A novel DC-DC full-bridge converter using energy-recovery circuit with regenerative transformer

A novel full-bridge converter with a new energy-recovery driver using a regenerative transformer is proposed to improve the efficiency for wide input voltage range and load variation compared with a conventional phase-shift (PS) full-bridge (FB) converter. In the proposed converter, the main switches achieve ZVS independent of the load current value. During the freewheeling period, conduction loss is minimized by recovering the circulating energy to the source. The principle of operation, design consideration and experimental results, including efficiency, are presented in the case of large change of the input voltage or load. A proposed 1 kW converter prototype is compared with a PS-FB converter.