• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.247-255
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• 2018

This paper proposes a transformer design of a direct cell-to-cell active cell balancing circuit with a multi-winding transformer for battery management system (BMS) applications. The coupling coefficient of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of MOSFETs significantly affect the balancing current transfer efficiency of the cell balancing operation. During the operation, the multi-winding transformer stores the energy charged in a specific source cell and subsequently transfers this energy to the target cell. However, the leakage inductance of the multi-winding transformer and the output capacitance of the MOSFET induce an abnormal energy transfer to the non-target cells, thereby degrading the transfer efficiency of the balancing current in each cell balancing operation. The impacts of the balancing current transfer efficiency deterioration are analyzed and a transformer design methodology that considers the coupling coefficient is proposed to enhance the transfer efficiency of the balancing current. The efficiency improvements resulting from the selection of an appropriate coupling coefficient are verified by conducting a simulation and experiment with a 1 W prototype cell balancing circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2021

In multi-string light-emitting diode (LED) driver system, current balancing is crucial because the brightness of LED is directly related to its forward current. This paper presents a novel LED current balancing topology using current-fed Z-source converter. With the proposed structure, currents flowing through two LED strings are automatically balanced owing to the charge-balance condition on capacitors. Operation of the proposed converter is simple and the proposed converter uses only one active switch and one diode. Moreover, low-side gate driving can be used to operate the active switch. To verify the operation of the proposed LED current balancing converter, a prototype is built and tested with different numbers of LEDs.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.160-166
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• 2015

This study proposes an improved cell balancing circuit for fast equalization among lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. A simple voltage sensorless charge balancing circuit has been proposed in the past. This cell balancing circuit automatically transfers energy from high-to low-voltage battery cells. However, the circuit requires a switch with low on-resistance because the balancing speed is limited by the on-resistance of the switch. Balancing speed decreases as the voltage difference among the battery cells decrease. In this study, the balancing speed of the cell balancing circuit is enhanced by using the auxiliary circuit, which boosts the balancing current. The charging current is determined by the nominal battery cell voltage and thus, the balancing speed is almost constant despite the very small voltage differences among the batteries. Simulation results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed cell balancing circuit.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.249-255
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• 2021

A novel current balancing technique for multichannel light-emitting diode (LED) that uses a series resonance and coupled inductor is proposed in this paper. The proposed LED driver balances output currents through frequency control and enables zero-voltage switching. The proposed converter utilizes the charge balance condition of the resonant capacitor and the current sharing function of the coupled inductor to achieve whole LED current balancing without an additional controller. The proposed coupled inductor can integrate the current balancing function and the resonant inductor, so the power density can be increased by reducing the number of magnetic devices. A 40 W prototype is built to verify the validity of this LED driver, and the experimental results are successfully obtained.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.869-877
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• 2012

This paper presents a current-balancing circuit for security lights that uses parallel-connected LEDs. The parallel connection of LEDs causes current differences between the LED strings because of characteristic deviations. These differences can reduce the lifespan of a particular point of LEDs by thermal spotting. They can also cause non-uniform luminance of the lighting device. Among the different methods for solving these problems, the method using current-balancing transformers makes it easy to compensate for current differences and it has a simple circuitry. However, while the balancing transformer has been applied to AC light sources, LEDs operate on a DC source, so the driving circuitry and the design method have to be changed and their performances must be verified. Thus in this paper, a design method of the balancing transformer network and the driving circuitry for LEDs is proposed. The proposed design method could have a smaller size than the conventional design method. The proposed circuitry is applied to three types of 100-watt LED security lights, which use different LEDs. Experimental results are presented to verify the performance of the designed driving circuits.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.66-73
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• 2021

This study presents a novel four-channel light-emitting diode (LED) current balancing topology using a current-fed hybrid quasi-Z-source converter. With the proposed structure, currents flowing through four LED strings are automatically balanced owing to the charge (amp-sec) balance condition on capacitors. Thus, automatic current balancing of the proposed driver is simple and precise. In addition, the proposed LED driver uses only one active switch and three diodes. The operating principle and characteristics of the proposed four-channel LED driver are analyzed in detail. To verify the operation of the proposed LED driver, a prototype is built and tested with different numbers of LEDs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1994.10a
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• pp.773-777
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• 1994

This paper is devoted to the development and performance evaluation of a hard bearing type balancing machine for rigid rotors. The pedestals of the balancing machine are designed to be rigid to be rigid enough to enable the balancing to operate far below the fundamental critical speed. The force measuring method is implemented to the balancing machine. The forces due to unbalance are measured through load cell that are attached to the pedestals. A helical coupling is used for transmitting the driving force from an AC servo motor to the rotor to be balanced. The experimental results show that the current hard bearing type balancing machine can indicate the presence of unbalance beyond 1 .mu. m in specific unbalance unit. The limitation of the current balancing machine is due to the coupling that is likely to make inconsistent offset errors everytime the rotor is connected to the machine.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2016

We propose a multi-channel current-balancing single switch light-emitting diode (LED) driver for a 3D TV. Conventional LED drivers require non-isolated DC/DC converters as many as the number of LED channels, whereas the proposed LED driver needs only one power switch and several balancing capacitors instead of expensive non-isolated DC/DC converters. Therefore, the proposed driver features a simple structure with low cost and high efficiency. In particular, because its power switch can be turned off under the zero-current switching condition, the proposed driver has desirable advantages, such as improved electromagnetic interference characteristics and high efficiency. Moreover, it only uses a small number of DC blocking capacitors with no additional active devices for the current balancing of multi-channel LEDs. Therefore, the proposed driver exhibits high reliability and cost effectiveness. To confirm the validity of the proposed driver, we perform a theoretical analysis and present design considerations and experimental results obtained from a prototype that is applicable to a 46" LED TV.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.26 no.6_2
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• pp.1083-1095
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• 2023

Recently, the demand for low-voltage, high-capacity ESS is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of the e-mobility industry, which is mainly powered by electricity. In addition, the demand for portable power banks is rapidly increasing due to the revitalization of leisure industries such as camping and fishing. The ESS with this structure consists of a small number of series cells and many parallel cells, resulting in a system with a large rated current. Therefore, the number of power devices for cell balancing configured in series is small, but a balancing device with a large current capacity is required. Construction of a constant temperature device in such a low-voltage, high-current ESS is difficult due to economic issues. The demand for an active balancing system that can solve the passive balancing heating problem is rapidly increasing. In this paper, propose a power feedback fly-back topology that can solve the balancing heating problem. The characteristic of the proposed topology is that a series-connected voltage sharing voltage is used as the input of the flyback converter, and the converter output is connected to one transformer. In this structure, the converter output for cell voltage balancing shares magnetic flux through one high-frequency transformer, so the cell voltage connected to the converter automatically converges to the same voltage.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.564-571
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• 2014

A single-stage current-balancing multi-channel light-emitting diode (LED) driver is proposed in this study. The conventional LED driver system consists of two cascaded power conversion stages, i.e., an isolation DC/DC converter and LED driver. LED driver is usually implemented with the same number of expensive boost converters as those of LED channels to tightly control the current through each LED channel. Therefore, its overall system size is not only bulky, but the cost is rather high. By contrast, the proposed LED driver system is composed of a single power stage with the DC/DC converter and LED driver merged. Although the current balancing circuit of the proposed LED driver requires only passive devices instead of expensive boost converters, all currents through multi-channel LEDs can be well balanced. Therefore, the proposed LED driver features a small system size, improved efficiency, and low cost. To confirm the validity of the proposed driver, its operation and performance are verified on a prototype for a 46" LED TV.