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Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

2012 International Conference on Applied Physics and Industrial Engineering

A Three-phase Dual Active Bridge Bidirectional ZVS DC/DC

Converter
Zhang Xuan1,Huang Shenghua1,Ning Guoyun2
1

College of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
Wuhan, China
2
Dayu Electrical Technology Co., Ltd, Xiaogan, China

Abstract
This paper discusses the detailed operations of a three-phase dual active bridge bidirectional zero-voltage switching
(ZVS) DC/DC converter (TPDAB) which transfers a bidirectional power flow between a 12V net and a high voltage
DC net. The converter is controlled by phase-shift-modulation (PSM) with a fixed duty cycle D=1/3. It features
isolation, smoother drawing and injecting current from the 12V net, smaller capacitances, smaller switch current
stress, ZVS over a wide range, high efficiency and a large power handling capability. The mathematic model is
analyzed. The soft-switching principle is described and its ZVS criterias are derived. The simulation and
experimental results are provided to verify the theoretical analysis.

2011
Published
by Elsevier
B.V. Ltd.
Selection
and/orand/or
peer-review
under responsibility
of ICAPIEof
Organization
Committee.
2011
Published
by Elsevier
Selection
peer-review
under responsibility
[name organizer]
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Keywords:three-phase bidirectional dc/dc converter; zero-voltage switch (ZVS); phase-shift control

1. Introduction
To mitigate rising oil prices and pollution concerns it is assumed that electric hybrid vehicles (HEVs)
and electric vehicles (EVs) will be the trend in the near future. With the escalating need for electric power
in future vehicles, there is an increasing requirement for bidirectional isolated DC/DC converters to
transfer energy between different voltage levels, such as between the low voltage accessories and the high
voltage drive train.
For HEVs & EVs applications, the bidirectional dual active bridge DC/DC converter (DAB) is very
attractive because of its features including zero-voltage switching, bidirectional power flow, low
component stresses, and high-power density [1], [2], [3]. Besides, DAB is also widely used in applications
of DC source distributed generators (DG) [4], uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) [5], bidirectional
energy delivery between an energy storage system and a dc power system [6]-[7], power conversion
system between an ac power system and a dc voltage source [8]-[9].

1875-3892 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAPIE Organization Committee.

Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

doi:10.1016/j.phpro.2012.02.022

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Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

[3] proposed a DAB based on a dual half-bridge topology. However, at higher power levels, the
components face several stresses. As possible solutions, the parallelism of components or even converters
can be applied. The former choice increases the complexity of the compromise between the circuit layout
and the thermal design. Besides that, one should consider that the dynamic and static current sharing
problem limits its application. The other alternative causes redundancy in the control circuits as well as in
the number of power components and drivers, increasing the global cost and size of the equipment.
For higher power level applications, [10] proposed a three-phase three-voltage bus DC/DC converter.
However, the current changing rate at its low voltage accessory ports is large, which is negative for the
accessories longevity. [11] proposed a three-phase current-fed dual active bridge bidirectional DC/DC
converter (TPDAB), by interleaving three DABs proposed in [3]. Nevertheless, it is controlled by hybrid
pulse-width-modulation (PWM) and phase-shift-modulation (PSM), the control is too complex and
additional voltage measurement elements are required.
This paper is made to discuss detailed operation of the TPDAB when it works with fixed duty cycle
D=1/3, and is controlled by PSM alone. The total input current drawn from low voltage accessories, which
is the sum of the currents of the coupling three input inductors, is almost a pure dc. Therefore, it can
provide a more favorable operation condition for the low voltage accessories. The converter features
isolation, smaller capacitances, smaller switch current stress, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) over a wide
range, high efficiency and a large power handling capability. The mathematic model and the power transfer
characteristic are analyzed. The soft-switching principle is described and its criterias is derived. The
simulation and experimental results verified the validity of the analysis.
The paper is organized as follows. Section II gives an introduction of the topology and its key operating
waveforms. In section III, the mathematic model is given. In section IV, the soft-switching principle is
described and its criterias were given. In section V, the simulation results of a PSpice model and
experimental results of prototype were provided to verify the theoretical analysis.
2. Topology and Key operating Waveforms
Fig. 1 shows the TPDAB topology. The TPDAB is composed of three interleaving single-phase dual
active bridge current source bidirectional DC/DC converters (DAB), and each phase output is 120 degree
apart from each other. In this mode, the input current rating is increased by interleaving three phases, not
by paralleling components, and the ripple frequency will be increased to three times the switching
frequency and current ripple will be greatly reduced due to cancelling effects between each phase. The
power flow of the TPDAB is controlled by the shifting phase between active bridges at low voltage side
(LVS) and high voltage side (HVS). When energy flows from the 12V net side to the high voltage DC
(HVDC) net side, the TPDAB works in boost mode, in which the driving pulses at LVS are ahead of that at
HVS. On the contrary, when energy flows from the HVDC net side to the 12V net side, the TPDAB works
in buck mode. The leakage inductances La~Lc of the high frequency transformer are acting as intermediate
elements to store and transfer the power. The 12V net, the coupling three-phase input inductors L1~L3, and
the switches S2, S4, S6 compose boost circuits. The duty cycles of the switches S1, S3, S5 are set at D, so the
voltage V1 of capacitor C1 is boosted to 1/D times of Vin. The capacitors C1, C2 are used to handle high
switching current ripple and maintain a nearly constant dc bus voltage. The stress of each switch of
TPDAB converter is about one third of the single-phase topology, although the total stress is about the
same for both converters since the number of switches is increased three times in TPDAB converter. The
current stress of capacitors C1 and C2 of three-phase topology is much lower than that of the single-phase
circuit therefore smaller capacitor could be used for three-phase topology and power density will be
improved.

Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

Figure 1.  Toplogy of the three-phase dual active bridge bidirectional DC/DC converter

Fig. 2 show key operating waveforms of the converter in the boost mode: the three phase primary
voltages Va2p, Vb2p and Vc2p in the top subplot; the secondary voltages Va3p, Vb3p and Vc3p, which are values
reflected to the primary side, in the middle subplot; the three phase primary currents ILa, ILb and ILc, and the
three phase input inductor currents IL1, IL2 and IL3 in the bottom plot. For the secondary voltages, it is
defined that V2=VoutN, where N=Np/Ns is the turn ratio of the transformer. There is a phase difference of 120
degrees between A, B and C and a phase shift angle)between the primary and secondary voltages.

Figure 2.  Key operating waveforms of the converter

3. Mathematical Model

In order to simplify the analysis, it is assumed that the three phases of the converter are identical. At
a time, only one upper switch or lower switch is on in the two three-phase bridges of both LVS and HVS,
the voltage of the neutral points P and S on both sides of the transformer maintain fixed values, so it is
reasonable to analyze the converter based on its single-phase operating waveforms and commutation
processes.
Ignoring the switching time and the dead time, for phase A, there are four main combinations of
switching steps over a switching period of T, namely step I-IV, as indicated in Fig. 3. A brief description
of each step is described as follows, where La represents the high frequency transformer leakage
inductance, and Zrepresents the switching angular velocity.

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Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

Figure 3.  Simplified operating modes of the converter

A. Step(t<t<t): Switches S1 and S8 are switched on.

2
1
(1)
V1  V2
3
3
2
1
( V1  V2 )I
3

I La (t)  3
Z La

'V

I La (t )

B. Step (t<t<t): Switches S1 and S7 are switched on.

'V

I La (t )

2
2
V1  V2
3
3

(3)

2
2
2S
( V1  V2 )
3
3
3  V2I 
I La (t) 
Z La
Z La

C. Step (t<t<t): Switches S2 and S7 are switched on.

'V

I La (t )

1
2
 V1  V2
3
3

(5)

2
2
2S
1
1
( V1  V2 )
( V1  V2 )I
3
3
3
3
3
I La (t) 


Z Ls
Z Ls

D. Step (t<t<t): Switches S2 and S8 are switched on.

'V

1
1
 V1  V2
3
3

(7)

Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

I La (t )

I La (t) 

Due to the fact that the voltage applied to the primary side of the transformer is pure AC, the current
should also be pure AC. Hence, the integration of the transformer current over a period is zero, i.e.
I La (t)  I La (t )
I (t )  I La (t ) 2S
(
 I )  
I  La
2
2
3
I (t )  I La (t )
I (t )  I La (t ) 4S
I  La
(  I ) 0 
 La
2
2
3

The current at the four switching points can be found from (2), (4), (6), (8) and (9), and is expressed in
(10).
V2I
(V1  V2 )2S

I La (t)  3Z L  9Z L
a
a

2V1I (V1  V2 )2S


I La (t )
3Z La
9Z La



2
V
(
V
I
2
1  V2 )2S
I (t )

La
3Z La
9Z La

I (t )  V1I  (V1  V2 )2S

La
3Z La
9Z La

Since it is assumed the three phases of the converter are balanced, there is La= Lb = Lc= Ls, where Ls is
the leakage inductance of the transformer. The power transfer characteristic of the TPDAB can be derived
as (11):
T

Po

Wo
T

3 Va2 P I La dt
0

3V1V2 2 I
I (  ) 
Z Ls 9 4S

3RSX

Figure 4 shows the output characteristics of the converter with different leakage inductance Ls. The
converter output power Po is determined by the phase shift angle). The maximum power occurs at 4/9
for the curves, which are symmetrical to the vertical axis at 4/9. As Ls increases, the maximum output
power decreases.

Figure 4.  Output characteristics of the converter

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4. Soft-swithching Principle and Criterias

The TPDAB is the three-phase derivation of the DAB. In [3], the soft-switching principle of the DAB
topology was analyzed. ZVS was achieved due to the resonance of the switch parallel capacitances and
the transformer leakage inductance. Similarly, with the switching time taken into account, the operating
modes of the TPDAB can be redrawn more detailed as indicated in Fig.5. Over a switching period of T,
there are 13 combinations of switching steps.
The soft switching of each device in either direction of power flow is demonstrated by exploring the
commutation process in boost mode. For the switches S1, S2, S7 and S8, their body diodes are represented
as D1, D2, D7 and D8, their parasitic capacitances are represented as Cs1, Cs2, Cs7 and Cs8, the voltages across
their source terminal and drain terminal are represented as VDS(S1), VDS(S2), VDS(S7) and VDS(S8), respectively.
Step 1): (before t1): S1 and the body diode of S7 are conducting.
Step 2): At t1, S1 is turned off. Cs1, Cs2 and La begin to resonate, making VDS(S2) fall from V1. Va2p also
drops from 2V1/3. The rate of change depends on the magnitude of Ioff, which is the difference
between ILa and IL1 at t2.
Step 3): At t2, VDS(S2) attempts to overshoot the negative rail. D2 is therefore forward biased. During this
period, S2 can be gated on at zero voltage.
Step 4): From t3, ILa is less than IL1, so S2 begins to transfer current from D2. ILa keeps on decreasing
until it is equal to 0 at t4. D7 is thereby still conducting until t4.
Step 5): From t4 to t5, ILa begins to change polarity; therefore, current is commutated from D7 to S7.
Step 6): At t5, S7 is gated to turn off. Cs7 and Cs8 begin to be charged and discharged, respectively. The
rate of change of the voltage depends ILa on at t5.
Step 7): At t6, when VDS(S8) attempts to overshoot the negative rail, D8 is forward biased. During this
period, S8 can be gated on at any time at zero voltage.
Step 8): At t7, S2 is gated off. Cs1, Cs2 and La begin to resonant again, making VDS(S1) discharge from V1.
Va2p therefore increases from V1/3. The rate of change now is decided primarily by the sum of
the magnitude of ILa and IL1.
Step 9): At t8, when VDS(S1) attempts to overshoot the positive rail, D1 is forward biased. ILa increases
until it equals 0 at t9. During this period, S1 can be gated on at zero voltage.
Step 10): From t9 to t10, ILa begins to change its polarity and continue to increase until it equals IL1. The
current is commutated from D8 to S8.
Step 11): From t10 to t11, IL1 begins to exceed IL1. The current is transferred from D1 to S1.
Step 12): At t11, S8 is gated to turn off. Cs7 and Cs8 begin to be charged and discharged again. The
charge/discharge rate depends mainly on the magnitude of ILa at t11.
Step 13): At t12, when VDS(S3) attempts to overshoot the positive rail, D3 is forward biased. The circuit
returns to the original steady state. During this period, S3 can be gated on any time at zero
voltage.

Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148


Figure 5.  Detailed operating modes of the converter

From Fig. 5, it is clear that the conditions of soft switching in boost mode depend on the magnitude of
ILa and IL1 at t1, t5, t7 and t11, respectively. This is summarized as:
I La (t1 )  I L1 (t1 )

I La (t5 ) ! 0


I La (t7 ) ! I L1 (t7 )
I La (t11 )  0

The dc bias part IL1_DC of IL1 can be derived from (11), and is expressed in (13).
I L1_ DC

Po 3
V1 3

3V2 2 I
I (  ) 
Z Ls 9 4S

Over a switching period T, when S2 is on, the voltage across L1 is V1/3; when S1 is on, the voltage
across L1 is 2V1/3, so the ac part IL1_AC of IL1 can be expressed in (14).
V1S

I L1_ AC (t1 ) 9Z L

1


V
1S
I
(t ) 
L1_ AC 7
9Z L1

Therefore, the values of IL1 at t1 and t7 are summarized as:

3V2 2 I
V1S

I L1 (t1 ) Z L I ( 9  4S )  9Z L

1
s


I (t ) 3V2 I ( 2  I )  V1S
L1 7
Z Ls 9 4S 9Z L1

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Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

By introducing an output voltage ratio M=V2/V1, the soft-switching criterias of the converter can be
derived from (12) and (15), and is summarized as:
2S  3I
V2 8S 2 L1  4S 2 Ls
M



V1 8S 2 L1  27I 2 L1 
2S
2
2
8S  36IS  27I ! 0

The soft-switching region is shown by the shaded area in Fig. 6, where the horizontal axis is shift phase
angle), and the vertical axis is the output power Po in per-unit normalized by the maximum power for M
=1. Curves showing the relationship between the output power and phase shift angle with different output
voltage ratios (from 0.4 to 1.2) are also plotted.

0 
0 
0 
0 
0 


Figure 6.  Soft-switching area of the converter

From Fig. 6, it is clear that the soft switching region is the largest when M =1, and it narrows as the
phase shift angle decreases, which makes the soft-switching difficult to achieve.
5. Simulation Verification and Experimental Result

An OrCAD PSpice model rated at 2.4kW was built for converter simulation. In this model, the threephase circuits are identical and there is a phase difference of 120 degrees between them. The parameters of
the converter are set as follows:
L1=L2=L3=50PH, La=Lb=Lc=1PH, C1=C2=0.02F, R=
100:, the switching frequency fs is set at 20kHz, and the transformer turn ratio N=Np/Ns is set at 1/12.
The phase shift angles ) between the primary and secondary voltages of the three converters are the
same. Fig. 7 shows the boost mode main waveforms for )=43.2. In the figure, while only phase A
voltage are shown, phase B and C voltages are exactly same except a 120 degrees phase difference. Fig. 8
shows the voltages VDS(S1) and VDS(S7) across the source and drain terminals of S1 and S7 for )=43.2.

Figure 7.  Key simulation waveforms of the converter

Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

Figure 8.  Voltage and current simulation waveforms of S1 and S7

From Fig. 8, it can be seen that the voltage of the 12V net was boosted to 36V, which is the voltage V1
of C1. The output voltage Vout of the HV net reached 210V. All the switches achieved ZVS in the softswitching area.
A converter prototype rated at 500W was built to verify the analysis and modeling. 6 MOSFETs were
used in both sides of the converter. A coupling three-phase inductor with five windings on the five legs
was used as input inductor L1~L3. A three-phase transformer with its primary windings star connected was
used to isolate the HVS and LVS. Three extra inductors were used to achieve the desired total leakage
inductance value. Texas Instruments TMS320F2808 was used for real-time control. The control system
hardware includes the DSP board, the isolated driving circuits, the isolated overvoltage and overcurrent
detection circuits, CAN bus, RS232, USB and single-chip Ethernet communication circuits. A PC host
program is designed for supervision. The switching frequency was set to 20kHz. An oscilloscope was used
to record the waveforms. Fig. 9 shows waveforms of voltage Va2p, currents ILa and IL1. Fig. 10 shows the
waveforms of voltage VDS(S1), VDS(S7) across the source and drain terminals of S1, S7, and currents IS1, IS7
which flows through S1, S7, respectively.

Figure 9.  Key experimental waveforms of the converter

Figure 10. Voltage and current experimental waveforms of S1 and S7

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Zhang Xuan et al. / Physics Procedia 24 (2012) 139 148

As shown in Fig. 10, it can be seen that the output voltage Vout of the HV net reached 302V. All the
switches achieved ZVS in the soft-switching area. Further tests need to be done in buck mode and to test
the efficiency of the converter.
Conclusion

In this paper, a three-phase current-fed dual active bridge bidirectional dc-dc converter which can
achieve ZVS in a large range is discussed. The mathematic model and the power transfer characteristic are
analyzed. The soft-switching principle is described and its criterias is derived. The simulation and
experimental results verified the validity of the proposed circuit.
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