학술논문

Design of a Flying-Capacitor-Based Voltage Divider LLC Resonant Converter for USB-C PD Charger in Aircraft Applications
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics IEEE Trans. Power Electron. Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on. 38(8):9944-9960 Aug, 2023
Subject
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Aerospace
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Computing and Processing
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
General Topics for Engineers
Nuclear Engineering
Signal Processing and Analysis
Transportation
Resonant converters
Universal Serial Bus
Voltage
Power system measurements
Density measurement
Aircraft
Power transformer insulation
flying capacitor
gallium nitride (GaN)
++%24LLC%24<%2Ftex-math>+<%2Finline-formula>+<%2Fnamed-content>%22"> $LLC$
planar magnetics
printed circuit board (PCB) winding
universal serial bus (USB-C) power delivery (PD)
voltage divider
wide-output range
Language
ISSN
0885-8993
1941-0107
Abstract
Portable electronic devices have grown dramatically at an incredible speed and include many new and sophisticated functions. Thanks to the advent of universal serial bus (USB) power delivery (PD) specifications, PD is increased as is the number of applications that can be powered using a USB cable in aircraft. However, the combination of the wide-voltage-gain operation required by the USB PD specification, high step-down ratio, and the lower pressure environment associated with aircraft puts a lot of stress on converter optimization. This article presents the dc–dc stage of an integrated, highly compact USB type-C PD charger for aircraft. First, a flying-capacitor-based voltage divider (FCVD) switching bridge is proposed to replace the conventional switching bridge in an LLC converter to improve its efficiency. Second, a printed circuit board winding planar transformer is adopted to increase the power density. Gallium nitride devices are used for both the FCVD and the synchronous rectifiers, further shrinking the size and reducing the loss. Critical areas of the converter prone to a high electrical field (E-field) are identified and pre-emptively addressed with the use of the E-field control methodology that follows the Paschen-curve-based insulation coordination. The prototype is built and tested, and it is verified that the unit successfully operates in rated conditions to achieve a power density of 73.2 W/in 3 and an efficiency of over 90% at all nominal outputs. A high-altitude partial discharge test is also conducted, showing that the proposed prototype meets the partial discharge inception voltage at 10 000 ft.