The 2010 International Power Electronics Conference

Efficiency Optimization of High Power Density

Dual Active Bridge DC-DC Converter
G. Guidi*, M. Pavlovsky*, A. Kawamura*, T. Imakubo**, Y. Sasaki**
* Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan
** IHI Corporation, Electrical System Dept., Products Development Center, Japan

number of components and its inherent zero-voltage

switching over a wide operating range. An advantage of
the DAB over other interesting topologies like the
isolated boost full-bridge converter [3], is the potential
for size reduction of the magnetic components, by
devising suitable methods to integrate the energy-transfer
inductor into the transformer.
In the paper, a simple solution for the realization of a
transformer with embedded inductor is presented, along
with some other techniques allowing for high power
density design.
One drawback of the DAB is the presence of high
circulating (reactive) current in the transformer,
especially when the voltage transfer ratio between the
two sides of the converter is substantially different from
the transformer turn ratio. The problem is particularly
acute at light load, when the circulating current, besides
increasing the conduction losses, also causes the
converter to lose the natural zero-voltage switching
feature [4]. Advanced control strategies have been
proposed to reduce the circulating current by using zerovoltage states in the bridges [5]. The reactive power is
effectively reduced, but zero-voltage switching is lost,
somehow mitigating the effectiveness of the approach.
In this paper, the peak current is minimized, and the
soft-switching region is extended, by on-line optimization
of the AC-link reactance. Reactance is varied by
changing the operating switching frequency of the phaseshift operated DAB. By proper design of the magnetic
components, the efficiency improvements due to reduced
peak current at higher AC-link reactance overcome the
increase of losses due to the higher operating frequency,
as shown by experimental results.

AbstractA DC-DC converter based on the Dual Active

Bridge topology is designed, having high power density as
main design target. To that aim, a simple structure has been
proposed for the transformer with embedded inductor,
allowing high frequency operation with low losses and
requiring only readily available magnetic core shapes.
Simple phase-shift control has been used, and the switching
frequency is varied in order to minimize the peak
transformer current, thus achieving high conversion
efficiency. A fully operational prototype has been built and
tested, demonstrating a power density figure of 7.1
kW/Liter with forced air cooling, and a peak efficiency at
rated 4 kW load equal to 96.6 %.
Index TermsDC-DC converter, Dual Active Bridge,
Power Density.

I. INTRODUCTION
In drive trains of Electric Vehicle (EV) and Hybrid
Electric Vehicle (HIV), the problem of transferring
energy between a high voltage DC bus (the traction
battery) and a DC bus at lower voltage has to be
addressed. Power electronics DC-DC converters are used
for the purpose. Such converters, besides being as
efficient as possible, must also comply with very strict
requirements in terms of power density, due to the limited
space available on-board.
Several topologies have been proposed [1] for this
application. In particular, the Dual Active Bridge (DAB)
shown in Fig. 1 [2] is very promising, due to the reduced

II. OPTIMAL AC-LINK REACTANCE FOR DAB

The power flowing through the DAB in Fig.1,
assuming conventional phase shift control and neglecting
losses is given by the well known relationship [4]:

P=
Fig.1 Dual Active Bridge (DAB)

(1)

Where V1 , V2 are the voltages on either side of the

converter, f s is the switching frequency, is the phase

This work was supported by IHI Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

978-1-4244-5393-1/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

V1 V2

1
2 f s L

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d = 1.0
d = 1.33
d = 0.67

xL = xL,opt

xL < xL,opt
xL > xL,opt

IL [A]

Ipeak /Iavg

xL

V1,min V2,min

(
(

I1, avg

2
d x d 1 xL

L
=
=
P / V1 2
1 d 1 xL
d xL

d 1

d <1

2 1 d + d 2 1

xL , opt =
2
2 d 2 1 + 1 d 2
d
V V
f s L = xL ,opt 1 2
8P

(2)

8 Pmax

In principle, it would be possible to calculate the ideal

reactance value for any given operating point (P,V1,V2)
by explicitly solving the minimization problem defined
by (3):

By solving the power flow equation (1) for the phase

shift and then evaluating the resulting peak current, it
can be shown that at any given power transfer level P,
and for any given normalized converter voltage ratio
d=V2/V1, the ratio between the peak inductor current and
the average input current I1,avg is a function of the link
reactance:

I L , peak

Fig.3 Effect of reactance on inductor current waveform;

V1 = 60 V, d = 0.7, P = 2.5 kW.

shift between primary and secondary gate signals, L is the

inductance between the two bridges; the transformer ratio
has been assumed as unity, in order to simplify the
notation, with no loss of generality. One obvious
consequence of (1) is that the AC-link reactance X L has
an upper limit dictated by the maximum power that has to
be transferred, Pmax:

I L , peak

Time [s]

Fig.2 Ratio between peak and average inductor current, as a function

of p.u. reactance and converter voltage ratio

X L ,max = ( f s L )max =

d 1

d <1

(4)

The effect of variable reactance on the transformer

current waveform can be better understood by the
simulation in Fig.3. The optimum reactance is defined as
the one yielding the lowest peak current for the same
power flow. In the particular operating condition of the
figure, a low value of the reactance not only results in
higher circulating current, but also causes hard switching
of the secondary bridges. This effect of appearance of
hard switching for low link reactance is more and more
severe as the power is reduced, as demonstrated in [4].
On-line reactance variation according to (4) is not a
simple practical task, implying either variable switching
frequency operation or the deployment of a variable
inductor in the circuit. Variable switching frequency
control to ensure ZVS has already been proposed [6].
However, designing the bridges, the magnetic
components and the filters to allow for operation at
widely variable frequency is not an easy task.
Optimization of the transformer and inductor is
particularly challenging. Moreover, the switching
frequency has an upper limit that is dictated by the core
and skin effect copper losses in the magnetics and by the
switching losses in the semiconductors. Conversely, there
is a lower practical limit to the switching frequency, due
to saturation of the transformer core. As a result, on-line
switching frequency variation is feasible and beneficial
only within a limited range.

(3)

where the reactance xL has been normalized to the

maximum value defined by (2). Fig. 2 shows the current
ratio defined by (3) for different voltage transfer ratios,
suggesting the following:
In case of unity normalized voltage ratio (voltage
ratio equal to the transformer ratio), the lower the
reactance, the better it is. The system approaches the
ideal condition of no circulating power and zero
current ripple at zero reactance.
For non-unity voltage ratio, the ratio between peak
current and average current is minimized for a link
reactance that is lower than the maximum allowed
for the required power flow.
Minimization of the peak current is highly desirable,
since it will reduce the converter losses.

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Fig.5 Prototype of transformer with embedded inductor

Fig.4 Input-Output converter specifications

A variable inductor, or multiple inductors that can be

switched in and out in the converter AC-link may help
approaching the ideal condition defined by (4) while
keeping the frequency variation within acceptable limits.
However, the implementation of variable or multiple
inductors poses serious practical challenges, and may
adversely affect the power density of the overall
converter. For this reason, such solution has not been
adopted in this work.
III. DAB CONVERTER DESIGN FOR EXTENDED

Fig.6 2D magnetic equivalent of the proposed structure for

transformer with embedded inductor

FREQUENCY OPERATION AND HIGH POWER DENSITY

A DAB converter prototype with the input/output

voltage specifications in Fig.4 has been designed. Main
design goal was power density. To this aim, efficiency
improvement by using variable reactance is crucial to
reduce the size of the required heatsink. Converter rated
power is 4 kW, with 50% overload allowed for 10
seconds.
A. Transformer with embedded inductor

In order to achieve a compact converter design and a

reasonably wide frequency operating range, magnetic
components (transformer and AC-link inductor) are of
utmost importance. From the power density point of view,
it is beneficial to embed the inductor into the transformer
design. This can be done by deliberately increasing the
leakage inductance of the transformer [7-10].
In this work, a method conceptually similar to the one
proposed in [8] is used, where the additional inductance
is obtained by placing magnetic material (the leakage
TABLE I
TRANSFORMER CHARACTERISTICS
Main core
Finemet F3CC0010
Leakage layer
3F3 ferrite
Primary winding
Copper foil, 0.4 mm
Secondary winding
Litz wire, 100x0.2mm
Winding ratio
1:6
Leakage inductance
1.3 H

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layer) between primary and secondary windings. The

transformer is built around four standard C cores of
nanocristalline material. Secondary (high-voltage)
winding is made of Litz wire wound directly on the
central leg of the structure; the leakage layer is placed on
top of the secondary winding, and is made of standard
3F3 ferrite slabs; the primary (high-current) is a foil
winding, enclosing the secondary and the leakage layer.
The whole transformer is shown in Fig.5, and its main
characteristics are summarized in Table I.
The 2-D equivalent magnetic structure of the proposed
transformer is shown in Fig.6, along with the resulting
leakage field as calculated by FEM. Most interesting
aspects of such a design are:
The leakage inductance is mostly determined by the
geometry of the leakage layer, and can be controlled
quite accurately by changing the airgap.
The stray leakage is much smaller than the one due
to the leakage layer, making the design repeatable.
Most of the leakage flux density is confined in the
airgaps.
The proposed structure can be realized by using
standard core shapes, with no need for expensive
custom designs.
By assuming all the leakage field energy confined in
the region between the leakage layer and the main core,

The 2010 International Power Electronics Conference

and neglecting fringing, the following simplified

expression for the leakage inductance is obtained (refer to
Fig.6):
Llkg = 0 N12

w fe
l
( l fe lsec ) + sec
2 g
4

From manufacturer datasheet, the following expression

can be extrapolated for the specific core loss of the
material used, in the frequency range of interest [11]:

f
pcore = Cm

10 kHz
Cm = 3.65W / dm3 ,

(5)

Llkg : Leakage inductance, seen from the primary

terminals;
N1 : Primary turns;
g:
Airgap between leakage layer and main core;
w fe : Width of leakage layer;
l fe : Length of leakage layer;
lsec : Length of the region occupied by the
secondary winding.

BMax h fe 2 g

0 N1 ( l fe lsec ) + lsec / 4

(7)

In a transformer, when the excitation frequency goes

up, the peak flux density is reduced by the same amount;
therefore, if the loss coefficients , are quite similar, as
in the case of the selected material, core losses remain
essentially unchanged with variable operating frequency.
Ferrite was used for the leakage layer, mainly because
it was easy to find standard slabs of the required size and
shape.
High power density design calls for efficient heat
removal. In the proposed solution, heat generated within
the transformer is collected by a copper shell built around
the magnetic structure, and conducted away to the
cooling fins. Copper has been chosen as the heatsink
material, instead of the more widely used Aluminum, due
to its superior thermal conductivity. Since the distance
between the heat collection and the cooling fins is not
very small in the proposed design (see Fig.8), this aspect
is important to improve the power density.
The proposed cooling strategy is very effective for
heat removal from the core and from the primary
(external winding), but cooling of the leakage layer and
of the inner winding that are not in direct contact with the
cooling shell is still very challenging. In order to lower
the thermal resistance for heat conduction, the whole
transformer structure has to be potted with thermally
conductive epoxy. Extensive thermal validation is still in
progress, and results will be published in the future.

Leakage flux density has its maximum in the central

section of the leakage layer, resulting in a saturation
current given by:
I L , sat =

0.1T
= 1.8, = 2.1

(6)

BMax : Saturation flux density of the leakage layer;

h fe : Thickness of the leakage layer.

According to (6), the thickness of the leakage layer can

be selected to achieve the required saturation current,
after all the other geometric parameters are chosen to get
the required inductance.
As described above, many simplifying assumptions
were made to get a simple expression for the inductance.
In the specific design of Table I, the measured inductance
is about 20% higher than what predicted by (5), due
mainly to the flux leaking through the edges of the
leakage layer and to the considerable fringing in the
airgap. Improved models or 3-D FEM analysis can be
used to get more accurate results. However, (5) and (6)
can be used as initial estimation for the design of the
leakage layer.
It is pointed out that the presence of strong field
orthogonal to the secondary winding imposes the use of
Litz wire to minimize the losses due to induced current.
On the other hand, the high-current primary can be made
of standard foils, since the leakage flux is mostly parallel
to the winding axis.
The choice of the material for the main transformer
core is also important for a high power density design. In
the frequency range of interest (from 10 kHz to 100 kHz),
there are three possible choices commercially available:
Iron-based amorphous materials;
Mn-Zn based ferrites;
Nanocristalline, iron-based materials.
Here, the latter has been preferred since it has lower
specific core losses than amorphous and higher saturation
flux density than ferrite. Moreover, being an iron-based
material, its thermal conductivity is superior to the one of
ferrites, thus simplifying cooling.

B. High voltage and high current bridges

The high current bridge of the converter in Fig.1 is by

far the most critical to realize. The high current to be
switched and the low voltage available for the softswitching capacitors make the ZVS behavior difficult to
achieve, since the energy trapped in the stray inductance
of the circuit may exceed the one that can be stored in the
capacitors, as reported in [12]. However, at the
considered voltage level, careful design of the PCB
layout and the use of additional capacitors in parallel with
each switch, still allow for ZVS of all the switches when
the load is sufficiently high. Fig. 7 shows the
commutation waveforms, with the gentle slope of the
switch voltages on both sides of the converter and the
very limited overvoltage clearly demonstrating the
achievement of soft-switching.
While the choice of MOSFETs for the low voltage
side is natural, the high voltage bridge can be made of
either high voltage MOSFETs (CoolMOS) or IGBTs. In
the literature, CoolMOS are often used [12] due to their
superior switching performance; however, experiments
have shown that in the frequency range used in this work

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IV. EXPERIMENTAL EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENTS

Green: Transformer primary current [25A/div];

Blue: Primary MOSFET VDS voltage [20V/div];
Yellow: Secondary IGBT VDS voltage [100V/div];
Purple: Secondary IGBT Id current [5A/div, AC probe];
Fig.7 Soft-Switching waveforms of DAB

(between 20 kHz and 80 kHz), very high speed IGBTs

outperform super junction MOSFETs, mainly because of
the much better diode characteristics. Care must be taken
in selecting IGBTs with reduced tail current, in order to
take full advantage of ZVS. As expected, achievement of
soft switching and well-behaved commutation was much
easier than in the high-current side.
Ceramic chip capacitors are used to implement the
DC-link capacitance on both sides of the converter, due
to their excellent current-handling capability in reduced
volume, and to their shape that is quite suitable for highdensity assembly.
The complete DAB converter prototype is shown in
Fig.8, along with the CAD version. The actual prototype
achieved a power density equal to 7.14 kW/Liter,
calculated at the overload power level of 6 kW. The
original CAD design has a slightly better power density
of 8.0 kW/Liter; such a value could be easily achieved by
a second realization that would address some small
practical problems encountered during the manufacturing
of the first prototype.

a CAD design (8.0 kW/Liter)

The efficiency of the prototype has been measured at

different voltage transfer ratios and at different load
levels.
By using standard phase-shift control, the effect of the
variable switching frequency, resulting in a variable AClink reactance, can be analyzed; results are shown in Fig.
9 in the case of 3 kW power flowing from the low voltage
side to the high voltage side. As expected, the optimal
operating frequency that is to say the one yielding the
highest conversion efficiency depends on the operating
point. For a voltage ratio close to the transformer turn
ratio (1:6), the lowest possible operating frequency
results in the highest efficiency. The lower limit of 20
kHz is set by the maximum allowable flux density in the
transformer core. On the other hand, in the edges of the
operating area, where considerable buck/boost is required,
and where hard switching tends to take place on either
side of the converter, higher switching frequency yields
better efficiency. However, for this particular
implementation, no advantage was found in using
frequencies higher than about 40 kHz; in fact, the
increase of switching losses and of copper losses in the
transformer/inductor overcame the advantage of reduced
peak and rms current.
Fig.10 shows the efficiency under different load
conditions. In the figure, conventional phase-shift control
is used, and switching frequency is varied between 20
kHz and 40 kHz according to the operating point, in order
to minimize losses. At rated load, efficiency ranges from
94.1 to 96.6%. The gap between best case and worst case
becomes much larger at light load, due to the appearance
of hard-switching at the edges of the operating area.
Overall worst case efficiency is measured to be 83.1% at
1 kW (0.25 p.u. load), with 60V to 250V voltage ratio.
Obviously, if the converter is often to be operated at light
load, the use of a more advanced modulation scheme [5,
13], instead of the simple phase-shift, becomes necessary.
It is however pointed out that the overall power loss at
light load, even in the worst case, is still less than the
worst-case loss at rated load, posing no particular

b Actual realization (7.1 kW/Liter)

Fig.8 High efficiency, high power density DAB prototype

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Fig.9 DAB converter efficiency for different switching frequencies,

conventional phase-shift modulation (P = 3.0 kW)

Fig.10 DAB converter efficiency as function of output power;

conventional phase-shift modulation

problem for the sizing of the converter heatsink, and

therefore having no effect on the achievable power
density.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A DAB DC-DC converter has been designed, aiming
at high efficiency and high power density. By using
variable switching frequency, efficiency ranging from
94.1% to 96.6% is achieved at rated load, even
employing simple phase-shift modulation for the two
bridges.
A simple design for the transformer with embedded
inductor with no need for custom-designed core
geometries has been proposed, allowing for operation in a
relatively wide range of frequencies.
As a consequence of the high efficiency and compact
magnetic design, power density of 7.1 kW/Liter is
achieved for the air-cooled prototype that was built in our
laboratory.
Research is ongoing trying to achieve even better
power density by using improved modulation techniques
and more advanced heat management systems.
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