Design of High-Density and High-Efficiency 8kW LLC converter

Abstract:
The demand of efficient and compact power supply units (PSU) is continuously increasing the last years with the exponential growth of the artificial intelligence applications [1]. The PSU intended to be used for these datacenters needs to deliver 50 VDC at the output, while the input feeding comes from the mains voltage. Thus, the typical architecture consists of a frontend AC/DC converter with power factor correction (PFC) capability, followed by the step-down isolated DC/DC stage. On this work, more emphasis is given on the DC/DC stage of the PSU, and the major design considerations are discussed. More specifically, special emphasis is given to the transformer structure of the isolated DC/DC converter, because of its major impact on the overall power supply efficiency and power density. The proposed solutions are justified through extensive simulation and experimental results, providing thoughtful insights for the implementation of highly efficient and compact LLC converters.