Modeling isolation transformer capacitive components in a dual active bridge power conditioner

The Dual Active Bridge (DAB) is an attractive topology for applications which require energy to be transferred between different isolated dc sources. This paper provides a design example for a medium frequency transformer used in a DAB based automotive power conditioner. An optimized transformer design is implemented and evaluated in a lab prototype. Although this design performs well, the lab experiments suggest that a closer study should be performed to determine the effect of the isolation transformer's parasitic components on the operation of a DAB converter. This paper provides a procedure for modeling the capacitive components of the transformer to address their effects on the DAB converter performance.