IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO.

3, MARCH 2014 1117

Control Strategies for Wide Output Voltage

Range LLC Resonant DC–DC Converters
in Battery Chargers
Fariborz Musavi, Senior Member, IEEE, Marian Craciun, Member, IEEE,
Deepak S. Gautam, Student Member, IEEE, and Wilson Eberle, Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this paper, a control strategy is presented for a

high-performance capacitively loaded loop (LLC) multiresonant
dc–dc converter in a two-stage smart charger for neighborhood
electric vehicle (NEV) applications. It addresses several aspects
and limitations of LLC resonant dc–dc converters in battery
charging applications, such as very wide output voltage range
while keeping the efficiency maximized, implementation of the
current mode control at the secondary side, and optimization of Fig. 1. Typical battery charging power architecture.
burst mode operation for current regulation at very low output
voltage. The proposed control scheme minimizes both low- and with power factor correction (PFC) [4], followed by an isolated
high-frequency current ripples on the battery while maintaining dc–dc converter, as shown in Fig. 1 [5].
stability of the dc–dc converter, thus maximizing battery life with- This architecture virtually eliminates both the low- and
out penalizing the volume of the charger. Experimental results are
presented for a prototype unit converting 390 V from the input
high-frequency current ripples on the battery, thus maximiz-
dc link to an output voltage range of 3–72 V dc at 650 W. The ing battery life without penalizing the volume of the charger
prototype achieves a peak efficiency value of 96%. circuit. The front-end ac–dc PFC converter is a conventional
Index Terms—Battery charger, burst mode operation, control
CCM boost topology [6], [7]. The following dc–dc section
stability, resonant converter. is a half-bridge multiresonant capacitively loaded loop (LLC)
converter. The half-bridge resonant LLC converter is widely
used in telecommunication industries for its high efficiency at
I. I NTRODUCTION
the resonant frequency and its ability to regulate the output
voltage during the hold-up time, where the output voltage is
N EIGHBORHOOD electric vehicles (NEVs) are propelled
by an electric motor that is supplied with power from
a rechargeable battery [1], [2]. Currently, the performance
constant and the input voltage might drop significantly [8]–[11].
However, its application for battery charging impacts the
characteristics required for many electric vehicle (EV) applica- design criteria significantly to address the following.
tions far exceed the storage capabilities of conventional battery
systems. However, battery technology is improving, and as
A. Uncontrolled Area Operation
this transition occurs, charging of these batteries becomes very
complicated due to the high voltages and currents involved The output voltage requirement for a battery charger is dras-
in the system and the sophisticated charging algorithms [3]. tically different and challenging compared with telecommuni-
Quick charging of high-capacity battery packs causes increased cation applications. Fig. 2 shows a simplified battery charging
disturbances in the ac utility power system, thereby increasing profile for a 48-V system. As it indicates, the battery voltage,
the need for efficient low-distortion smart chargers. The ac- at the dc–dc converter output, can vary from as low as 36 V
cepted charger power architecture includes an ac–dc converter and to as high as 72 V. In addition, in the case of severely
discharged batteries, it is required to control current down to
Manuscript received May 15, 2013; revised August 20, 2013; accepted almost 0 A when the voltage is below about 50% of maximum
September 17, 2013. Date of publication January 29, 2014; date of current ver- output voltage in the “Un-controlled Area” in Fig. 3, where the
sion March 14, 2014. This is a revised version of the paper that was presented
at the IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition 2013 in LLC output V –I plane is shown [12].
Long Beach, CA, USA. This work was supported and sponsored by Delta-Q
Technologies Corporation. The review of this paper was coordinated by
Dr. C. C. Mi. B. Beat Frequency Quadratic Pole Phenomenon
F. Musavi, M. Craciun, and D. S. Gautam are with Delta-Q Technologies
Corporation, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H3, Canada (e-mail: [email protected]; Beat frequency quadratic pole phenomenon is a special char-
[email protected]; [email protected]).
W. Eberle is with the School of Engineering, The University of British acteristic for resonant converters [13]–[15]. The frequency-to-
Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada (e-mail: Wilson. output transfer function of the LLC resonant converter contains
[email protected]). a quadratic pole, as shown in [13] and [16]. Both the damping
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. factor Q and ω of the quadratic pole vary with the converter
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TVT.2013.2283158 operating condition. This term could introduce either a pair
0018-9545 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1118 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

Fig. 2. Simplified adaptive four-step lead–acid battery charging profile.

Fig. 4. Typical dc transfer ratio of an LLC dc-to-dc converter obtained using
FHA.

Fig. 5. Simplified secondary side current mode control.

Fig. 3. LLC output V –I plane with uncontrolled area. side or the secondary side [13], [15], [17]–[19]. Primary side
control requires isolation of feedback control signal, which
of complex poles or two real poles affecting the power stage is usually accomplished by using an optocoupler. The main
dynamics. When it results in complex poles, the frequency is disadvantages of using an optocoupler would be significant
approximately given by the difference between the switching variation of the control loop gain due to optocoupler’s poor
and the resonant tank frequencies; therefore, it is called “beat current transfer ratio initial tolerance, reduced bandwidth, and
frequency double pole,” as shown in Fig. 4. It is of particular degradation with the temperature and aging. To compensate for
importance for a battery charger as the operating conditions and these variations, a larger gain margin, and in some cases phase
load models vary widely, requiring current or voltage regulation margin, in control loop design is mandatory. Secondary side
in any point of the highlighted area in Fig. 3 with constant control removes optocoupler’s limitations, enabling more re-
voltage or/and constant resistance load. To compensate for the peatable performance. One implementation is shown in Fig. 5,
additional phase lag, it is required to reduce the bandwidth of where the gating signals are transferred to the primary side.
the control loop. As a consequence, a voltage mode converter However, the disadvantage is now sensing the input bus voltage
will have a slow transient and poor rejection of the line fre- across the isolation barrier for brownout and undervoltage
quency ripple that needs to be addressed. protection of the dc-to-dc stage.

C. Secondary Side Current Mode Control II. B URST M ODE O PERATION (N O L OAD , S HORT C IRCUIT )
In a battery charger, it is desired to control the charge rate, Burst mode operation [20] can be used for depleted batteries
which is in fact the charger current. In addition, rejecting the that require operation of the LLC converter in the uncontrolled
low-frequency ripple on the dc link bus is required. This means area of the V –I plane, as shown in Fig. 3. This method is
reducing the transconductance of the dc–dc converter. In addi- used solely to revive neglected batteries. In this region, the
tion, to satisfy these conditions, a current mode control with charger voltage is below 1.5 V/cell (36 V) and the switching
high current loop gain at twice the line frequency is desired. frequency has reached its maximum value (500 kHz). At this
Current mode control can be implemented either in the primary point of operation, the converter is switched to ON/OFF mode
MUSAVI et al.: CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR LLC RESONANT DC–DC CONVERTERS IN BATTERY CHARGERS 1119

Fig. 8. Depleted battery conditioning. Ch1 = battery voltage 5 V/div. Ch2 =

battery current 2 A/div. Ch4 = ILr 2 A/div.
Fig. 6. Startup soft switching consideration. Ch1 = MOSFET gate drive
5 V/div. Ch2 = battery current 2 A/div. Ch3 = half-bridge node voltage
50 V/div. Ch4 = ILr 2 A/div.

Fig. 9. (Top) FFVOT operation concept. (Bottom) Transition from FFVOT to

continuous operation mode.

Fig. 7. Shutdown battery current consideration. Ch1 = half-bridge node volt-

age 100 V/div. Ch2 = battery current 2 A/div. Ch4 = ILr 2A/div.

while operating at fixed frequency fsw_ max . To reduce com-

ponents’ stresses during repetitive ON–OFF operation, several
precautions have to be considered. Fig. 10. (Top) VFFOT operation concept. (Bottom) Transition from VFFOT
to FFVOT.
1) Selecting half-bridge topology with split resonant capac-
itor, as shown in Fig. 5, will ensure that the capacitors are Battery manufacturers recommend less than C/20 (i.e.,
already charged at the dc steady-state level prior to start 5-A RMS for a 100-Ah battery) low-frequency ripple current
switching, reducing the startup inrush currents. (line frequency or double-line frequency) to minimize heat
2) Shorter duration of the first gate drive pulse at startup en- generation while charging. Tests performed on valve-regulated
sures soft switching condition of the MOSFET switches lead–acid batteries for uninterruptible power systems with three
at power ON and allows fast transition to steady-state times the recommended ripple current have demonstrated that
values of the resonant inductor current. As shown in the heating effect is minimal (< 1 F) with less than 3% impact
Fig. 6, the resonant current reaches steady state in few on battery life [21], [22]. The life and capacity of EV batteries
switching cycles avoiding high peak current transitions. depend on several factors such as cycle count, charge mode,
3) Energy stored in resonant tank creates minor battery maintenance, temperature, and age.
current “tail” after gate pulses are stopped, as shown Among these factors, the charge mode has a significant
in Fig. 7, limiting choice of maximum burst frequency impact on battery life and capacity. EV batteries should be
and/or maximum burst duty cycle. charged with current and voltage levels with low ripple.
1120 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

Fig. 11. Flowchart of battery charging control.

MUSAVI et al.: CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR LLC RESONANT DC–DC CONVERTERS IN BATTERY CHARGERS 1121

Depleted batteries can be conditioned in burst mode with low

RMS ripple current, as demonstrated in Fig. 8 showing 1.9-A
RMS when charging at 1.5 ADC with 8 kHz/30% duty cycle
burst mode.

A. FFVOT
As the name of the control method implies, operation in
the uncontrolled area occurs by varying the ON time and
keeping the frequency constant. The converter hardware sets
the maximum burst frequency, capable of supporting up to a
maximum frequency of 30 kHz with no limit on minimum burst
frequency. The choice of the burst frequency is based on the
digital hardware limitations and battery ripple current tolerance
given by battery manufacturer.
Fig. 9 shows the fixed frequency variable on-time (FFVOT) Fig. 12. Implementation of FFVOT and VFFOT modes in battery V –I plane.
operation concept. Moreover, when the battery voltage is in the
normal range and the duty cycle is very large (e.g., 98%), the charging algorithm, it is compared with the old value. If the
LLC controller is enabled, thereby reverting the converter to new IREF value is less than the old one, the process is restarted.
normal (low ripple) operation. If the new IREF value is more or equal to the old value, the
measured battery voltage is compared with 1.5 V/cell. If the
B. VFFOT battery voltage is less than 1.5 V/cell, the process is repeated; if
In addition to battery ripple current tolerance, battery man- the battery voltage is more or equal to 1.5 V/cell, the operation
ufacturers provide the minimum duty cycle for pulsed-current mode is changed to continuous operation mode.
charging. Accordingly, the FFVOT control strategy enables op- While operating in VFFOT mode, the battery current pulse
eration at low output current ripple and high ON/OFF frequency duration tON is compared with the pulse repetition period. (The
with a minimum ON duration. period is the inverse function of the pulse repetition frequency,
If in FFVOT, once the charger reaches the minimum ON i.e., 1/fON .) If the pulse duration is more than half of the
duration limit, the frequency must begin to reduce and the repetition period, the operation mode is changed to FFVOT.
converter enters variable frequency fixed on-time (VFFOT). In FFVOT mode of operation, the battery is charged with a
This is the burst frequency, not the switching frequency of the current pulse of an amplitude less than ISC at a fixed repetition
converter, as the converter switching frequency is kept constant frequency fPWM with variable duration tON , charge regulation
at this point to fsw_ max . The purpose of switching the control being achieved by means of changing the current pulse duration
strategy from FFVOT to VFFOT is to maintain the charge tON . Then, the battery current is measured, and the average
current at very low value. Fig. 10 shows the VFFOT operation value is compared with the reference current IREF from the
concept and the transition from VFFOT to FFVOT modes. charging algorithm. If the averaged battery current is less than
IREF , the pulse duration tON is increased by a Δt increment
C. Control Principle and Implementation and the resulting new pulse duration is compared with 98%
of the pulse repetition period. The result of these comparisons
An example method of battery charging control is provided decides if the process is repeated or if the operation mode is
in Fig. 11. changed to continuous operation mode. If a new value IREF is
At the beginning, the battery charger detects if the battery received from the charging algorithm, it is compared with the
voltage is less than 1.5 V/cell. If the battery voltage is equal old value. If the new IREF value is less than the old one, the
to or more than 1.5 V/cell, the dc-to-dc can achieve charge process is restarted. If the new IREF value is more or equal to
rate regulation in the continuous operating area; therefore, the old value, the measured battery voltage is compared with
continuous operation mode will be enabled. 1.5 V/cell. If the battery voltage is less than 1.5 V/cell, the
If the battery voltage is less than 1.5 V/cell, the VFFOT process is repeated; if the battery voltage is more or equal
mode of operation is enabled. In this mode of operation, the to 1.5 V/cell, the operation mode is changed to continuous
battery is charged with a current pulse of duration tMIN and operation mode. Fig. 12 shows the area of implementation of
amplitude less than ISC , charge regulation being achieved by FFVOT and VFFOT modes in uncontrolled lead–acid battery
means of changing the repetition rate of the current pulses fON . V –I plane. In addition, Fig. 13 shows the area of implementa-
Then, the battery current is measured, and the average value is tion of FFVOT and VFFOT modes in battery charging profile.
compared with the reference current IREF from the charging
algorithm. If the averaged battery current is less than IREF , the
pulse repetition frequency fON is increased by a Δf increment III. C ONTROL S TABILITY C ONSIDERATION
and the resulting new repetition frequency is compared to the To address beat frequency and verify the stability of the
current pulse duration. The result of these comparisons decides system, both current and voltage plant stability must be verified
if the process is repeated or if the operation mode is changed in the extreme operating conditions using the previous plant
to FFVOT mode. If a new value IREF is received from the modeling. Fig. 14 shows the block diagram representation of
1122 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

Fig. 16. Compensated current plant transfer function phase and magnitude at
Fig. 13. Implementation of FFVOT and VFFOT modes in battery charging Vo = 72 V and FL (resistive and battery loads).
profile.

Fig. 17. Closed current loop (voltage plant transfer function) phase and
Fig. 14. Block diagram representation of the system with an inner current
magnitude at Vo = 72 V and FL (resistive and battery loads).
loop and an outer voltage loop.

Fig. 15. Plant transfer function phase and magnitude at Vo = 48 V and Fig. 18. Compensated voltage plant transfer function phase and magnitude at
Vo = 72 V. Vo = 72 V and FL (resistive load and battery loads).

the system with an inner current loop and an outer voltage in Fig. 17. The compensated voltage loop transfer function is
loop. Fig. 15 shows the uncompensated plant phase and gain given in Fig. 18 at 72-V output and full load.
frequency responses Pi (s) at full load, i.e., 48- and 72-V out- However, the battery will reduce the gain of the voltage loop,
puts. The beat frequencies could be observed at 10 and 20 kHz as shown in Fig. 18. In addition, it is observed that the cutoff
for 72 and 48 V, respectively. The closed-loop crossover fre- frequency drops by two decades (from 1.5 kHz to 16 Hz).
quency must be placed at least one octave below the beat
frequencies due to excessive phase shift.
An overall compensated current loop phase and gain at Vo = IV. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
72 V and FL Pi (s) × Ci (s) for resistive and battery loads is A prototype of the half-bridge LLC multiresonant converter
shown in Fig. 16. It can be observed that, with battery, the gain was built to provide a proof-of-concept and verify the analytical
is increased to 25 dB, which will provide line frequency current work presented in this paper. Fig. 19 shows a picture of the LLC
ripple rejection. dc–dc multiresonant converter prototype. Table I provides the
The closed looped compensated current plant is the uncom- design criteria for the prototype LLC converter. In Table II, the
pensated plant (power stage) for the voltage loop, as shown key components used in the prototype converter are given.
MUSAVI et al.: CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR LLC RESONANT DC–DC CONVERTERS IN BATTERY CHARGERS 1123

Fig. 19. Prototype of LLC dc–dc converter.

TABLE I
D ESIGN S PECIFICATIONS

Fig. 20. Measured efficiency versus output power for Vo = 48 V, Vo = 60 V,

and Vo = 72 V.

TABLE II
C OMPONENTS U SED IN THE P ROTOTYPE C ONVERTER

Fig. 21. ILr , VCr , and VQ2 for Vo = 48 V, Po = 650 W; Ch1 = VQ2
The measured efficiency values of the converter as a function 100 V/div. Ch2 = VCr 100 V/div. Ch4 = ILr 2A/div. (a) Simulation results.
of load are given in Fig. 20 at output voltages of 48, 60, and (b) Experimental results.
72 V. This clearly shows that the efficiency is kept almost
constant and independent of output voltage at full load. These voltage Vo = 48 V. The waveforms in Fig. 22 are given at
measurements were taken with the output relay, common mode fsw = 152 kHz and an output voltage of Vo = 72 V.
electromagnetic interference inductor, and output fuse in the Fig. 23 provides example waveforms of transition from
circuit. FFVOT control to continuous operation mode. Fig. 24 shows
Simulation and experimental waveforms of the resonant tank example waveforms of the FFVOT control strategy. Fig. 25
current, resonant capacitor voltage, and voltage across bottom shows example waveforms of the VFFOT control strategy.
MOSFET Q2 are provided in Figs. 21 and 22 at Vin = 390 V Note that the overshoot shown in the current waveforms is
and Po = 650 W. The waveforms in Fig. 21 are given at close due to the small impedance of the battery simulator. Real-life
the unity gain resonant frequency fsw = 211 kHz and output depleted batteries will have higher internal resistance; hence,
1124 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 63, NO. 3, MARCH 2014

Fig. 24. FFVOT control strategy: fPWM = 1 kHz, Don = 60%, Io = 5 A,

and Vo = 5 V.

Fig. 22. ILr , VCr , and VQ2 for Vo = 72 V, Po = 650 W; Ch1 = VQ2
100 V/div. Ch2 = VCr 100 V/div. Ch4 = ILr 2A/div. (a) Simulation results.
(b) Experimental results.

Fig. 25. VFFOT control strategy: fBurst = 31 kHz, VBATT = 3 V,

on duration = 1 resonant cycle, and IBATT = 1.3 A.

implementation of the current mode control at the secondary

side. The proposed control scheme minimizes both low- and
high-frequency current ripples on the battery while maintaining
stability of the dc–dc converter, thus maximizing battery life
without penalizing the volume of the charger. Experimental
results are presented for a prototype unit converting 390 V from
the input dc link to an output voltage range of 3–72 V dc at
650 W. The prototype achieves a peak efficiency value of 96%.

Fig. 23. Transition from FFVOT control to continuous operation mode:

Don = 98%, Io = 7 A, and Vo = 20 V. R EFERENCES
[1] D. W. Gao, C. Mi, and A. Emadi, “Modeling and simulation of elec-
a lossy damper was not deemed necessary for this mode of tric and hybrid vehicles,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 95, no. 4, pp. 729–745,
operation, and the waveforms looked more like those in Fig. 8. Apr. 2007.
[2] A. Emadi, S. Williamson, and A. Khaligh, “Power electronics intensive
solutions for advanced electric, hybrid electric, and fuel cell vehicular
V. C ONCLUSION power systems,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 567–
577, May 2006.
A control strategy has been presented for a high-performance [3] A. M. Rahimi, “A lithium-ion battery charger for charging up to eight
LLC multiresonant dc–dc converter in a two-stage smart cells,” in Proc. IEEE Conf. Veh. Power Propulsion, 2005, pp. 131–136.
[4] B. Singh, B. N. Singh, A. Chandra, K. Al-Haddad, A. Pandey, and
charger for NEV applications. It addresses several aspects D. P. Kothari, “A review of single-phase improved power quality AC–
and limitations of LLC resonant dc–dc converters in battery DC converters,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 50, no. 5, pp. 962–981,
charging applications, such as very wide output voltage range Oct. 2003.
[5] D. S. Gautam, F. Musavi, M. Edington, W. Eberle, and W. G. Dunford,
while keeping the efficiency maximized, the beat frequency “An automotive onboard 3.3-kW battery charger for PHEV application,”
double pole at frequencies close to resonant frequency, and the IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 61, no. 8, pp. 3466–3474, Oct. 2012.
MUSAVI et al.: CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR LLC RESONANT DC–DC CONVERTERS IN BATTERY CHARGERS 1125

[6] B. Lu, W. Dong, S. Wang, and F. C. Lee, “High frequency investigation Marian Craciun (M’00) received the B.Sc. degree
of single-switch CCM power factor correction converter,” in Proc. IEEE in electronics engineering from the Polytechnic In-
APEC Expo., 2004, vol. 3, pp. 1481–1487. stitute of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania.
[7] L. Yang, B. Lu, W. Dong, Z. Lu, M. Xu, F. C. Lee, and W. G. Odendaal, He has more than 20 years of experience in de-
“Modeling and characterization of a 1 KW CCM PFC converter for veloping telecommunication and industrial power
conducted EMI prediction,” in Proc. IEEE APEC Expo., 2004, vol. 2, electronic products and sustaining engineering. His
pp. 763–769. industrial experience includes positions with Ener-
[8] B. Yang, F. C. Lee, A. J. Zhang, and G. Huang, “LLC resonant converter gorepairs RENEL and Asea Brown Boveri Ltd., in
for front end DC/DC conversion,” in Proc. IEEE APEC Expo., 2002, Bucharest and with Argus Technologies Ltd. and
vol. 2, pp. 1108–1112. Alpha Technologies Ltd., in Burnaby, BC, Canada.
[9] T. Liu, Z. Zhou, A. Xiong, J. Zeng, and J. Ying, “A novel precise design He is currently a Power Electronics R&D Engineer
method for LLC series resonant converter,” in Proc. IEEE INTELEC, with Delta-Q Technologies Corporation, Burnaby. His current research interests
2006, pp. 1–6. include high-power high-efficiency converter topologies, high-power-factor
[10] J.-H. Jung and J.-G. Kwon, “Theoretical analysis and optimal design of rectifiers, resonant converters, electric vehicles, and sustainable and renewable
LLC resonant converter,” in Proc. Eur. Conf. Power Electr. Appl., 2007, energy sources.
pp. 1–10.
[11] J. Biela, U. Badstubner, and J. W. Kolar, “Design of a 5 kW, 1U,
10 kW/ltr. resonant DC–DC converter for telecom applications,” in Proc.
INTELEC, 2007, pp. 824–831.
[12] F. Musavi, M. Craciun, D. Gautam, W. Eberle, and W. G. Dunford, “An
LLC resonant DC-DC converter for wide output voltage range battery
charging applications,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 28, no. 12,
pp. 5437–5445, Dec. 2013.
[13] J. Jang, M. Joung, S. Choi, Y. Choi, and B. Choi, “Current mode control
for LLC series resonant dc-to-dc converters,” in Proc. IEEE APEC Expo.,
2011, pp. 21–27. Deepak S. Gautam (M’09–S’11) received the B.E.
[14] B. Yang, “Topology investigation of front end DC/DC converter for dis- degree in electronics engineering from the University
tributed power system,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Electr. Comput. Eng., of Mumbai, Mumbai, India, in 2000 and the M.A.Sc.
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, degree in electrical engineering from the University
USA, 2003. of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada, in 2006. He is cur-
[15] J. Jang, M. Joung, B. Choi, and H.-G. Kim, “Dynamic analysis and control rently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electrical
design of optocoupler-isolated LLC series resonant converters with wide engineering in the field of power electronics with The
input and load variations,” in Proc. IEEE ECCE, 2009, pp. 758–765. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
[16] V. Vorperian, “Approximate small-signal analysis of the series and the From 2000 to 2003, he was a Research and De-
parallel resonant converters,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 4, no. 1, velopment Engineer with the Power Conversion and
pp. 15–24, Jan. 1989. Control Division, Aplab Ltd., Mumbai, where he was
[17] S. W. Hong, H. J. Kim, J.-S. Park, Y. G. Pu, J. Cheon, D.-H. Han, involved in the development of linear, switch-mode, and programmable power
and K.-Y. Lee, “Secondary-side LLC resonant controller IC with dy- supplies for industrial and telecommunication industries. Since 2007, he has
namic PWM dimming and dual-slope clock generator for LED backlight been a Power Electronics Engineer with Delta-Q Technologies Corporation,
units,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 26, no. 11, pp. 3410–3422, Burnaby, BC, where his main responsibility is to develop high-frequency
Nov. 2011. switch-mode battery chargers for automotive and industrial applications. His
[18] R. Petkov and G. Anguelov, “Current mode control of frequency con- research interests are dc–dc converters, ac–dc power factor correction convert-
trolled resonant converters,” in Proc. IEEE Telecommun. Energy Conf., ers, resonant converters, and feedback control circuits.
1998, pp. 103–108. Mr. Gautam received the University of Victoria fellowship, the Andy
[19] J. Sun and H. Grotstollen, “Averaged modeling and analysis of reso- Farquharson Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching, and the Best
nant converters,” in Proc. IEEE Power Electron. Specialists Conf., 1993, Poster Presentation Award at the Applied Power Electronics Conference and
pp. 707–713. Exposition 2012 in Orlando, FL, USA. He also has won travel grants from the
[20] Y. Fang, D. Xu, Y. Zhang, F. Gao, L. Zhu, and Y. Chen, “Standby mode Power Source Manufacturer’s Association and the IEEE Industry Application
control circuit design of LLC resonant converter,” in Proc. IEEE PESC, and Power Electronics Societies to present papers at conferences.
2007, pp. 726–730.
[21] Technical Note Effects of AC Ripple Current on VRLA Battery Life, Emer-
son Network Power, Technical Note.
[22] Technical Note Charger Output AC Ripple Voltage and Effect on VRLA
Batteries, C&D Technologies, Technical Note.

Fariborz Musavi (S’10–M’11–SM’12) received the

B.Sc. degree from Iran University of Science and
Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1994; the M.Sc. degree
from Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada, Wilson Eberle (S’98–M’07) received the B.Sc.,
in 2001; and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engi- M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Queen’s University,
neering with emphasis in power electronics from Kingston, ON, Canada, in 2000, 2003, and 2008,
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, respectively.
Canada. His industrial experience includes positions with
Since 2001, he has been with several high- Ford Motor Company, Windsor, ON, and with Astec
technology companies. Currently, he is with Delta-Q Advanced Power Systems, Nepean, ON. He is cur-
Technologies Corporation, Burnaby, BC, where he rently an Assistant Professor with the School of
is a Manager of research and engineering and is engaged in research on the Engineering, The University of British Columbia
simulation, analysis, and design of battery chargers for industrial and auto- Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada. He is the author
motive applications. His current research interests include high-power high- or a coauthor of more than 50 technical papers
efficiency converter topologies, high-power-factor rectifiers, electric vehicles, published in various conferences and IEEE journals. He is the holder of one
and sustainable and renewable energy sources. U.S. patent. His current research interests include high-efficiency high-power-
Dr. Musavi is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of British density dc–dc converters and ac–dc power factor correction circuits.
Columbia. He received the First Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Industry Dr. Eberle currently holds research grants from the Natural Sciences and En-
Applications Society Industrial Power Converter Committee in 2011. He has gineering Research Council of Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation,
also won an award from the Power Source Manufacturer’s Association to the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, The University of British
present papers at conferences. Columbia, and the Kaiser Foundation for Higher Education.