Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2793
Date of Award
3-2024
Degree Name
MS in Electrical Engineering
Department/Program
Electrical Engineering
College
College of Engineering
Advisor
Taufik
Advisor Department
Electrical Engineering
Advisor College
College of Engineering
Abstract
This work explores the design, construction, and analysis of a novel DC-DC converter which incorporates combinations of switching capacitors and inductors to achieve an integer voltage divider function, without the need for a feedback loop controller to achieve the desired output voltage. The proposed Hybrid Voltage Divider additionally provides zero voltage switching (ZVS) at turn on transitions which yields improved overall efficiency of the converter. Besides a proof-of-concept via computer simulations, another primary goal of this thesis is to demonstrate the functionalities of the proposed Zero Voltage Switching Hybrid Voltage Divider (ZVS-HVD) through hardware prototyping. The proposed ZVS-HVD was designed and constructed to provide a 2:1 division with 24V input voltage at 120W maximum output power utilizing 500kHz switching frequency. Findings from simulations and hardware tests verify that the converter effectively provides the desired 12V output at varying loads with less than 5% voltage ripple. The efficiency of the converter reaches 95.02% at full load and peak efficiency of 96.33% at 55% load. Moreover, the converter consistently maintains the ZVS operations across all switches under varying loads. Overall, results verify the feasibility of the proposed ZVS HVD converter as an alternative solution in providing high efficiency DC voltage division without the need for complex feedback circuitry.