ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF A HIGH FREQUENCY PLANAR TRANSFORMER FOR DC-DC CONVERTER USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

In this paper a method for analyzing and optimization of a high frequency power transformer is presented. The method is applied on designing of the power transformer for a full bridge dc-dc converter used for power conversion in an automotive application. The dc-dc converters used in automotive applications must ensure stable and reliable operation in extreme operating conditions like wide input/output voltage range and elevated temperatures. Improper design of transformer may lead to poor converter performance and thermal issues which may require additional design iterations. The best approach is to construct a virtual prototype of the transformer. Thus, it can be used to perform simulations and optimizations until the desired performance is reached. This goal can be achieved by using finite element method (FEM).