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Investigation of Gallium Nitride Devices in High-Frequency LLC Resonant Converters
- Source :
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics. 32:571-583
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017.
-
Abstract
- Newly emerged gallium nitride (GaN) devices feature ultrafast switching speed and low on-state resistance that potentially provide significant improvements for power converters. This paper investigates the benefits of GaN devices in an LLC resonant converter and quantitatively evaluates GaN devices’ capabilities to improve converter efficiency. First, the relationship of device and converter design parameters to the device loss is established based on an analytical model of LLC resonant converter operating at the resonance. Due to the low effective output capacitance of GaN devices, the GaN-based design demonstrates about 50% device loss reduction compared with the Si-based design. Second, a new perspective on the extra transformer winding loss due to the asymmetrical primary-side and secondary-side current is proposed. The device and design parameters are tied to the winding loss based on the winding loss model in the finite element analysis (FEA) simulation. Compared with the Si-based design, the winding loss is reduced by 18% in the GaN-based design. Finally, in order to verify the GaN device benefits experimentally, 400- to 12-V, 300-W, 1-MHz GaN-based and Si-based LLC resonant converter prototypes are built and tested. One percent efficiency improvement, which is 24.8% loss reduction, is achieved in the GaN-based converter.
- Subjects :
- 010302 applied physics
Materials science
business.industry
020208 electrical & electronic engineering
Electrical engineering
Gallium nitride
02 engineering and technology
Converters
01 natural sciences
Capacitance
Finite element method
Power (physics)
Switching time
chemistry.chemical_compound
chemistry
Electromagnetic coil
0103 physical sciences
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
Electrical and Electronic Engineering
business
Ultrashort pulse
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19410107 and 08858993
- Volume :
- 32
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........f474676fab7206e3f6c20f7c987c4a22