A new active soft-switching circuit for full bridge converters

This paper proposes an active soft-switching circuit for bridge converters aiming at improving the power conversion efficiency. The proposed circuit achieves loss-less switching for both main and auxiliary switches without increasing the main device current/voltage rating. It is capable of operating at elevated switching frequencies of several hundreds of kHz, at low and high power levels with a wide range of load variations. A winding coupled to the primary of power transformer ensures soft switching for the auxiliary switches during turn-on and turn-off. Phase Shifted Full Bridge (PSFB) topology is chosen to validate the design. Operation principle with analytical expressions for the proposed circuit are outlined. The proposed active soft switched PSFB DC-DC converter circuit is designed and implemented for 350 W, switching at 100 kHz. The simulation and experimental results are presented. Experimental results are used to validate the analysis.