ZVS/ZVT resonant choke with voltage clamp winding
AssigneeAstec International Limited
InventorManolo Mariano M. Melgarejo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A zero voltage switching (ZVS) or zero voltage transition (ZVT) bridge converter for driving a rectifier circuit. A clamp winding or inductor is placed in parallel with a resonant choke of the bridge converter. The clamp winding clamps the voltage at the resonant choke. Clamping the resonant choke in turn limits the voltage at the secondary winding of an output transformer. The output transformer is connected to the rectifier circuit. By limiting the voltage at the output transformer, the voltage at the rectifier circuit is limited as well.
Claims16
In a soft-switching DC/DC converter including a positive voltage input terminal and a negative voltage input terminal interconnected by a semiconductor switching device, a transformer, and an output rectifier circuit coupled to a secondary winding of the transformer, an apparatus for clamping the voltage across the output rectifier circuit comprising:
- first and second clamp diodes connected in series across the positive and negative voltage input terminals;
- a resonant inductor coupled in series with a primary winding of the transformer;
- and
- a voltage clamp circuit, the voltage clamp circuit including an inductor mutually coupled with the resonant inductor, the inductor having a first terminal connected to one of an end or an intermediate tap of the resonant inductor and having a second terminal connected to a common node of the first and second clamp diodes, the voltage clamp circuit limiting the voltage at the output rectifier circuit.
A soft-switching DC/DC converter comprising:
- a positive input terminal and a negative voltage input terminal;
- a semiconductor switching device interconnecting the positive and negative voltage input terminals;
- a transformer having a primary winding and a secondary winding;
- an output rectifier circuit coupled to the secondary winding of the transformer;
- first and second clamp diodes connected in series across the positive and negative voltage input terminals;
- a resonant inductor coupled in series with the primary winding of the transformer;
- and
- a voltage clamp circuit, the voltage clamp circuit including an inductor mutually coupled with the resonant inductor, the inductor having a first terminal connected to one of an end or an intermediate tap of the resonant inductor and having a second terminal connected to a common node of the first and second clamp diodes the voltage clamp circuit limiting the voltage at the output rectifier circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.