A Novel Bi-directional DC-DC Converter for

Distributed Energy Storage Device

Fei Xue1, Ruiyang Yu1, Wensong Yu1, Alex Q. Huang1, Yu Du2
1 FREEDM Systems Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
2 ABB U.S. Corporate Research Center, 940 Main Campus Drive, Raleigh, NC 27606, USA
{fxue, ryu3, wyu2, aqhuang}@ncsu.edu, yu.du@us.abb.com

Abstract—This paper presents a high efficiency, low-cost function. In this application, high power conversion efficiency
bidirectional isolated dc---dc converter for distributed and high power density are requirements for all operating
energy storage device (DESD). Derived from dual active conditions.
bridge (DAB), the proposed converter consists of a
half-bridge circuit at high voltage side and a push-pull
circuit with active clamp at low voltage side. The proposed
topology is attractive in low voltage and high current
applications and it also reduces the number of switching
transistors such that the cost and complexity are
considerably reduced. With single phase-shift control
strategy, all the switches operate in zero-voltage switching
(ZVS) condition without increasing circuit complexity.
Besides, planar transformer is implemented where the low
voltage windings consist of PCB trace and external copper
foils. A 380V to 12V DC, 500W DESD hardware prototype
has been designed, fabricated, and tested. Experimental
results verify the validity of the proposed bi-directional
converter, which has 97.3% peak efficiency and maintains Fig. 1 DESD in the envisioned DC microgrid system
greater than 92% efficiency over a load range between
100W and 600W. Initially proposed in the 1990s, the dual active bridge (DAB)
DC-DC converter is a widely used topology [5]. Its symmetric
Index Terms—Energy storage device, push-pull, active clamp, structure with phase shift modulation control strategy enables
isolated bidirectional converter. the bi-directional power flow and ZVS operation for all
switches conditionally. In fact, besides the full bridge structure,
many conventional isolated unidirectional DC-DC converters
I. INTRODUCTION
can be combined to form an isolated bi-directional DC-DC

E NERGY storage device is becoming an indispensable part

of utility grid because of the intermittent nature of
renewable energy such as PV and wind turbine[1]-[2].
Compared with centralized energy storage device, the
distributed energy storage device (DESD) has the merits of
high reliability, high sustainability, high efficiency and high
cost effective.
For the DC microgrid system (Fig. 1), the DESD, together
with distributed renewable energy resources (DRER), DC load,
is interfacing with the 380V DC bus. By firming and supply
shifting renewable energy and supporting critical loads, DESD
heightens the system’s reliability [3]-[4].
In a DC DESD, it typically integrates a bi-directional
DC-DC converter, an energy storage device (battery,
ultra-capacitor etc.), battery management system and
communication system to realize a plug-and-play capable
DESD. Among the four subsystem mentioned above, the
bi-directional DC-DC converter is the most essential part of the
DESD to implement bi-directional charging and discharge
converter, such as a flyback, half bridge and push-pull
converter. Thus we can use the name of the topology on both
side of the high frequency transformer to name them [6]. In our
case, half-bridge and push-pull topology consists an isolated
half-bridge push-pull bidirectional DC-DC converter, because
the half bridge and push-pull structure has better performance
in high current and low voltage applications
The advantages of isolated half-bridge push-pull
bi-directional DC-DC converter are numerous [7]-[8], such as
simple structure, small number of switches, high transformer
core utilization and the ability to withstand low voltage high
current. The disadvantage of it is the voltage spike caused by
the leakage inductance when switches are turned off. Thus, an
isolated half-bridge push-pull bi-directional converter with
active clamp, shown in Fig. 2, with phase shift modulation
strategy is proposed in this paper. The active clamp circuit is
implemented to clamp the turn-off voltage spike on the low
voltage side, and recovery the energy stored in the active clamp
capacitor, which help to suppress the turn-off voltage spike

978-1-4799-6735-3/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 1126

even better. What’s more, the active clamp circuit can help to
reduce the MOSFET turn-off current.
Fig. 2 Topology of half bridge push-pull with active clamp
mode of the converter can be defined as charging mode (power
delivered from HV to LV side) and discharging mode (power
delivered from LV to HV side). Therein the sign of phase shift
angle is defined as positive and negative respectively. The
switches pairs S1~S2, S3~S4 turn on and off complementarily at
fixed 50% duty ratio with dead time for the corresponding
switches in Fig. 3. Before analyzing the operation principles,
the following assumptions are given bellow,
1) All the components such as the main switches, the
transformers and inductors are ideal;
2) The capacitance C1, C2 and C5 are large enough so that the
input voltage and output voltage can be seen as constant;
3) The circuit has been working in steady state.

The advantages of push-pull with active clamp over full

bridge is clearly explained by Table I. Although push-pull with
active clamp requires higher voltage transistors (60V device for
push pull active clamp and 30V device for full bridge), the total
RDS(ON) is smaller comparing to a full bridge, since in a full
bridge, switches are working in the series manner.

Table I. COMPARISON OF FULL BRIDGE AND PUSH-PUSH WITH

ACTIVE CLAMP
Full bridge Push-pull with active clamp
30V MOSFET BSC011N03LSI 60V MOSFET BSC014N06NSCT & TPN14006NH
1.1mΩ×2 (2 switches in series) 1.45mΩ(main)
68nC @ 10V 89nC @ 10V (main), 12nc @ 10V (aux)
×4 main switches ×2 main switches
×2 auxiliary switches

This paper presents 500W prototype that combines the

merits of DAB, push-pull and active clamp to improve the
performance of isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter used in
low-voltage high-current energy storage application. While
embracing the merits of DAB as the circuit of isolated
bidirectional DC-DC conversion, the proposed converter has
only two main switches at the low voltage (LV) side, making
the total on-state resistance smaller. The appealing features of
active clamp circuit are suppressing the turn-off voltage spike
as well as reducing the turn-off current of LV switches. The
peak efficiency is 97.3% and maintains greater than 92%
efficiency in most load conditions.

II. OPERATING PRINCIPLES AND POWER TRANSFER

CHARACTERISTIC
The proposed topology employs half-bridge at the high
voltage (HV) side and push-pull active clamp at the LV side as
shown in Fig. 2. Transformer T with two secondary windings is
utilized to realize isolation as well as to buck/boost the HV/LV
voltage. The half-bridge circuit in the HV side of the
high-frequency transformer is to get high voltage gain. The
auxiliary inductor combined with the leakage inductance of the
transformer, noted as Ls, is the interface and energy transfer
element between the HV side and the LV side. The
bidirectional power flow is controlled by the conventional
single phase shift angle φ in Fig. 3.
According to the directions of power flow, the operation
Fig. 3 Timing diagram and theoretical waveforms of proposed
converter in charging mode
Taking the charging mode for example, the operation
principles of the proposed converter can be explained referring
to the timing diagram and idealized waveforms shown in Fig. 3.
Since the positive and negative half cycles are symmetrical, the
analysis will focus on the positive half cycle only.
Subinterval 1 (t0~t1): Power is transferred from HV to LV.
Switches S2 and S3 are on. The inductor current flows through

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S2, C2, n1 and Ls. The secondary side current is flows through We can see that the power flow characteristic is the same
Vlv-, S3, n2, Vlv+. The current through the leakage inductance Ls with traditional DAB which means the control strategy of DAB
is calculated as can be easily transplanted to the proposed half bridge push-pull
VHV di with active clamp.
− + nVLV = Ls 1 (1) The maximum inductor current is derived as
2 dt 1 ⎡ π ⎤
Subinterval 2 (t1~t2): At t1, S2 is turn off, Vab becomes I max =
4π f s Ls ⎢⎣VHV (ϕ − 2 ) + nπVLV ⎥⎦ (9)
positive, the energy stored in Ls starts to discharge Cs1. When its
voltage falls to zero, the parasitic diode (D1) of S1 is turn off
automatically. Both S1 and S2 is turned off during the whole
1
interval, i1 will flow through the parasitic diode of either S1 or
S2, which is determined by the polarity of i1.
Subinterval 3 (t2~t3): At t2, S1 is turn on in ZVS. The voltage 0.5
across Ls remains, thus the slope of i1 remains the same. Besides,
at the end of this subinterval, before S4 is turned on, S4a is
turned on to feed the leakage energy stored in C4 back to the P ( d) 0
primary side.
VHV di
+ nVLV = Ls 1 (2) − 0.5
2 dt
Subinterval 4 (t3~t4): At t3, S3 is turned off, the body diode of
S3a is turned on automatically. The current in the leakage −1
inductance of secondary windings will flow through the body −2 −1 0 1 2
diode of S3a and charge C3. Such that the voltage across S3 d
(VDS3) will be clamped at the capacitor’s voltage. This is how Fig. 4 Bidirectional power transfer versus phase-shift ratio
the active clamp circuit works. On the other side, the voltage
across the primary winding changes its polarity. III. DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Subinterval 5 (t4~t5): At t4, S4 is turned on. The current i1 The design considerations mainly focus on the LV side,
which flows through the leakage inductance Ls is calculated as where the high current may cause the majority of power loss
follows, [9]-[10].
VHV di
− nVLV = Ls 1 (3) A. Transformer
2 dt The push-pull circuit on the LV side of the prototype of the
After t5, the positive half-cycle of the operation ends and the proposed converter is split up into two modules, which are
negative half-cycle begins. operated in parallel. The basic technical data are as follows:
From the above analysis, we can derive that during the 1) PCB: Four-layer PCB, 4-oz copper on each layer;
subinterval 2 and 3, the inductor current is obtained as 2) LV switches:
VHV main: BSC014N06NSCT
+ nVLV
2 active clamp: TPN14006NH
i1 (t ) = I 0 + (t − t1 ) (4)
3) Transformer core: one planer E58 core;
Ls
4) Transformer turns ratio: n=14:1:1;
During the subinterval 4 and 5, the inductor current is
5) Switching frequency: 100 kHz.
obtained as
A planar ferrite core (E58 58×31×21mm) is employed for the
VHV power transformer, mainly because of its advantageous
− nVLV
properties with respect to high power density and excellent
i1 (t ) = I max + 2 (t − t 3 ) (5) electro-magnetic and thermal characteristics [9][13]. For the
Ls
selected ferrite core (material 3F3), the operation frequency is
The power transferred by the converter is 100 kHz so as to increase the power density as well as decrease
VHV t5 nVHV VLV ϕ (π − ϕ ) the core loss.
P (ϕ ) = 2
Ts ∫t1
i1 (t ) dt =
2π 2 f s Ls The primary windings of the transformer are made of litz
wire. The total 14 turns are separated into two layers, of which
(6) each is 7 turns. For the secondary (LV) side, the windings are
Fig. 4 shows the bidirectional power transfer characteristic printed on the board. Since the LV side winding are split into
versus phase shift ratio d. Where P(d) is the unified power, and two modules, each module has two windings, each winding is
d=φ/π. made up by two layers of copper. Thus there are totally 4 layer
π on the PCB and additional 4 layer outside the PCB, which
Pmax = P( ) (7) serves as thermal tube to further decrease the LV side
2
temperature.
P (d ) = P(d π ) / Pmax (8) The copper foils can be used as three parts:

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 1) Transformer windings at the secondary side;
2) LV side bus bar which can extended and connected to the
batteries directly;
3) Thermal tube through which winding loss is conducted to
the ambience.
B. Power switches
The realization of the LV side push-pull is more challenging,
since high root mean square current and peak current values.
Consequently, the LV side uses two push-pull circuit that are
operated in parallel, such that the current rating of a single
push-pull is cut into half and thus, a converter realization using
Fig. 8 shows the voltage across S4 is clamped when it is turned
off. The voltage overshoot of Vds4 is reduced and clamped at
about 35V.
The operation of the DESD with DC bus voltage based droop
controller is shown in Fig. 8. The DESD changes between
charging and discharging modes based on the DC bus voltage.
Fig. 9 shows efficiency evaluation results under different load
conditions. All the dots are experimental points. The efficiency
is 97.3% at 250W or about 50% load, and shows consistently
above 92.0% with load from 20% to 100%.
VS3 VS4 V_act3 V_act4

PCB becomes feasible. 1

0.8

While the current can be split and the switches can be 0.6
0.4

paralleled to reduce the conduction loss, the turn-on loss can be

0.2
0

minimized by working in ZVS mode, however, the turn-off loss 50

Vcap3 VM3

is another challenge. One method is to parallel snubber 40

30

capacitors between the drain and source of the MOSFET.

20
10
0

During turn-off when the drain-source voltage is rising, the -10

I(M OS3) I(M OS4)

current go to the snubber capacitor rather than in the MOSFET 20

channel. The turn-off loss then can be reduced by the snubber 0

capacitor. -20

-40

I(M OS3a) I(MOS4a)

IV. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS 30

20
10
0
-10
A switch model was constructed by using PSIM to simulate -20
0.000346 0.000348 0.00035 0.000352 0.000354 0.000356
the steady state of the proposed converter. Fig. 5 shows the T ime (s)

simulation result, which shows that the drain-source voltage of Fig. 5 Simulated waveform of LV side switches with active clamp
LV side switches is clamped at the capacitor’s voltage when the
switches are turned off. From the waveform of iS3 and iS4, we
can find that the turn-off current of S3 and S4 oscillates to a
lower level by turning on the active clamp switches S3a and S4a.
The reduced turn-off current means less turn-off loss for the LV
side switches, which shows consistency with the theoretical
timing waveform.
A hardware prototype of the proposed isolated bidirectional
DC-DC converter is shown in Fig. 6(a). The final 500W/1kWH
DESD is shown in Fig. 6(b).
Fig. 7 shows the transient waveform of droop control when
VHV drops from 405V to 365V. The polarity of iHV denotes the
power flow direction. Positive means HV side delivers power
to the LV side and negative means absorb power from the LV
(a)
side. The waveform shows the converter’s operation mode is
changing from charging to discharging. There is a dead time in
the transition time because the converter is shut down in light
load condition to void hard switching according to the proposed
droop control algorithm.
The converter parameters are presented in Table II.

Table II
PARAMETERS OF THE CONVERTER
Low voltage side voltage (VLV) (11.2~16)V
High voltage side voltage (VHV) (350~410)V
Transformer turns ratio (n1:n2:n3) 14:1:1
Equivalent leakage inductance (Ls) 30uH
Switching frequency (fs) 100 kHz (b)
Fig. 6 (a) Prototype of the proposed converter. (b) 1 kWh DESD

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 V. CONCLUSION
A novel high efficiency bidirectional dc–dc converter for
distributed energy storage device is proposed combining the
merits of DAB, push-pull and active clamp to improve the
performance of isolated bidirectional DC-DC converter used in
low-voltage high-current energy storage application. The
proposed converter implements isolated half-bridge
push-pull bidirectional converter with active clamp as the
main circuit. This topology serves better than DAB in this
low voltage and high current application. A detailed power
flow characteristic of proposed converter is derived by using
the steady-state analysis. Experiment shows good agreement
with theoretical analysis and simulation. It has 97.3% peak
efficiency and maintains greater than 92% efficiency over
most load range. Therefore, we can conclude that the
proposed converter is a promising candidate circuit for the
low-voltage high-current energy storage applications.
Fig. 7. Voltage across S4 and C4 in charging mode 45A/520W. Ch1:
G-S voltage of S4; CH2: D-S voltage of S4; Ch3: Voltage across C4;
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