Design of a High-Frequency Dual-Active Bridge Converter with GaN Devices for an Output Power of 3.7 kW

In the automotive industry weight and volume are important issues to design power electronics besides costs. With the upcoming of wide band-gap devices like Gallium Nitride (GaN) devices high switching frequencies become a potential for converters. Operating at high switching frequencies reduces the volume of passive components e.g., transformer significantly. Auxiliary supplies or on-board charging systems for electric vehicles are typical areas of application for a reduction of volume and weight. For this kind of application dc-dc converters like a Dual Active Bridge converter can be used. This paper describes a detailed electrical analysis of a compact single phase Dual Active Bridge converter operated at a high switching frequency of 500 kHz at a dc voltage of 400 V on both full bridges to achieve a power transfer of 3.7 kW. In this paper it is shown how a fast switching and compact dual active bridge converter is designed that operates with a high efficiency of about 96 % at nominal power.