A Transformerless Dual Active Bridge DC-DC Converter for Point-of-load Power Supplies

Point-of-load (POL) power supplies contribute significantly to the overall volume, weight, and cost of many electronic devices. This comes as no surprise given the major power density limitations of the buck converter commonly used in these applications. The goal of this thesis is to present a solution which addresses these limitations. This is achieved through the proposal of a novel converter topology, referred to as a transformerless dual active bridge (DAB) dc-dc converter. The proposed converter uses an ac-link to transfer power, instead of the more conventional dc-link, since it offers a significant reduction in the volume of the bulky inductor, as well as soft switching and 50% duty cycle operation of all active devices. The advantages of the proposed converter have been verified with a 12-3.3 V, 10 A, 0.3-1 MHz experimental prototype. The results demonstrate a reduction of approximately 50% in the volume of reactive components, while maintaining high power processing efficiency.M.A.S