A novel self-excited forward DC-DC converter with zero-voltage-switched resonant transitions using a saturable core

A novel self-excited forward DC-DC power converter is proposed. The turn-on and turn-off of the switch are zero-voltage-switching with resonant transition. A saturable core is used to achieve the self-excitation and the zero-voltage-switched resonant transition. The voltage waveform across the switch is trapezoidal with sinusoidal transitions, and the current waveform flowing through the switch is quasisquare. The switching losses, the conduction losses and the stresses of the switch are significantly reduced in the proposed power converter. The output voltage is determined by the ON duty ratio of the switch as in a PWM converter. Two methods to modulate the ON duty ratio are proposed. Both methods results in variable-frequency operation. Experiments on two 5 V, 20 A DC-DC power converters show good performance