Abstract
Performance evaluations of a secondary-side phase shift (SPS) pulse-width-modulation (PWM)-controlled zero voltage soft-switching (ZVS) DC-DC converter with a zero current soft-switching (ZCS) active rectifier are presented in this paper. In the proposed DC-DC converter, the soft-switching operations are achievable from full to null loads by utilizing the parasitic inductances of the high-frequency (HF) transformer. In addition, no circulating current emerges in either the primary- or secondary-side full-bridge circuits, and thus the related idling power losses can be minimized. In this paper, the soft-switching operations over the wide-range load variations are verified, and the characteristics of output power and voltage versus phase shift angle regulations are demonstrated in an experiment based on a 1kW-50kHz laboratory prototype of the proposed DC-DC converter. Furthermore, the converter power losses, which include the switching and conduction power losses, are analyzed, after which the effectiveness of the proposed DC-DC converter is evaluated from a practical point of view.