A General and Automatic RMS Current Oriented Optimal Design Tool for LLC Resonant Converters

LLC resonant converters are used in renewable energy applications to achieve high power efficiency conversions between different energy sources, buses, and energy storage elements. The traditional design methods for LLC resonant converters are based on a simple frequency-domain analysis (FDA). However, the accuracy of FDA is not satisfactory, especially at wide voltage range applications. To overcome the drawbacks of the traditional FDA method in wide-range applications, in this article, the time-domain analysis (TDA) is adopted to achieve accurate analysis of LLC converters. Efficiency is normally selected as the optimization objective, where the circuit components and accurate power loss models are required beforehand. To achieve a more general optimal design method for LLC converters, a simple root-mean-square (rms) current and TDA-based optimal design method is proposed. The optimal design is achieved by minimizing the converter rms current and ensuring some key design considerations. Moreover, an automatic design tool for the proposed rms-current-based optimal design method is developed, and advanced optimization algorithms are introduced to improve the optimization speed. A 2.5-kW experimental prototype is built using the optimal circuit parameters. Experimental results under different operating conditions are demonstrated, and the results are consistent with the theoretical analysis. Efficiency comparisons between the proposed optimal design method and conventional design method are made. The proposed optimal design method can improve the converter efficiency by a maximum value of 2.14%.