Two-Staged Multi-Resonant Multi-Phased Converter for 48V Data Center Applications

At present, data center power consumption is increasing due to the rising numbers of internet users, the proliferation of cloud computing, and popularization of the multi-core CPUs. To reduce I²R losses in the DC bus and power distributing network, data centers are following a trend of increasing the bus voltage from 12 V to 48 V. The higher voltage allows for larger power delivery with reduced losses. Replacing all servers with 48 V units is a costly measure. Instead, a DC-DC converter can provide the interface between the 48 V bus and the existing 12 V server units. This paper focuses on designing a 1.5 kW two-staged multi resonant multi-phased switched-capacitor converter with high efficiency, (above 98 %), and high power density as validated in the preliminarily results in this digest. The final paper will include experimental results of a 1.5 kW DC-DC converter prototype.