Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 7(9), 13821386, September 2014

ISSN (Print) : 0974-6846

ISSN (Online) : 0974-5645

A New Single-stage Solar based Controlled

Full-bridge DC-DC Converter
S. Jayaprakash1* and V. Ramakrishnan2
Sathyabama University, Chennai-600119, Tamilnadu, India; jakash123@yahoo.co.in
Department of EEE, Madha Engineering College, Chennai-600069, Tamilnadu, India; venganr@gmail.com
1

Abstract
This paper presents a new Single-stage solar based controlled fullbridge DC-DC converter. Solar model is connected on
the input side and from the solar model some voltage is received. The circuit has two full wave converters connected.
While the first converter acts as an inverter, the second converter functions as a rectifier in-between connected step-up
transformer. Controlled converter is used to load side besides a capacitive filter being connected. Finally inductive load is
connected to output side. Output voltage and output current are measured. Compared with normal voltage, this converters
source cost is less because in this work input side solar panel is used. The circuit with all the component parameters will
operate at zero-voltage switching which retains the high circuit efficiency.

Keywords: Full-Bridge Converter, IGBT, Index Terms - Buck-Boost Converter, MOSFET, Power Factor Correction (PFC),
Single-Stage, ZCS, Zero-Voltage Switching (ZVS), ZVZC.

1.Introduction

In digital modulation technique bipolar symmetric

DC-DC converter in ultrasound medical imaging system
is discussed. In bipolar switching balanced output voltage
as well as filtered output voltage is obtained. Sometimes
piezoelectric transducers equate the digital pulse switching generators during the period of phase delay and the
various amplitudes. Normally in commercial systems,
unipolar or bipolar switching generators are used. At
high voltage applications unipolar switching generator
is used because of large bandwidth. But bipolar switching generators have high sensitivity and good energy
efficiency. Finally closed loop circuit is formed and also
the proposed circuit is more flexible and costs less1. In
an exciting system phase-shift full-bridge converter has
more circulating current and big sized output filter. In the
present system, a capacitor is connected on the primary
side and diodes are connected on the secondary side. The
advantages of the proposed converter are less circulating,
using soft switching at primary, smaller size of inverter
contributing to more efficiency. Radio frequency power
*Author for correspondence

generator is normally based on semiconductor devices

and they require more output power. The present system
uses large output voltage application so as to have low
current and low voltage stress. In the present system, at
freewheeling period more circulating current flows to the
primary side. So it involves less power density and more
cost. The transformer has greater turn ratio due to greater
output voltage so there will be more conduction loss. Due
to soft switching, the voltage stress reduces at secondary side. Suppose IGBT is used, it limits the switching
frequency there by increasing the size of the filter. Using
soft switching, filter size is reduced. At freewheeling time,
input energy is more than output level so that size of filter
reduces and the efficiency of the converter increases2.
Dual mode controls at motor drives for EV/HEV applications are analyzed. Boost converter circuit is used because
of high voltage applications. Here it reduces the current
ripple, losses, and thermal stress at maximum load condition thereby increasing efficiency. At the same time,
not using the additional devices also reduces conduction
loss. In the present system battery voltage is boosted and
if this voltage is given to the multi drive at low speed,

S. Jayaprakash and V. Ramakrishnan

the torque also gets boosted. The proposed system has

low weight and more efficiency and uses interleaved
control3. A full-bridge converter using soft-switching
method is explained. In this converter compared with
conventional circuit the conduction losses are minimum.
This is obtained by using two auxiliary circuits. The first
auxiliary circuit is active while the second auxiliary circuit is passive. Generally soft switching converter is used
in industry at low power applications. In soft switching
converter efficiency also improves due to low conduction
losses. IGBT has lower conduction losses compared with
MOSFET. Collector emitter voltage drop will be caused
in MOSFET. Low turn-off losses at same time work at
switching frequencies in IGBT. Some drawback is there in
conventional soft-switching techniques using large power
DC-DC Converter, for instance, larger number of components and larger size. It is more difficult to operate at
less switching frequencies at high values of loads besides
complexity and more cost in using multiple auxiliary
components. At turn-off, more current losses occur due
to using less power only. Sometimes using reverse blocking devices at that time causes more conduction losses
due to which efficiency decreases. But, the proposed converter circuit avoids these drawbacks because of the use of
auxiliary circuits.
The following are the features of the proposed
converter:
Reducing conduction losses due to Zero Current
Switches (ZCS), using ZCS at triggering time because the
inductor is connected in series, and at switching transition, primary current varies either increases or decreases
(converter switching is followed on ZVZC). And yet, the
drawback with the converter is that, ZCS does not apply
for MOSFET switches functioning which suit only ZVS.
Converter switching current is high. At less load time,
converter efficiency is less. So the proposed converter
has more efficiency compared with the present converter
circuit due to less switching loss for the implementation of auxiliary circuit4. Based on switching frequency,
using FPGA Technique based SPWM gets high speed
switching frequency, less usage of power and more accuracy. Previously, SPWM generator was used or in some
cases unipolar and bipolar SPWM generator was used.
Recently, digital circuits are in use because of low noise,
being independent of temperature, easy design procedure, and low cost. Generally low switching frequency
like 110KHZ uses microcontroller and DSP. This paper
discusses FPGA implementation with a higher frequency

Vol 7 (9) | September 2014 | www.indjst.org

up to 1MHZ5. Less switching loss half-bridge multilevel

converter is explained here. There is no need of extra
circuit in these converter pulsations of voltage, because
it may reduce current. In the paper, the authors have also
discussed low loss inductor ratio and current level of peak
time; voltage level multilevel converters are used for high
voltage applications. At the same time, in the converters
having less weight and size, efficiency is high due to using
of soft switching and the value of voltage and current
ratios are reduced6. The proposed converter uses solar
energy as input source. The proposed converters circuit
diagram, operation of the circuit, and output wave forms
are discussed in this paper.

2. Proposed Block Diagram

Solar model is connected to the input side and gets some
DC voltage. The voltage is converted to AC with help of
a Full bridge Inverter. After the stepped up AC voltage is
converted to DC, filtering the DC voltage finally before
being given to the Inductive Load.

3. Proposed Circuit Configuration

Figure 1 shows the derivation of the proposed Solar based
DC/DC converter7. Figure 1 indicates that C filter is
connected in the output side. A solar model is connected
Solar model

Full bridge
Inverter
Step up
Transformer
Full bridge
Converter

C Filter

R-L Load

Figure 1. Proposed block diagram.

Indian Journal of Science and Technology

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A New Single-stage Solar based Controlled Full-bridge DC-DC Converter

in the input side8. That solar model gives DC supply which

is converted into stepped up AC supply into control DC.
Hence controlled DC voltage is applied to the Load.
In the simulation circuit (Figure 2) the following
parameters are used:
Lm = 1 mH, Cm = 1 F, Ls- = 2.81 mH, Cs = 9.6 F
L1 = 0.17 mH, L2 = 0.17 Mh
RL Load values:
R = 200 , L = 100 H,
Across the load C = 1000 F.
The solar model (Figure 3) consists of solar panel and
isolator. Adders add the solar voltage and current that DC
power is applied to the input of the system.

4.Circuit Operation and Output

Waveform
The proposed circuit operation started at the period of
commutation circuit actuated in the switches (S2 and S4).

L1

Cdc1

The load side connected inductive load, the load current

ir (Resonant Current) is opposite to the polarity of the
commutation time period. The diodes (D1 and D3) are
pushed to freewheel ir (Resonant Current). The drain-tosource voltages (Vds1 and Vds3) of Q1 and Q3 are joined
and given to 0.7V. The voltage between the load resonant circuit is approximately the same as in the dc-link
voltage Vdc, which is the sum of Vds1 and Vds3. After the
dead time, the switches (S1 and S3) are triggered by the
gated signals (Vgs1 and Vgs3), but the switches always
turn off. The voltage expected in the L1 is nearly equal
to the converted line voltage. The inductor current ip1
improves gradually from zero to a maximum point. This
is directly proportional to the line voltage. At the time,
average of ir (Resonant Current) and ip1 (inductor current) becomes positive; S1 is triggered on nearly coming
to zero voltage.
After that in the proposed converter, ir (Resonant
Current) becomes positive to negative. Part of ip1 (inductor current) passes to the switch Q1, but if its magnitude
comes nearly to ir (Resonant Current), it will be moving
to the diode D3 and the line-voltage source. This process
continues till ir (Resonant Current) comes to zero and that
is settled to positive to negative. After that, S3 is triggered
so that the voltage across it nearly comes to zero during
which time ir (Resonant Current) current passes.
The natural resonance frequency is
w0 =

Cdc2
L2

D7

Figure 2. Proposed circuit diagram.

Figure 3. Solar model.

1384 Vol 7 (9) | September 2014 | www.indjst.org

1
Ls Cs

As well as the characteristic resonance impedance is

Z0 =

Ls
Cs

At present, S1 and S3 are turned on, since the line voltage is also moving to component L1, ip1 (inductor current)
moving upward continuously and is passing through S1.
Current ir (Resonant Current) is not negative and passes
through S1 and S3. This operation is started at the time of
S1 and S3 being commutated or switched off. At the time
of commutated period, ip1 (inductor current) moves to
maximum and ir (Resonant Current) is positive. Current
ir (Resonant Current) passes through diodes D2 and D4
to different Cdc1 and Cdc2. The drain-to-source voltages
(Vds2 and Vds4) of (S2 and S4) are always joined to 0.7V.
The voltage VAB is nearly same as Vdc. After the dead
time, the switches (S2 and S4) are activated by the gated

Indian Journal of Science and Technology

QL =

Ls
Cs
Ri

After that the direct current applied voltage comes

to maximum level and also the reading of ip1 (inductor
current) becomes maximum. At the time, ir (Resonant
Current) comes to zero before ip1 (inductor current)
comes. When ir (Resonant Current) resonates to moving
to zero value, the circuit operation enters. At this time,
D2 and D4 are commutated at natural commutation, and
S2 and S4 are triggered from triggering circuit at starting time voltage to carry ir (Resonant Current). After
that, ip1 (inductor current) decreases continuously. This
circuit operation is stopped when ip1 (inductor current)
becomes zero.
Suppose the direct current voltage moves opposite
to high level, the maximum of ip1 (inductor current) is
less and comes to zero but before ir (Resonant Current)
current moves zero. The circuit operation will start at the
time of ip1 decreasing to zero current. At this time, D7
is off, and ir (Resonant Current) always moves through
D2 and D4. This operation ends at the time when ir
(Resonant Current) becomes zero. Then the switches S2
and S4 are triggered at a triggering circuit at zero voltage (starting time) contained with ir (Resonant Current).
After this operation, ir (Resonant Current) comes below
to zero level through the switches S2 and S4. The voltage
given by the capacitors (Cdc1 and Cdc2) at the charging
time also enters the inductive load side. The (Vgs2 and
Vgs4) voltages move to zero and so S2 and S4 are commutated. When the boost converter operates in continuous
mode, the current through the inductor (IL) does not
touch zero.
The transformer helps to boost the voltage. This
boosted up AC voltage is given to controlled full wave
converter at the place AC voltage is converted to DC voltage and that DC voltage is given to RL load. The input
voltage of the circuit is DC voltage (110V).
Figure 4 shows output side capacitive filter being
connected and the capacitive filter output voltage h
aving
some ripples. The output ripple voltage is shown in
Figure 5 and the circuit specification is shown in Table 1.

Vol 7 (9) | September 2014 | www.indjst.org

Time (Sec)
time
Figure 4. Output current waveform.

Voltage (v)

signals (Vgs1 and Vgs3), but that switches are always off.
So to make the PFC give better result as a boost converter,
Vdc1 and Vdc2 are all designed to be more than that of the
amplitude of the line voltage.
The loaded quality factor,

Current (A)

S. Jayaprakash and V. Ramakrishnan

Time (Sec)
time
Figure 5. Output ripple voltage waveform.

Table 1. Circuit specification

Input Voltage

110V

Switching Pulse

1V

Drain to Source Voltage at Switches

210V

Transfomer Primary Voltage

110V

Transfomer Secondary Voltage

220V

Output Voltage

212V

Output Current

1.1A

Output Power

233W

5.Conclusion
The new Single-stage solar based controlled fullbridge
DC-DC converter is implemented. Solar model is connected to the input side. Using solar energy with less
switching loss some constant voltage is given to the
inductive load. Thus, efficiency of the converter is also
increased. Compared with normal voltage source cost is
less because in this work input side solar panel is used.
The circuit diagram, operation of the converter and

Indian Journal of Science and Technology

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A New Single-stage Solar based Controlled Full-bridge DC-DC Converter

utput waveforms have been explained and experimental

o
results that confirmed the feasibility have been presented.
The proposed circuit is got by integrating two boost PFCs
resonant converter.

6.References
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current, output filter and conduction loss of rectifier stage

for RF power generator Application. IEEE Trans Power
Electron. 2014 Mar; 29(3):106981.
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1386 Vol 7 (9) | September 2014 | www.indjst.org

4. Mousavi A, Moschopoulos G. A new ZCS-PWM full-bridge

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Cheng HL, Hsieh Y-C, Lin C-S. A novel single-stage
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Indian Journal of Science and Technology