4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives

Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

PLL Control Technique of LLC Resonant Converter

for EVs Battery Charger
Erdem Asa, Kerim olak, Dariusz Czarkowski, Fracisco de Len

brahim Sefa

Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Polytechnic Institute of New York University
New York, USA

Electrical and Electronics Engineering,

Faculty of Technology, Gazi University
Ankara, Turkey

AbstractIn this paper, LLC resonant converter simulation with

Phase Locked Loop (PLL) control technique is demonstrated for
Electric Vehicles (EVs) battery charger. In order to have an
efficient energy transfer among variable converter components,
special control techniques of the converter must be considered to
diminish switching losses. The presented LLC resonant converter
is controlled under soft-switching conditions with respect to the
different input voltages and load conditions. Furthermore, to
decrease the battery charging time, constant current and
constant voltage control methods are used. The design of the
DC/DC resonant converter which outputs 60 V / 20 A with an
input of 240 V is simulated delivering 1.2 kW. The simulation
results show that PLL control technique makes the input current
and the input voltage in phase under different output load and
input voltage conditions.

ensures high efficiency at the resonant frequency within a wide

range of load variations [7]. However, the variable circuit
components cause sliding of the resonant frequency. This
decreases the converter efficiency. Therefore, the converter
should be operated by tracking the resonant frequency.

Keywords-phase locked loop (PLL), resonant LLC, converter

The circuit topology has mainly two stages: one is AC/DC

converter and the other is DC/DC converter. The AC/DC unit
secures the input power factor with PFC, while; the DC/DC
unit provides the control of the system and galvanic isolation
with the half bridge LLC resonant converter. Considering cost,
reliability and efficiency, LLC resonant converter is the
appropriate topology for EVs chargers [8].

I.

INTRODUCTION

Fast and efficient EVs chargers are becoming an

increasingly important for lithium-ion battery technologies.
Compared to other battery types, lithium-ion batteries provide
high power and energy for electrical vehicles [1]. However, the
charging process of these batteries is very complex due to the
high voltage and current densities [2]. This requires
comprehensive charging control to achieve high efficiency and
fast charging.
According to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE),
there are two formations to recharge EV batteries: on-board
and off-board chargers [3]. However, the most common EV
charger is on-board with the charging power up to 1.9 kW for
Level 1 and up to 19.2 kW for Level 2 [4]. A general EV
charger system is shown in Figure 1. It consists of an AC/DC
converter stage with a rectifier and a power factor corrector
(PFC), and a DC/DC converter stage with a LLC resonant
converter [5, 6].

Figure 1. General EVs charger circuit

The input voltage is rectified and the input power factor is

improved by PFC in the AC/DC converter stage. The converter

978-1-4673-6392-1/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

POWERENG 2013

In this paper, the maximum power transfer to EV battery

charger is obtained by using PLL control technique in the
DC/DC converter stage. In addition, constant voltage and
constant current (CV-CC) controls are performed in the output
for fast charging. In this way the output voltage and current are
restricted to predefined values. Simulations are performed in
MATLAB/Simulink program.
II.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Figure 2. Power factor corrector

PFC has to be taken into account to satisfy the standard IEC

6100-3-2 for EVs battery charger. PFC circuit is shown in
Figure 2. It has a front-end rectifier and a boost PWM DC/DC
converter [9].
The selected method for battery charging is another
important issue for EVs battery life and fast charging. The
battery charging should be achieved with low ripple voltage
and low ripple current. Besides, EVs charger should have

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high efficiency with small size. Resonant LLC converter can

satisfy the factors mentioned above using soft-switching and
switching at resonant frequency [10]. Temperature, aging of
components, and magnetizing inductance affect resonant
circuit parameters.
The resonant LLC converter is operated at resonant
frequency in order to transfer maximum power to the battery.
The switching frequency which is below or above the resonant
frequency produces high switching losses and increased
temperature rise in the switching devices [11]. Additionally,
conduction losses of the MOSFET rise when the temperature
increases because of the mobility of electrons and the mobility
of holes [7].

Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

f rs =

1
2

(2)

Lr C r

Although (2) is described as the resonant frequency in some

of the application notes and publications [4-13-14-15], the
resonant frequency can be calculated via equivalent circuit of
LLC converter in Figures 4a-b.

Due to aging factors, the values of the components vary

with time. Capacitor charge and discharge cycle change over
time. In addition, high temperatures deteriorate their electrical
properties [12].
Transformers have some tolerance in the design and
manufacturing process. These tolerance values can affect the
design parameters [13].
Variable component values change the resonant frequency
in the circuit, so that power transfer efficiency decreases.
Therefore, the control method should compensate the
component value changes. This paper proposes a PLL control
technique for EVs battery charger.
III.

Figure 4. Equivalent circuit of the resonant LLC converter

RL is a load resistance and the primary side equivalent of

the load is

Ri =

2 n 2V o
8Io

2 n 2 RL

(3)

Since Ri and Lm is connected in parallel, the equivalent

series resistance is

LLC RESONANT CONVERTER DESIGN

Rs =

Ri
Ri
1+

w R Lm

(4)

(5)

The equivalent series inductance is

Figure 3. Resonant LLC converter

A class D resonant LLC half bridge resonant converter is

shown in Figure 3. It consists of a class D resonant LLC
inverter and a center tapped rectifier. Resonant capacitor Cr,
resonant inductance Lr and magnetizing inductance Lm form
the resonant network. The characteristic of circuit is explained
by the following parameters:
is

The corner frequency (or the undamped natural frequency)

fo =

1
2

(L

+ Lm C r

(1)

The critical frequency is equal to the corner frequency at no

load condition, which it is given by:

Ls =

Lm
w L
1+ R m
Ri

The resonant frequency is

fr =

1
2

(6)

Lr + Ls C r

The characteristic impedance is

Z o = 2 f o ( L r + L m ) =

1
=
2 f o C r

( Lr + Lm )
Cr

(7)

The quality factor is

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives

Q =

Ri
2 n 2 RL
=
Zo
8Z o

(8)

The ratio between two inductances is

A=

n=

Lr
Lm

(9)

M V m ax =

V out
,
Vin , m in

f sw
fo

(10)

Cr =

1
A
1
1
+ j fn

n 2 (1 + A ) 1

Q
A
+
f
1
fn
n

(11)

The voltage gain is plotted for different quality factors in

Figure 5. Higher quality factors give higher voltage gains. The
maximum voltage transfer gain occurs at the resonant
frequency, which depends on the load condition. This
frequency varies between the corner frequency and the critical
frequency. When the quality factor is high, the resonant
frequency is close to corner frequency. At high load conditions,
the output voltage can be regulated in a narrow operating
frequency range [14-15].

Figure 5. The voltage transfer function at A=1/6

The design procedure of the converter is presented by the

following equations:
Transformer turns ratio is

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M V m in =

V out
V in , m ax

(13)

Q
2 f o R i

(14)

The resonant inductance value is

Lr =

(12)

The resonant capacitor value is

The voltage transfer function of the system with help of the

normalized parameters is

2 2Vin
V out

Maximum and minimum gain values are:

The normalized frequency is

fn =

Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

Ri
1

1 + A 2 f o Q

(15)

The magnetizing inductance value is

Lm =

Ri

(1 + A ) 2

foQ

(16)

Considering all the equations stated above, the Class D

half-bridge resonant LLC converter design parameters are
given in Table I.
TABLE I.

DESIGN PARAMETER VALUES

Parameters

Value

Input DC Voltage

240 V

Output DC Voltage

60 V

Efficiency (At Full Load)

%97

Max. Output Current

20 A

Max Output Power

1.2 kW

Output Voltage Ripple

<1 V

Transformer Ratio

4:1:1

Resonant Capacitor

36 nF

Resonant Inductor

4.5 uH

Magnetizing Inductor

27 uH

IV.

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

A simulation of the resonant LLC converter is shown in

Figure 7. The converter is controlled by Phase Locked Loop
control technique. This control technique ensures soft
switching by tracking the resonant frequency. In this way,
switching and conduction losses are reduced and high
efficiency is obtained. Moreover, constant voltage and constant
current control provides fast battery charging.

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives

S1

+
V-S1

Vi
S2

+
VS2
-

Driver

Figure 9 shows step load change and performance of the

PLL control. The load resistance is changed from 3 ohm to 2
ohm at 0.2 ms. The peak current in the resonant tank showed in
green decreases and reaches steady state in less than 0.15 ms.

D1
C

Lr

n:1:1

D3

Lf
+

Ii
D2

Cf

Lm
D4
Var

Iref
Phase
Detector

e
VCO

Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

Filter

R
Vo

+
Vo
Io

Controller

if

Figure 6. Simulation of the resonant LLC converter

As it can be seen from Figure 7, the switch voltage VS 2 and

resonant tank current I i is not in phase during the transient.
PLL control detects the phase difference between VS 2 and I i ,
then it catches the resonant frequency by increasing the
switching frequency.
Figure 9. The current and voltage vaweforms with load changes

While the input voltage changes from 240 V to 260 V, the

output voltage transient is illustrated in Figure 10. The output
voltage is stabilized at 60 V in less than 1.5 ms.

Figure 7. Resonant tank voltage and current waveforms before catching

resonant frequency

In steady state, the switch voltage and resonant tank current

waveforms are displayed in Figure 8. It is shown that the
voltage and current are in phase. Hence, zero voltage and zero
current switching is achieved by the PLL control.

Figure 8. The voltage and current waveforms in the resonant tank

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Figure 10.

Constant voltage control with input voltage changes

Figure 11.

Voltage gain results in the simulation at A=1/6

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4th International Conference on Power Engineering, Energy and Electrical Drives

Voltage gains are obtained from the simulations by

sweeping the switching frequency. The results are plotted in
Figure 11 for different output load conditions. As it can be seen
from Figure 5 and Figure 11, analytical results and simulation
results are very close to each other.
V.

Zero voltage switching and zero current switching are

ensured by keeping switching frequency at the resonant
frequency.

Switching losses are minimized and maximum power

transfer is achieved.

Ripple voltages are reduced and battery is operated at

reliable charging conditions.
REFERENCES

[2]

[3]

L. Serrao, Z. Chehab, Y. Guezennec, and G. Rizzoni, An aging model

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A. M. Rahimi, "A Lithium-Ion Battery Charger for Charging up to Eight
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September 2005.
SAE Hybrid Committee. (2011). SAE Charging Configurations and
Ratings Terminology [Online]. Available: http://www.sae.org/smartgrid/
chargingspeeds.pdf

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[5]

CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, the PLL control technique is presented for

LLC resonant converter for EVs charger systems. System
design equations are explained in detail, parameters are
calculated and simulation waveforms are illustrated. The
simulation is performed with 240 V-260 V input voltage and
1.2 kW output power. Other important features of the converter
include:

[1]

[4]

[6]

[7]
[8]

[9]
[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]
[15]

Istanbul, Turkey, 13-17 May 2013

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