A Family of Soft-Switching DC–DC Converters Based on a Phase-Shift-Controlled Active Boost Rectifier

High efficiency and high power density can be achieved with a dc-dc transformer by operating all the switches at a fixed 50% duty cycle. However, the output voltage of the dc-dc transformer cannot be regulated. Novel rectifiers named active boost rectifiers (ABRs) are proposed in this paper. Basically, an ABR is composed of a traditional diode rectifier and a bidirectional switch. By adopting phase-shift control between the primary- and secondary-side switches, the output voltage regulation can be achieved when introducing the ABR to a dc-dc transformer. As a result, a family of novel soft-switching dc-dc converters is harvested. When the proposed converter operates in the soft-switching continuous conduction mode, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) performance for all the primary- and secondary-side switches is achieved. When the converter operates in the discontinuous conduction mode, zero current switching (ZCS) for the primary-side switches and ZVS for the secondary-side switches are achieved. Furthermore, the diode reverse-recovery problem is alleviated by employing the ABR and phase-shift control scheme. As an example, the full-bridge converter with voltage-doubler ABR is analyzed to verify the proposed ABR concept and converters. The operation principles, voltage conversion ratio, and output characteristics are analyzed in depth. Finally, experimental results are provided to verify the feasibility and effectiveness.