LLC Series Resonant Converter with PID Controller

for Battery Charging Application

M. Imran Shahzad, Shahid Iqbal, and Soib Taib
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering,
Engineering Campus, Universiti Sains Malaysia,
14300 Nibong Tebal, Pulau Penang, Malaysia.
[email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, the output voltage regulation of a half-

bridge LLC series resonant DC-DC converter using a PID PFC DC-DC Converter
controller in feedback loop for the battery charging application is DC Link
presented. The PID controller is used to adjust the frequency of
gate pulses generated by the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) AC/DC DC/DC
for deriving the MOSFETs to regulate the output voltage. The
converter is implemented using MATLAB Simulink environment
for the input range of 380 V to 420 V and output range of 28 V to
Battery
72 V DC voltage. Simulation results showed that the controller can
Battery Charger
quickly adjust the output voltage level for step variations in both
line and the load. The controller can also set the output voltage Fig. 1. Typical power architecture of a battery charger.
level for both step and linear variations in the reference signal.
For LLC resonant converter many design methods have been
Keywords—Resonant converter; battery charger; PID proposed in the literature like exact analysis [7] and first
controller; FHA. harmonic approximation (FHA) analysis [8], [9]. The exact
analysis ensures accuracy but is not handy due to model
I. INTRODUCTION complexity. However, the FHA is much simpler giving
Due to increased concern about global warming, acceptably accurate results at or above resonance and has been
environmental issues and the threat of fossil fuel depletion, the widely used in literature for the analysis of constant output
interest in plug-in hybrid electrical vehicles (PHEVs) and pure voltage applications [10]. Below resonance, FHA is still valid
electric vehicles is growing continuously. High conversion with less accurate results making it not a good choice for optimal
efficiency, high power density, smooth and quick charging design but it is useful for qualitative analysis.
capabilities are the desired features expected from the on-board In this paper a half-bridge LLC series resonant converter is
charger in electrical vehicles. With the improvement in battery designed for output voltage range of 28 V to 72 V for a lead-acid
technology and capacity high current, high voltage and battery with charging profile given in [1]. The circuit is
sophisticated charging algorithms are needed, making charging simulated using MATLAB Simulink and the output voltage of
of the batteries complicated [1]. the converter is regulated using PID controller in feedback path.
The commonly used battery charging architecture is shown The PID controller regulates the output voltage by adjusting
in Fig. 1, consisting of power factor correction (PFC) stage with frequency of the gate pulses of the MOSFETs. In the following
AC to DC converter following the isolated DC-DC stage [2]. section LLC resonant converter configuration and operation is
The PFC stage could be a conventional continuous conduction discussed. In Section III converter is analyzed using FHA and
mode (CCM) boost topology [1]. The main focus of this paper circuit operation is explained in section IV. The design
is the DC-DC converter stage which have the main role of procedure is given in section V and simulation results are
regulating the output current and voltage, and the characteristics presented in section VI.
of the charger depend on this stage [3], [4]. Among various
II. LLC RESONANT CONVERTER
available choices, LLC resonant converter is the most attractive
choice because of its salient features like wide operation range, LLC resonant converter has gained a lot of attention and has
high efficiency, low electromagnetic interference, high power been widely discussed in literature for having simple structure
density and ability to achieve soft switching for less conduction and several desirable features like high power density, reduced
losses at both primary and secondary sides [5]. However this switching losses at high frequencies, high efficiency, zero
topology have many controlling parameters making its design voltage switching (ZVS), zero current switching (ZCS), low
and analysis complicated [6]. electromagnetic interference (EMI) and elimination of reverse
recovery of the output rectification diodes [11]-[15]. These
converters have much reduced losses due to their sinusoidal
This work was supported by Research University Grant (RUI)
1001/PELECT/814207 from Universiti Sains Malaysia.

978-1-4799-4848-2/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE 84

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 Switching Network

S1
Rectifier

Resonant Tank Transformer D1 Filter

DC NP
Vin NS
Cr Lr CO RL
LCC Resonant Tank LLC Resonant Tank
S2 Lm NS
Fig. 2. LCC and LLC resonant tank.

behavior and can reduce the size of reactive components by high D2

frequency operation and are much suited for high power
Fig. 3. Half-bridge LLC series resonant converter.
applications.
converts the AC input to a regulated DC output voltage with the
High power density is an important trend for today’s power
help of output capacitor filter which smooth the rectifier voltage
supply market. Topologies with high switching frequency
and current. The rectifier can be implemented as a full-wave
capability and high efficiency are needed to meet this trend. But
center-tapped or in a bridge configuration. It can also be
at high frequency, switching losses also exist specially the
implemented with MOSFETs for synchronous rectification
secondary diode reverse recovery loss and primary switches turn
which is especially beneficial in high-current and low-voltage
off loss. There are too many parameters for the LLC resonant
applications [19].
converter such as resonant inductor Lr, resonant capacitor Cr and
magnetic inductance Lm and, different parameters correspond to B. Operation of LLC Series Resonant Converter
different working waveforms as well as different switching The resonant tank offers minimum impedance to the
losses making the design complex [13]. sinusoidal current at resonant frequency, regardless of the
LLC series resonant converter can regulate the output frequency of the input square-wave voltage. To control the
voltage over a wide range of line and load variations. Compared portion of energy delivered to the load, the impedance of the
to LCC, LLC resonant converter can achieve soft switching over resonant tank varies with the switching frequency. For LLC
the entire operating range. The resonant tanks of LCC and LLC series resonant converter there are two resonant frequencies, the
converters, which are dual of each other, are shown in Fig. 2. In first involves Lr and Cr and the second involves Lm also and are
LLC configuration, the size of the converter can be reduced by given by
integrating the two inductors into the transformer which reduces (1)
the components count [6].
A. Configuration of LLC Series Resonant Converter (2)
A half-bridge LLC series resonant converter shown in Fig. 3, is
gaining popularity as a high efficiency DC-DC converter [12]- Equation (1) is always true regardless of load but (2) is true
[15]. The main parts of this configuration are discussed below. only at no load. Mostly LLC resonant converter is designed to
operate in the vicinity of resonant frequency fr1. For the above
Switching Network: The frequency controlled switching two resonance frequencies fr2 < fr1 and, the separation between
network acts as square-wave generator and is configured in a fr1 and fr2 depends upon the inductance ratio k = Lm / Lr and
complementary mode having a fixed duty cycle (~50%) for increases with increase in k. The switching frequency fsw controls
both power switches S1 and S2 which are usually the MOSFETs. the power flow from input to the load which increases with the
The duty cycle have some dead-time between consecutive decrease in fsw and vice versa. The range of switching frequency
transitions to prevent the possibility of cross conduction and is fmin ≤ fsw ≤ fmax where, fmin is the frequency at required
allow time for ZVS to be achieved. The switching network maximum gain with fmin > fr2 to maintain soft switching and, fmax
converts the DC input Vin into a square-wave, with a fixed duty is the frequency at required minimum gain with fmin ≥ fr1. The
cycle having amplitude equal to Vin and a DC offset of Vin2, LLC series resonant converter has the following three region of
which is then fed to the resonant tank. operations [20]:
Resonant Tank and Transformer: The resonant tank circulates  Below resonance fmin ≤ fsw ≤ fr1 where 2n(V0+ Vf) > Vin
the electric current and delivers energy to the load through the  At resonance fsw = fr1 where 2n(V0+ Vf) = Vin
transformer. The resonant tank introduces a phase shift between
the voltage and current due to which soft-switching is achievable  Above resonance fr1 ≤ fsw ≤ fmax where 2n(V0+ Vf) < Vin
[19]. The combination of switching network and resonant tank
Where n is the transformer’s turn ratio, V0 is the output voltage,
make a resonant inverter which feeds in the sinusoidal or
Vin is the input voltage and Vf is the secondary diode voltage.
piecewise sinusoidal current and voltage to the transformer. The
transformer decides the gain based on the turns ratio of the Operation at Resonance: In this mode the switching frequency
primary and secondary windings and provides electrical fsw is equal to the series resonant frequency fr1. At fr1, the
isolation. operation is at load independent point. When switch S1 is turned
off, the resonant current Ir falls equal to the magnetizing current
Rectifier and Filter: The two diodes D1 and D2 on the secondary
Im resulting no further power transfer the secondary side. Due to
side of the transformer constitute a full-wave rectifier which
dead time between switches S1 and S2, circuit achieves ZVS and

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 a soft commutation of the rectifier diodes. The resonance period
is equal to the switching period and the resonant current is sine
wave. The operation at series resonance is only a single point
operation, to cover both line and load variations, the switching
frequency will have to be adjusted away from the resonance
frequency [19].
Operation below Resonance: Below resonance operation
handles the undervoltage condition due to abrupt load increase Fig. 4. AC equivalent circuit of the LLC resonant converter.
and provides the converter with specified holdup capability. For
fsw < fr1 the resonant current Ir falls equal to the magnetizing
current Im before the end of switching pulse width, causing the
power transfer to the load to be ceased. This is because the
resonance duration being smaller than the pulse width.
Operation below fr1 achieves primary ZVS and ZCS of the
rectifier diodes on the secondary side. The rectifier diodes are in

Gain G
discontinuous current mode and require more circulating current
in the resonant circuit to deliver the same amount of energy to
the load causing conduction losses in both the primary and the
secondary sides. The primary ZVS may be lost if the switching
frequency becomes low than fr2 resulting in high switching
losses and several associated issues [19].
Operation above Resonance: The above resonance operation is
used to handle overvoltage condition due to abrupt decrease in
load. In this mode fsw > fr1 and there is a smaller circulating fr2 fr1
current in the resonant circuit. This reduces conduction loss Normalized frequency fn
because the resonant circuit’s current is in continuous-current Fig. 5. Operating regions of LLC series resonant converter.
mode, resulting in less RMS current for the same amount of load.
In this mode the resonance period is greater than the switching An approximate relationship between gain and normalized
period. The reverse recovery losses exist because the rectifier frequency is given in [21] as:
diodes are not softly commutated. The operation above fr1 can
still achieve primary ZVS and causes significant frequency (4)
increase under light-load conditions [19].
III. AC EQUIVALENT CIRCUIT OF THE LLC RESONANT Equation (4) gives the approximated value of fsw at required
output voltage which can be used as initial frequency of VCO,
CONVERTER AND ITS VOLTAGE GAIN
and it will be further adjusted by PID controller. Using (3) the
The LLC resonant converter’s nonlinear circuit is replaced DC characteristics of LLC resonant converter can be derived,
by a linear and time-invariant circuit, based on the first- and are divided into ZCS and ZVS regions, as illustrated in Fig.
harmonic approximation (FHA) approach as shown in Fig. 4 [1]. 5 [22]. Below fr2 is the ZCS region and is not preferred for power
This approximation model simplifies the analysis of the main MOSFET application due to the loss of ZVS operation [21].
complex circuit and illustrates variations of the output voltage
by changing the load and frequency. IV. CIRCUIT OPERATION
The voltage gain of the converter is given as follows [10]: In one switching cycle the operation of the LLC resonant
converter in Fig. 3 can be divided into four modes [23] as shown
in Fig. 7. Only first two modes in the half switch cycle are
(3) explained. For the next half cycle, operation is similar and is
omitted here. The equivalent circuit for these two modes is
shown in Fig. 6.
Mode 1: This mode starts when the voltage across S1
with the parameters: becomes zero before it turns on. When S1 is turned on, the
resonant current Ir starts flowing through it and increases
sinusoidal-type due to resonance between Lr and Cr The
Quality factor: magnetizing inductance Lm is clamped to the output voltage
nV0 and is charged linearly. The magnetizing current Im
where with P0 as output power. increases linearly and Lm does not participate in resonance.
The rectifier diode D1 is turned on under ZCS condition and
Normalized frequency: delivers energy to the load. This mode ends when Ir falls
equal to Im and energy transfer to the load is ceased resulting
diode current ID1 equal to zero.

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 S1 Vgs1 Vgs2

D1 0
Ir
+ NP Vds1
_ NS ID1
Vin Cr Lr RL
Im Co
S2 Lm
NS
Vcr
D2 0

(a) Mode 1 IL

S1

0
D1
Ir Im
+ NP
_ NS
Vin Cr Lr RL
Im Co
S2 Lm
NS

D2 ID1 ID2

(b) Mode 2
Fig. 6. Equivalent circuits for first two modes of operation.
0
Mode 2: This mode starts when Ir = Im and continues until
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3 Mode 4
both currents remain equal. During this mode, output is
Fig. 7. Simulation waveforms for modes of operation.
separated from the input and no power is transferred to the
load from the input side. Lm becomes in series with Lr & Cr Step 3. Choose the resonance frequency fr1 and find
participating in resonance operation and, the current
equivalent AC resistance Rac, input impedance Z0 and
circulates in the primary side. This mode ends after S1 is
turned off and voltage across it starts rising. the load resistance values as;
For the next half switching cycle operation is similar as above. Rac = n2R0
where,
V. DESIGN PROCEDURE
The converter specifications for the design are given as follows: Using values of Z0 and k calculate the tank parameters
 Input DC Voltage range 380 V ~ 420 V. as:
 Output Voltage range 28 V ~ 72 V
 LC Resonant frequency fr1 = 200 kHz
 LLC Resonant frequency fr2 = 85.28 kHz Step 4. Find the minimum and maximum switching
 Switching frequency range 94.6 kHz ~ 226.6 kHz frequencies from the gain plot.

The design procedure for the converter is summarized in the The gain plot is shown in Fig. 8. Using above steps with n = 9,
following steps [19]. Q = 0.15, and k = 4.5 the tank parameters are calculated as:
Cr = 34.2 µF, Lr = 1.855 µF, and Lm = 8.356 µH.
Step 1. Calculate the transformer’s turns ratio, minimum and
maximum gain values [20] using the following
equations:

where for diodes Vf = 0.6 V and for synchronous

rectifier switches Vf = 0.2 V.
Step 2. Select the suitable values of inductance ratio k and
quality factor Q from the gain versus normalized
frequency fn plot of equation (3) satisfying Gmin and
Gmax. Fig. 8. Voltage gain using design steps.

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 VI. SIMULATION RESULTS Line Variation

Vref
38 Vo

Fig. 9 shows the MATLAB Simulink model of the LLC 36

Vin/11

resonant DC-DC converter implemented using PID controller 34

with parameters calculated in design procedure. PID controller

Voltage
32

is used to generate pulses for driving MOSFETs. The frequency 30

of the pulses is adjusted by the voltage controlled oscillator 28

(VCO) which is driven by the PID controller. The initial value 26

given to the VCO is the resonance frequency fr1 which is then 24

0.013 0.014 0.015 0.016 0.017 0.018 0.019 0.02

adjusted by the controller for the desired output voltage. The

Simulation Time
Line Variation

controller adjusts the frequency output of the VCO based on the 52

50
Vref
Vo

error signal which is the difference between reference signal and

Vin/11

48

the output voltage. The VCO generates the triangular waves of 46

required frequency which is then used to generate the gate pulses 44

Voltage
42
for MOSFETs with required fixed duty cycle. 40

38

36

34
0.024 0.0245 0.025 0.0255 0.026 0.0265 0.027 0.0275
Simulation Time

Line Variation

75

70
Vref
65 Vo
Vin/11
60

Voltage
55

50

45

40

35

0.0335 0.034 0.0345 0.035 0.0355 0.036 0.0365 0.037

Simulation Time

Fig. 11. Line variation at output voltages 28 V, 48 V and 72 V.

Output Voltage Regulation with Step and Linear Variations

70

65

Fig. 9. MATLAB Simulation circuit. 60

Voltage

55
Load Variation

50
28
45

26 Vref
40
Vo

24 0.008 0.009 0.01 0.011 0.012 0.013 0.014 0.015 0.016

Simulation Time
Voltage

22 Fig. 12. Voltage regulation with linear and step variations in reference signal at
20
different output voltage levels.
18
Vref
Vo
Io
Fig. 10 shows the performance of controller for 20%
16
3.6 3.8 4 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5.2 5.4 5.6
variation in load at 28V, 48V and 72V. It can be seen from the
Simulation Time
figure that the controller adjusted the load variations for both
-3
x 10
Load Variation

48 increase and decrease in load. The effect of load variation

46
increases with the increase in output voltage level. The output
current is scaled by 1/9 in the figure.
44

42

40
Voltage

38 Fig. 11 shows the effect of step variations in input voltage

36

34
and the controller’s response for the adjustment of effect. The
32
Vref input voltage was increase to maximum value of 420V and then
dropped down to 380V and then adjusted back to the nominal
30 Vo
Io
28
0.01 0.0105 0.011
Simulation Time
0.0115 0.012 0.0125
value of 400V. Figure shows the line variation at 28V, 48V and
Load Variation 72V and it can be seen the controller has adjusted the effect more
75
quickly at higher output voltage than the lower one. The output
70
Voltage was scaled by 1/11 in the figure.
65

60
Fig. 12 shows the output voltage regulation with step and
Voltage

55
linear changes in the reference signal at different voltage levels.
50
From the figure it can be seen that the output voltage follows the
45
Vref
Vo
reference signal in both step and linear variations. The controller
40
Io
has adjusted the output voltage according to the variations in
reference signal. For higher voltage level adjustment is quicker
0.0185 0.019 0.0195 0.02 0.0205 0.021 0.0215
Simulation Time

Fig. 10. Load variation at output voltages 28 V, 48 V and 72 V.

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