KR-102962855-B1 - SWITCHED-CAPACITOR CONVERTER WITH MULTI-TAPPED AUTOTRANSFORMER

KR102962855B1KR 102962855 B1KR102962855 B1KR 102962855B1KR-102962855-B1

Abstract

The power system includes a switch-capacitor converter, a multi-tap autotransformer, and an output stage. The multi-tap autotransformer includes a plurality of primary windings. The switch-capacitor converter includes a plurality of circuit paths coupled to the primary windings. For example, a first circuit path includes a first capacitor; and a second circuit path includes a second capacitor. The power supply further includes a controller that controlsably switches an input voltage to the first circuit path and the second circuit path, which transfers energy to the primary windings of the multi-tap autotransformer. The output stage of the power supply is coupled to receive energy from a combination of the first primary winding and the second primary winding of the multi-tap autotransformer. Through the received energy, the output stage generates an output voltage that supplies power to a load.

Inventors

리초라티, 로베르토
라이너, 크리스티안
비에덴바우어, 오토

Assignees

인피니언 테크놀로지스 오스트리아 아게

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20200424
Priority Date: 20190429

Claims (20)

As a device, A switch-type capacitor converter including multiple capacitors; A multi-tap automatic transformer comprising a first primary winding and a second primary winding - a plurality of capacitors of the switch-type capacitor converter, which are controllably switched in circuit paths, comprising the first primary winding and the second primary winding - ; and An output stage coupled to receive energy from the combination of the first primary winding and the second primary winding of the above multi-tap automatic transformer, and operable to generate an output voltage to supply power to a load. Includes, A device in which the first primary winding, the second primary winding, and the secondary winding of the above multi-tap automatic transformer are connected in series.
In claim 1, the first primary winding, the second primary winding, and the secondary winding of the multi-tap automatic transformer are magnetically coupled to each other.
In paragraph 2, the secondary winding is center-tapped, and the output is a device that generates the output voltage at the output stage.
As a device, A switch-type capacitor converter including multiple capacitors; A transformer comprising a first primary winding and a second primary winding - a plurality of capacitors of the switch-capacitor converter, which are controllably switched in circuit paths, comprising the first primary winding and the second primary winding - ; and An output stage coupled to receive energy from the combination of the first primary winding and the second primary winding of the transformer, and operable to generate an output voltage to supply power to a load. Includes, A device in which the first primary winding and the second primary winding are connected in series through the secondary winding of the transformer.
A device according to claim 4, further comprising an inductor connected in parallel with the secondary winding of the transformer.
In paragraph 4, the secondary winding is center-tapped, and the output is a device that generates the output voltage.
In paragraph 5, the above-mentioned switch-type capacitor converter comprises a plurality of switches; The above inductor is a device that operates to provide zero voltage switching of the plurality of switches within the above switch-capacitor converter.
In claim 1, the plurality of capacitors of the switch-type capacitor converter comprises a first capacitor and a second capacitor; The above device A first resonant circuit path comprising a combination of the first capacitor and the first primary winding; and A device further comprising a second resonant circuit path including a combination of the second capacitor and the second primary winding.
In paragraph 8, An apparatus further comprising a controller operable to switch between i) coupling the first resonant circuit path to an input voltage, and ii) coupling the second resonant circuit path to the input voltage.
In claim 1, the switch-type capacitor converter comprises a first flying capacitor and a second flying capacitor, wherein the first flying capacitor is coupled in series with the first primary winding and the second flying capacitor is coupled in series with the second primary winding.
In claim 1, the switch-type capacitor converter is a device comprising a plurality of switches operable to transfer energy from a voltage source to each of the first primary winding and the second primary winding.
In claim 1, the switch-capacitor converter is a device comprising a plurality of resonant circuit paths operable to transfer energy from an input voltage source to the first primary winding and the second primary winding.
As a method, Step of receiving energy from an input voltage source; A step of controllatably switching a plurality of capacitor circuit paths to transfer the energy from the input voltage source to the first primary winding and the second primary winding of the multi-tap automatic transformer - the multi-tap automatic transformer is operable to transfer the energy to an output stage - ; and In the output stage above, a step of generating an output voltage to supply power to a load through the energy received from the multi-tap automatic transformer. Includes, A method in which the first primary winding, the second primary winding, and the secondary winding of the above multi-tap automatic transformer are connected in series.
In paragraph 13, the step of controllingly switching a plurality of capacitor circuit paths includes the step of rectifying the output of the multi-tap automatic transformer to generate the output voltage.
In paragraph 13, the multi-tap automatic transformer comprises a center-tapped secondary winding, and the center-tapped secondary winding generates the output voltage.
A method according to claim 13, further comprising the step of providing zero voltage switching of a plurality of switches in a switch-capacitor converter through an inductor.
In paragraph 13, the plurality of capacitor circuit paths comprises i) a first resonant circuit path comprising a combination of a first capacitor and the first primary winding, and ii) a second resonant circuit path comprising a combination of a second capacitor and the second primary winding; A method comprising the step of controllably switching a plurality of capacitor circuit paths, switching between i) coupling the first resonant circuit path to an input voltage, and ii) coupling the second resonant circuit path to the input voltage.
In claim 13, the step of generating the output voltage to supply power to the load comprises the step of converting the output from the secondary winding of the multi-tap automatic transformer into the output voltage.
Computer-readable storage hardware in which instructions are stored, wherein when the instructions are executed by computer processor hardware, the computer processor hardware causes A plurality of capacitor circuit paths are controllably switched to transfer energy from an input voltage source to a first primary winding and a second primary winding of a multi-tap automatic transformer, wherein the first primary winding, the second primary winding, and the secondary winding of the multi-tap automatic transformer are connected in series, and the multi-tap automatic transformer is operable to transfer the energy to an output stage of a voltage converter; and In the output stage above, an output voltage is generated to supply power to the load through the energy received from the multi-tap automatic transformer. Computer-readable storage hardware.
In claim 1, the output stage comprises a secondary winding magnetically coupled to the first primary winding and the second primary winding, and the secondary winding is a device operable to generate the output voltage.

Description

Switched-Capacitor Converter with Multi-Tapped Autotransformer As its name suggests, conventional switch-capacitor DC-DC converters convert a received DC input voltage into a DC output voltage. In one conventional application, the input voltage to a conventional switch-to-capacitor converter falls within the range of 40VDC to 60VDC. In this example, the switches within the switch-to-capacitor converter are controlled to transfer the charge stored in each capacitor, resulting in the conversion of an input voltage such as 48VDC to an output voltage such as 12VDC for a so-called conventional 4:1 switch-to-capacitor converter. In other words, a conventional switch-to-capacitor converter can be configured to convert a 48VDC voltage to a 12VDC voltage. To avoid so-called hard switching in a switched-capacitor converter, the switches within the switched-capacitor converter are preferably switched when there is nearly zero voltage across them and nearly zero current flows through them. Undesirable hard switching in conventional switch-to-capacitor converters can be mitigated by placing individual inductors in series with each capacitor within each stage of the switch-to-capacitor converter. This results in a resonant (or anti-resonant) switching converter. Such switch-to-capacitor converters are sometimes referred to as switch-to-tank converters (STCs). The resonant tank circuit formed by the series connection of inductors and capacitors has an associated resonant frequency based on the inductance and capacitance of these elements. The switching of switches within a conventional switched-capacitor converter at each resonant frequency causes so-called zero-current switching (ZCS), which reduces switching losses and provides good power conversion efficiency. The present disclosure includes the view that the power conversion efficiency of conventional switch-capacitor converters can be improved. For example, for this purpose, embodiments of the present invention include novel methods that provide improved performance of a switch-capacitor converter and efficient generation of a corresponding output voltage. More specifically, according to one embodiment, a device (such as a power source) comprises a switch-type capacitor converter, a multi-tap autotransformer, and an output stage. The multi-tap autotransformer comprises a plurality of primary windings and at least one secondary winding (such as a plurality of secondary windings). The switch-type capacitor converter comprises a plurality of circuit paths coupled to the primary windings. For example, a first circuit path of the switch-type capacitor converter comprises a first capacitor, and a second circuit path of the switch-type capacitor converter comprises a second capacitor. The power source further comprises a controller that controlsably switches an input voltage to the first circuit path and the second circuit path (such as in the primary stage) to deliver energy to the primary windings of the multi-tap autotransformer. An output stage of the power source (such as a secondary stage) is coupled to receive energy delivered from a combination of the first primary winding and the second primary winding of the multi-tap autotransformer. Through the received energy, the output stage generates an output voltage to supply power to a load. Note that any one or more of the power components, such as switched-capacitor converters, transformers, multi-tap automatic transformers, voltage converter controllers, etc., can be implemented as hardware (such as circuits), software (and corresponding executed instructions), or a combination of hardware and software. According to additional embodiments, a power source such as that described herein comprises a unique multi-tap automatic transformer in which a first primary winding and a second primary winding are connected in series with respect to a secondary winding. More specifically, the first primary winding is connected in series with the secondary winding; and the second primary winding is connected in series with the secondary winding. It is further noted that a multi-tap automatic transformer such as that described herein may be configured such that the secondary winding is inductively coupled to the first primary winding and the second primary winding. In one embodiment, the first primary winding, the second primary winding, and the secondary winding(s) are magnetically coupled to each other. If desired, the secondary winding(s) are center-tapped to facilitate generating an output voltage from the output of the center-tapped winding. According to additional embodiments, a power source such as that described herein includes an inductor connected across the nodes of a multi-tap autotransformer. In one embodiment, the inductor is connected in parallel with one or more secondary windings of the multi-tap autotransformer. The inductor provides zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the switches within the switched-capacitor converter.