Soft-starting procedure for dual active bridge converter

Dual Active Bridge converter is extensively used to manage the power flow in high power and high density applications, as energy storage systems, renewable sources integration and electrical vehicles. This paper focuses on a digital starting process — suitable for all operating conditions — aiming at minimizing the inrush current at the turn on. The output voltage is initially built up by the secondary side body diodes, then phase-shift control is enabled and the reference is smoothly increased till the nominal value. A FPGA controlled 1.2kW 270V/28V converter is developed and experimental results are provided to assess the proposed method.