US 11,791,734 B2
Parallel bidirectional flyback converters with valley switching
Mike Van Den Heuvel, Tilburg (NL); Jacobes Harmen Schijffelen, Breda (NL); Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli, Delft (NL); and Dolf Henricus Jozef Van Casteren, Megen (NL)
Assigned to Power Research Electronics B.V., Breda (NL)
Appl. No. 17/420,754
Filed by Power Research Electronics B.V., Breda (NL)
PCT Filed Jan. 27, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/051929
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 6, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/164895, PCT Pub. Date Aug. 20, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 19157304 (EP), filed on Feb. 14, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0069720 A1, Mar. 3, 2022
Int. Cl. H02M 3/335 (2006.01); H02M 1/00 (2006.01)
CPC H02M 3/33584 (2013.01) [H02M 1/0043 (2021.05)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A bidirectional power converter comprising:
a number of flyback converter units connected in parallel, each converter unit having a controller and being adapted to accumulate power from a primary side during an ON time of the unit and to deliver the accumulated power to a secondary side during an OFF time, the primary and secondary sides being interchangeable in accordance with the direction of power conversion, each controller being configured to operate at a boundary between a discontinuous current mode and a continuous current mode and to perform valley switching when switching from OFF to ON,
wherein one of the converter units is configured to operate as a master wherein the controller associated therewith is adapted to control the length of the ON time in order to feedback-control an overall current output of the converter, and
wherein each of the other converter units is configured to operate as a slave wherein the controller of each of the other converter units is adapted to control the length of the ON time in order to feedback-control a phase delay of the ON time of the slave relative to the ON time of another one of the converter units,
wherein the controllers are each configured to use the same circuit components for controlling the converter unit in two modes of operation with opposite directions of power conversion, each controller being responsive to a logic direction signal that indicates the direction of power conversion,
wherein the controller of each slave includes a phase feedback controller comprising:
a phase detector adapted to convert a phase delay between the master and the slave into a phase indicating voltage,
a phase comparator for comparing the phase indicating voltage to a target value for the phase delay, and
a circuit adapted to increase and decrease the voltage signal that represents the length of the ON time on the basis of the comparison result.