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10.1109/TPEL.2014.2312422, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

Abstract Multiple Output Converters (MOCs) are widely
used in electronic equipment for industrial, commercial, and
military application such as the voltage regulator modules in
portable electronic devices, multiple output power supplies, and
multiple output charger due to their advantages in cost, volume,
and efficiency. However, most of the MOCs developed so far have
limitations in terms of the number of outputs, the tight regulation
of all the outputs, the simplicity of the structure and the ease of
control. In this letter, a novel Time Division Multiple Control
(TDMC) method which can regulate all of the outputs with high
precision is proposed. The proposed method is simple in its
control and structure. In addition, it provides an even degree of
tight regulation for all the outputs. The validity and the feasibility
of the proposed method are verified by applying it to a multiple
output battery charger based on the double ended forward
converter.

Index TermsTDMC, Multiple Output Battery Charger,
Double Ended Forward Converter, Ripple Requirements
I. INTRODUCTION
OST electrical equipment requires several different
voltage levels to maintain their operation. In order to
generate several kinds of different voltage outputs,
Multiple Output Converters (MOCs) having several secondary
circuits based on each secondary winding have been typically
considered due to their advantages in terms of cost, volume,
and efficiency. However, most of the MOCs developed so far
can hardly regulate all of the outputs with an even degree of
tight regulation without the cost of complexity in the structure
and control.
Some studies on this topic have been conducted and several
methods have been proposed such as the cross regulation
method [1-3], the post regulation method [4-6], and the
PWM/PFM hybrid method [7]. The cross regulation method,
which regulates only the main output voltage, is widely used
due to the simplicity of its structure and control, but the
regulation for the rest of the output voltages is not good enough
[1,2]. The weighted time-sharing control method was proposed
for more precise regulation of all the outputs, but it is not
possible to provide an even degree of tight regulation for all of

Manuscript received December 2, 2013; revised February 3, 2014; accepted
March 14, 2014.
This work was supported by the Human Resources Development program
(No.20124030200070) of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation
and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of
Knowledge Economy.
Corresponding Author: cwj777@ssu.ac.kr
Tel:+82-2-820-0652, Fax:+82-2-817-7961, Soongsil University
Department of Electrical Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea
the outputs [3].
In the post regulation method, an additional switch is
employed at each output in order to regulate all of the output
precisely [4-6]. However, this method requires as many
controllers as the number of the outputs, which causes
complexity in the structure and control. The PWM/PFM hybrid
method can control two outputs independently based on the
multiple-band modulation and demodulation, which are
operated by superposed sinusoidal pulse width modulation,
pulse frequency modulation, and band-pass filtering [7].
However, this method is very complex in terms of control, and
the filter associated with the rectifier at each output increases
the cost and decrease the efficiency.
Furthermore, all of the above methods require as many
secondary windings in the high frequency transformer as the
number of outputs when applied to isolated converter
topologies. In this letter, a novel Time Division Multiple
Control (TDMC) method which can precisely and
independently control multiple outputs with only one
secondary winding for MOCs is proposed and applied to a
multiple output battery charger based on the double ended
forward converter.
II. NOVEL TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE CONTROL METHOD

Fig. 1. Novel Time Division Multiple Control (TDMC) method for the
multiple output converters
Fig. 1 shows the novel TDMC method for MOCs, in which
an additional active switch is placed in each secondary output
circuit in order to regulate all of the outputs precisely and
independently with PWM waveforms for the primary and
secondary switches. As shown in Fig. 2, the PWM is performed
at the frequency of f
s
for the primary switch and at f
s
/n for each
of the secondary switches. The proposed method can regulate
all of the outputs in one sampling time (nT
S
). All of the outputs
are controlled independently and precisely during one
switching period (interrupt cycle) by way of the secondary
switches. In one switching period, just one secondary switch is
Novel Time Division Multiple Control Method
for Multiple Output Battery Charger
Van-Long Tran and Woojin Choi, Member, IEEE
Email: tranvanlong988@gmail.com, cwj777@ssu.ac.kr
M
0885-8993 (c) 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TPEL.2014.2312422, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
turned on to allow the primary switch to control each of the
outputs. Similarly, another output is regulated in the next
switching period. Thus, all of the outputs are controlled in one
sampling time (nT
S
). In the proposed method, since the active
switches in the outputs are controlled synchronously with the
primary switch, no cross regulation problem exists. This
provides an even degree of the tight regulation for all the
outputs. As a result, a multiple output battery charger which
requires strict voltage and current regulation at the output can
be one of the most promising applications for the TDMC
method due to its advantages in terms of precise and
independent regulation of each output [8]. In addition, it should
be noted that the installation area of the charger can be
significantly reduced if the proposed multiple output charger is
employed for an EV charge application.

Fig. 2. PWM waveforms of the primary and secondary switches for the
proposed converter and TDMC method
III. MULTIPLE OUTPUT CHARGER BASED ON THE TIME
DIVISION MULTIPLE CONTROL METHOD

Fig. 3. Proposed multiple output charger based on the TDMC method
Fig. 3 shows the proposed multiple output charger based on
the TDMC method applied to a double ended forward
converter. The proposed charger is similar to the conventional
double ended forward converter except that the additional
secondary switches are employed to allow the time division
multiple control for each output independently. The primary
switch of the proposed converter can regulate two outputs
individually during one sampling time (2T
S
) based on the state
of the secondary switches (SS
1
and SS
2
). Since these switches
are controlled synchronously with the primary switches (SP
1

and SP
2
), no cross regulation problem exists thereby providing
an even degree of tight regulation for all of the outputs. As
shown in Fig. 4, there are two operation modes at each output in
one sampling time, 2Ts, under the continuous conduction mode
(CCM).
Mode 1: The power is transferred from the source to the load
and the inductor current ramps up during DT
S
as (1).

/
S P S o
L S
n n V V
i DT
L

(1)
Mode 2: The inductor current freewheels through the diode
and the load during the rest of the sampling time (2 D)T
S
as
(2).
(2 )
o
L S
V
i D T
L
(2)
The proposed TDMC method can be easily implemented by
a digital signal processor (DSP) with two interrupt service
routines in one sampling time, 2T
S
, for the control of each
output. Each output is regulated individually in one interrupt
service routine by turning on both of the primary switches (SP
1

and SP
2
) and either of the secondary switches (SS
1
or SS
2
) for
DT
S
.

Fig. 4. Main waveforms of the proposed multiple output charger
IV. STATE SPACE AVERAGE MODEL OF THE PROPOSED
MULTIPLE OUTPUT CHARGER

Fig. 5. State space average model of the proposed multiple output charger for
each output
Since both of the outputs have the same structure and the
same control method can be applied to each output, the
modeling and analysis for one output is enough. The Lead-Acid
battery is modeled by an equivalent resistor R
b
in series with an
equivalent capacitor C
b
which has an initial voltage V
Cb
. The
state space average model of the proposed multiple output
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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charger at each output including the battery model can be
derived under the CCM mode as shown in Fig. 5.
By perturbing the state space average model to produce large
(DC) and small (AC) signal terms, the steady-state equations
can be obtained as in (3) to (5) based on the DC terms.

2
s
o s
p
n D
V V
n
(3)

b
o b o C
V R I V (4)

2
s
s o
p
n D
I I
n
(5)
The small signal model can be obtained as in (6) to (10) by
separating the AC terms in the state space average model.

2 2
L S S
s s o
P P
di n n
L V d Dv v
dt n n
(6)


L c o
i i i (7)

( )

o c c
c
d v i R
i C
dt

(8)

1

o o b o
b
v i dt R i
C

(9)


( )
2
S
s o o
P
n
i Di I d
n
(10)
The proposed charger will charge the batteries by the
Constant Current/Constant Voltage (CC/CV) charge method
which offers the fastest charging time for fully charging the
batteries [9]. Thus, it is necessary to derive the
control-to-output voltage and current transfer functions which
can be found based on the small signal model technique as in
(11) and (12), respectively.

0
1 2
3 2
3 2 1
(1 )(1 )

1
s
o o
vd
v
v V a s a s
G
D d s b s b sb

(11)

0
1 2
3 2
3 2 1

(1 )(1 )

1
b
s
C o b
o
id
b
v
V I R
i a s a s
G
DR d s b s b sb

(12)
where,
1 2 1
; ;
b b c c b b
a R C a R C b R C R C

2 3
;
b b c b b b c b
b LC LC R R CC b R LCC R LCC

V. DESIGN OF THE DUAL LOOP CONTROLLER FOR THE
CC/CV CHARGE OF THE MULTIPLE OUTPUT BATTERY
CHARGER
As shown in (11) and (12), both of the control-to-output
transfer functions of the proposed multiple output battery
charger are of the third order with two zeros and three poles at
the left half plane. As a result, both of the phase lags in the
control-to-output transfer functions are at around -90
o
meaning
that there is enough phase margin over the entire frequency
range. Then a PI controller can be used for both of the
control-to-output transfer functions of the proposed charger to
perform the CC/CV charge by using a dual loop controller as in
Fig. 6, where, k
i
and k
p
are the integral and proportional gain of
the PI controller, respectively. The bandwidth of the inner
current loop has to be 5-10 times larger than that of the outer
voltage loop to reject the disturbances before they propagate to
the outer voltage loop [10]. In this case, the bandwidth of the
inner loop was chosen at 10.5kHz and the that of the outer loop
was chosen at 1.06kHz.

Fig. 6. A dual loop controller for the CC/CV charge of the proposed charger
As shown in Fig. 6, the outer voltage loop detects the error
between the reference output voltage and its feedback to
generate a current reference through the PI controller. In this
case the current reference is limited so that it cannot exceed the
charge current rate, 0.1C(4A), thereby implementing the CC
mode charge. The inner current loop works for regulating the
output current to track the output current reference. At the end
of the CC charge mode, the battery voltage reaches its nominal
value and the output voltage error becomes zero. As a result, the
current reference starts to decrease.
The proposed TDMC method is implemented by a
TMS320F28335 DSP from TI with two interrupt loops in one
sampling time for the control of two outputs. During the first
interrupt service routine, the controller detects the output
current and voltage of the first output and generates the PWM
signal through the dual loop controller to regulate the first
output. The other output is regulated by the same fashion in the
next interrupt service routine. As a result, both outputs are
regulated individually and independently in a sampling time.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
The operating principle and the TDMC method of the
proposed multiple output charger are verified through
experimental results. A prototype is used to charge two
ATLASBX ITX40 Lead-Acid batteries with different State Of
Charges (SOCs). The specifications of the system are presented
in Table I.

Fig. 7 shows the experimental waveforms of the proposed
multiple charger under the continuous conduction mode. As
shown in the figure, two input pulse currents different in terms
of duty and magnitude are observed during one inductor current
cycle which makes it possible to control each of the outputs
independently.
TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED MULTIPLE CHARGER
Po Output Power 120 [W]
VIN Input Voltage 220 [VAC]
Vo1 and Vo2 Charge Voltage (CV) 14.4 [V]
Io1 and Io2 Charge Current (CC) 4 [A] (0.1C)
fS Switching Frequency 100 [kHz]
Lo1 and Lo2 Output Inductor 260 [H]
Co1 and Co2 Output Capacitor 1000 [F]
Rb Resistance in the Battery 0.02 []
Cb Capacitance in the Battery 90000 [F]
Vo1 and Vo2 Output Voltage Ripple 1.5 [%] (0.22[V])
Io1 and Io2 Output Current Ripple 2 [%] (0.8[A])

0885-8993 (c) 2013 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/TPEL.2014.2312422, IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics

Fig. 7. Top to bottom: two output inductor current waveforms, input current
and PWM signal for the primary switch of the proposed multiple charger
Fig. 8 shows the experimental waveforms of the proposed
converter when the load varies from 50% to 100% of the rated
load at the second output while a 100% load is applied to the
first output. As shown in Fig. 8, the load variation at the second
output only causes a small transient on the voltage regulation of
the second output. Thus, it verifies that no cross regulation
problem exists in the proposed TDMC method.

Fig. 8. Transient characteristics of the proposed charger when the load varies
from 50% to 100% at one output while 100% load is applied to the other output
It is also observed that the proposed multiple charger with
the TDMC method satisfies the ripple requirements of the
Lead-Acid batteries during the charge. As shown in Fig. 9, the
voltage ripple is less than 1.5% and the current ripple is less
than 2%. Both of these are lower than the ripple limits
suggested by the battery manufacturer [8].

Fig. 9. Output voltage and current waveforms of the proposed charger
Fig. 10 shows the charge current and voltage profiles of the
two Lead-Acid batteries in different SOCs being charged by the
proposed multiple output battery charger. The figure shows that
the proposed charger and the TDMC work properly and that the
two batteries are charged independently by CC/CV mode.

Fig. 10. Charge current and voltage profiles of the two Lead-Acid batteries by
the proposed multiple output battery charger
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In this letter, a multiple output battery charger based on the
novel Time Division Multiple Control (TDMC) technique is
proposed and applied to the double ended forward topology to
charge two Lead-Acid batteries at different state of charges.
The proposed charger can regulate two outputs precisely and
independently with only one secondary winding. With the help
of a digital signal processor capable of high speed operation,
the TDMC method can be simply implemented. However, there
is a trade-off in the design between the number of outputs and
the switching frequency of each output due to the size of the
reactive components at the secondary.
The proposed method offers a simple control method to
achieve an even degree of tight regulation for all of the outputs
and can be applied to all kinds of isolated converter topologies.
If it is applied to an EV charger, the installation area can be
significantly reduced thereby providing another benefit for
decreasing the overall cost of the system.
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