Experimental Verification of DC/DC Converter with Full-Bridge Active Rectifier

The half-bridge converter with a phase-shifted active rectifier bypasses the traditional hard-switched half-bridge converter with a diode rectifier regarding to high switching losses and parasitic oscillations in the inverter. The presented galvanically isolated step-down DC/DC converter with an improved control algorithm for the full-bridge active rectifier features reduced energy circulation and switching losses. The performance can be improved under wide input voltage and load variations. The advantages of the converter were verified with a 1 kW converter prototype and the test results were in full agreement with the expected waveforms. The presented steady-state operation principle and mathematical analysis of the converter based on the simulation and experimental results can be used as design guidelines for component and parameter estimation in practical applications.