Control of high-frequency AC link electronic transformer

An isolated high-frequency link AC/AC converter is termed an electronic transformer. The electronic transformer has size and cost advantages over a conventional transformer because of high-frequency operation of the magnetic core. Of the various topologies of electronic transformer, the high-frequency AC link electronic transformer achieves high-frequency AC power transformation without a DC link. The circuit uses the standard H-bridge, one on either side of the high-frequency transformer. A novel PWM scheme is proposed, which symmetrically delays and advances the phase of the left and right legs of the front-side converter with respect to the output-side converter. The proposed scheme introduces freewheeling sub-periods, which results in zero voltage switching in the output-side converter. The electronic transformer as an AC automatic voltage regulator (AVR) offers distinct advantages over a conventional servo voltage stabiliser in terms of size and speed of response. The AVR application is discussed and experimental results of a 500 VA AVR are presented. A four-quadrant switch presents difficulties in turning off inductive load current because of the absence of a freewheeling path in the switch. A biasing circuit is proposed to convert the potentially lossy switching transition into lossless transition. Simulation and experimental results with the biasing circuit are presented.