High-efficiency low-profile on-board DC=DC The advantages of the proposed converter are as follows:
converter for digital car audio amplifier (i) Since the input current is continuous, the proposed converter has a
minimised input filter.
C.-E. Kim and G.-W. Moon (ii) The DC excitation current of the transformer is zero due to the
series-connected capacitors, CH, CSA and CSB. As a result, the size of
A new high-efficiency low-profile on-board DC=DC converter for the the transformer can be minimised.
digital car audio amplifier is proposed. The proposed converter has (iii) The secondary rectifier diodes have low voltage stress, which is
desirable features for a digital audio amplifier, such as high efficiency,
clamped to the output voltage, VO. Moreover, there is no need for
low profile and minimised electromagnetic interference.
snubbers because of the low turn-off voltage oscillation.
(iv) The proposed converter has minimised EMI due to ZVS (zero-
Introduction: Nowadays, as the digital audio amplifier technology has voltage-switching) turn-on of switches, QM and QA, and ZCS (zero-
been improved and applied to car audio amplifiers, a high-efficiency and current-switching) turn-off of the secondary rectifier diodes.
low-profile on-board DC=DC converter is required for digital car audio (v) The proposed converter has no output inductor and, consequently,
amplifiers. Among the previously proposed DC=DC converters, the boost- reduced conduction loss.
half-bridge (BHB) converter reported in [1] and [2] is suitable for low-
voltage battery input applications, because the converter has continuous Therefore, the proposed converter has high efficiency due to mini-
input current and boosted link voltage. However, the main disadvantages mised conduction and switching losses, and has low profile due to
of the BHB converter are high DC excitation current of the transformer, reduced count and size of magnetic components.
high voltage stress and high turn-off voltage oscillation of the secondary
rectifier diodes, and increased magnetic components count. In this Letter,
VO 1 (+18V)
to overcome these disadvantages, a new high efficiency and low profile CH LK DSA1 CSA 1
on-board DC=DC converter is proposed. The operational principles of the QA I LK
NP
NS 1 I SEC CO 1
CL I LM digital
proposed converter are analysed and verified by the experimental results battery LIN
LM DSB 1 CSB 1 car
audio
using a 60 W industrial sample for the digital car audio amplifier. VS
I LIN QM DSA 2 CSA 2
amplifier
NS 2 CO 2
T1
DSB 2 CSB 2 VO 2 (-18V)
Fig. 2 60 W industrial sample for digital car audio amplifier
a Circuit diagram
b Photograph
Fig. 1 Circuit diagram and key waveforms of proposed converter
a Circuit diagram
b Waveforms of magnetic components V GS(QM) V GS(QM)
c Waveforms of switching components
Operational principles: As shown in Fig. 1a, the proposed converter I LIN (3 A/div.) 0
I LIN (3 A/div.)
0
is the asymmetrically controlled half-bridge converter integrated with
the boost converter as the front stage and with the voltage doubler as I DS(QM)(10 A/div.)
the output stage. The proposed converter operates in four modes and I DS(QM)(10 A/div.) V DS(QM)(20 V/div.) V DS(QM)(20 V/div.)
the key waveforms are presented in Figs. 1b and c:
0 0
Mode 1 (t0t1): ILIN and ILK flow through QM. ISEC flows through DSA,
while CSA charges and CSB discharges.
Mode 2 (t1t2): ILIN and ILK flow through the body diode of QA. The V DS(QA)(20 V/div.) I DS(QA)(10 A/div.) V DS(QA)(20 V/div.) I DS(QA)(10 A/div.)
secondary side of the transformer operates similarly to mode 1.
0 0
Mode 3 (t2t3): ILIN flows through the body diode of QA and ILK flows
through QA. ISEC flows through DSB, while CSA discharges and CSB charges.
Mode 4 (t3t00 ): ILIN flows through QM and ILK flows through the body diode I D(DSA)(5 A/div.) V D(DSA)(10 V/div.) I D(DSA)(5 A/div.) V D(DSA)(10 V/div.)
of QM. The secondary side of the transformer operates similarly to mode 3.
0 0
To derive the output voltage equation, it is assumed that VL, VH, VSA,
VSB and VO are constant. Solving the voltage-second equations of LIN,
LK and LM during one switching period, the following equations are V D(DSB)(10 V/div.) I D(DSB)(5 A/div.) V D(DSB)(10 V/div.) ID (DSB)(5 A/div.)
easily obtained. VL VS=(1 D), VH VSD(1 D), VSA VO(1 D)
and VSB VOD, where D is the duty ratio of QM. Averaging the currents 0 0
of secondary rectifier diodes and substituting the above equations, the
inputoutput voltage gain is expressed as time, 2 ms/div. time, 2 ms/div.
a b
VO NS =NP D
1
VS 2LK FS =RO NS =NP 2 1 LK =LM D1 D Fig. 3 Key waveforms
a VS 10 V
where FS is the switching frequency. b VS 16 V
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th May 2004 Vol. 40 No. 10
In addition, the voltage stress of the secondary rectifier diodes is
clamped to the output voltage at 18 V. The measured efficiencies of
the proposed converter and the BHB converter are compared in Fig. 4.
At nominal input voltage, the proposed converter has a very high
efficiency of 88.24% compared with the BHB converter, which has
84.81%.
Conclusions: A new high efficiency and low profile on-board
DC=DC converter for the digital car audio amplifier is proposed.
The operational principles of the proposed converter are analysed and
the advantages are described. A 60 W industrial sample of the
proposed converter has been implemented for a digital car audio
amplifier and the measured efficiency is 88.24%.
Fig. 4 Measured efficiencies
proposed converter # IEE 2004 3 March 2004
j BHB converter Electronics Letters online no: 20040372
doi: 10.1049/el:20040372
Experimental results: To verify the operational principles and the C.-E. Kim and G.-W. Moon (Department of Electrical Engineering,
feasibility of the proposed converter, a 60 W industrial sample of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 373-1, Kusong-
proposed converter was implemented for the digital car audio ampli- Dong, Yusong-Gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea)
fier, and its circuit diagram and photograph are shown in Figs. 2a and E-mail: gwmoon@[Link]
b, respectively. The design specifications are as follows: (i) VS: 10
16 V, 12 V nominal; (ii) VO: 18 V and 18 V, dual outputs; (iii)
PO,max: 60 W; (iv) FS: 100 kHz. The key circuit parameters are References
selected as LIN 50 mH, NP 3, NS1 3, NS2 3, LM 100 mH,
1 Zeng, J., Ying, J., and Zhang, Q.: A novel DC=DC ZVS converter for
and LK 2 mH. The key waveforms of the proposed converter at battery input application. Proc. IEEE APEC 2002, Dallas, USA, Vol. 2,
minimum and maximum input voltages are shown in Figs. 3a and b, pp. 892896
respectively. The current of LIN has the continuous waveform. 2 Watanabe, H., and Matsuo, H.: A novel high-efficient DC-DC converter
The switches, QM and QA, are turned on in the ZVS condition and with 1 V=20 A DC output. Proc. IEEE INTELEC 2002, Montreal,
the secondary rectifier diodes are turned off in the ZCS condition. Canada, pp. 3439
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 13th May 2004 Vol. 40 No. 10