International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

Madrid, Spain, 20-23 October 2013

Dual Closed Loop Control of LLC Resonant

Converter for EV Battery Charger
Kerim Colak, Erdem Asa

Dariusz Czarkowski

Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Polytechnic Institute of New York University
New York, USA
kc1353@nyu.edu, ea1145@nyu.edu

Electrical and Computer Engineering,

Polytechnic Institute of New York University
New York, USA
dczarkow@poly.edu

AbstractIn this paper, LLC resonant converter simulation with

dual closed loop control is demonstrated for Electric Vehicles
(EVs) battery charger. To improve efficiency and fast charging
conditions, switching losses must be diminished to have a
maximum energy transfer among the variable converter
components. The presented dual closed loop control technique is
implemented under soft-switching conditions with constant
current and constant voltage control methods. The designed
DC/DC resonant converter, fed by Power Factor Corrector
(PFC) outputs 200-300 V, provides 60 V / 20 A at 1.2 kW. The
simulation results show that differences in soft switching
conditions are obtained by realizing input current and input
voltage in phase under different output load conditions. At the
same time, a battery is charged using Constant Current (CC) and
Constant Voltage (CV) control techniques.
Keywords-constant current (CC), constant voltage (CV), phase
locked loop (PLL), resonant LLC, converter

I.

INTRODUCTION

The importance of EV chargers is significantly increasing

for fast and efficient charging of lithium-ion batteries. Within
the rechargeable batteries, lithium-ion battery has higher
energy density, wider temperature range, low self-discharge,
smaller volume, lighter weight, and longer lifecycle [1]-[2].
However, the chemical structure of these batteries is more
sensitive than the other battery types. Even very small failure in
the battery chemistry can cause very severe reduction in the
battery life and performance [3]. Therefore, the battery charge
voltage and current should be adjusted in the charging process.

source followed by a Power Factor Corrector (PFC) and an

isolated DC-DC converter supplying power into the battery [7][8]. PFC is utilized to control the input voltage of LLC
resonant converter for constant current and constant voltage
operation in [9]-[11].
Resonant topologies are used in the DC-DC converter stage
so that switching losses of the components are reduced [12][14]. One of the resonant converter topologies, LLC resonant
converter, decreases current and voltage stresses on the
switching devices in a widely operating frequency range [15].
This converter also gives high efficiency at the resonant
frequency under different load conditions [16]-[20]. However,
LLC resonant converter is vulnerable to variation of circuit
parameters [9]. This variation changes resonant frequency and
decreases the converter efficiency. To eliminate this problem,
the converter should track resonant frequency regardless of the
output load conditions.
In this paper, dual closed loop control is applied for EV
chargers. The constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV)
control is achieved by the PFC providing effective and fast
charging. In order to transfer maximum power, PLL control
technique is performed for the LLC resonant converter. A
related circuit and control system is set up in
MATLAB/Simulink program.
II.

SYSTEM CONFIGURATION

Figure 1. General EV charger circuit

EV battery chargers are classified as on-board and offboard, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers
(SAE) [4]. Depending on a battery capacity and depth of
discharging, on-board systems charge the battery in 6-8 hours,
while off-board quick charging systems supply 80% charge to
the battery in 15-30 minutes [5]-[6]. Figure 1 shows the most
common EV charger system. It consists of a rectified AC

Figure 2. Power factor corrector

While the AC-DC stage improves the power factor of input

with PFC, the DC-DC stage makes an arrangement of
frequency control of the half bridge LLC resonant converter
with galvanic isolation. Considering cost, reliability and

978-1-4799-1464-7/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE

ICRERA 2013

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International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

efficiency, LLC resonant converter is the proper topology for

EV batteries [21].
PFC must comply with Standard IEC 6100-3-2 to satisfy
PFC limitations for EV battery chargers. In Figure 2, a PFC
circuit that has a front-end rectifier and a boost PWM DC-DC
converter [22] are displayed. After the input voltage is
rectified, current harmonic distortion of the system is reduced
in this stage. Additionally, constant current and voltage
control methods are carried out by the boost converter.
The applied battery charging method is first constant
current and then voltage limit control until the battery is fully
charged. The voltage and current characteristics of a lithiumion battery is shown in Figure 3. The battery is charged at
constant current until voltage reaches rated value in stage 1.
Then constant voltage control is performed in stage 2. When
the charging current approaches a low level the charging cycle
is completed [23].

The factors mentioned above affect resonant component

values and change the resonant frequency of the converter, so
that power transfer efficiency decreases. Thus, the control
algorithms compensate for the impact of component values and
also protect battery charging characteristics.
III.

LLC RESONANT CONVERTER DESIGN

Figure 4. Resonant LLC converter

In Figure 4, half bridge LLC resonant converter is shown. It

consists of a half bridge LLC resonant inverter and a center
tapped rectifier. The resonant tank is formed with resonant
capacitor Cr, resonant inductance Lr, and magnetizing
inductance Lm. The following parameters describe the
characteristic of circuit:

V, I
stage 1

Madrid, Spain, 20-23 October 2013

stage 2
Charge Voltage

The corner frequency (or the undamped natural frequency)

is calculated at open circuit conditions. The magnetizing and
resonant inductances are connected in series with the capacitor.
The value is

Charge Current

t
Figure 3. Current and voltage characteristic of a lithium-ion battery

Another crucial issue for the life of an EV battery is

charging the battery with low ripple current and voltage. In
addition, the EV charger should be small to satisfy higher
energy transfer efficiency at the high power. These
requirements are met by LLC resonant converter operating
soft-switching techniques at the resonant frequency [24]. The
LLC converter components have some tolerances influenced
by temperature and aging factors.
In the LLC resonant converter, maximum power energy
transfer occurs at the resonant frequency in which the resonant
converter reads the load as a resistive. If the operating
frequency is higher or lower than the resonant frequency,
converter experiences high voltage and current stresses during
the turn on and turn off processes. The diode reverse recovery
stress is large when the diode turns off. These situations result
in high switching losses and stresses across the switches and
may destroy the transistors [25]. Moreover, conduction losses
and stresses raise the junction temperature of the switches. The
component electrical parameters change over time because of
aging factors. Charge and discharge cycle of capacitors also
change with time. Furthermore, their electrical characteristics
deteriorate with high temperature [26]. Transformers have
some tolerances in the design procedure. These tolerance
values influence the converter modeling [27].

ICRERA 2013

fo =

(L

+ Lm C r

(1)

Short circuit conditions which eliminates the magnetizing

inductance determine the critical frequency in the circuit. The
critical resonant frequency is given by:

f rs =

1
2

(2)

Lr C r

The normalized equations are given in Table I.

TABLE I.
Equivalent input
resistance
Characteristic
impedance
Quality factor

NORMALIZED EQUATIONS
Ri =
Zo =
Q=

2 n 2 RL
8
( Lr + Lm )
Cr

Ri 2 n 2 R L
=
Zo
8Zo

Ratio between the two

inductances

A=

Normalized frequency

f
f n = sw
fo

Lr
Lm

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International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

Normalized parameters help to find the transfer function of

the system using design parameter values. These equations in
Table I are explained by the following statements.
The primary equivalent resistance Ri is calculated from the
load resistance RL , assuming that the primary power is equal
to the output power. The quality factor is defined by proportion
of the total average stored energy and dissipated energy. The
ratio between resonant and magnetizing inductances is A. As
shown in Table I, normalized frequency depends on switching
frequency and corner frequency.

Madrid, Spain, 20-23 October 2013

At high voltage gain conditions, the output voltage can be

regulated in a narrow operating frequency range. The voltage
gain must be chosen properly to control the system in optimal
frequency range. The equations of maximum and minimum
voltage gain functions are shown in (5).

M V m ax =

V out
,
Vin , m in

Cr =

1
A
1
1
+ j fn

n 2 (1 + A ) 1

Q
A
+
f
1

f
n

n

(3)

V out
V in , m ax

(5)

The resonant capacitor value is a proportion of quality

factor to corner frequency and input resistance (6).

The voltage transfer function of the system is

M V m in =

Q
2 f o R i

(6)

The sum of Lr and Lm can be calculated by substituting

resonant capacitor value into the corner frequency equation in
(1). The ratio A is used to calculate resonant and magnetizing
inductance values in (7) and (8) respectively.

The voltage gain function of the LLC resonant converter

versus quality factor and normalized frequency is plotted in
Figure 5. The voltage gain can be arranged at a desired value
by controlling the switching frequency, and it can be controlled
against output load and input voltage variations [28].

Lr =

Lm =

Ri
1

1 + A 2 f o Q

Ri

(1 + A ) 2

foQ

(7)

(8)

With the equations (1) - (8), half bridge LLC resonant

converter design parameters are calculated and summarized in
Table II.
TABLE II.

Figure 5. The voltage transfer function of LLC resonant converter

The following equations present the converter design

procedure:
The ratio of the transformer determines output voltage and
output current on the load side. A high turns ratio gives low
output voltage and causes high currents on the components.
The calculation of the ratio is given in (4).

n=

ICRERA 2013

2 2Vin
V out

(4)

DESIGN PARAMETER VALUES

Parameters

Value

PFC Output DC Voltage

200-300 V

Output DC Voltage

60 V

Max. Output Current

20 A

Max Output Power

1.2 kW

Output Voltage Ripple

<1 V

Transformer Ratio

4:1:1

Resonant Capacitor

36 nF

Resonant Inductor

4.5 uH

Magnetizing Inductor

27 uH

IV.

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

The EV battery charger system described in Section II and

III is shown in Figure 6. Dual closed loop control (Phase
Locked Loop and Constant Current Constant Voltage control
techniques) is used in the system. CCCV control techniques
are managed from AC-DC stage PFC. This ensures the battery

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International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

The Peak Voltage and Current with Load Changes

40

300

Voltage
Current 20

200

Current [A]

Voltage [V]

100

-20
0
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Time [s]
The Output Voltage and Current

1
-3

x 10

Voltage [V]

63

26

Voltage
Current

60
57

20

54
51
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

14
1

0.9

Time [s]

Current [A]

fast and safe charging without disturbing the DC-DC stage

LLC converter control area. The PLL control technique in the
LLC converter traces the resonant frequency regardless of
output battery charging conditions. This lowers switching and
conduction losses and increases the efficiency of the system
power transfer.

Madrid, Spain, 20-23 October 2013

-3

x 10

Figure 8. The current and voltage vaweforms with load changes

+
+

The Peak Voltage and Current with Load Changes

40

250

Voltage [V]

150
0

100
50

-20

0
0

0.5

1.5

Current
Voltage 200

100

-10

1.5

-100
2.5

Current [A]

Time [s]
The Voltage and Current in the Resonant Tank

-5

x 10

20

300

10

Current
Voltage 200

100

-10
-20

0.5

1.5

Time [s]

Voltage [V]

10

2.5

Voltage [V]

Current [A]

300

0.5

4.5
-3

x 10

22

Voltage
Current

64

18

0.5

Figure 9.

1.5

2.5

3.5

16
4.5

-3

x 10

Constant voltage control with input voltage changes

In order to see the performance of the dual closed loop

control, a charging cycle of the battery is simulated. The
battery is modeled as a variable resistor which is increased
from 1.5 ohm to 7 ohm linearly in 100 ms. Related simulation
results are presented in Figure 10. During the transition
between CC and CV controls, a smooth transition is achieved
with less than 1.2 V overshot.

-100

Simulated Battery Charging Cycle - Conctant Current and Voltage Control

80

-5

x 10

25

Current
Voltage
60
20

Voltage [V]

The performance of the Constant Current control with step

load change is illustrated in Figure 8 when the load resistance
changes from 2.5 ohm to 3 ohm. The control technique keeps
the current value constant until the voltage reaches the
programmed value. The current stays at 20 A in steady state,
while the output voltage increases with load changes until 60
V. It is worth mentioning that the steady state condition is
obtained in less than 0.15 ms.

20

62

60

Figure 7. Resonant tank voltage and current waveforms before and catching
resonant frequency

Smooth Transient
40

Stage 2

Stage 1

15

Constant Voltage

Constant Current

20

10
0

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

0.09

0.1

Time [s]

Figure 10.

ICRERA 2013

3.5

Time [s]

20

Time [s]
The Output Voltage and Current

Resonant Tank Voltage and Current Before Catching Resonant Frequency

-20

2.5

66

Voltage [V]

The waveforms in Figure 7 show the switch voltage VS 2

and resonant tank current I i of the transient and steady state.
The voltage and current are not in phase during the transient
state. PLL control detects the phase difference between voltage
and current, and then it catches the resonant frequency by
increasing the switching frequency. In the steady state, the
voltage and current are in phase. Hence, zero voltage and zero
current switching is achieved by the PLL control.

Current [A]

Voltage
Current 20

200

Current [A]

Figure 6. Simulation of the EV charger

Current [A]

Figure 9 shows the constant voltage control performance

under step load changes. The controller is tested by changing
the load resistance from 3 ohm to 3.5 ohm. The output voltage
is stabilized at 60 V in less than 1.5 ms.

Simulated battery charging cycle CC and CV

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International Conference on Renewable Energy Research and Applications

V.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, the dual closed loop control technique is

presented for EV battery charger systems. Design equation of
the system is explained by calculating parameters, and the
simulation results are displayed as a waveform. The simulation
is performed with 200 V-300 V outputs of PFC DC voltage and
1.2 kW output power. It is shown that the proposed control
method provides both soft switching and battery charge
management. Soft switching conditions are obtained by tracing
resonant frequency. Maximum power transfer is achieved by
reducing switching losses. Battery fast charging methods CC
and CV are provided by PFC. The battery is charged under
reliable charging conditions with decreasing output voltage
ripple.
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