LLC and CLLC Resonant Converters Based DC Transformers (DCXs): Characteristics, Issues, and Solutions

Conventional line frequency transformers have the disadvantages of large volume and low efficiency. The medium or high frequency transformers based on power converters can achieve high power conversion with small footprint have drawn popularity in numerous industrial applications. Unregulated resonant converters, LLC and CLLC resonant converters, with fixed voltage conversion ratio operating at resonant frequency, which are also known as DC transformers (DCXs), are attractive owning to their high efficiency characteristic. Nevertheless, there are issues associated with DCXs in real applications. Regulation capability and automatic resonant frequency tracking capability are the two most important issues for DCXs. The main work of this paper is to characterize the resonant converters based DCXs, and overview the issues and solutions associated with DCXs. Guidelines can be provided for researchers and engineers when designing the resonant converters based DCXs.

The invention relates to an intermediate frequency power supply fast start and digital phase locked loop control technology

Intermediate frequency induction heating is widely used because of its low energy consumption and high thermal efficiency, but the speed of traditional intermediate frequency power supply is slow and its frequency tracking accuracy is limited. In order to maintain the resonant state of the load during the working process of the induction heating power supply and realize the automatic frequency tracking control during the working process. The frequency tracking of the 40kW intermediate frequency power supply is researched, and a method of combining the resonant frequency automatic identification algorithm and the digital phase locked loop frequency tracking control method is proposed. MATLAB simulation and experiment show that the system based on this control method can save the time of searching the load resonance frequency in the initial stage of the power supply, improve the frequency tracking speed, accelerate the dynamic response speed of the system, avoid the failure of frequency lock, and play the role of fast and stable startup.

Frequency tracking and tuning control of wireless power transfer system

A tuning control method with frequency tracking function is proposed to improve the degradation of efficiency caused by coil detuning in magnetically-coupled resonant wireless power transfer. Firstly, the detuning mechanism is studied by combining the AC impedance characteristics of the series resonant circuit, and the feedback control circuit is constructed by using a modified phase-locked loop, which outputs a variable frequency PWM wave to regulate the operating frequency of the high frequency inverter and maintains the phase difference between the inverter output voltage and the original side current within the error range. The Matlab/Simulink simulation results show that the design can successfully transfer the system to a new resonant state with short regulation period and high control accuracy, which can effectively improve the transmission efficiency and load power of the system.

Indirect Estimation of Breathing Rate from Heart Rate Monitoring System during Running

Recent advances in wearable technologies integrating multi-modal sensors have enabled the in-field monitoring of several physiological metrics. In sport applications, wearable devices have been widely used to improve performance while minimizing the risk of injuries and illness. The objective of this project is to estimate breathing rate (BR) from respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) using heart rate (HR) recorded with a chest belt during physical activities, yielding additional physiological insight without the need of an additional sensor. Thirty-one healthy adults performed a run at increasing speed until exhaustion on an instrumented treadmill. RR intervals were measured using the Polar H10 HR monitoring system attached to a chest belt. A metabolic measurement system was used as a reference to evaluate the accuracy of the BR estimation. The evaluation of the algorithms consisted of exploring two pre-processing methods (band-pass filters and relative RR intervals transformation) with different instantaneous frequency tracking algorithms (short-term Fourier transform, single frequency tracking, harmonic frequency tracking and peak detection). The two most accurate BR estimations were achieved by combining band-pass filters with short-term Fourier transform, and relative RR intervals transformation with harmonic frequency tracking, showing 5.5% and 7.6% errors, respectively. These two methods were found to provide reasonably accurate BR estimation over a wide range of breathing frequency. Future challenges consist in applying/validating our approaches during in-field endurance running in the context of fatigue assessment.