High voltage Bi-directional flyback converter for capacitive actuator

This paper presents a high voltage DC-DC converter topology for bi-directional energy transfer between a low voltage DC source and a high voltage capacitive load. The topology is a bi-directional flyback converter with variable switching frequency control during the charge mode, and constant switching frequency control during the discharge mode. The converter is capable of charging the capacitive load from 24 V DC source to 2.5 kV, and discharges it to 0 V. The flyback converter has been analyzed in detail during both charge and discharge modes, by considering all the parasitic elements in the converter, including the most dominating parameters of the high voltage transformer viz., self-capacitance and leakage inductance. The specific capacitive load for this converter is a dielectric electro active polymer (DEAP) actuator, which can be used as an effective replacement for conventional actuators in a number of applications. In this paper, the discharging energy efficiency definition is introduced. The proposed converter has been experimentally tested with the film capacitive load and the DEAP actuator, and the experimental results are shown together with the efficiency measurements.