LLC Resonant Converters as Isolated Power Factor Corrector Pre-Regulators—Analysis and Performance Evaluation

Matteo Sucameli and Claudio Adragna ()
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Matteo Sucameli: STMicroelectronics, 20864 Agrate Brianza, MB, Italy
Claudio Adragna: STMicroelectronics, 20864 Agrate Brianza, MB, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-31

Abstract: The power supply of many applications running off the power line is made up of an isolated dc-dc converter powered by a front-end power factor corrector (PFC) stage. The PFC stage ensures compliance with the electromagnetic compatibility regulations but does not usually provide safety isolation since it is typically implemented with a boost converter. Lately, the increase in multi-output power supplies, especially in lighting and USB Power Delivery applications, has raised the need for an isolated PFC at power levels where currently there is not an industry standard solution. This isolated PFC is intended to power one or more non-isolated post-regulators to enable a substantial simplification of the overall architecture and a cost reduction. The usage of an LLC resonant converter as an isolated PFC has been considered and demonstrated only quite recently, raising the industry’s attention due to the favorable converter’s characteristics that have led to its success as a dc-dc converter. This paper provides two significant contributions. Firstly, it provides a quantitative assessment of the difference in the results obtained by designing an LLC-based PFC converter based on the first harmonic approximation analysis or the time-domain analysis by applying them to the design of the same converter. Secondly, it demonstrates that designing an LLC-based PFC converter to work also in the above-resonance region optimizes its performance by reducing the (magnetizing) reactive current in the resonant tank and, therefore, the rms currents on both the input and the output side and the related power loss.

Keywords: power quality; THD; isolated PFC; LLC resonant converter; LLC PFC; first harmonic approximation; FHA; time-domain analysis; TDA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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