Secondary-Side Resonating LLC Converter for Reducing Transformer Voltage in High Power Applications

The data centers of the telecommunication infrastructure are recently consuming more electric power than before. This increasing electrical burden is requiring a small but high-power isolated power converter with a high step-down ratio. Conventionally, the LLC converter is regarded to be a promising candidate, although this converter needs vacant space for galvanic isolation due to extremely high voltage caused by the resonance in the primary side, i.e. high voltage side, of the isolation transformer, which hinders the compact implementation inside the server computers in high power design. The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel LLC converter topology to reduce this extremely high voltage by locating the LC resonator on the secondary side. The performance analysis revealed that the proposed converter exhibits a similar frequency-voltage characteristic enabling the boost and buck operation modes as well as the small rectifier conduction loss similar to the full-wave rectifier with a center-tapped transformer. The simulation confirmed the operating principles and reduction of the resonance voltage amplitude of the proposed LLC converter in comparison with the conventional LLC converter. Furthermore, the experiment also supported the operating principles, which suggests the usefulness of the proposed converter for a high voltage dc power supply system.