impedance, the switching frequency
is chosen between 80~120 kHz. According to equation (4), the
critical resistor is 124Ω at 80 kHz, smaller than either of the Re.
Therefore, the decentralized control strategy can be applied
and is implemented in the TMS320F28335 DSP of each
module.

TABLE I. CIRCUIT PARAMETERS

Input Voltage 520-600V

Output Voltage 50V
Rated Power 1.25kW
Power MOSFET IRFP460
Figure 8. Input voltage step up
Rectifier Diode APT2X101S20J
Switching Frequency 80~120kHz
Leakage Inductance Lr 85uH
Resonant Capacitance Cr 20nF
Magnetizing Inductance Lm 500uH
Input Capacitance Ci 10uF
Output Capacitance Cf 40uF
Load Ro 2Ω-∞
Control Coefficient rc 0.2Ω

Fig. 7 shows the steady state experiment waveform of the

two modules. It can be seen that the output current io1 and io2 Figure 9. Load step up
of the two modules are almost the same. The input voltage
sharing can also be seen by the magnitude of vab. Due to the
parameter mismatch, the switching frequencies of the two
modules are not the same, with module #1 87.6 kHz, and
module #2 89.5 kHz. Because of the proposed control strategy,
the output voltage increases as output current increases.
Although the output voltage reference is 50V, the actual
voltage is 52.5V at rated power. The efficiency of the main
circuit is 96% without optimization.

Figure 10. Load step down

Figure 7. Steady state experimental result
Fig. 8, Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 illustrate the results of input
voltage and load step change respectively. It can be seen that
the IVS and OCS are well achieved even in transients.
V. CONCLUSION
A decentralized control strategy for ISOP LLC resonant
converter is proposed in this paper. Only output voltage and
output current of each module are needed to be sampled to
achieve power sharing. The stability of the control strategy is
analyzed using the input impedance characteristic of the LLC
converter and the stability is discussed. Finally the
effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by the
experimental results of a two-module LLC resonant converter.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Beijing Natural Science
Foundation under Grant No. 3132032, Program for New
Century Excellent Talents in University of China under No.
NCET-13-0043, State Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical
Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, Technology
Foundation for Selected Overseas Chinese Scholar (2014),
Ministry of Human Resources And Social Security of China,
and Fundamental Research Fund of Beijing Institute of
Technology under Grant No. 20120642009.
REFERENCES
[1] J. R. Pinheiro and I. Barbi, “The three-level ZVS-PWM DC-to-DC
converter,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 486–492,
Jul.
[2] Weitzel, C.E.; Palmour, J.W.; Carter, C.H., Jr.; Moore, K.; Nordquist,
Kevin J.; Allen, S.; Thero, C.; Bhatnagar, M., “Silicon carbide high-
power devices,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices., vol.43, no.10,
pp.1732,1741, Oct 1996
[3] Ayyanar, R.; Giri, R.; Mohan, N., “Active input-voltage and load-
current sharing in input-series and output-parallel connected modular
DC-DC converters using dynamic input-voltage reference scheme,”
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.19, no.6, pp.1462,1473, Nov. 2004
[4] Yang, B.; Lee, F.C.; Zhang, A.J.; Guisong Huang, “LLC resonant
converter for front end DC/DC conversion,” Applied Power Electronics
Conference and Exposition, 2002. APEC 2002. Seventeenth Annual
IEEE, vol.2, no., pp.1108,1112 vol.2, 2002
[5] X. Ruan, W. Chen, L. Chen, C. K. Tse, H. Yan, and T. Zhang, “Control
strategy for input-series- output-parallel converters,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Electron., vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 1174–1185, Apr. 2009.
[6] R. Giri, V. Choudhary, R. Ayyanar, and N. Mohan, “Common-duty-
ratio control of input-series connected modular dc–dc converters with
active input voltage and load-current sharing,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl.,
vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 1101–1111, Jul. 2006.
[7] V. Choudhary, E. Ledezma, R. Ayyanar, and R. M. Button, “Fault
tolerant circuit topology and control method for input-series and
output-parallel modular DC–DC converters,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 402–411, Jan. 2008.
[8] W. Chen, G. Wang, X. Ruan, W. Jiang, and W. Gu, “Wireless input-
voltage-sharing control strategy for input-series output-parallel (ISOP)
system based on positive output-voltage gradient method,” IEEE Trans.
Ind. Electron., vol. 61, no. 11, pp. 6022–6030, Nov. 2014.
[9] G. Xu, D. Sha, and X. Liao, “Decentralized Inverse-Droop Control for
Input-Series- Output-Parallel DC–DC Converters,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol.30, no.9, pp.4621,4625, Sept. 2015