Design and implementation of a high-frequency LC-based half-bridge resonant converter for dielectric barrier discharge ozone generator

This study describes the design and implementation of a high-frequency resonant converter based on the transformerless half-bridge inverter topology. The transformer can be omitted because the voltage gain of the 'LC' tank circuit (without transformer) is sufficiently high to overcome the initiation voltage and to maintain steady ozone yield. Another important contribution of the work is the increase in operating frequencies, that is, up to 95 kHz. This increase has two main benefits: (i) smaller resonant component values (which lead to a smaller size of converter) and (ii) lower initiation voltage. To validate the theory, the high-frequency power converter is designed and tested on a dielectric barrier discharge chamber. It is shown that ozone yield is improved and the ozone formation starts at lower chamber voltages. The experimental and simulation results are found to be in close agreement and hence to validate the design procedures.