IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO.

6, NOVEMBER 2008 3035

A Multiphase, Modular, Bidirectional, Triple-Voltage

DC–DC Converter for Hybrid and Fuel Cell Vehicle
Power Systems
Gui-Jia Su, Senior Member, IEEE, and Lixin Tang, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Electrical power systems in future hybrid and fuel

cell vehicles may employ three voltage [14 V, 42 V, and high voltage
(HV)] nets. These will be necessary to accommodate existing 14-V
loads as well as efficiently handle new heavy loads at the 42-V net
and a traction drive on the HV bus. A low-cost dc–dc converter
was proposed for connecting the three voltage nets. It minimizes
the number of switches and their associated gate driver compo-
nents by using two half-bridges and a high-frequency transformer.
Another salient feature is that the half bridge on the 42-V bus is also
utilized to provide the 14-V bus by operating at duty ratios around
an atypical value of 1/3. Moreover, it makes use of the parasitic ca-
pacitance of the switches and the transformer leakage inductance
for soft switching. The use of half bridges makes the topology
well suited for interleaved multiphase modular configurations as a
means to increase the power level because the capacitor legs can be
shared. This paper presents simulation and experimental results
on an interleaved two-phase arrangement rated at 4.5 kW. Also
discussed are the benefits of operating with an atypical duty ratio
on the transformer and a preferred multiphase configuration to
minimize capacitor ripple currents.
Index Terms—EV/HEV power management, interleaved mul-
tiphase dc–dc converter, multivoltage-bus dc–dc converter, soft
switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
HE 42-V power net has been proposed to cope with the ever
T increasing electrical power requirements in automobiles.
The present 14-V electrical system has reached its limits of
capability and cannot meet the demands of future electrical
loads with the desire for electrification of more engine-driven
mechanical and hydraulic systems to reduce fuel consumption.
During the transition to the 42-V system, most automobiles are
expected to employ a 14-V/42-V dual-level voltage system, in
which a bidirectional dc–dc converter is required to connect
the two voltage networks [1], [2]. In addition, most internal
combustion engine and battery hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs)
employ a high voltage (HV) bus for the traction motor drive.
The HV bus voltage may have a nominal value between 200
and 500 V and vary over a wide range to accommodate the
Manuscript received February 13, 2008; revised May 5, 2008. First published
November 25, 2008; current version published December 9, 2008. This work was
supported in part by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle,
LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725,
and in part by the U.S. Government under Contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.
Recommended for publication by Associate Editor L. Tolbert.
G.-J. Su is with the National Transportation Research Center, Oak Ridge
National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN 37932 USA (e-mail: sugj@ornl.gov).
L. Tang is with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Knoxville, TN 37931
USA (e-mail: lixin.tang@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2008.2005386
0885-8993/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
Fig. 1. Isolated, bidirectional dc–dc converter interconnecting 14-V/42-V/ HV
bus nets in fuel-cell-powered vehicles.
fluctuations in the battery or fuel cell voltage. For instance, the
nominal bus voltage in the Ford Escape hybrid [3] is 330 V,
while it is 288 V in the first generation Toyota Prius, and 500 V
in the third generation [4]. In HEVs with a 42-V alternator, a
dc–dc converter supplied from the 42-V bus may be used to
charge the HV battery. On the other hand, in HEVs equipped
with a generator and a converter for powering the traction motor,
a dc–dc converter is typically required to charge the 14- and/or
42-V batteries.
Furthermore, fuel-cell-powered vehicles may require a bidi-
rectional dc–dc converter to interconnect the fuel-cell-powered
HV bus and the low-voltage buses for vehicle auxiliary loads,
as shown in Fig. 1. An energy storage device is also required
for startup of the fuel cell stack and for storage of the energy
captured by regenerative braking due to the lack of energy stor-
age capability of fuel cells [5]. One way to accomplish this is
to utilize the vehicle 14- or 42-V battery with the bidirectional
dc–dc converter. During vehicle starting, the HV bus is boosted
up to around 300 V by the dc–dc converter drawing power from
the 14- and/or 42-V battery. This HV bus then supplies power
for the fuel cell compressor motor expanding unit controller and
brings up the fuel cell voltage, which, in turn, feeds back to the
HV bus to release the loading from the battery. Several bidirec-
tional isolated dc–dc converter topologies for interconnecting
the conventional 14-V battery to the fuel cell system have been
published in the literature. An isolated, bidirectional dc–dc con-
verter consisting of a current-fed full bridge with an active clamp
circuit at the low-voltage side and a voltage-fed full bridge at
the HV side was proposed in [6]. However, the active clamp
circuit consisting of a switch and a capacitor has to switch at
twice the frequency and at the full power of the main full-bridge
converter. Unique commutation logic was then proposed in [7]
to minimize the mismatch between the current in the current-fed
inductor and that in the leakage inductance of the transformer
at the time of switch commutations, thus significantly reducing
the power rating for the voltage clamping snubber and enabling

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3036
the use of a passive snubber. However, these full-bridge-based
systems suffer from a large number of switches and the need
of an additional voltage clamping circuit. To reduce the switch
count, a half-bridge-based topology, in which the two switches
in the low-voltage side are used simultaneously as the half-
bridge inverter switch-leg and a bidirectional chopper for con-
necting the 14-V battery to the inverter dc bus, was proposed
and studied extensively [8]–[10]. Chiu and Lin proposed a bidi-
rectional converter that consists of a current doubler at the low-
voltage side to reduce further the battery ripple current and a
soft switching asymmetrical half bridge at the high-voltage side
[11].
For the aforementioned reasons, a triple-voltage bus
(14-V/42-V/HV) system will likely be employed for power
management in HEVs and fuel-cell-powered vehicles. Tradi-
tionally, two cascaded dc–dc converters have been considered
for this application and much effort has been focused on convert-
ers to interconnect only two of the buses. However, the use of an
integrated triple-voltage dc–dc converter is desirable because it
offers an opportunity to reduce component count, size, cost, and
volume. Several isolated multiinput dc–dc converter topologies
are reported in the literature [12]–[18]. The first two are based
on a multiwinding transformer and use either multiple full-
bridges [12] or half-bridge converters [13]– [15]. A buck/boost
chopper is added in [16] and [17] to the half-bridge-based con-
verter in [8] to form a three-port converter. A three-phase (3P)
version is proposed in [18] to eliminate the split-capacitor legs.
All of these reported multiinput topologies, however, suffer
from a large number of components when used in interleaved
multiphase configurations for power scaling and ripple current
reduction.
A low-cost, isolated bidirectional dc–dc converter was pro-
posed in [19] for interconnecting the three vehicle bus nets.
The converter consists of two half bridges and a high-frequency
transformer, thus minimizing the number of switching devices
and their associated gate driver components. The use of a fewer
number of switches leads to significant savings in component
count and cost due to the same lesser number of gate drive cir-
cuits. Another salient feature is that the half bridge on the 42-V
bus is also utilized to provide the 14-V bus by operating its duty
ratio around 1/3 rather than the typical value of 0.5, eliminating
the need for an additional 14-V/42-V converter. Moreover, it
utilizes the parasitic capacitance of the switches and the trans-
former leakage inductance for soft switching, so no extra active
switches or passive resonant components are required. Further-
more, the use of half bridges makes the topology well suited
for interleaved multiphase modular configurations as a means
to scale up the power level to meet various power requirements
for different vehicles because the capacitor legs can be shared,
thus resulting in higher power density and efficiency. This paper
presents simulation and experimental results on a prototype of
an interleaved two-phase arrangement, which was optimized at
a nominal HV voltage of 330 V with a rated power of 4.5 kW, but
can be operated over the range of 250–400 V. Also discussed are
the benefits of operating at the atypical duty ratio on the trans-
formers and a multiphase arrangement that minimizes capacitor
ripple currents.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2008
Fig. 2. Schematic of the soft-switched, bidirectional, interleaved two-phase
dc–dc converter for a triple-voltage bus system.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERLEAVED TWO-PHASE
TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER
A. Schematic of the DC–DC Converter
Fig. 2 shows the interleaved two-phase arrangement of the
dc–dc converter; each phase consists of dual half bridges and a
high-frequency transformer. The two phases share the capacitor
legs C1 –C2 and C3 –C4 . The high-frequency transformers pro-
vide the required galvanic isolation and voltage-level matching
between the 42-V bus and the HV bus, while the 14- and 42-V
buses share a common ground. The midpoint of the low-voltage
switch leg of each phase is also connected to the 14-V dc bus
through an inductor Lf 1 or Lf 2 . In addition, a capacitor Cf , is
connected on the 14-V bus to filter out the ripple components of
the inductor currents. Operating at an atypical duty ratio around
1/3, the low-voltage side half bridges not only generate an ac
voltage of square wave vTrL a or vTrL b to the transformers’
primary windings but also function as bidirectional buck/boost
converters between the 14- and 42-V buses.
The use of dual half bridges minimizes the number of switch-
ing devices and their associated gate driver components. This
saving in part counts becomes more significant as the number of
phases increases because all the phases share the two capacitor
legs. It should be noted that the required capacitances do not
necessarily increase with the number of phases. On the con-
trary, they can be reduced because the currents flowing into the
midpoints of the capacitor legs decrease while their frequency
multiplies. Moreover, the dual functionalities of the low-voltage
bridges eliminate the need for additional buck/boost choppers.
Control of the power flow between the low-voltage and HV
sides can be achieved by adjusting the switches’ duty cycle,
the switching frequency, and the phase-shift angle between the
transformer primary and secondary voltages, as will be dis-
cussed in detail in the following sections.
Another advantage is that no dedicated active switches are
needed for soft switching. The leakage inductances of the trans-
formers, together with the snubber capacitors including the para-
sitic capacitance of the switches Cr 1a –Cr 4a and Cr 1b –Cr 4b ,
SU AND TANG: MULTIPHASE, MODULAR, BIDIRECTIONAL, TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER 3037

are utilized to provide soft switching for the switches. The reso-
nance between the capacitors and the inductor after each switch-
ing operation enables the switches to turn on under zero current
and voltage, while the snubber capacitors allow them to turn
off at zero voltage. It is worth noting that further reduction of
component count is possible when the switches’ parasitic ca-
pacitance is large enough to function as the snubber capacitors,
which is often the case with high-current MOSFETs.

B. Equivalent Circuit and Power Flow Control

Because the phase legs of S1a –S2a and S1b –S2b act as bidi-
rectional choppers between the 14- and 42-V buses, duty ratio
adjustment is utilized for power flow control between the two
low-voltage buses, making the two bus voltages V14 V and V42 V
track each other by
V14 V = dV42 V (1)
where d is the duty ratio of the switches S1a , S1b , S3a , and S3b .
For 14-V/42-V systems, the duty ratio is fixed at d = 1/3 for
normal operation and can be changed to adjust the state of charge
of the low-voltage batteries, if necessary.
In addition, a phase-shift angle φ between the transformer
primary and secondary voltages is employed for power flow
control between the 42-V and HV buses, as shown in Fig. 3. For
the discussion of the phase-shift-angle-based power flow con-
trol, a simplified, primary-referred equivalent circuit is drawn
in Fig. 3(a), where the half bridges are reduced to ideal voltage
sources and the transformers to their leakage inductance Ls . It
is important to note that at steady state, the voltages across the
capacitors C1 –C2 and C3 –C4 , and thus, the positive and nega-
tive amplitudes of the voltage sources in Fig. 3, are determined
by the duty ratio as follows: Fig. 3. Power flow control between the 42-V and HV buses (at steady state,
 d = 1/3, ϕ = 2π/3). (a) Equivalent circuit for the 42-V and HV buses. (b) Ideal
 V = (1 − d)V42 V transformer voltage and current waveforms.
 C1
VC 2 = dV42 V
(2)

 VC 3 = (1 − d)VHV
VC 4 = dVHV . current on the 14-V bus filter capacitor Cf as indicated by the
This is due to the fact that the products of volt × second of the combined filter inductor current iLf 1 + iLf 2 . Similarly, the cur-
transformer primary and secondary voltages over the positive rents flowing to the midpoints of the two capacitor legs, C1 –C2
half cycles must be equal to those over the negative half cycles and C3 –C4 , are reduced.
(see Section II-C for details). The phase-a inductor current iL f 1 in the continuous mode
For d = 1/3, the voltage sources have positive and negative can be expressed by
amplitudes of 2/3 and 1/3 of the dc bus voltage, respectively.
Idealized voltage and current waveforms of the transformers and iLf 1 (t)
the filter inductors can then be illustrated in Fig. 3(b). Power   
 (1−d)V14 V d I14 V d
flows from the 42-V bus to the HV bus when the phase of the 
 t− + , 0 <t <
dLf 2fsw 2 fsw
transformer primary voltages vTrL a and vTrL b supplied by =   (3)

 V 1+d I14 V d 1
the 42-V half bridges is leading the secondary voltages vTrH a  14 V −t + , <t<
and vTrH b , respectively, supplied by the HV half bridges. The Lf 2fsw 2 fsw fsw
converter thus works in the boost mode to power the HV bus.
By making the phase of the secondary voltages lead the primary and the current at the two corner points, t = 0 and t2 =
voltages, power flow is reversed. ϕ/2πfsw = d/fsw , are expressed by
The operation of each of the converter phases in one switch- 
 I14 V (1 − d)V14 V
ing period can be divided into four intervals triggered by the 
 iLf 1 (0) = 2 − 2f L
switching instants, and is represented by the four segments of sw f
(4)
the transformer current waveforms in Fig. 3(b). The interleaved 
 I (1 − d)V14 V
 iLf 1 (t2 ) = 14 V +
operation of the two converter phases results in a reduced ripple 2 2fsw Lf

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3038 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2008

where I14 V is the 14-V bus load current and can be determined angle. To reduce the circulating current and improve the effi-
by the bus voltage and load power as P14 V /V14 V , d is the duty ciency, the phase-shift angle should be kept as small as possible.
ratio, Lf is the inductance, and fsw is the switching frequency. Therefore, the leakage inductance needs to be minimized. On
The phase-b inductor current iL f 2 has the same shape of iL f 1 the other hand, a higher leakage inductance helps in meeting the
but with a phase delay of π. conditions for soft switching. Automotive applications usually
Assuming that the duty ratio is fixed at 1/3, i.e., ϕ = 2π/3 at require a peak power for a short period of time, typically in sev-
steady state, the primary current of the phase-a transformer can eral tens of seconds. Equation (8) can be used to help a design
be expressed by meet the peak requirement.
  
 1 1

 2V + V t + iTrL a (0),

 3LS
42 V
n
HV C. Sizing the Components



 0 < t < t1 1) Filter Inductors Lf 1 and Lf 2 : To keep the peak-to-peak

  

 2 1 ripple current within a given level ∆IL , the inductance can be

 V42 V − VHV (t − t1 ) + iTrL a (t1 ),

 found from (3) and (4) as

 3LS n

 t1 < t < t2
iTrL a (t)=   (1 − d)V14 V
 1 2 Lf = (9)

 − V42 V + VHV (t − t2 ) + iTrL a (t2 ), fsw ∆IL

 3LS n



 t 2 < t < t3 where the duty ratio d has a nominal value of 1/3, but the allowed

  

 minimum value may be used to ensure that the peak ripple

 1 1

 VHV − V42 V (t − t3 ) + iTrL a (t3 ), current will not exceed the permissible level. Two inductors

 3LS n

 with Lf = 10 µH were selected for the prototype, resulting in a
t3 < t < f s1w
nominal ripple current of ∆IL = 23.3 A at fsw = 40 kHz. The
(5) inductor rms current can be computed by
where n is the transformer turns ratio t1 = φ/2πfsw , t2 =
  2  2
ϕ/2πfsw = d/fsw , t3 = (φ + ϕ)/2πfsw , and the currents at
1 (1 − d)V14 V P14 V
the four corner points, t = 0, t1 , t2 , t3 , are expressed as follows: IL f (rm s) = + . (10)
    12 fsw Lf 2V14 V

 1 1 φ VHV 1

 iTrL a (0) = − − V 42 V

 3fsw Ls 3 2π n 3 2) Switches: The peak and average currents of the switches

   

 1 φ 1 VHV can be computed from (3)–(7) for the maximum power levels

 i (t ) = − V +
 TrL a 1 3fsw Ls π 3
42 V
3n
in the three conversion modes at different HV bus voltages and
    (6) used in the selection of MOSFETs. The maximum current of

 1 1 φ 1 VHV

 i (t ) = V + − the switches S1a and S1b occurs in the 42- to 14-V and HV


TrL a 2
3fsw Ls 3
42 V
π 3 n

    conversion mode, and equals the sum of the transformer and



 1 1 φ VHV inductor currents, while that of the switches S2a and S2b occurs
 iTrL a (t3 ) = − V42 V − .
3fsw LS 3 2π 3n in the 14- to 42-V and HV conversion mode, i.e.
The phase-b transformer current iTrL b has the same shape  d

 iS 1a = iLf 1 + iTrL a , 0 <t <
as iTrL a but with a phase delay of π. fsw
A power-flow equation can be derived from the relationships (11)

 iS 2a = −iLf 1 − iTrL a , d 1
of the transformer voltages and currents. Assuming that the duty <t< .
fsw fsw
ratio is fixed at 1/3, i.e., ϕ = 2π/3 at steady state, the power
transferred through the transformer can be expressed by The maximum current of the HV switches occurs in the HV-
  
to-42-V and 14-V conversion mode and can be computed by
V42 V VHV φ 4 φ
PTr = − . (7)   
n 2πfsw Ls 9 2π 
 1 2 iTrL a (0)

 V HV + V 42 V t + ,
For a given design, the maximum power is determined by 
 3nL n n


S
   0 <t < t1
V42 V VHV 4 iS 3a (t)=   (12)
PTr m ax = (8) 
 2 1 iTrL a (t1 )
n 81fsw Ls 
 V −V (t−t )+ ,

 3nLS n
HV 42 V 1
n
at 
 t <t<t
1 2
  
4π 
 1 2 iTrL a (t2 )
φP m a x =
. 
 VHV +V42 V (t−t2 )− ,
9 
 3nL n n


S
t2 < t < t3
Equation (7) indicates that for a fixed duty cycle and switch- iS 4a (t)=  
 1 1 iTrL a (t3 ) (13)
ing frequency, the power is related to the phase-shift angle and 
 V −V (t−t )− ,

 3nLS n
HV 42 V 3
n
transformer leakage inductance. For a given amount of power, 

 t <t< 1
a smaller leakage inductance results in a smaller phase-shift 3 fs w

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SU AND TANG: MULTIPHASE, MODULAR, BIDIRECTIONAL, TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER 3039

where iTrL a (0), iTrL a (t1 ), iTrL a (t2 ), and iTrL a (t3 ) are ex-
pressed as follows:
   

 1 1 φ VHV

 iTrL a (0) = − V 42 V −

 3fsw Ls 3 2π 3n

   

 1 φ 1 V V

 i (t ) = −
HV
+
42 V
 TrL a 1
3fsw Ls π 3 n 3
   

 1 V φ 1
 iTrL a (t2 ) =

HV
+ − V

 3fsw Ls 3n π 3
42 V

   



 1 1 φ VHV V42 V
 iTrL a (t3 ) = − − .
3fsw LS 3 2π n 3 Fig. 4. Normalized transformer peak flux versus duty ratio.
(14)
3) Capacitors C1 –C4 : C1 will be discharged when S1a (or
S1b ) is ON and the switch current iTrL a + iLf 1 is larger than the
42-V bus current, assuming a constant dc of I42 V = (P14 V + voltage. This leads to
PTr )/V42 V , in the 42- to 14-V and HV mode. For a given voltage VC 1 VC 3 1−d
ripple ∆VC 1 , the capacitance can be found by = = . (17)
VC 2 VC 4 d
 tb
1 The peak flux ψp eak is then determined by
C1 = (iTrL a + iLf 1 − I42 V )dt,
∆VC 1 ta
d(1 − d)V42 V
iTrL + iLf 1 > I42 V (15) ψp eak = (18)
a 2nP fsw
where ta and tb define the starting and ending discharging where nP is the number of turns of the primary winding. It
time, respectively, and can be determined from (3)–(7) when is worth noting that operating at a duty ratio other than the
the switch S1a is ON, i.e., 0 < ta < tb < t2 . In the mean time, typical value of 0.5 for the half-bridge converters will decrease
C2 is charged by I42 V + iTrL b − iLf 1 . The capacitance can be the peak flux, and thus, transformer core size. Fig. 4 plots peak
found by flux normalized by the flux at a 50% duty cycle against the duty
 tb ratio. The maximum value at d = 0.5 is given by
1
C2 = (I42 V + iTrL b − iLf 1 )dt. (16) V42 V
∆VC 1 ta ψp eak(d=0.5) = . (19)
8nP fsw
The high-voltage-side capacitors C3 and C4 can be deter-
mined similarly using the high-side-transformer currents iTrH a However, at d = 1/3 for the proposed converter, the peak flux is
and iTrH b , and the average HV bus current IHV = PTr /VHV reduced to
in the HV-to-42-V and 14-V mode but without considering the V42 V
14-V bus filter inductor currents. Since at the nominal d = 1/3, ψp eak(d=1/3) = . (20)
9nP fsw
the voltages across the upper capacitors C1 and C3 will be
twice that of the respective bottom capacitors C2 and C4 , it is This means that the cross-sectional area of the transformer core
helpful to maintain the capacitor voltage distribution by making can be reduced by 11% at the same switching frequency and
C2 = 2C 1 and C4 = 2C3 . The capacitors in the two-phase (2P) number of turns.
configuration can be smaller than in the single-phase arrange- The primary winding rms current can be computed by
ment because the transformer and inductor currents are halved, 1
ITrL (rm s) =
and thus, the capacitor charging and discharging currents are 3fsw Ls
reduced. Parameters of the capacitors selected for the proto-   2   2
type are as follows: C1 , 35 V/8.8 mF; C2 , 35 V/17.6 mF; C3 , 1 VHV V42 V VHV 3φ φ
× V42 V − + 2− .
350 V/183 µF; C4 , 350 V/366 µF. 27 n n 2π 2π
4) Transformer: For a given low-side bus voltage V42 V and
(21)
switching frequency fsw , varying the duty ratio d will change the
voltage distribution between the two capacitors C1 and C2 , and To optimize the efficiency at the nominal operating con-
thus, the peak flux ψp eak of the transformers. Assuming that the dition, the transformer turns ratio should be selected to
voltage drops across the switches can be ignored, the positive match the nominal voltages of the HV and 42-V buses,
transformer primary voltage is equal to the capacitor voltage i.e., n = VHV norm /V42V norm . For VHV norm = 330 V and
VC 1 , and this voltage is applied for an interval of tP = d/fsw , V42V norm = 42 V, n = 7.86, which is rounded up to 8. To
which is equivalent to a phase angle of ϕ = d2π. Similarly, the meet the requirement of transferring a continuous peak power of
negative transformer primary voltage VC 2 is imposed over an 4.5 kW over an HV bus voltage range of 250–400 V, the planar
interval of tN = (1 − d)/fsw . At steady state, the products of ferrite core E64/10/50-3C92 made by Ferroxcube was selected,
volt × second of the positive and negative voltages must be the which has an effective cross-sectional area of 519 mm2 . With
same, i.e., VC 1 tP = VC 2 tN , which also holds for the secondary a single-turn primary winding, the nominal peak flux density

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3040 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2008

voltage m = VHV /(nV42 V ) as

  

 Ls 9fsw Ls I14 V 2π

 S1a,b : m < 1 + − × = mS 1

 Lf 2V42 V 2π − 3φ

  

 L 9f L I π

 S2a,b : m < 1 + s + sw s 14 V × = mS 2
Lf 2V42 V π − 3φ



 S3a,b : m > 1 −
3φ

 = mS 3

 π



 S4a,b : m > 1 − 3φ = mS 4 .
Fig. 5. Power transferred across the transformer versus phase-shift angle at 2π
various levels of V H V (n = 8, L s = 0.16 µH, fsw = 40 kHz, V 4 2 V = 42 V).
(23)
Similarly, the conditions for ZV switching (ZVS) in the HV to
14-V and 42-V conversion can be derived, and is expressed as

is calculated as B = 0.225 T. Other parameters were designed   

as follows: n = 8, Ls = 0.16 µH, fsw = 40 kHz. Fig. 5 plots 
 LS 9fsw LS I14 V π

 S 1a,b : m < 1 + − × = mS 1
the power transferred across the transformer versus the phase- 
 L 2V π − 3φ

 
f 42 V

shift angle at different values of VHV and a constant V42 V 
 L 9f L I 2π

 S2a,b : m < 1 + S + sw S 14 V × = mS 2
of 42 V, which clearly shows that the power requirement can Lf 2V42 V 2π − 3φ
be met with a phase-shift angle between 12 and 21 electrical 


 S3a,b : m > 1 −
3φ
degrees. 
 = mS 3

 2π
The transformer leakage inductance also plays an important 

role in determining the soft-switching load range, power trans- 
 S4a,b : m > 1 − 3φ = mS 4 .
fer capability, and efficiency. At a given load power, a higher π
(24)
leakage inductance results in a larger phase-shift angle that im- These inequalities indicate that the voltage ratio must sat-
proves the soft-switching margins (see the next section), but isfy the inequality max[mS 3 , mS 4 ] < m < min[mS 1 , mS 2 ] to
may increase the conduction losses due to a longer circulat- ensure that all the switches will be turned on under the ZV
ing interval. The transformer leakage inductance needs to be condition; otherwise only some of the switches may operate
controlled tightly. While this is not an easy task in mass produc- under ZVS. It is worth noting that, while the 14-V bus current
tion with the traditional wire-wound transformers, the tolerance I14 V does impact the ZVS boundary lines for the low-voltage
can be maintained with planar cores and printed circuit board switches, its influence is limited because the transformer leak-
(PCB) windings. Formulas for estimating the leakage induc- age inductance Ls is usually small. In addition, although Ls
tance of planar transformers are given in [20] and [21]. A com- does not appear in (23) and (24) for the HV switches, it impacts
parative study was conducted in [22] on various low-profile, the boundary lines through the operating phase shift φ, which
planar transformer technologies with an emphasis on finding is inversely proportional to the leakage inductance for a given
winding configurations with low ac resistance and leakage power level. It is also noted that the losses of the components
inductance. are not considered in the previous analysis; the losses will have
a significant impact at light-load conditions but can be ignored
at higher power levels.
D. Soft-Switching Conditions Fig. 6 plots the ZVS boundary lines against the phase-shift
The following inequalities must be satisfied to ensure that angle for the three conversion mode: 1) 42- to 14-V and HV
the respective switches will be turned on under zero-voltage conversion at I14 V = 100 A; 2) 14- to 42-V and HV conversion
(ZV) condition in 42- to 14-V and HV or 14- to 42-V and HV at I14 V = −200 A; and 3) HV to 14-V and 42-V conversion
conversion. at I14 V = 100 A. The chart in 1) is divided into five regions
and the switches operating under ZVS in each region are as fol-
 lows: region 1—all switches; region 2—S2 , S3 , and S4 ; region


S1a,b : iTrL a (0) + iLf 1 (0) < 0 3—S1 , S2 , and S3 ; region 4—S3 and S4 ; and region 5—S1 and


 S3a,b : iTrL a (t1 ) > 0 S2 . Regions 1, 2, and 3 expand as the phase-shift angle increases.
(22) Three dashed lines that represent the HV bus voltages of 400,

 S2a,b : iTrL a (t2 ) + iLf 1 (t2 ) > 0

 330, and 250 V, respectively, are also drawn in the figure. At the
 nominal voltage of 330 V, ZVS is guaranteed for all switches
S4a,b : iTrL a (t3 ) < 0.
almost over the whole range of phase-shift angle or power level
except at the very low end. The line at VHV = 400 V crosses
At d = 1/3, (22) can be expressed in terms of the ratio of the regions 4, 2, and 1 as the phase-shift angle increases, while the
HV bus voltage seen from the primary winding to 42-V bus line at VHV = 250 V crosses regions 5, 3, and 1.

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SU AND TANG: MULTIPHASE, MODULAR, BIDIRECTIONAL, TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 6. Soft-switching regions. (a) 42- to 14-V and HV conversion at I1 4 V =
100 A. (b) 14- to 42-V and HV conversion at I1 4 V = −200 A. (c) HV to 14-V
and 42-V conversion at I1 4 V = 100 A.
E. Converter Control
Fig. 7 shows a converter control block diagram. It consists
of a high-level system control block and three blocks of duty
ratio d and phase-shift angle φ control corresponding to the
three power-flow control modes: HV to 14 V and 42 V, 14 V
to 42 V and HV, and 42 V to 14 V and HV conversions, and
a switch gating signal generation block. The system controller
selects the conversion mode according to the vehicle operating
conditions and battery state of charge and sets the respective
∗ ∗ ∗
bus voltage references V14 V , V42 V , or VHV . The duty ratio
control block Gd and phase-shift angle control block Gφ can
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3041
Fig. 7. Control block diagram.
be implemented with proportional–integral or more advanced
methods. The gating signal generation block takes the duty ratio
and phase-shift angle determined by the selected conversion
mode and produces gate control signals for the switches. It
also introduces a dead time during the transitions of conduction
between the top and bottom switches of each switch leg.
III. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Detailed circuit simulations were performed to verify the de-
sign goal of the prototype, which is to ensure that a maximium
continuous power of 4.5 kW can be transferred in both direc-
tions at a voltage range of 250–400 V for the HV bus (the 14-V
load power is typically around a kilowatt). Fig. 8 gives typi-
cal simulated waveforms showing power transferred from one
bus to the other two busses, where ILf 1 and ILf 2 represent the
currents of the filter inductors Lf 1 and Lf 2 , respectively, and
P14 V , P42 V , and PHV are the load power at the 14 V, 42 V,
and HV busses, respectively (refer to Fig. 2 for the remaining
trace labels). In Fig. 8(a), 1.0 kW of power is transferred from
the 42-V bus to the 14-V load and 3.5 kW to the HV net. In
Fig. 8(b), 1.0 kW of power is transferred from the 14-V bus to
the 42-V load and 3.0 kW to the HV net. In Fig. 8(c), 1.1 kW
of power is transferred from the HV bus to the 14-V load and
3.5 kW to the 42-V net. As expected, the combined currents
flowing to the midpoint of the capacitor legs, iTrL a + iTrL b
and iTrH a + iTrH b , have a smaller rms value at double the
frequency compared to their individual components. The ripple
current of ILf 1 + ILf 2 is also reduced similarly.
Fig. 9 plots simulation waveforms illustrating responses of
the duty ratio, phase-shift angle, and capacitor voltages to the
increase of the 14-V load current from 50.0 to 75.0 A. The duty
ratio given by the graph “Duty” increased, and then returned to
the initial level; the phase-shift angle given by the graph “Angle”
increased and stayed at a higher level. Note that the capacitor
voltages VC 1 and VC 3 decreased while VC 2 and VC 4 increased
when the duty ratio was increased and recovered with the return
to the starting duty ratio.
3042 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2008

Fig. 8. Simulation results showing power is transferred from one bus to the other two voltage nets. (a) 42- to 14-V and HV conversion. (b) 14- to 42-V and HV
conversion. (c) HV to 14-V and 42-V conversion.

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SU AND TANG: MULTIPHASE, MODULAR, BIDIRECTIONAL, TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 9. Simulation results illustrating response of the duty ratio, phase-shift
angle, and capacitor voltages to an increase in the 14-V load current.
Fig. 10. Photograph of the laboratory unit.
A 4.5-kW prototype was designed, built, and tested to verify
the power-flow control schemes and evaluate its performance.
The HV switches are implemented with CoolMOS MOSFETs,
and the low-voltage switches are standard MOSFETs. The trans-
formers were constructed using the Ferroxcube planar ferrite
core E64/10/50-3C92 and PCB windings. Fig. 10 shows a pho-
tograph of the unit. All components are mounted on a water-
cooled heat sink with a footprint of 30.5 cm (12 in) × 17.8 cm
(7 in). The power-flow control is implemented with a digital
signal processor TI TMS320F2808.
The unit was tested by connecting a dc power supply at one
bus and resistive loads at the other two buses with a switching
frequency of 40 or 50 kHz. Fig. 11 shows experimental volt-
age and current waveforms when power flows from the 42-V
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3043
Fig. 11. Experimental waveforms for a power transfer of 4.5 kW from the
42-V bus to the 14-V and HV buses. Time: 5 µs per division.
Fig. 12. Experimental waveforms for a power transfer of 3.2 kW from the
14-V bus to the 42-V and HV buses. Time: 5 µs per division.
bus to the 14-V and HV buses, with 4.5 kW of power trans-
ferred. Refer to Fig. 2 for the trace labels. Figs. 12 and 13 illus-
trate voltage and current waveforms for power flowing from the
14-V bus to the 42-V and HV buses, and from the HV bus to
the 42- and 14-V buses. The amounts of power transferred are
3.2 and 4.43 kW, respectively. The fact that no ringing appeared
on the transformer voltages and currents waveforms indicates
soft-switching operation.
Fig. 14 plots efficiency against the combined load power for
conversions from the HV bus to the 42- and 14-V nets, and from
3044 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 23, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2008

Fig. 13. Experimental waveforms for a power transfer of 4.43 kW from the
HV bus to the 42- and 14-V buses. Time: 5 µs per division.

Fig. 14. Efficiency chart.

Fig. 16. (a) Three-phase configuration and (b) operating waveforms (at steady
state, ϕ = 2π/3), illustrating the minimization of the midpoint current of the
capacitor leg, iTrL a + iTrL b + iTrL c and the ripple component of the com-
bined filter inductor current IL f .

Fig. 15. 42-V bus voltage response to the load current step decrease and then
increase of 25 A.
the 42-V bus to the 14-V and HV nets. The efficiency is above
93% over the tested load range and has a maximum of 95.8%.
Efficiency for transferring power from the 14-V bus to the 42-
V and HV nets is also given in the figure. Again, the overall
efficiency is above 93% over the tested load range of 1–3.2 kW
with a maximum of 96.3% at 1.6 kW.

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SU AND TANG: MULTIPHASE, MODULAR, BIDIRECTIONAL, TRIPLE-VOLTAGE DC–DC CONVERTER
Fig. 17. Normalized ripple current of the combined filter inductor current ∆IL
and midpoint capacitor current iM C L (rms) versus duty ratio in the two-phase
and three-phase configurations at V H V = 330 V, V 4 2 V = 42 V, L f = 10 µH,
and fsw = 40 kHz.
Fig. 15 shows response of the 42-V bus voltage to a load
current step decrease and then increase of 25 A. The measured
voltage overshoot or undershoot is 9.5% with a settling time of
16 ms.
IV. DISCUSSIONS ON THREE-PHASE CONFIGURATION
The proposed half-bridge-based triple-bus topology is well
suited for multiphase configurations for scaling up the power
level because the capacitor legs can be shared among all the
converters. Multiphase configurations also provide other advan-
tages of reduced capacitor ripple currents. In particular, the 3P
configuration, shown in Fig. 16(a), is worthy of further dis-
cussions because it can minimize the currents flowing to the
midpoints of the capacitor legs and the ripple component of the
combined filter inductor current. Fig. 16(b) illustrates operating
waveforms of the 3P configuration, where there is phase shift of
2π/3 between the transformer voltages. The ripple current of the
combined filter inductor current ILf and the midpoint capacitor
currents iM CL and iM CH become zero at steady state (ϕ = 2π/3)
with d = 1/3. Fig. 17 plots the peak-to-peak ripple current of
the combined inductor current ∆ILf and midpoint capacitor
current iM CL (rms) in the 2P and 3P configurations against
the duty ratio d at V42 V = 42 V and VHV = 330 V. They are
normalized against the respective currents in the single-phase
configuration, and in each of the three cases, the phase-shift
angle is fixed at the value that delivers the same rated power
from the 42-V net to the other two nets at the nominal duty
of 1/3. As expected, ∆ILf and iM CL are reduced in the 2P
and 3P configurations, and become zero at d = 1/3 in the 3P
configuration.
V. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
The proposed interleaved multiphase dc–dc converter for
triple-voltage-bus (14-V/42-V/HV) systems for automotive ap-
plications has the following features: 1) uses only four switching
devices for each phase and shares the capacitor legs among all
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3045
phases, leading to significant cost savings and higher power
density; 2) reduces the size of the transformers; 3) requires no
auxiliary circuits or complex control for soft switching; and 4)
achieves flexible power management from being able to trans-
fer power among all three-voltage buses by employing com-
bined duty ratio and phase-shift angle control schemes. The
half-bridge-based triple-bus topology is well suited for multi-
phase configurations for scaling up the power level because the
capacitor legs can be shared among all the converters. Multi-
phase configurations also provide other advantages of reduced
capacitor ripple currents through interleaved operation of the
phase modules. In particular, the three-phase configuration can
minimize the currents flowing to the midpoints of the capacitor
legs and the ripple component of the combined 14-V bus filter
inductor current.
Simulation and experimental results on a 2P prototype unit
rated at 4.5 kW confirmed the operating principles of the con-
verter and the high-efficiency power conversion.
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Lixin Tang (S’00–M’05–SM’08) was born in
Yanzhou, China. He received the B.Eng. and M.Eng.
degrees in electrical engineering from Nanjing Uni-
versity of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing,
China, in 1991 and 1994, respectively, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering from the University
of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, in
2004.
From April 1994 to August 1998, he was with the
Beijing Institute of Mechanical Equipment, where he
was engaged in a static-frequency converter project.
In August 1998, he joined GE Hangwei Medical Systems Company, Ltd., Bei-
jing, China, as an Electrical Engineer, where he was in charge of the design,
quality control, and technical support of the X-ray generator (XG) subsystem
of several CT scanners. From April 2004 to March 2005, he was a Postdoctoral
Research Officer at Central Queensland University (CQU), Rockhampton, Aus-
tralia. In April 2005, he joined Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge,
TN, as a Postdoctoral Research Associate. His current research interests include
ac drives control and power electronics converters for automotive applications.

Gui-Jia Su (M’94–SM’01) received the B.S. degree

in electrical power system engineering from Wuhan
University of Hydraulic and Electrical Engineering
(now Wuhan University), Wuhan, China, in 1985, and
the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka,
Japan, in 1989 and 1992, respectively.
From 1992 to 1995, he was an Assistant Pro-
fessor at Nagaoka University of Technology. From
1995 to 1998, he was with Sanken Electrical Com-
pany, Ltd., Kawagoe, Japan, where he was engaged
in research and development of uninterruptible power supplies, sensorless
permanent-magnet (PM) motor drives, and power factor correction for single-
and three-phase rectifiers. In 1998, he started working as a Research Scientist
in the Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center (PEEMRC),
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN, with Oak Ridge As-
sociated Universities, and became a Staff Member at ORNL in 2000, where
he is currently a Senior Member of R&D Staff and a Lead Engineer of power
electronics in PEEMRC at the National Transportation Research Center, a joint
center of ORNL and the University of Tennessee. His current research interests
include high-power dc/dc converters, inverters, motor drives, and power elec-
tronics system packaging and thermal management for electric/hybrid electric
vehicle applications. He holds eight patients.
Dr. Su was the recipient of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON
2001) Best Presentation Award in 2001 and the IEEE Industrial Applications
Society (IAS) Industrial Drive Committee Third Prize Paper Award in 1993.

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