Optimized Design of Bi-Directional Dual Active Bridge Converter for Low-Voltage Battery Charger

This study proposes an optimized design of a dual active bridge converter for a low-voltage charger in a military uninterrupted power supply (UPS) system. The dual active bridge converter is among various bi-directional DC/DC converters that possess a high-efficiency isolated hi-directional converter. In the general design, the zero-voltage switching(ZVS) region is reduced when the battery voltage is high. By contrast, efficiency is low because of high conduction losses when the battery voltage is low. Variable switching frequency is applied to increase the ZVS region and the power conversion efficiency, depending on battery voltage changes. At the same duty, the same power is obtained regardless of the battery voltage using the variable switching frequency. The proposed method is applied to a 5 kW prototype dual active bridge converter, and the experimental results are analyzed and verified.