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

8, AUGUST 2014 4313

A LLC-Type Dual-Bridge Resonant Converter:

Analysis, Design, Simulation,
and Experimental Results
Xiaodong Li, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, a high-frequency isolated dual-bridge

LLC-type resonant converter is proposed. The steady-state analysis
of the proposed converter is performed using a modified fundamen-
tal harmonics approximation approach, by which the component
stress can be obtained quickly without complicated calculation.
Necessary and sufficient conditions for zero-voltage switching of
all switches are derived too. To illustrate the usefulness of the FHA
analysis for a fast design, a design example of a 100 kHz, 200 V
input, 40–48 V output 300 W converter is given. Computer sim-
ulation and experiment results are included for the purpose of
validation. It is shown that this converter is able to maintain zero-
voltage switching operation for a wide load range while keeping
high efficiency.
Fig. 1. High-frequency isolated dual-bridge LLC-type resonant converter.
Index Terms—Dc-to-dc converter, resonant power conversion,
zero-voltage switching (ZVS).
a modified fundamental harmonic approximation approach. The
existence of series capacitor reduces the chance of transformer
I. INTRODUCTION saturation. However, this DBSRC also has inherent limitation of
ZVS operation for variation in load and input/output voltages. In
UE to increasing concerns about global warming and po-
D tential energy crisis, renewable energy generation has
drawn many attentions in last decade. To make use of the
reported works, LLC-type resonant tank has been proved useful
for extend ZVS range for conventional fixed-frequency reso-
nant converter with small component stress [18]–[21]. Though
naturally fluctuating renewable energy, power converters have
it has three reactive components, LLC tank can be partially in-
become the necessary part of a renewable energy generation
tegrated into the HF transformer in actual implementation by
system [1]–[4]. For a dc-coupled hybrid renewable energy gen-
means of proper magnetic design. To the best knowledge of the
eration system including different energy sources (solar, wind,
author, there is no comprehensive work reported in the litera-
and tidal energy), it is common to use a bidirectional dc/dc con-
ture about the steady-state analysis of the LLC-type dual-bridge
verter to interface the dc bus with the battery storage stack. The
resonant converter. Thus, a high-frequency isolated dual-bridge
dual-active-bridge converter (DAB) is featured with soft switch-
LLC-type resonant converter is analyzed, designed, and evalu-
ing, simple control, and high power density [5]–[14]. To keep
ated by simulation and experimental results in this paper.
zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation at wide load range, the
The rest part of the paper is arranged as follows. In Section II,
voltage gain of DAB has to be limited to unity. Dual-bridge res-
the steady-state analysis of the LLC-type DBRC is performed us-
onant converter (DBRC), as the resonant version of DAB, has
ing the modified fundamental harmonics approximation (FHA)
similar performance with extra features [15]–[17]. Compared
approach first. Then, the necessary and sufficient conditions for
with DAB, voltage and currents in DBRC are nearly sinusoidal
ZVS operation in two bridges are presented based on the analy-
due to resonance which results in small low-order harmonics
sis results. A design example of a 200 V input, 40–48 V output,
and reduced filter size. Different topologies of resonant tanks can
300 W converter is given in Section III to illustrate the use-
provide more flexibilities [22], [23]. In [15], a dual-bridge series
fulness of the analysis results. At last, the verification through
resonant converter (DBSRC) was proposed and analyzed using
computer simulation and experimental results are included in
Section IV.

Manuscript received August 11, 2013; revised October 5, 2013; accepted

November 7, 2013. Date of current version March 26, 2014. This work was
II. STEADY-STATE ANALYSIS OF THE DUAL-BRIDGE LLC-TYPE
supported by Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau SAR RESONANT CONVERTER USING FHA
under Grant 067/2011/A. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor
M. Ponce-Silva. In Fig. 1, a dual-bridge LLC resonant converter is constructed
The author is with the Faculty of Information Technology, Macau University in half-bridge type using a central-tapped transformer. The full-
of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau, China (e-mail: xdli@must.edu.mo). bridge version can be done for high voltage application at the
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. price of more switches and the analysis procedure would be
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2291207 same. The three-element resonant tank is composed of Lr , Cr ,
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.
4314
Fig. 2. Typical steady-state operation waveforms of a dual-bridge LLC reso-
nant converter.
and Lm . The output filter Cf is assumed to be large enough
to keep the output voltage almost ripple free. Also, the out-
put resistance Ro can be a real resistive load or the equivalent
resistance of the voltage-type load. The center-tapped HF trans-
former with a turns ration of nt : 1 : 1 provides functions of
voltage level match and galvanic isolation.
The operation principle can be understood by means of the
steady-state waveforms of main voltages and currents illustrated
in Fig. 2. The primary switches S1 and S2 are turned ON alter-
natively at 50% duty cycle to create a square-wave voltage vr ,
which fluctuates between input voltage Vs and 0. Apparently,
such a square voltage vr contains a dc component V2s . In addi-
tion to being the part of resonant tank circuit, the series resonant
capacitor Cr is able to block the dc component as shown in
Fig. 3. Thus, there is no risk of transformer saturation in this
converter. The circuit on the secondary side is an active rectifier
formed by switches Sa and Sb which are also turned ON al-
ternatively at 50% duty cycle to create a primary-side reflected
square-wave voltage vt . Thus, the parallel inductor current im is
nearly a triangular wave. The resonant current ir and the trans-
former primary current it (the difference between ir and im ) are
all nearly sinusoidal. As shown in Fig. 3, there is a phase-shift
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014
Fig. 3. Equivalent two-port model of the LLC DBRC in phasor domain.
φ between vr and vt , i.e., between the gating signals of S1 and
Sa , which is used to control the power flow. If φ > 0, the power
flows from the primary side to the secondary side. If φ < 0, the
power flows from the secondary side to the primary side. After
active rectification, the rectifier output current i2 is obtained,
whose average value is the output dc current Io .
Conventionally, two different approaches can be applied for
the steady-state analysis of resonant converters. 1) At the cost of
complicated calculation, the differential equation or state-space
approach can give accurate results by solving sets of differential
equations in consecutive time intervals in one high frequency
period [25], [26]. When the number of reactive components is
high, it would be quite difficult to solve the resulted high-order
differential equations and the close-form analytic solutions may
be impossible to obtain. 2) Compared with the first approach,
frequency domain approach using Fourier series analysis would
be easier to implemented. Based on the principle of superposi-
tion, the accuracy of this approach depend on the selection of
the number of harmonics involved in the calculation. The so-
called complex ac-circuit analysis or fundamental harmonics
analysis can be regarded as a special case with only fundamen-
tal component considered. Due to the nearly sinusoidal voltages
and currents in resonant converters, FHA can achieve a good
compromise between calculation complexity and accuracy. To
perform steady-state analysis using FHA, all ac voltages and
currents in the converter will be represented by their fundamen-
tal components only. All inductors, capacitors, diodes, switches,
and the HF transformer are assumed to be ideal. All quantities
on the secondary side can be reflected to the primary side and
denoted by a superscript “  . ” To facilitate the calculation, all
quantities would be normalized by the following base values:
 1
VB = Vs /2; ZB = Lr /Cr = ωr Lr =
ωr Cr
1
ωB = ωr = √ ; IB = VB /ZB (1)
Lr Cr
where ωr is the series resonance frequency.
The normalized switching frequency is defined as
ωs
F = (2)
ωr
where ωs = 2πfs and fs is the switching frequency.
The normalized reactance of the resonant tank are
XL r ,pu = F ; XC r ,pu = 1/F ; XL m ,pu = F/K (3)
LI: LLC-TYPE DUAL-BRIDGE RESONANT CONVERTER: ANALYSIS, DESIGN 4315

where K = Lr /Lm is defined as the series-parallel inductance where θ = φ − β is the phase angle of the equivalent impedance
ratio. and the quality factor Q is defined as
The normalized fundamental component of the primary
bridge output voltage vr is given as π 2 ZB Po
Q = ZB /(8n2 Ro /π 2 ) = . (11)
8n2 Vo2
√ 4
vr 1,pu (t) = 2Vr 1,rpu sin ωs t = sin ωs t (4) The relationship between the phase angle θ and the control-
π
√ lable phase-shift φ is given as
where Vr 1,rpu = π8 is the normalized fundamental rms voltage  
of vr . F K + F − K/F
θ = arctan − cot φ . (12)
As mentioned before, the voltage across the HF transformer Q(F 2 − 1)
vt (t) is also a square-wave voltage whose normalized fundament With the introduction of an equivalent impedance, the steady-
component is state of the dual-bridge LLC resonant converter can be described
√ 4M by an equivalent two-port model shown in Fig. 3.
vt1,pu (t) = 2Vt1,rpu sin(ωs t − φ) = sin(ωs t − φ) (5)
π
√ A. Voltages, Currents, and Power
where Vt1,rpu = 8M π is the normalized fundamental rms volt-
age, φ is a controlled phase-shift with respect to the input voltage With the information obtained above and the equivalent cir-
vr 1 (t), M is defined as the normalized primary-reflected output cuit, the input impedance of the two-port model circuit is defined
voltage or converter voltage gain as
Vr1,pu 1 F
M = Vo /VB = 2nt Vo /Vs . (6) Zin,pu = = j(F − ) + Zac,pu  j
Ir1,pu F K
The normalized fundamental transformer current it1,pu (t) is A1 + jA2
√ = Zin,pu ∠α = (13)
A3
it1,pu (t) = 2It1,rpu sin(ωs t − β) (7)
where
where It1,rpu is the rms value of the normalized fundamental
transformer current, β is the phase angle with respect to vr 1 (t). F 2
A1 = Q( )
 K
It can be seen from Fig. 3 that the output dc current Io,pu should
be equal to the average value of it1,pu (t) after being actively F QF 2
A2 = −( )2 Q cot φ + ( ) (F − 1/F )
rectified at angle φ K K sin φ
 √
1 π +φ 2 2 QF 2 F2 2QF 3 cot φ

Io,pu = it1 (t)dωs t = It1,rpu cos(φ − β). (8) A3 = ( ) +( )2
−
π φ π K sin φ K(F 2 − 1) K 2 (F 2 − 1)
 
Solving (8) yields to Q(F 2 − 1)
α = arctan − cot φ . (14)

F sin2 φ
Io,pu π
It1,rpu = √ . (9) So, the normalized fundamental resonant current can be found
8 cos(φ − β)
as
The FHA applied for the analysis of conventional reso- √
nant converters uses an equivalent resistance (Rac = 8RL /π 2 ir 1,pu (t) = 2Ir 1,rpu sin(ωs t − α) (15)
or π 2 RL /8 depending on the type of filter) to represent the where the fundamental resonant rms current Ir 1r is given as
secondary-side circuit (including the HF transformer, the diode
bridge, the output filter and load) [24]. However, it is not valid for Vr 1,rpu
Ir 1,rpu = (16)
the dual-bridge resonant converters due to the active control of Zin,pu 
the secondary switches. According to a modification proposed
in [15] and [16], the partial circuit including the HF transformer, and the normalized capacitor peak voltage can be evaluated as
√ √
the active rectifier (the secondary-side bridge), the output fil- VC r 1,ppu = 2Ir 1,rpu XC r ,pu = 2Ir 1,rpu /F. (17)
ter, and load in a DBSRC can be represented by an equivalent
impedance Zac,pu . This modification actually is suitable for the It should be noted that the actual maximum capacitor voltage is
steady-state analysis of the dual-bridge resonant converters with VC r,m ax = VC r 1,ppu · VB + VB .
any type of tanks and would be used in this paper. It is noted that the input current before filtering i1 is discon-
With the help of (5) and (9), the equivalent impedance in tinuous, which is equal to the sinusoidal resonant current only
this LLC-type DBRC could be found as the ratio of transformer when the switch S1 is turned ON. So the input dc current after
voltage and current in phasor domain filtering Iin,pu could be evaluated as
√  Ts √
2Vt1,rpu ∠(−90◦ − φ) cos θ 1 2
Zac,pu = √
2
= ∠(−θ) (10) Iin,pu = ir 1,pu (t)dt = Ir 1,rpu cos α. (18)
2It1,rpu ∠(−90◦ − β) Q Ts 0 π
4316 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014

The normalized input dc power is shown as condition for ZVS in the primary bridge can be derived as
Vs · Iin 4 √ Czvs,p Vsw ,p Czvs,p Vs2
Pin,pu = = 2 Ir 1,rpu cos α. (19) 2Ir 1,r sin(α) ≥ ⇒ tan α ≥
VB IB π TD πPin TD
1 − M cos φ Czvs,p Vs2
The normalized rms ripple current in the input filter Cin is ⇒ fp (φ) = ≥ (26)
 M sin φ πPin TD
 π 2 − 4 cos2 α
Irip,pu = I1,rpu − Iin,pu =
2 2 Ir 1,rpu . (20) where TD is the deadband of the gating signal, Vsw ,p = Vs
2π 2 is the change of switch voltage on the primary side during
switching transient.
The calculation of the transformer current it is given in (7)–
The necessary or weak strain of ZVS operation on the sec-
(9) and its phase angle β can be found from Fig. 3
ondary side is that the transformer current is capacitive with
  regards to the transformer square voltage, i.e., φ − β = θ > 0.
Q(F 2 − 1) csc2 φ
β = arctan − cot φ . (21) With help of (12), this can be written as
K(F + F/K − 1/F )
F+ F
− 1
cos φ
The normalized rms value of the ripple current flowing in the cot φ < K F
⇒M > . (27)
capacitive output filter Cf can be found as
Q
K (F
2 − 1) 1+K − K
F2

 √ The ZVS in the secondary bridge can be secured for any phase-
π 2 − 8 cos2 θ shift φ if M ≥ 1 and F > 1.
2
If ,rpu = nt It1,rpu − Io,pu =
2 √ Io,pu. (22)
8 cos θ Similar to the primary side, the strong strain of ZVS on the
secondary side is that the instantaneous value of the transformer
B. Converter Gain current should be large enough to charge and discharge the
The transfer function of the two-port model is defined as total parasitic capacitance Czvs,s during the switching transient
time. With (9) and (12), the sufficient condition of ZVS on the
Vt1,pu Zac,pu  j K
F secondary side is written as
T(φ) = = = M ∠ − φ. (23)
Vi1,pu Zin,pu √ Czvs,s Vsw ,s 4Czvs,sec Vo2
2It1,r sin(θ) ≥ ⇒ tan θ ≥
TD πPo TD
Then, normalized voltage gain can be calculated as
M (1 + K − K/F 2 ) − cos φ 4Czvs,s Vo2
sin φ ⇒ fs (φ) = ≥ (28)
M (φ) = T (j2πfs ) = . (24) sin φ πPo TD
Q(F − 1/F )
where Vsw ,s = 2Vo is the change of switch voltage on the
It is assumed that the normalized switching frequency F is secondary side during switching transient.
larger than one in (24), which is a quite common choice to enable
the so-called above resonance or lagging mode operation [23], III. DESIGN EXAMPLE BASED ON THE ANALYSIS RESULTS
[24]. It can be seen that the converter gain is controlled by Q (the A design example is given in the section based on the steady-
load level) and φ (the phase shift). For the actual operation of a state analysis results. The converter to be designed is a 200 V
designed converter with a constant output voltage, the converter input, 40–48 V output, 300 W converter with switching fre-
gain M should be kept constant by manipulating the phase shift quency at 100 kHz. The design point is selected at minimum
φ when the load level, i.e., Q changes. Also, the converter gain input voltage, maximum output voltage, and full load output
is found to have nothing to do with K. condition.
The priority of the design objectives is to maintain ZVS op-
C. ZVS Operation in Both Bridges eration from full load to no load. The sufficient ZVS conditions
The necessary or weak strain of ZVS operation on the primary given in (26) and (28) are hard to solve and the parasitic ca-
side is that the resonant current is inductive with regards to input pacitance value depends on the used switch and circuit imple-
square voltage, i.e., α > 0. With help of (14), this condition can mentation. Thus, the weak conditions of ZVS in (25) and (27)
be written as are used in design for a quick initial calculation. Meanwhile
a certain degree of margin would be given on the selection of
1 sin 2φ other parameters to approach the conditions in (26) and (28).
Q(F − )> ⇒ M < sec φ. (25)
F 2
Because the minimum of sec φ is one, the ZVS in the primary A. Selection of Normalized Switching Frequency F
bridge can be guaranteed for any phase-shift φ if M ≤ 1. The first parameter to be selected is the normalized switching
However, in actual case the instantaneous value of the reso- frequency F , which is key to the ZVS operation in both bridges.
nant current during the switching transient time has to be large As indicated in last section, Zin should be kept inductive and
enough to charge or discharge the total parasitic capacitance Zac should be kept capacitive for ZVS operation in each bridge,
Czvs,p including the primary MOSFET drain-to-source capaci- respectively. On the one hand, in order to have an inductive Zin
tance and the stray capacitance. With (14) and (19), the sufficient for possible ZVS operation in the primary bridge, the normalized
LI: LLC-TYPE DUAL-BRIDGE RESONANT CONVERTER: ANALYSIS, DESIGN 4317

Fig. 5. Plot of α with regards to the phase-shift φ for constant Q (solid lines)
(a) or constant M (marked lines) at F = 1.2.

(b) Fig. 6. Plot of θ with regards to the phase-shift φ for constant Q (solid lines)
or constant M (marked lines) at F = 1.2, K = 0.65.
Fig. 4. (a) Plot of Gain M with regards to the phase-shift φ for different Q at
F = 1.2; (b) ZVS boundary lines of the two bridges at F = 1.2.
level. This ZVS condition on the primary side can also be re-
ferred to Fig. 5 which describes the relationship between α and
switching frequency F is commonly chosen to larger than one φ for different Q and different M . It can be predicted that ZVS
for the above resonance operation. On the other hand, F is operation will be lost at small φ if M is larger than one. Based
also expected to be near one to limit resonant peak current. The on the discussion above, the voltage gain at the design point
commonly selected F for conventional fixed-frequency resonant Mm ax is chosen to simply fulfill the requirement in (25) as
converter is about 1.05–1.1 [18]. However, a large F is expected
Mm ax = 1. (29)
to be used in a DBRC to keep inductive resonant current since
the part of Zin —the equivalent impedance Zac is expected to be So, the turns ratio of the HF transformer is calculated as
capacitive rather than the pure resistive Rac used in conventional Mm ax · Vs /2 100
resonant converters [24]. Hence, F = 1.2 is selected in this nt = = = 2.083 : 1. (30)
Vo,m ax 48
paper initially. The value might be adjusted iteratively for better
performance as long as the ZVS operation is secured. The minimum voltage gain is then given as
According to (24), (25), (27), a series of plots of voltage gain nt Vo,m in 5
with respect to the phase-shift φ is given in Fig. 4 for F = 1.2. Mm in = = . (31)
Vs /2 6
As seen from the figure, the area in which both bridges can
work in ZVS operation is enclosed by two boundary lines of To satisfy the requirement of ZVS operation on the secondary
two bridges. The border line for the primary side is fixed while side, solving (27) at the extreme condition (φ = 0, i.e., no load)
the border line for the secondary side moves down with the with Mm in = 56 , F = 1.2 yields to
increase of the inductor ratio K. K = 0.65. (32)
With K = 0.65 and (12), the relationship between and θ and
B. Selection of Converter Gain M and Inductor Ratio K
φ for different Q and different M can be plotted in Fig. 6. It
The selection of M should let the converter always in ZVS can be confirmed from Fig. 6 that the phase angle θ is always
operation regardless of the variation of output voltage and load positive for the whole range of φ, i.e., ZVS operation on the
4318
Fig. 7. Plot of resonant rms current with regards to the phase-shift φ for
different Q at M = 1, K = 0.65, and F = 1.2.
secondary side is maintained when M is between 5/6 and 1. As
mentioned, a larger K, i.e., a small Lm is helpful to extend the
ZVS range on the secondary bridge. However, the peak current
in the parallel inductor Lm would not change with the change
of load. Thus, the choice of a quite small Lm is not reasonable
otherwise the efficiency at light load will degrade.
In Figs. 4–6, the actual converter will only operate in the area
enclosed by the two lines M = 1, M = 5/6. And it is clear that
those effective areas are all located in ZVS region.
C. Selection of Quality Factor Q
With other parameters fixed, the quality factor QF (the quality
factor at the design point) should be chosen to minimize both
rms currents and the size of reactive components. According
to (1)–(11), QF is proportional to the size of Cr and inversely
proportional to the size of Lr , Lm . So QF is expected to be small
to have small inductive reactive components including magnetic
cores. However, the load-independent parallel inductor current
could be quite large with a small Lm (or a small QF ). Fig. 7
presents the relationship between resonant rms current and phase
shift for different QF at M = 1; K = 0.65; F = 1.2. It is seen
that to use a small QF is able to reduce the resonant rms current,
even not significantly. After some iterations, a compromised
QF = 2 at full load is selected.
With the help of (1)–(3) and (11), the resonant tank can be
calculated as
8QF n2t RF
Lr = = 103.36 μH
π 2 ωr
π2
Cr = = 35.33 nF
8QF n2t RF ωr
Lm = K · Lr = 159.02 μH.
The specifications of the designed dual-bridge LLC resonant
converter are concluded in Table I. The base values for nor-
malization are VB = 100 V ; ZB = 54.09 Ω; IB = 1.85 A. At
the design point, the normalized input impedance Zin,pu  is
0.4582 pu and the resonant rms current is 1.965 pu, i.e., 3.64 A.
The transformer primary-side rms current is 2.21 pu or 4.08 A.
The resonant capacitor voltage has a maximum value at 332 V
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014
TABLE I
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE DESIGNED LLC-TYPE DBRC
Fig. 8. Fundamental phasor diagrams of the designed LLC DBRC under M =
1 (left) and M < 1 (right).
or an amplitude of 232 V. The calculated phase shift φ needed
for 300 W output is 47.2◦ .
Based on the design example, the operation conditions can
be interpreted by means of the fundamental phasor diagram in
Fig. 8. When the output voltage is 48 V or M = 1 as shown in
Fig. 8(a), the resonant current Ir1 always lags the inverter output
voltage Vr1 (i.e., α > 0), no matter how much the amplitude of
Ir1 is. At same time, φ − β = θ > 0 is true as long as the parallel
current Im 1 is inductive. When the output voltage is below 48 V
or M < 1 as shown in Fig. 8(b), the resonant current Ir1 still
lags the inverter output voltage Vr1 (i.e., α > 0). If M is quite
small, α may be even larger than φ as shown. Meanwhile, the
amplitude of Im 1 has to be large enough to let It1 be capacitive
with regard to Vt1 (i.e., K cannot be quite small).
IV. VERIFICATION THROUGH SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENT
To evaluate the correctness and accuracy of analysis results,
the designed converter is simulated in PSIM firstly. Plots ob-
tained under full load and 20% load conditions with output volt-
age at 48 V are shown in Figs. 9 and 10, respectively. Figs. 11
and 12 present the plots of same tests with output voltage at
(33) 40 V. Waveforms of vC r from all tests have nearly sinusoidal
shapes with an average of 100 V dc voltage. ZVS operation can
be confirmed by checking the phase angles of ir and it with
(34)
respect to vr and vt , respectively. For same output power, the
output current i2 shows fewer negative percentage at 40 V out-
(35)
put than 48 V output. At the design point (300 W, 48 V output),
the peak resonant current is found to be 4.79 A and the resonant
capacitor voltage has a peak-to-peak value at 476 V, all of which
are close to the theoretical calculation.
A prototype converter with the same designed specifica-
tions was built and tested in the lab. The HEXFET MOS-
FET IRFR4620 with Rds = 64 mΩ is selected for the four
main switches. The drivers used to trigger the primary and the
LI: LLC-TYPE DUAL-BRIDGE RESONANT CONVERTER: ANALYSIS, DESIGN
Fig. 9. Simulation plots under 200 V input, 48 V output, and full load (300 W)
condition. From top to bottom: v r and ir (scaled by 20 times); v t and it (scaled
by 10 times); i2 ; v C r .
Fig. 10. Simulation plots under 200 V input, 48 V output, and 20% load
(60 W) condition. From top to bottom: v r and ir (scaled by 60 times); v t and
it (scaled by 20 times); i2 ; v C r .
secondary switches are IR2110 with bootstrap operation and the
low-side driver IC IR2121, respectively. The HF transformer is
built with EPCOS ferrite core ETD39 whose material is N97.
The multithread of 0.2 mm litz wire are used for the windings
with turns ratio at 25:12:12. To integrate the parallel inductor
Lm into the HF transformer, an air-gap is purposely introduced
into the middle polar of the core. The resulted magnetic in-
ductance is Lm = 163 μH, the equivalent leakage inductance
is Lr = 5 μH. An external inductance of 100 μH is added to
fulfill the requirement of designed series inductor. The two
4319
Fig. 11. Simulation plots under 200 V input, 40 V output, and full load (300 W)
condition. From top to bottom: v r and ir (scaled by 20 times); v t and it (scaled
by 10 times); i2 ; v C r .
Fig. 12. Simulation plots under 200 V input, 40 V output, and 20% load
(60 W) condition. From top to bottom: v r and ir (scaled by 60 times); v t and
it (scaled by 40 times); i2 ; v C r .
groups of phase-shifted gating signals are generated by a TI
eZdspTMS320F2812 development board.
The experimental plots of the LLC DBRC for the same test
conditions in simulation are shown in Figs. 13–16. Basically,
most of measurements match the results from simulation and
theoretical calculations. The measured efficiency plots of the
converter under 48 V output and 40 V output are shown in
Fig. 17. It is seen that the maximum efficiency is as high as
94.5% and can be maintained above 82% even at 10% load.
Using the data sheets for the devices and magnetic cores used
together with some measurements and simulation, breakdown
4320 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 8, AUGUST 2014

Fig. 13. Experimental plots under 200 V input, 48 V output, and full load
(300 W) condition. From top to bottom on the left: v r (200v/div), ir (10 A/div),
v t (200v/div), it (10 A/div). From top to bottom on the right: v C r (200v/div),
i2 (10 A/div).

Fig. 17. Measured efficiency of the dual-bridge LLC resonant converter.

TABLE II
ESTIMATED APPROXIMATE LOSSES OF THE LLC-TYPE DBRC
AT 300 W OUTPUT

Fig. 14. Experimental plots under 200 V input, 48 V output, and 20% load
(60 W) condition. From top to bottom on the left: v r (200v/div), ir (2.5 A/div),
v t (200v/div), it (2.5 A/div). From top to bottom on the right: v C r (50v/div),
i2 (2.5 A/div).

TABLE III
COMPARISON OF KEY PARAMETERS AT 300 W OUTPUT

Fig. 15. Experimental plots under 200 V input, 40 V output, and full load
(300 W) condition. From top to bottom on the left: v r (200v/div), ir (10 A/div),
v t (200v/div), it (10 A/div). From top to bottom on the right: v C r (200v/div),
i2 (10 A/div).

TABLE IV
COMPARISON OF KEY PARAMETERS AT 60 W OUTPUT

Fig. 16. Experimental plots under 200 V input, 40 V output, and 20% load
(60 W) condition. From top to bottom on the left: v r (200v/div), ir (2.5 A/div),
v t (200v/div), it (2.5 A/div). From top to bottom on the right: v C r (50v/div),
i2 (2.5 A/div).

of estimated losses for the experimental converter at full load for
output voltage at 48 and 40 V are given in Table II. Calculated
efficiency is slightly more than the measured value. Main source
of the losses are conduction loss of secondary switches and
copper loss in inductor and the HF transformer.
The comparisons of some key parameters are concluded in
Tables III–IV. The experimental values show some deviations
compared with results from theoretical calculation and simu-
lation especially at low load, which can be attributed to the
nonidealities existing in actual implementation.
LI: LLC-TYPE DUAL-BRIDGE RESONANT CONVERTER: ANALYSIS, DESIGN
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a HF-isolated LLC-type dual-bridge resonant
converter is analyzed, designed, simulated, and experimentally
tested. By means of the equivalent circuit generated by the mod-
ification FHA analysis, components stress and soft-switching
conditions could be found without solving complicated differ-
ential equations. With a proper design based on the FHA analysis
results, this converter is proved to be able to maintain ZVS op-
eration for all switches with variation of output voltage for the
whole range of load level. The converter efficiency can be kept
over 80% almost for the whole work range. The main reason of
loss can be attributed to the high circulation currents especially
on the low-voltage side. Thus, the future work would focus on
new gating schemes to reduce circulation current and improve
overall efficiency.
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Xiaodong Li (S’02–M’09–SM’12) received the
B.Eng. degree in electrical engineering from Shang-
hai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 1994,
the M.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineer-
ing from the University of Victoria, BC, Canada, in
2004 and 2009, respectively.
From 1994 to 2002, he worked in HongWan Diesel
Power Corporation, Zhuhai, China, as an Electrical
Engineer where he conducted maintenance of diesel
power generation system. He joined the Faculty of
Information Technology, Macau University of Sci-
ence and Technology, Macau, China, in 2009, where he is currently an Assistant
Professor. His research interests include high frequency power converter.
Dr. Li is the recipient of IEEE PES Best Paper Prize in 2007.