IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 14, NO.
6, NOVEMBER 1999
Analysis and Design of Electronic Transformers for
Electric Power Distribution System
Moonshik Kang, Student Member, IEEE, Prasad N. Enjeti, Senior Member, IEEE, and Ira J. Pitel, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract— A transformer performs many functions such as
voltage transformation, isolation, and noise decoupling, and it
is an indispensable component in electric power distribution
systems. However, at low frequencies (60/50 Hz), it is a bulky
and expensive component. In this paper, the concept of electronic
transformers is further extended and explored for its suitability
in power distribution systems. It should be noted that from the
input/output behavior, the electronic transformer and the con-
ventional transformer are identical. Possible topologies employing
static converters connected on the primary and secondary sides
are explored to realize high-frequency operation of the magnetic
core. To assist the commutation process, a four-step switching
has been developed which does not require the use of snubbers.
Reduced size, losses, higher efficiency, and better voltage regu-
lation are some of the advantages of this approach. A 10-kVA
design example along with experiment results are discussed. It
is shown that a transformer designed with a conventional grain-
oriented silicon–steel core can process three times the power at
1-kHz operating frequency as compared to 60 Hz. The proposed
method is scalable in voltage/current with the currently available
insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices connected in
series without special snubbers.
Index Terms— Electronic transformers, four-step switching,
high-frequency switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
T RANSFORMS are used widely in electric power distribu-
tion/conversion systems to perform many functions, such
as isolation, voltage transformation, noise decoupling, etc.
Transformers are one of the heaviest and most expensive parts
in an electrical distribution system. The size of transformer is
a function of the saturation flux density of the core material
and maximum allowable core and winding temperature rise.
Saturation flux density is inversely proportional to frequency
and increasing the frequency allows higher utilization of the
steel magnetic core and reduction in transformer size. The
subject of a high-frequency link has been studied extensively
in power electronic systems [1]–[5]. Reference [1] first in-
troduced the concept of a high-frequency ac/ac link, termed
as electronic transformer, and a recent paper [2], discussed
the implementation of the concept on a 200-V 3-kVA unit
operating at 15 kHz. The overall efficiency was reported to be
about 80% and is viewed as a major disadvantage.
In this paper, the concept of a high-frequency ac link is
further explored. The focus of this paper is to realize an elec-
Manuscript received August 7, 1998; revised April 26, 1999. Recommended
by Associate Editor, A. Kawamura.
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department, Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 USA.
Publisher Item Identifier S 0885-8993(99)08893-6.
0885–8993/99$10.00  1999 IEEE
1133
tronic transformer as a power delivery component in electrical
distribution systems. The primary purpose is to reduce the size,
weight, and volume and to improve efficiency dramatically. In
order to achieve this, a standard grain-oriented silicon–steel
core transformer is used and an operating frequency of 600
Hz to 1.2 kHz is chosen. The proposed system consists of
static converters on both the primary and secondary side
exciting the transformer synchronously. The low-frequency
input sine wave voltage (60 Hz) is first inverted at 600
Hz to 1.2 kHz by the primary-side static power converter,
magnetically coupled to the secondary and then unfolded into
a low-frequency (60 Hz) waveform by the secondary-side
static converter. This operation requires both primary- and
secondary-side static converters to be operated synchronously.
In terms of electrical performance, the proposed electronic
transformer and the conventional transformer are identical. The
proposed electronic transformer has the following advantages:
• identical input/output characteristic as a conventional
transformer;
• smaller size and weight (nearly 1/3 size reduction with
standard steel core transformer);
• efficiency compatible with conventional transformer;
• electronic current limiting feature;
• does not require the use of input/output filters;
• good voltage regulation;
• snubberless operation due to four-step switching strategy;
• no additional harmonics are generated due to switching.
Fig. 1 shows the proposed topologies for single-phase elec-
tronic transformers. In Fig. 1(a), switches SW1, SW1 ; SW2,
SW2 ; SW3, SW3 ; and SW4, SW4 are operated synchro-
nously and the transformer core is operated at high frequency.
The topology shown in Fig. 1(b) employs a multilevel static
converter to achieve step down operations. The split trans-
former core on the primary side ensures equal voltage sharing
among the switches employed in the high-voltage primary
converter.
II. ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMER OPERATING PRINCIPLES
Fig. 1(a) shows a single-phase electronic transformer topol-
ogy with a primary/secondary-side static converter. The static
converters employ bidirectional switches as shown. Another
topology shown in Fig. 1(b) employs a multilevel static con-
verter on the primary side of the transformer for voltage
step down application. The voltages across capacitors C1 and
C2 effectively divide the source voltage into half, and each
primary-side converter processes half of the source voltage.
1134
(a)
Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of single-phase electronic transformer topologies: (a) single-phase electronic transformer and (b) multilevel single-phase elec-
tronic transformer.
Fig. 2. Gate signal of electronic transformer.
The split transformer winding on the primary side guarantees
equal voltage sharing among its high-voltage primary-side
converter. This configuration can be applied when the primary-
side voltage is much higher than the secondary-side voltage.
The multilevel converter can also be applied to the secondary
side, if the output voltage is higher than ratings of available
devices. The number of input/output multilevel stages can be
increased to allow higher voltages.
Fig. 2 shows the switching pattern for the topology shown
in Fig. 1(a), which is essentially a high-frequency square-wave
with 50% duty ratio. Gating signals for switches SW1, SW2;
SW1 , SW2 ; SW3, SW4; and SW3 , SW4 form comple-
mentary pairs as shown in Fig. 2, where is the phase shift
angle between the two pairs of gating signals. During the first
half cycle, switches SW1 and SW2 on the primary side are
synchronously closed and SW1 and SW2 on the secondary
side are synchronously closed at the same time. In the other
half cycle, switches SW3 and SW4 on the primary side and
SW3 and SW4 are synchronously closed at the same time.
This switching action generates a high-frequency voltage
and current [Fig. 3(c)] in the transformer primary/secondary
windings. The secondary-side static converter then unfolds the
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 14, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1999
(b)
transformer secondary voltage into a low-frequency sine wave
output voltage as shown in Fig. 3(e). The transformer volt-
age [Fig. 3(c)] only contains high-frequency ac components
[Fig. 3(d)]. Ideally, no energy storage is required except during
the commutation of the switches. The waveforms shown in
Fig. 3 are obtained for . The phase angle can be
varied and the output voltage magnitude can be controlled.
However, for , additional output filter becomes necessary
which contributes to increase losses and result in additional
weight/volume and costs. Numerous disadvantages are there-
fore associated with the control method to alter as suggested
in [1] and [2]. In this paper, is set to zero and the leakage
impedance of the electronic transformer is kept low by design
to obtain good voltage regulation.
Fig. 4(b) shows a method to realize the static converter with
bidirectional switches employing conventional insulated gate
bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules available in volume from
numerous vendors.
III. ANALYSIS
In this section, the analysis of the waveform associated with
the single-phase electronic transformer is presented. Fig. 1
shows the circuit topology of a single-phase electronic trans-
former and Fig. 3 shows the waveforms. Input voltage and
load current can be expressed as
(1)
(2)
where
input frequency (rad/s);
power factor angle.
As explained in the earlier section, the primary- and
secondary-side static converters are switched synchronously
with equal on–off duty cycle. The switching function
KANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMERS 1135

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e)
Fig. 3. The simulation result for single phase electronic transformer ( = 0): (a) input voltage Vi , (b) switching function, (c) transformer voltage Vp ,
(d) Fast Fourier transform (FFT) of transformer voltage Vp , and (e) output voltage Vo .

[Fig. 3(b)] can be expressed in terms of Fourier series as Similarly, the transformer winding current is

(3)

where
switching frequency (rad/s); (5)
even integer. Selecting yields a switching frequency of 960 Hz.
The transformer voltage can be obtained by multiplying the Equations (4) and (5) now become
input voltage with the switching function which yields

(6)
(4)
1136 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 14, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1999

(a) (b)
Fig. 4. A single-phase static converter: (a) with two IGBT’s connected back-to-back and (b) with conventional IGBT modules.

TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN 60- AND 1000-Hz TRANSFORMER DESIGN PARAMETERS

(7)
It can be noted from (6) and (7) that the lowest harmonic
voltages impressed on the transformer winding is 900 and
1020 Hz. Fig. 3(d) verifies this result.

IV. DESIGN EXAMPLE

In this section, the design of a 1000-Hz 240-V 10-kVA
transformer is discussed. Key design details are compared with
the conventional 60-Hz design. The size of the transformer and
its volt–ampere (VA) rating have the following relationship
[8]:

VA (8)

where VA VA rating of the transformer [VA], copper

fill factor, frequency of excitation [Hz], core area
[m ], winding area [m ], current density of the
conductor [A/m ], and peak flux density [T].
From (8), the product of and , which represents the
size of the transformer, can be expressed as a function of
frequency and peak flux density
VA
(9)
Equation (9) shows that the transformer size is inversely
proportional to the frequency and flux density. Therefore,
transformer size can be reduced by increasing the operating
frequency. However, core losses increase with frequency [8],
therefore, in order to contain losses, flux density needs to be
reduced. A design optimization procedure is therefore required
to operate the transformer at high frequency while achieving
lower losses and size reduction. In order to explore the relative
merits of the electronic transformer concept compared to a
conventional transformer, a 1000-Hz 10-kVA transformer de-
sign is examined. A transformer was designed to operate with
the primary and secondary power converters and to compare
performance with conventional 60-Hz magnetic designs. To
minimize leakage inductance and proximity effects, a dual
coil approach using a 1.8UI lamination core was chosen.
Conventional 0.014-in-thick grain silicon steel was selected
as the core material. Although alternative and better grades
of materials are available, the design objective is to compare
the relative impact of the proposed technology to that of
conventional designs. Results are yielded as shown in Table I.
The applied voltage is reduced on the 60-Hz application to
obtain desired flux density. As can be observed, a transformer,
manufactured with conventional grain-oriented silicon–steel
cores, processed over three times the power at the operating
frequency of 1000 Hz over from that of 60 Hz. The limitation
of the magnetic circuit at 1000 Hz is core loss and the
limitation at 60 Hz is flux density. Transformer efficiency
is also improved because of the higher power processing
ability. Finer grades of steel or alternatives, such as amorphous
material, would increase the performance advantage even
further.
Using this design approach, a 10-kVA 240/246-V 1000-Hz
electronic transformer was designed as shown in Table II.
KANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMERS 1137

TABLE II Employing a low-saturation voltage-type IGBT [9],

DESIGN PARAMETERS OF 240-V 10-kVA ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMER
IRG4PC50S with , and diode, 40EP508 with
, the conduction loss is shown to be 2.8%.
Based on the core and wire losses from design parameters in
Table II and converter losses from (12), an overall efficiency
of 96% can be achieved. This figure can be further improved
by redesign the transformer to have lower core losses. The
maximum efficiency of the electronic transformer is shown to
be when and at unity power factor regardless
of the converter losses.

V. FOUR-STEP SWTCHING SCHEME

The electronic transformer has difficulties to commutate
inductive load current from one bidirectional switch to another
due to finite switch on/off times. Since the instantaneous
switching is practically impossible, the on/off operation of
a semiconductor switch requires a finite delay time. If an
The overall efficiency of electronic transformer including overlap between the switching is provided, the source-side
the converter loss, , can be calculated by the following: voltage essentially short circuited. A finite amount of switching
delay is therefore mandatory. This, however, results in the
(10) interruption of inductive load current causing damaging over
voltages. Therefore, lossy snubber circuits are required both at
where output power, core loss, input and output sides. The proposed four-step strategy inde-
wire loss, and total converter loss. pendently controls each switching device within a bidirectional
The converter losses consist of switching losses and con- switch element depending on the input voltage or load current
duction losses. Since the switching frequency is not high ( polarity. This approach offers safe transition of inductive load
kHz), the switching losses can be nearly negligible employing current at all power factor from one bidirectional switch to
modern IGBT’s ( ns and ns). Therefore, another and ensures safe switching operation even in the
the conduction losses are only considered. The converter losses presence of source-side stray inductance [10].
can be defined by the following: With an inductive load, a cycle of input can be divided into
four modes according to the direction of input voltage and
load current as the following:
(11) Mode 1: ;
Mode 2: ;
where and denote the converter losses in the primary Mode 3: ;
and secondary sides of the transformer, respectively. and Mode 4: .
denotes the number of active switches in the primary- and The operation of four-step switching sequence is divided
secondary-side converters, respectively. and denotes into voltage and current reference mode according to the
the number of active diodes in the primary- and secondary-side reference signal. Voltage reference mode uses input voltage
converters, respectively. and represent collector- polarity as a reference, and current reference mode uses load
to-emitter saturation voltage of switches and and current polarity as a reference. The brief explanation of each
are forward voltage drop of diodes, respectively. and mode of operation is following.
denote rms currents of the switches.
Since only two bidirectional switches are conducting on
A. Voltage Reference Mode
each side, and are equal to two. If
the turns ratio of the transformer is 1 : 1, the same switching In this mode, input voltage polarity is used as a refer-
devices can be used on both side converters with the same ence signal. Therefore, switching sequences of mode 1 and
voltage drop, that is, and mode 2 are identical, since their input voltage polarity is
. Furthermore, the same switch currents flow the same. Similarly, mode 3 and mode 4 use the same
in both sides, that is, . Therefore, the switching sequence. Table III shows the operation sequences
conduction loss will be equal on the primary- and secondary- for commutation from SW1, SW2 to SW3, SW4.
side converters, that is, . Then total conduction In the case of commutation from SW3 and SW4 to SW1
loss of converter is simplified as following: and SW2, the four-step switching will follow exactly reverse
sequence of the above. The example of the gate signals for
(12) voltage reference mode operation is shown in Fig. 5 where
represent reference signal, that is, input voltage polarity, and
where is rms value of the load current. represents switch conduction state.
1138 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 14, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1999

TABLE III
VOLTAGE REFERENCE FOUR-STEP SWITCHING SEQUENCE

Fig. 5. Voltage reference four-step switching gate signal.

B. Current Reference Mode and mode 3 are identical, since their load current polarity
The current reference mode operation is similar to voltage is the same. Similarly, mode 2 and mode 4 use the same
reference mode except the load current polarity is used as a switching sequence. Table IV shows the operation sequences
reference signal. Therefore, switching sequences of mode 1 for commutation from SW1, SW2 to SW3, SW4.
KANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMERS 1139

TABLE IV
CURRENT REFERENCE FOUR-STEP SWITCHING SEQUENCE

Fig. 6. Current reference four-step switching gate signal.

The example of the gate signals for current reference mode C. Four-Step Switching Technique for Electronic Transformer
operation is shown in Fig. 6 where represent reference In order to apply four-step switching technique into the
signal, that is, load current polarity, and represent switch converters in electronic transformer, the reference mode should
conduction state. be determined. Since the output current of the primary-side
1140 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 14, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1999

Fig. 7. The block diagram of hardware implementation for four-step switching strategy.

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e)
Fig. 8. Experimental results of electronic transformer at switching frequency of 960 Hz (upper: voltage 500 V/div, lower: current 100 A/div). (a) Input
voltage and current, (b) output voltage and current, (c) voltage and current of the transformer, (d) FFT result of transformer voltage, and (e) voltage
and current of a switch.

converter and input voltage of the secondary-side converter are
changing their polarities in high frequency, voltage reference
mode is employed in primary side and the current reference
mode is applied in secondary side. Fig. 7 shows the block
diagram of hardware implementation.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Fig. 8 shows the experimental results of electronic trans-
former at rated power. Fig. 8(a) shows the input voltage and
current waveforms. The snubber circuit has been removed and
small input/output filter capacitors are used. Fig. 8(b) shows
the experimental results of the output voltage and current. We
can see that the static converter on the secondary side suc-
cessfully unfolded the high-frequency transformer voltage into
low-frequency output. Fig. 8(c) shows the transformer voltage
and current. The voltage and current spikes are significantly
reduced without snubber. At lower power level, the voltage
and current spikes can be completely removed. FFT analysis
KANG et al.: ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF ELECTRONIC TRANSFORMERS
of transformer voltage [Fig. 8(d)] shows that there are no low-
frequency components, and the lowest harmonic components
are 900 and 1020 Hz as we saw in the analysis.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, analysis and design of electronic transformer
has been presented. Several topologies employing primary and
secondary-side static converters in combination with magnetic
core have been explored. It has been shown that by employing
conventional grain-oriented silicon steel, an electronic trans-
former can process three times the power at 1000 Hz than
at 60-Hz frequency. Higher voltage electronic transformer
topology with series connected static converters has been
discussed. Employing four-step switching strategy enables safe
commutation without snubber circuits which cause losses.
Finally, experimental results illustrated the advantages of this
approach.
REFERENCES
[1] W. McMurray, “Power converter circuits having a high-frequency link,”
U.S. Patent 3 517 300, June 23, 1970.
[2] K. Harada, F. Anan, K. Yamasaki, M. Jinno, Y. Kawata, T. Nakashima,
K. Murata, and H. Sakamoto, “Intelligent transformer,” in Conf. Rec.
IEEE PESC, 1996, pp. 1337–1341.
[3] K. Harada, H. Sakamoto, and M. Syoyama, “Phase controlled dc–ac
converter with high-frequency switching,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 3, pp. 406–411, Jan. 1988.
[4] V. John and N. Mohan, “Standby power supply with high-frequency
isolation,” in IEEE Proc. APEC, Mar. 1995, pp. 900–994.
[5] I. J. Pitel, “Phase-modulated resonant power conversion techniques for
high-frequency link inverters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-22,
pp. 1044–1051, Nov./Dec. 1986.
[6] N. Mohan, T. M. Undeland, and W. P. Robbins, Power Electronics, 2nd
ed. New York: Wiley, 1995.
[7] G. R. Slemon, Magnetoelectric Devices. New York: Wiley, 1966.
[8] P. N. Enjeti and S. Choi, “An approach to realize higher power ac
controller,” in IEEE Proc. APEC, Mar. 1993, pp. 323–327.
[9] Datasheet from International Rectifier Website: http://www.irf.com.
Moonshik Kang (S’97) received the B.Eng. and
M.Eng. degrees from Chung-Ang University, Seoul,
Korea, and the M.S. degree from the University of
Texas at Arlington in 1992, 1994, and 1996, respec-
tively, all in electrical engineering. He is currently
working towards the Ph.D. degree in electrical engi-
neering at Texas A&M University, College Station.
Since 1996, he has been with the Power Quality
Laboratory at Texas A&M University as a Research
Assistant. His research interests include advanced
converters for power supplies and ASD’s, power
quality, and utility interface issues.
1141
Prasad N. Enjeti (SM’88) received the B.E. de-
gree from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, in
1980, the M.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1982, and the
Ph.D. degree from Concordia University, Montreal,
Canada, in 1988, all in electrical engineering.
In 1988, he joined the Department of Electrical
Engineering Department at Texas A&M University,
College Station, as an Assistant Professor. In 1994,
he became an Associate Professor and in 1998 was
promoted to Professor rank. His primary research
interests are: advance converters for power supplies and motor drives; power
quality issues and active power filter development; utility interface issues and
“clean” power converter designs; and electronic ballasts for fluorescent HID
lamps. He holds one U.S. patent and has licensed two new technologies to
industry so far. He is the lead developer of the Power Quality Laboratory
at Texas A&M University and is actively involved in many projects with
industries while engaged in teaching, research, and consulting in the areas of
power electronics, power quality, and clean power utility interface issues.
Dr. Enjeti currently serves on the IEEE IAS Executive Board as a member
of the Electronics Communications Committee. He was the recipient of the
IEEE-IAS Technical Committee Prize Paper Awards in 1993, 1996, and 1998,
respectively, the Second Best IEEE-IA Transaction Paper published in midyear
1994 to midyear 1995, and the IEEE-IAS Magazine Prize Article Award in
1995. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.
Ira J. Pitel (F’99) received the B.S. degree from
Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey,
New Brunswick, the M.S. degree from Bucknell
University, Lewisburg, PA, and the Ph.D. degree
from Carnegie–Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA,
in 1972, 1975, and 1978, respectively.
From 1973 to 1976, he was with GTE Sylvania
researching high-frequency ballasting techniques
for gaseous discharge lighting. He joined Bell
Laboratories in 1978 and Exxon Enterprise in
1979. At Exxon, he was involved in high-power
converter structures for ac motor drives, power processing for advanced
battery systems, and controlled lighting. He was eventually transferred to one
of Exxon’s subsidiaries, Cornell-Dubilier Electronics, where he was Manager
of Research and Development. In 1981, he founded Magna-Power Electronics,
a company specializing in custom and standard power conditioning products.
As President, he is responsible for contract R&D and manufacturing of its line
of 10–750-kW dc power supplies. In 1986, he joined Texas A&M University
as an Adjunct Associate Professor. His research interests are high-power
ac-to-dc converters, static inverters, spacecraft power supplies, and specialty
lighting controls. He holds 21 patents in the field of power electronics.
Dr. Pitel is a corecipient of the 1995 Society Prize Paper Award of the
Industry Applications Society. He served as Committee Chairman of the
IAS Industrial Power Converter Committee from 1988 to 1989, Department
Chairman of the IAS Industrial Power Conversion Systems Department from
1994 to 1995, and IAS Vice President and President in 1998 and 1999,
respectively. He is a member of the Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.