A Dual-Transformer Active-Clamp Forward Converter With Nonlinear Conversion Ratio

This paper proposes a dual-transformer active-clamp forward converter (DT-ACFC) with nonlinear conversion ratio (NCR), which combines two forward converter units. Since only two active switches are needed, the cost and the circuit complexity can be lowered. To reduce switching loss, the proposed converter fulfills zero-voltage switching by employing the leakage inductance of the transformer and additional resonant inductance. By paralleling the transformer secondaries and changing the circuit architecture of each secondary side, we can make the output load current evenly shared among four output inductors such that the current stress and conduction losses of the output rectifiers can be decreased significantly. Moreover, the nonlinear step-down conversion ratio leads to a high duty utilization ratio for the proposed converter. Therefore, the DT-ACFC with NCR is suitable for applications of high output current and a wide input voltage range. Experimental results are shown to verify the theoretical analysis of the proposed forward converter.