DC-DC Converter

• US 20150280589A1
• Filed: 10/23/2013
• Published: 10/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2012
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Bucher Hydraulics AG (Bucher Industries AG)
• Original Assignee: Schmidhauser AG (Lenze AG /Mair/)
• Inventors: Bisig, Thomas, Itten, Alex, Schekulin, Dirk, Gross, Silvia, Haertsch, Chris, Cavin, Pierre
• Granted Patent: US 10,256,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 11/003 using a field effect transistor as protecting element in one of the supply lines
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 7/1213 for DC-DC converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/32 Means for protecting converters other than automatic disconnection
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33546 with automatic control of the output voltage or current H02M3/33561 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33576 having at least one active switching element at the secondary side of an isolation transformer

Abstract

A DC-DC converter includes a first half-bridge circuit, a second half-bridge circuit, at least one transformer having at least one primary winding and at least one secondary winding, wherein the first and second half-bridge circuits are designed to generate an AC voltage at the at least one primary winding, and a rectifier circuit having an output terminal. The output terminal includes a first output terminal pole and a second output terminal pole. The rectifier circuit includes at least one rectifier element. The rectifier circuit is designed to rectify a voltage present at the at least one secondary winding and to output it at the output terminal. The rectifier circuit includes a polarity reversal protection transistor, the collector-emitter path of which or the drain-source path of which is looped in between a terminal of the at least one rectifier element and the first or the second output terminal pole of the output terminal.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A DC-DC converter, comprising:

a first half-bridge circuit,

a second half-bridge circuit,

at least one transformer comprising at least one primary winding and at least one secondary winding, wherein the first and second half-bridge circuits are designed to generate an AC voltage at the at least one primary winding, and

a rectifier circuit comprising

an output terminal, wherein the output terminal comprises a first output terminal pole and a second output terminal pole, and

at least one rectifier element,

wherein the rectifier circuit is designed to rectify a voltage present at the at least one secondary winding and to output the rectified voltage at the output terminal,

wherein

the rectifier circuit further comprises a polarity reversal protection transistor, the collector-emitter path of which or the drain-source path of which is looped in between a terminal of the at least one rectifier element and the first or the second output terminal pole of the output terminal.

11. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the DC-DC converter comprises a transformer, wherein the transformer has exactly two primary windings and two secondary windings,

wherein the first half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the first primary winding, and the second half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the second primary winding, and

the rectifier circuit further comprises two rectifier elements in the form of a first diode and a second diode,

wherein a first terminal of the first secondary winding is electrically connected to the anode of the first diode, and the drain-source path of the polarity reversal protection transistor and an inductor are looped in between the cathode of the first diode and the first output terminal pole of the output terminal.

12. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 11, wherein

a first terminal of the second secondary winding is electrically connected to the anode of the second diode,

the cathode of the first diode and the cathode of the second diode are electrically connected, and

the second terminal of the first secondary winding, the second terminal of the second secondary winding and the second output terminal pole of the output terminal are electrically connected.

13. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the DC-DC converter comprises two transformers, wherein the two transformers each comprise a primary winding and a secondary winding,

the first half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the primary winding of the first transformer, and the second half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the primary winding of the second transformer, and

the rectifier circuit further comprises a first pair of rectifier elements in the form of a first diode and a second diode and comprises a second pair of rectifier elements in the form of a third diode and a fourth diode,

wherein a first terminal of the secondary winding of the first transformer is electrically connected to the anode of the first diode, a first terminal of the secondary winding of the second transformer is electrically connected to the anode of the third diode, the cathodes of the first to fourth diodes are electrically connected, and the drain-source path of the polarity reversal protection transistor and an inductor are looped in between the cathodes of the first to fourth diodes and the first output terminal pole of the output terminal.

14. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 13, wherein

a second terminal of the secondary winding of the first transformer, a second terminal of the secondary winding of the second transformer, the anodes of the second diode and of the fourth diode and the second output terminal pole of the output terminal are electrically connected.

15. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 10, wherein

the DC-DC converter comprises a transformer, wherein the transformer comprises two primary windings and one secondary winding,

wherein the first half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the first primary winding, and the second half-bridge circuit is designed to generate an AC voltage at the second primary winding, and

the rectifier circuit further comprises two rectifier elements in the form of a first diode and a second diode,

a first terminal of the secondary winding is electrically connected to the cathode of the first diode, the anode of the first diode is electrically connected to the anode of the second diode, the cathode of the second diode is electrically connected to a second terminal of the secondary winding, and the drain-source path of the polarity reversal protection transistor is looped in between the anodes of the first and second diodes and the second output terminal pole of the output terminal.

16. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 15, wherein

a first inductor is looped in between the first terminal of the secondary winding and the first output terminal pole of the output terminal, and a second inductor is looped in between the second terminal of the secondary winding and the first output terminal pole of the output terminal.

18. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 10, wherein the rectifier elements and the polarity reversal protection transistor are integrated into a power module.

19. The DC-DC converter as claimed in claim 10, wherein the first and second half-bridge circuits are asymmetrical half-bridge circuits.

17. The DC-DC converter as claimed 10, wherein MOSFETs are used as switching devices in the first and second half-bridge circuits.