Three-Switch Active-Clamp Forward Converter with Low Voltage Stress

Abstract

A conventional active-clamp forward (ACF) converter is a favorable candidate in low-to-medium power applications. However, the switches suffer from high voltage stress, i.e., sum of the input voltage and the reset capacitor voltage. Therefore, it is not suitable for high input voltage applications such as a front-end converter of which the input voltage is about 400-Vdc. To solve this problem, three-switch ACF (TS-ACF) converter, which employs two main switches and one auxiliary switch with low voltage stress, is proposed. Utilizing low-voltage rated switches, the proposed converter is promising for high input voltage applications with high efficiency and low cost.