Effects of secondary leakage inductance on the LLC resonant converter - Part II: Frequency control bandwidth with respect to load variation

Resonant converters rely on a precise knowledge of leakage inductance of the equipped transformers. Resonant circuit topologies such as LLC usually utilize the transformer leakage as an inductive component in the resonant tank, allowing for a drastic reduction in the converter weight, size and volume. The existence of the secondary leakage inductance affects the whole operation of the LLC resonant converter. This paper reveals that placing the secondary winding near the air gap would increase the resonant tank input impedance, vertically shrink the voltage-gain curve of the converter, and consequently minimize the frequency range (i.e frequency bandwidth with respect to load variation). On contrary, placing the secondary winding in a close contact with the magnetic core would decrease the resonant tank input impedance, vertically stretches the voltage-gain curve of the converter, and widen the frequency variation range. It has been reported that the winding location with respect to the air gap has an impact on the leakage inductance value. In other words, placing the secondary winding in a close contact with the magnetic core (zero mmf position) would maximize the leakage energy storage originated from the secondary winding, and hence maximize the secondary leakage inductance and vice versa. The theoretical discussion is presented which is merely based on Ampere's law and Dowell's model. Furthermore, transformer prototypes had been constructed and tested in a 390V/12V-220W LLC converter prototype to evaluate the proposed analysis.