Methods of Battery Charging with Buck Converter Using Soft-Switching Techniques

ISSN 2250 – 1088 | © 2011 Bonfring Abstract--This paper is a detailed study on methods of battery charging with Buck Resonant converter using soft switching techniques like ZVS and ZCS. This study also presents the circuit configuration with the least components to realize a highly efficient solar energy battery charger with a zero-voltage and zero current switching resonant converter. The high-frequency resonant converter has numerous wellknown advantages over the traditional hard-switching converters. The most important advantage is that it offers a lower switching loss and a higher power density. Additionally, the soft switching current waveform characterizes a lower electromagnetic interference (EMI). The operating principles and design procedure of the proposed charger with both zero voltage and zero current are thoroughly analyzed. The optimal values of the resonant components are computed by applying the characteristic curve and electric functions derived from the circuit configuration. Finally, a simulation model is implemented for charger circuit designed for a 12-V 4-Ah lead acid battery using zero voltage and zero current switching and MATLAB/SIMULINK software is used as the simulation tool. The proposed dc–dc battery charger has a straightforward structure, low cost, easy control, and high efficiency. Satisfactory performance is obtained from the experimental results.