Load-Current-Sharing Control for Parallel Operation of DC-to-DC Converters

Ren-Hua Wu*.Teruhiko Kohama, Yuichi Kodera, Tamotsu Ninomiya and Fumiaki Ihara** Department of Electronics Kyushu University Fukuoka. 812 Japan **Applied Engineering Department Fujitsu Denso Ltd. Kawasaki, 213 Japan Controller) as shown in Fig. 2. Compared with usual converters, the difference is that the proposed converter has a CB Controller which is composed of two parts: a feedback control circuit and a parallel connection circuit.

Abstract
The conuol strategy for parallel operation of multiple converters is investigated. Analysis and design consideration of load-current sharing for the parallel system are presented and the superiority of currentbalance control is discussed. The prominent features of the load-current sharing and analytical results are confirmed experimentally for a threeparalleled forward-converter system.

1. Introduction
The use of paralleled power supply modules is a key technology for any large-capacity power supply system. The basic requirements for parallel systems are the full-automatic load-current balance, the simple configuration of feedback controllers, the high reliability and easy maintenance, etc. Most of the studies reported recently concentrate on the development of control schemes for parallel systems in which the power supply modules share the same source and load. The basic parallel control scheme is the "drooping" method. with which the power supply modules in the parallel system share the total load current according to the predetermined load characteristics of all paralleled modules. However, this scheme cannot provide the automatic load-current balance. The "master/ slave" method [l, 21 is a kind of active control scheme. With the typical master/slave method, it is necessary to intercommunicate between the master and slave modules, and therefore the interconnection lines are complicated. Another kind of active control scheme is the "output-current feedback" method. A control scheme was presented in [3], in which the current sharing is accomplished by sensing the switching device currents of individual modules and balancing them. The same principle of currentsharing control has been used and the alternative connection implementations of current -balance controllers have been proposed in 14). These control schemes provide an r-out-of-n redundant configuration for a high-reliability power supply system. Analysis 6f the parallel system has been the topic of numerous papers[5-8]. For parallel operation, the most important concern is the static load-current sharing between paralleled converters. Based on the load characteristics, a more general analysis of load sharing of paralleled modules with the control scheme of the "drooping" method was given in [ 5 ] , and the load-sharing ability of some converters was investigated in [61. In this paper, the novel control strategy proposed in [3, 41 are briefly introduced in Section 2. Then the analysis of load-current sharing of paralleled converters with the proposed strategy and the superiority of current-balance control are presented in Section 3. The prominent features of the load-current sharing and analytical results are verified experimentally for a three-paralleled forward-converter system in Section 4. The design consideration of the parallel system on the parameter design of current-balance controllers is discussed in Section 5 . Finally the dynamic characteristics of the parallel system are discussed in Section Input Power

for CB Control

Converter #k
Connection Terminal for CB Control

Outpur Power

Converter #n

Connection Terminal for CB Control

Fig. 1 Paralleled converter system

4
I

DC-to-DC Convener

1
Controlle

;c
I C

I Converter

'ITV*

Voltage Reference

Fig. 2 Converter Configuration 2-1. Controller for Parallel Operation Consider the output cument to be shared by the paralleled converter as the output-current reference. On the assumption that every converter has the same power-capacity, this reference means the average of all or partial converter output currents which is denoted by Ulk. and obtained by the parallel connection circuits of CB Controllers. The transducer shown in Fig. 2 produces the signal Ulk proportional to the output current l k and the output-current of Converter #k. The difference between u reference Ulk. which represents the unbalance of output current, is used as the negative feedback signal so that the converter output current

6.

2. Control Strategy for Parallel Operation

A paralleled-converter system to be discussed here comprises n units of converters as shown in Fig. 1. Every converter comprises a switching power converter, a PWM controller and a current-balance controller (CB

* Visiting scholar on leave from

Department of Electrical Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing, 10084 China 101

Iok

can follow the output-current reference and the paralleled converters automatically share the total load. From the viewpoint of simple configuration, the proportional control (P control) is chosen as follows: UCBk = - KCBk (UIk-UIk, av) (1) where KcBk and UcBk are the feedback gain and the output signal of CB Controller #k, respectively. 2-2. Connection Implementations Three types of connection implementations of CB Controllers are described as follows: (a) Bus type connection Bus type connection is shown in Fig. 3. The output signal of the buffer amplifier in every CB Controller can be expressed as
U1av =

CB Controller

CB Controller

%-

2 Uk

ucd
CB Controller CB Controller CB Controller
#n

Fig. 4 Connection of CB Controllers (Single-Loop type)

e a e

gU1.

CB Controller

--f
U12

#1

+
UII

4 CB Controller
#2

Fig. 3 Connection of CB Controllers (Bus type)

CB Controller
#k
I
1 I

U 1 , represents the average output current of all paralleled converters. A switch is inserted in each CB controller. If one of n converters fails, this switch is turned off and the corresponding CB Controller is removed from the bus. As aresult, the average output current becomes
Ulav = L = l

I I Uln

e e

I
I

Uk Fig. 5 Connection of CB Controllers (Double-Loop type) 2-3. Unification Concept of CB Controllers The unification concept of CB controllers is presented to perform the parallel operation of different-capacity converters. (a) Balance condition of the parallel system In the parallel system, the balance condition means that every converter share the total load proportional to its power capacity, i.e. the normalized output currents of all paralleled converters and the parallel svstem are equal as follows:

n- 1 (3) and then the current balance is also maintained. This means an r-out-of-n redundant configuration for a highly reliable power supply system.

(b) Single-loop type connection Single-loop type connection is shown in Fig. 4. In CB Controller #k, the averaging procedure is the partial one among two neighboring converters and the average output current is obtained as UI k - l + U1 k when k+l
U k , av

uI n +

when k=l

(4)
(c) Double-loop type connection Double-loop type connection is shown in Fig. 5 . There are two loops in this type of connection implementation. In CB Controller #k, the averaging procedure is the partial one among three neighboring converters and the average output current is obtained as (b) Unification of CB Controllers The measuring characteristic of Transducer #k is shown in Fig. 6. Designate the output signal of Transducer #k corresponding to lokmax by Uil;max. Then Ulk is proportional to the converter output current as follows:
(7)

0-7803-1243-0/93$03.00Q 1993 IEEE 102

The proposed control scheme results in that the output signals of all the transducers are almost equal, i.e. uI1" u12- ..." UIk" ..." UIn . (8) When we choose Uillmsl to be the same for all the transducers, i.e. (9) U11max=.. .= Ulkmax=. ..= UInmax, CB controllers derive the balance condition (6) for multiple paralleled converters with different power capacities. This depicts that the same configuration of the CB controllers can be utilized for any paralleled converters with different

Kpk = UIkmax KCBk lokmax UIk l0k Ulkmax

=lokmax
=

lav,

lokmax Ulav, k
Ulkmax

Equation ( I O ) to (13) are the basic equations for the analysis of loadcurrent sharing.
3-2. Load-Current Sharing of Paralleled Converters

The basis of analysis of load-current sharing is to calculate the static output currents of all paralleled converters with the proposed strategy. The derivation of the load-current sharing of paralleled converters is described here. Equation ( I O ) can also be expressed as
n

Output Current (A)

lek

Iokmax

n Substituting (12) and (13) into (14) yields

V L = q vO J

Fig. 6 Measuring Characteristic of Trasducer #k

(15)

Subtracting (15) from (12) yields

3. Analysis of Load-Cun-ent Sharing

Analysis of load-current sharing of paralleled converters is an important item when designing a parallel system. In this section, modeling and analysis of load-current sharing by the proposed control strategy are given. (16) (zoj Ioj = 0 n J=I From (16). a general expression for the load-current sharing of all Daralleled converters is finally derived as follows:
-1Z.k Iok

1i

I)

3-1 Modeling of Load-Current Sharing Denote the output voltage and the total load current of a parallel system by VL and IL, respectively. The output equations of the parallel system are as follows: v o l = v 0 2 = . . . = vo, = VL (10)
(11) Let %k be the output resistance of Converter #k with'the PWM output-voltage controller. A load-characteristic model of every converter is shown in Fig. 7. In practice, the load characteristic of a paralleled converter is nonlinear , i.e. &k is not constant. From Fig. 7, the static load characteristic of a paralleled converter with PWM controller can be modeled generally as follows: Vok = vrk - &k Iok

The current feedback gain KR is a parameter to be designed. Assuming K p k > > Z o k . the sensitivity of load-current sharing to Zok and v r k is considerably suppressed and then the output currents of all paralleled converters are approximately rewritten into (18). In general, analysis of load-current sharing can be performed by means of (IO), (1 1). (12). (13) and (18).

A
where
Iav, k =
~

Okmax

UIav, k

Ulkmax Ulk = Ulkmax Iok

lokmax

under the condition of Bus type connection:

r

Output Current (A)

bkmax

Fig. 7 Load characteristic of Converter #k Figure 2 shows that the CB control is performed by adjusting the output voltage reference. In other words, the CB control equivalently moves the drooping load characteristic up or down, but does not change the drooping load characteristic. Therefore, the static load characteristic of a paralleled converter with PWM controller and CB controller is expressed as Vok = vrk + UCBk - %k Iok (12) UCBk = -KPk(Iok - la", k (13) where

under the condition of Single-loop type connection: uIxl; " I k when k+l
UUC, av =

1 \y
U I n + "1 1 + U1 2
fl-I

whenk=l

under the condition of Double-loop type connection: U1 k-l + U1 k + U1 k+l when k+l or
uk,

i 3
I 1 '
3 + 1 '3
fl
+

when k=]
1

1 '

when k=n

103

For example of Bus type connection with the same capacity, output resistance, feedback gain and transducer output voltage, the load-current sharing of paralleled converters is as follows:
lav, k=kIL.
J=l Ioj

capacity system. The power stage of the dc-to-dc converter is a forward type shown in Fig. 7, where the experimental circuit parameters are Vi= ~ O V V,= , IOv, andf,= 100kHz.
4-1. The Equal-Capacity Converter System

= IL and

j=l

lav, j = 1L

: .

Iok=$L+

1lL+ n

[v,,-' i [ x '
vrk"j=t

vq] vq]

KPk +,&k

KPk

vok = vrk - %k [kIL].

The first parallel system is composed of three equal-capacity converters of lokmax =SA (k=l, 2, 3). The static load characteristics of all paralleled converters is shown in Fig. 9 (a). Fig. 9 (a) shows that the output resistance& of the converter is about 0.03R and the nonlinearity occurs when the output current is small. The output voltage reference v o k is nearly equal to IOv, U h a X is chosen to be Sv, and the current feedback gain Km is chosen to be 1.25R so as to be much larger than &. The analytical load-current sharing under condition of Bus type and Single-loop type of connection implementations are the same as follows: l01 = 1IL

D 1

PWM and CB Controller Fig. 8 Forward converter diagram

vok = vrk - 0.01 1L 3 I 1,3 = 3 IL The analytical and experimental load-current sharing of paralleled converters are shown in Fig. 9 (b) and (c), where the experimental unbalances are less than 0.5% and there is almost no difference among different types of connection implementations. As seen from these results, the analytical method of load-current sharing proposed in Section 3 is verified for the normal parallel operation of equal-capacity converters. (Note: the Double-loop type connection is the same as Bus type connection in case of n=3.) To investigate the sensitivity of load-current sharing to the variation of important parameters of CB controllers, the analytical and experimental researches are done under the four kinds of exaggerated variations of the important parameters in the parallel system.
1 , 2 = 1IL and
6

l 3

4. Experimental Verification
TWO kinds Of parallel Systems composed of three dc-to-dc converters were implemented for the experimental verification of load-currentshafing analysis: the equal-capacity converter system and the different-

(a). Different output resistances: The first exaggerated condition is that the output resistances are z01 =O.lR,Z,z =O.m andZ,,3 = 0 . 3 8 . From(17),theanalytical loadcurrent sharing under the B~~ type connection and Single-loop type connection are derived respectively as follows:

.
........... .
5 U
9.1

...........

.
.

...........

...........

1 2 3 4 5 Total load current (A) Total load current (A) Converter output current (A) (c). Load-current sharing (b). Load characteristic (The parallel system) (a). Load characteristic (The converter) Fig. 9 Static characteristics of the parallel system composed of three equal-capacityconverters

Total load current (A) (a). Bus type

Total load current (A) (c). Load characteristic (Bus and single-looptype) Fig.10 Load-current sharing of paralleled equal capacity convertersfor' case of different output resistances @I= 0.lQ Zo2=0.2R, zo3= 0.3R)

3 6 9 1 2 1 5 Total load current (A) (b). Single-looptype

104

Bus type: l01 = 0.3569 IL 102 = 0.3322 IL and vok = v r k - 0.075 1L 103 = 0.3109 1~

Bus type:
l01 = L IL

+ 0.8
When 1 ~ t 2 . 4 A

Single-loop type: Iol =0.3513 IL 102 = 0.3451 IL and 3 1 , = 0.3035 IL

3
103 =

IL - 0.8

v& = v r k - 0.075 IL

Ilol =

IL

+ 0.4
When 0.8A SILS2.4A

The analytical and experimental load-current sharing are shown in Fig. 10 (a), (b) and (c). Although the values and differences of output resistances are very large, the analytical and experimental results show that the load-current sharing of the parallel system can also be performed and the load-current unbalances are considerably suppressed (the maximum unbalance is about 7.1% for Bus type and 9% for Single-loop type). (b) Different feedback gains: The second exaggerated condition is that the current feedback gains are Kpl 0.625Q. Kn = 1.25Q and KB = 1.87551. From (18). the analytical load-current sharing under the Bus type connection and Singleloop type connection are derived as follows: Iol = 1 IL 3 \Io2 = and v o k = vrk - 0.011L
J

l 2
1,3 = 0
bo3 =0

1,2 = 1IL - 0.4

When O A <ILS0.8A Single-loop types: l01 = 1IL + 0.533

102 = 1 1 + 0.533 ~ When l ~ 3.2A t \ 1 ~ 3 =3 ,1~-1.067

l 3
\lol = 1,3 = 0

1''

IL + 0.533
When 0.8A <-1~5 3.2A

1,3 = 11,

l 3

1,2 = 2, IL - 0.533

The analytical and experimental load-current sharing are shown in Fig. 11 (a), (b). Although the differences among current feedback gains are large, the analytical and experimental results show that the load-current unbalances are zero.

101 = 1L

102 = 0 103 = 0

When OA 5 1 ~ 5 0.8A

1 2 1 5

5 IO Total load current (A) (a). Bus type

15

Total load current (A) (a). Bus type

....... .............. ...

,
0

6 9 1 2 1 5 Total load current (A)

Total load current (A) (b). Single-loop type Fig. 11 Load-current sharing of paralleled equal-capacity converters for case of different feedback gains (KP1=0.625Q, Kpz= 1.25Q 0 3 , 3.875Q)

(b). Single-loop type Fig. 12 Load-current sharing of paralleled equal-capacity converters for case of different voltage references (Vrl = 1 I v , Vr2 = 10v, Vr3 = 9v)

(c) Different voltage references: The third exaggerated condition is that the variation of converter voltage references is *lo%, i.e. V,I = 11V , Vr2 = 1OV , Vr3 = 9V. From (18). the analytical load-current sharing under the Bus type connection and Single-loop type connection are derived respectively follows:

The analytical and experimental load-current sharing are shown in Fig. 12 (a), (b). Although the differences among output voltage references are large, the analytical and experimental results show that the load-current sharing of the parallel system can also be performed and the load-current unbalances are considerably suppressed (the maximum unbalance is about 16% for Bus type and 21.34% for Single-loop type).

105

(d) Different transducer output voltages: The fourth exaggerated condition is that the variation of the transducer output signal U I L is ~ ~ &lo%, ~ i.e. U I I =~ ~ , U I W = 5V , 5.5V Ui3- =4.5V. From (18). the analytical load-current sharing under the Bus type connection and Single-loop type connection are derived as follows: Io1 = 0.3 IL I,,2 = 0.333 IL 103 = 0.366 IL The analytical and experimental load-current sharing are shown in Fig. 13. where there is almost no difference among different types of connection implementations. Although the differences among transducer output signal Uii- are large, the analytical and experimental results show that the load-current sharing of the parallel system can also be performed and the load-current unbalances are considerably suppressed (the maximum unbalance is about 10%).

5. Design Consideration of the Parallel System

The above mentioned results clarified that the proposed strategy has many good properties. In this section, some aspects on the design of the proposed strategy are discussed. In general, the controller design procedure for a parallel system is: First. a small-signal model of the parallel system is derived. Secondly, the small-signal model for the parallel system is simplified to an equivalent single-module model. Finally, the controller design is implemented using the single-module model. Because the some kinds of simplification are introduced in the controller design procedure, the design results must be confirmed by other different manners. There are two kinds of manners: the experiment or the large signal simulation[7,8]. Different from the usual control design procedure, the control design for the novel control strategy proposed in 14) is implemented using the static analysis of load-current sharing. But the design results also need to be confirmed by the experiments on the parallel system or the large signal simulation. In the parallel system, the most important specification is the unbalance of converter output currents. The unbalance criterion Uck of Converter #k is defined as (19) There are two kinds of parameters in a paralleled converter: the control parameters U l h a and Kpk. and the converter parameters v r k and v r k is nearly equal to the converter output voltage. Because the &k. sensitivity of load-current sharing by the proposed strategy to Zok is considerably suppressed, the converter parameters to be designed are only U~L- and KPk. According to the unification concept of CB controllers, Un, of every paralleled converter must be designed to be the same. The minimum of Kpt is designed as below. On condition that the allowable maximum uck and the maximum variation of parameter Vrk are given, we can determine the minimum Kpk of all CB controllers with assumption of the same Kpk by means of (18) and (19). Taking the equal-capacity system with bus type connection shown in Section 4-1 (c) as a example, if the maximum variation of converter voltage references is 10% and the maximum unbalance is required less than 20%. the minimum of Kpk is calculated to be larger than I Q . In the experiment, 1.25R is chosen. From KcBk = 1okmsaKPk / UIkmsx. the feedback gain KcBk in CB controller #k is determined easily. This means that the proposed strategy is very practical.

Total load current (A) Fig. 13 Loadcurrent sharing of paralleled equal-capacity conveners for case of different transducer output voltages (lJIlm~=5.5~, UIhu=5v, Ul3ma~4.5~) The above analytical and experimental results show that the novel control strategy for parallel operation proposed in 14) have good adaptability to the parameter variations ant that the analytical method of load-current sharing proposed in Section 3 is verified by means of comparing them. The good adaptability also means that it is easy to design and set the parameters of CB controllers in paralleled modules.

4-2. The Different-Capacity Converter System:

The second parallel system is composed of three different-capacity converters, and the maximum-rated output currents are l0lmu = 10A, Iozmu =7.5A, and103, = 5A. %k is about O.O3R, v o k is nearly equal to lOv, UilunU is chosen to be 5v and KPLis chosen to be 1.25R. The analytical load-current sharing under condition of Bus type and Singleloop type of connection implementations are the same as follows: Io1 = 0.444 IL 102 = 0.333 IL 103 = 0.222 IL The analytical and experimental load-current sharing of paralleled converters are shown in Fig. 14, where the experimental unbalances are less than 0.5% and there is almost no difference among different types of connection implementations. As seen from these results, the analytical method of load-current sharing proposed in Section 3 is verified for the normal parallel operation of different-capacity converters.

6. Discussion on Dynamics of the Parallel system

In general, comparing with the output signal of PWM Controller, the output signal UCBk of CB Controller is always smaller in the dynamic state or static state. In Section 5, to meet the maximum unbalance specification UCk in the parallel system, the minimum current feedback gain Kpk can be determined by means of analysis of load-current sharing. The larger KPk is, the smaller uck becomes. However, the larger Kpk is chosen, the better the current-balance control becomes, and on the other hand, the current-balance control may affect the dynamic characteristics of the parallel system. Therefore, the maximum Kpk is limited by the dynamics of the parallel system which are the transient overshoots and stability. The optimal Kpk can be determined by means of experimental results or the large signal simulation. Transient responses of single converter and the parallel system composed by three equal-capacity converters for the rapid change of total load current between 10% to 100% are shown in Fig. 15. Transient responses of single converters and the parallel system composed by three different-capacity converters are shown in Fig. 16. The experimental results show that the parallel system composed of equal-capacity converters has the similar dynamics as the single converters and that the dynamics of the parallel system composed of different-capacity converters is dependent on the dynamics of every single converter and the current-balance controller.

2 10

4.5 9 13.5 18 22.5 Total load current (A) Fig. 14 Load-current sharing of paralleled different-capacity converters
0
(bImaa=lOA. IoZmu=7.5A. b3mx=SA)

106

(a). The parallel system

(c). The converter (lozmu =7.5A) Fig. 16 Transient responses of the parallel system composed of differentcapacitv . -converters (Total load change from 10% to 100%)

7. Conclusion
The usage of paralleled power supply modules is a key technology for any large-capacity pouer supply system. In order to construct a paralleled dc-to-dc converter system with good performance of loadcurrent sharing and highly reLable configuration. a novel control suateg) for pxdlel operation of DC-to-DC converters has been discussed and the analysis and design consideration on load-current sharing of paralleled converters have been presented. and the effectiveness of the currentbalance control has been demonstrated. Analytical results of load-current sharing she% that the sensitivity of load-current sharing to the output resistances of paralleled conveners is considerably suppressed and that the proposed strategy has good adaptability to the parameter variations. The feedback gain of CB controller is the important parameter to be designed. The minimum i s determined bv means feedhack pain ._ _ _. ~ . ~ .~ -, ~ - ~ of - load-current-sharing analysis and then the maximum feedback gain is limited by the dynamics of the parallel system. The prominent features of the load-current sharing and analytical results have been confirmed experimentally for a three-paralleled forward-converter system.
~ ~

(b). The converter (Iolmu= 5A) Fig. 15 Transient responses of the parallel system composed equalcapacity converters (Total load change from 10%to 100%)

I
VL

References
111 L. Thorsell and P. Lindman: "Reliability analysis of a direct parallel connected n i l redundant power system based on highly reliable DC/DC modules," Proc. 10th IEEE International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC'II), pp. 551-556. [2] F. Petruzzirello, P. D. Ziogas, G. Joos: A novel approach to paralleling of power converter units with true redundancy." 21th lEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference Record (PESC'90). pp. 808-813. [3] H. Tanaka, K. Kobayashi, F. Ihara, K. Asahi, M. Motoyama: Method for cenualized voltage control and current balancing for parallel operation of power supply equipment," Proc. 10th IEEE Intemational Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC'88), pp. 434--440. [4] Tamotsu Ninomiya, Ren-Hua Wu, Yuichi Kodera, Teruhiko Kohama and Fumiaki Ihara: "Novel Control Strategy for Parallel
" "

(a). The parallel system

(b). The converter

(lolmu

= 10A)
107

strategy for multi-module parallel converter system," 21th IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference Record (PESC'90). pp. 225-234.