High Efficiency and High Power Density Partial Power Regulation Topology With Wide Input Range

Data centers require high efficiency and high power-density dc–dc converter with wide input range and galvanic isolation. To overcome the drawbacks of traditional single-stage LLC and two-stage solutions, a novel partial power regulation topology with wide input range is proposed in this article. The proposed topology delivers the load power through a three-ports LLC-based dc transformer regulated DCX (DCX). A pulsewidth modulation (PWM) converter is cascaded with one of the input ports of the DCX and then in series with the other input port to regulate the output voltage. Since a single transformer and a partial power PWM converter are employed, high power density can be achieved. Furthermore, only a portion of the load power is transferred by the PWM converter, the efficiency sacrifice is reduced. By introducing an appropriate negative current, the zero voltage switching of the PWM is also achieved. Furthermore, when the input voltage approaches the lower or the upper limit, the switching frequency of the PWM regulator can be ultralow. As a result, switching losses and core losses are further reduced. Finally, a prototype with 190—475 V input and 12 V/500 W output is demonstrated, which achieves a peak efficiency of up to 97.2% and a power density of 153 W/in³.

I. Introduction

Information technology is booming in recent decades. The ever-increasing demand for large-scale information storage and computation pushing the size of data centers increases dramatically. And this results in huge energy consumption and electricity cost [1]. It is been reported that Google and Microsoft consume more than 1120 GWh and 600 GWh annually, having to pay 67 million dollars and 36 million dollars, respectively [2]. The electricity consumption of data centers is about 1% of all electricity consumed in the world [3]. The emission of a large amount of carbon dioxide due to the burning of fossil fuels for electricity causes environmental issues. Hence, it is significant to improve the energy utilization efficiency of the data center.