Calculation Of The Voltage Transfer Ratio Of The Asymmetrical Half-Bridge
DC/DC Converter Using Transformer’s Windings Coupling Coefficients
Sergey Korotkov
Moscow State Aviation Institute
Volokolamskoe shosse, 4,
Moscow, Russia, 125871
Tel: (095) 158-4517
ABSTRACT
A new method for calculating voltage transfer
characteristics for the Asymmetrical Half-Bridge
DC/DC Converter is proposed. The method
accounts for the influence of power transformer
leakage inductance on the output voltage. The
method uses the self-inductance and mutual
inductance of transformer windings, values that
have clear physical meaning and may be easily
obtained by simple measurements.
L INTRODUCTION
Complementary driven converter topologies have
gained popularity in the last several years. These are
Clamp-Mode (active clamp) topologies [l-31 and
Asymmetrical Bridge and Half-Bridge topologies [4-
101. The advantage of complementary driven PWh4
converter topologies is their inherent zero voltage
switching (ZVS)capability and thus potentially higher
efficiency. Such converters operate at a constant
switching frequency. In a complementaq driven
converter topology the output voltage regulation is
attained by variations in the duty cycle D for one set of
switches, while the other set of switches is driven at 1-
D duty cycle. A small dead time is usually introduced
between the consecutive transitions. During the dead
time energy stored in the leakage and magnetizing
inductance of the power transformer is allowed to
resonate with the parasitic capacitance of the
MOSFET switches. This process produces lossless
transitions between the switches’ conduction states.
Before turning full attention to the Asymmetrical
Half-Bridge Converter (AHBC) topology it is
instructive to describe its relative advantages and
drawbacks over the Clamp-Mode Forward Converter
topology.
This work was supported by Lucent Technologies, Bell Laboratories
0 1998 IEEE
0-7803-4489-8/98/$10.00
Simon Fraidlin
Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies
3000 Skyline Drive,
Mesquite, T’X 75 149, USA
Tel: (972) 284-282 1 Fax:(972) 284-2799
Advantages:
0 The voltage across the switches in the Half-Bridge
is clamped to the input voltage, allowing the use
of more efficient lower voltage MOSFETs.
0 Lower voltage acrciss the transformer primary
allows a smaller nuimber of primary turns. This
results in lower leakage inductance, and makes
planar construction cif the transformer easier.
0 Attainment of ZVS is easier in the Half-Bridge
because the load current reflected to the primary
flows in both directions.
Drawbacks:
0 Duty cycle restrictions are more severe in the
Asymmetrical Halff- Bridge circuit where
O<D<O.5 or 0.5<D<I.
The distribution of voltage stress between output
rectifiers is more uneven in the Asymmetrical
Half-Bridge circuit than in the Forward Converter
with Active Clamp.
These considerations make AHBC topology most
advantageous in many applications. In order to realize
these advantages it is important to consider the
influence of the circuit’s parasitic parameters, namely
the transformer leakage inductance, on AHBC
operation. In some applications such influence can
have far reaching consequences.
The voltage transfer ratio (VTR) is one of the most
important characteristics of any converter. However if
the leakage inductance of the transformer is not
negligible, its “ideal” approximation commonly used
in practice is often not in good agreement with
experiment. In fact, common design practice is to
choose the primary-to-secondary turns ratio in the
power transformer about 10% higher than that
obtained from a rough apiproximation. The severity of
the problem will vary from one transformer structure
to another with variations in leakage inductance.
1979
 Consider the Asymmetrical Half-Bridge Converter
emp~oyed as a DCDC Cell in the Single-Stage
Isolated Power-Factor-Corrected Converter [11,121. In
this app~ica~on the precise calculation of VTR is
for accurate assessment of maximum and
minimum voltage across the storage capacitor.
A common approach to account for influence of
leakage inductance on the transfer characteristics is to
consider the transformer as an ideal device with
additional inductors representing the magnetizing and
the leakage inductance connected to the transformer
windings. However this is not applicable in the case of
a three-winding
current flows thro
times, and the values of separate (non-coupled)
“leakage inductors” don’t have a physical meaning.
The method introduced in this work uses the
mutual inductance between transformer windings for
calculatingthe output voltage of the AWBC. It is more
attractive since the self-inductance and mutual
inductance have clear physical meaning and can be
measured in a simple procedure.
that the voltage ripple across each is negligible.
4. The analysis is done in general form, allowing for
arbitrary numbers of turns w, and wz on the
secondary winding (around the tap). Therefore
the analysis covers all types of output rectifier:
full-wave (w, = wz),half-wave (wl = 0 or wz = 0),
w, # wz.
5. All elements of the circuit are lossless, i.e., there
is no voltage drop across MOSFETs, diodes, or
other parasitic impedance.
The capacitor CA is charged so, that a zero volt-
second integral is maintained across the transformer
primary winding:
where: V . - input voltage;
VA- voltage across the capacitor CA;
D - upper switch duty cycle.
If the converter operates in continuous conduction
mode (CCM) its voltage transfer ratio can be easily
derived from the condition for volt-second balance
across the output filter inductor LE:

VOLTAGE TRANSFER RATIO OF M Bc

A. Simplified analysis where: Vo output voltage;-

-
nl = wllwp, n2 = w2/wp turns ratios for
The Asymmetrical Half-Bridge Converter operates the transformer primary and secondary windings;
as follows (Fig.1): Switches Q1 and Q2 are driven in a wp - turns number of primary winding.
complementary way with the duty cycles D and 1-D, From (2), when the converter is operating in CCM
respectively. During the dead time between the its VTR does not depend on load current.
switches’ conduction states the energy stored in the
leakage and magnetizing inductance of the power At light loads, the converter operates in the
transformer is allowed to resonate with the parasitic discontinuous conduction mode @CW. There are
capacitance of the MOSFET switches resulting in two possible variants of DCM. At small values of D,
zvs. the current through the output filter inductor Lf
decreases to zero during switch Q2’s conduction
In the analysis, the following assumptions are interval (mode DCM1). If the value of D is close to
made in regard to the asymmetrical half-bridge circuit: unity, the zero-current interval occurs when switch Q l
1. The dead time between conduction intervals is is ON (mode DCM2). When the converter operates in
negligible. DCM the zero volt-second integral across the output
2. The transformer leakage inductance is negligible. filter inductor Lf is maintained automatically, and the
3. The capacitance of CA and C is large enough so voltage transfer ratio can be derived from the condition
of zero average current through the output capacitor C:
For DCM1:
21f
W,@(I - Ob,(I - 4 - nzc)+ n , D T lo ; (3)
v,- v, ZL f
V,d(n,( J- 4 - n24+ __ lo
< tk T

For DCM2:

12
Fig. 1. The Asyrmnebrical Half-BridgeDC/DC Converter.

1980
 With the feedback loop closed, the converter tends
to diminish the duty cycle down to zero at no load.
Hence, at light loads the converter operates in DCMl.

B. The influence of leakage inductance

The simplified analysis does not explain the

dependence of the output voltage of the converter on where Lo, Ll, Lz, Mol, Moz and Mlz are self- and
load current in CCM. A common way to account for mutual inductance of the transformer windings.
the influence of leakage inductance is to introduce On solving ( 5 ) for each time interval du, db, dc
separate leakage inductors coupled in series with and dd, the following expressions for time intervals du
transformer windings. This is suitable for a two- -
dd are obtained:
winding transformer, but it is not applicable in the
case of an AHBC with a three-winding transformer at
times when currents flow in all three windings
simultaneously.
The output voltage is decreased due to non-unity
coupling coefficients between primary and secondary db= D- & ,
windings of the power transformer. Fig.2 shows the
output inductor current iL and voltage vL waveforms
in continuous conduction mode. The time intervals db
and dd correspond to “slow” intervals (D and I-D)
during which only one of rectifiers conducts, while
time intervals du and dc correspond to switching cGJ= J- D - d ,
processes during which the current is switched
between output rectifiers and voltage vL is nearly equal where
to zero. The less the coupling coefficients between
transformer windings, the longer the time intervals du
and dc, and, the lower the output voltage.
Furthermore, the lower the coupling coefficients, the
lower the voltage vL during “S~OW’~time intervals db
and dd, and the lower the output voltage. ko1, koz, klz- transformer winding coupling
coefficients,
The relationships between the transformer T-switching period.
winding currents and voltages are described by the The relationships between the values of current iL
following system of equations: at the ends of time intends du, db, dc and dd are:

Kd*
V,( J- 9 L f
), (11)

t D I
1-D
i
Fig. 2. The. waveforms of voltage VL (D1and & redifer cathodes),
and output inductor current iL.

1981
 The average current flowing through the output
inductorb is

The output voltage Vo is calculated numerically

from the condition of zero average current through the
output filter capacitor C, i.e., lL= lo,where IO is the
load current.
Calculation of the output voltage in discontinuous
conduction mode is analogous to that for continuous IZL EXPERIMENTS
conduction mode except for some corrections due to
the fact that the current iL is diminishing to zero The above analysis was verified via experiment.
during time interval 1-Dor I): Voltage transfer characteristics of a 200 Watt DCDC
For DCMl the corrections are: converter were measured at different loads. The
converter has the following parameters:
Id= 0, (16)
input voltage 190 V
da= 0, (17) nominal output voltage 48 V
switching frequency 100 kHz
c&= D, (18)
output filter inductance Lf 32.2 pH
Power transformer parameters:
I + - (1 2 1- 6) primary winding inductance Lo 240.8 pH
lc. L f Lf secondary winding inductance Li 35.7 pH
&L-.
T secondary winding inductance Lz 143.5 pH
coupling coefficients: koi 0.951
1 -
k02 0.990
kiZ 0.951
For DCM2 the corrections are:
Fig. 3 shows the theoretical and experimental
/b= 0, (20) results. The dashed line on each plot represents the

65 j
i/ .......
Io-1A i
......:.......................
69 ./....................,j ...................... :.
> ....................... :................ : ...........
....................... :................
..................
..................... ............................ :.
35 .j .................... ........... "........................ :.
................... ....................... j.
............... : ....... :....................... i,

.......................................... !:.........................
DCM2
0 1 02 03 04 OS Dl oa 03 04 05
duty. cycle duty - cycle -
65 -
.
65 :

.I ....................... :.......................
i:.......................
10,-2A i
:....................... i, ....................... :......................
i:.......................
Io-4A j
: ....................... :.
6o ,j

> $5 .j ...................... i............ .................. ....................... i....................... I ..............., i.

............ :............ .......................
....................... .......................
.................... ................... .................... ....................

..................... ..................... .......................

............. ...................... ....................... ....................... : ............ i.

....................... ....................... ....................... .......................

....................................... ..................... :. ............................................. : .................... ..j.

l5 -: up
0.1 0.1 03 0.1 OJ 0.1 0.2 03 0.4 0.5
duty cycle duty cycle
Fig. 3. The theoretical (lines) and experimentally measured (boxes) transfer characteristics.

1982

Lf
Fig. 4. Single-Stage Isolated PFC Power Supply.
output voltage calculated providing 100% coupling
between the trangormer windings, the solid line shows
that calculated according to the above method, the
small boxes represent experiment data points. As one
can see from the figure, the proposed method reduces
substantially the difference between experimental
results and theoretical predictions.
Fig.4 shows an example of a single-stage isolated
AC/DC converter composed of an integral boost-type
PFC cell and the DCDC AHBC cell [ll]. The
converter has the following parameters:
output voltage
switching frequency
input inductance L
output filter inductance Lf
Power transformer parameters:
primary winding inductance Lo
secondary winding inductance Ll
coupling coeficient kol
The storage capacitor voltage Vs is inversely
proportional to the voltage transfer ratio of the DC/DC
cell. Furthermore, it also depends on the load current.
In order to insure that the voltages across the circuit
elements never exceed its rated value it is important to
calculate precisely the dependence of the storage
capacitor voltage VS on the AC line voltage and the
output power. Fig.5 shows a comparison between
0 LO a0 30 40
load power (W)
Fig.5. The calculated(lines) and measured (dotes) storage capacitor
voltage vefsus output power.
calculated and experimentally measured values. The
dashed lines represent voltage across the storage
capacitor Cs calculated assuming 100% coupling
between the transformei: windings. The solid lines
show the voltage across the storage capacitor CS
calculated under the assumption of less than perfect
coupling using the described method. The boxes
represent the experimental results. As one can see
from the figure, the calculation results without taking
into account the leakage inductance (dashed lines) is
about 5.. .lo% lower than experimentally measured
values. On the other hand, calculations by the method
introduced in this work demonstrate good agreement
between theory and practice.
IV. CONCLUSION
In some applications of the Asymmetrical Half-
Bridge DCDC Converter it is important to calculate
its voltage transfer function precisely. A simplified
method in which the transformer leakage inductance is
not considered does not provide the required precision.
24 V A standard transformer model where the leakage and
100 kHz the magnetizing inducmce are accounted for by
70.5 pH connection of lump inductors in series (for leakage)
64.8 pH and parallel (for magnetizing) to an ideal transformer
is not applicable in a case of three-windings
246.0 pH transformer.
80.4 pH The method introduced in this work uses the
0.969 mutual inductance between transformer windings for
calculating the output voltage in an AHBC. It is more
attractive since the self-inductance and mutual
inductance have clear physical meanings and may be
easily obtained by simple: measurements. Experiments
are in good agreement with these calculations.
REFERENCES
[11 B.Carsten, “Design techniques for Transformer
Active Reset Circuits at High Frequencies and
Power Level”, HFPC 1990, pp. 235-246.
[2] I.D.Jitaru, “Constant Frequency, Forward
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1991, pp. 282-292.
[3] C.Duarte, I.Barbi, “A Family of Activeclamping
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[4] T.Ninomiya, N.IMatsumoto, M.Nakahara,
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[5] P.Imbertson, N.Mohan, “Asymmetrical Duty
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1983
[6] R.Qruganty, C.H.Phua, K.G.Tan, A.C.Liew,
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[9] S.Korotkov, V.Meleshin, A.Nemchinov,
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[101 S.Korotkov, V.Meleshin, S.Fraidlin, “Soft-
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[111 S.Korotkov, R.Miftahutdinov, A.Nemchinov,
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1984