High-voltage High-frequency Transformer

Design for a 7.2kV to 120V/240V 20kVA Solid

State Transformer
Yu Du, Seunghun Baek, Subhashish Bhattacharya, Alex Q. Huang
FREEDM Systems Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University
1791 Varsity Drive, Suite 100, Keystone Science Center, Raleigh, NC, 27695, U.S.A.
ydu4@ncsu.edu

Abstract--Solid state transformer (SST) exhibits good parallel to provide a low voltage DC link for the third
features such as high power density, small volume and stage, which is a three-leg two-phase inverter. The
weight, controlled power factor, voltage sag ride through, transformer in each stage provides voltage transfer
etc. compared with traditional line frequency transformer. between 3.8kV in primary side high voltage DC link and
The 7.2kV AC to 120V/240V AC 20kVA solid state 400V in secondary side low voltage DC link. The
transformer is a key component of the future renewable
electric energy delivery and management (FREEDM)
switching frequency of dual active bridge (DAB) DC-DC
systems as the interface between the 7.2kV distribution grid converter is 3 kHz in Gen-I SST due to the limit of the
and the low voltage residential micro-grid. Three cascaded frequency capability of 6.5kV silicon IGBTs. The
6.7kVA high-voltage high-frequency transformers operating specification for the transformer in SST is summarized in
at 3kHz are employed to convert voltage from 3800V high Table I.
voltage DC link of each cascaded stage to 400V low voltage
DC link. The transformer is required to withstand at least
15kV high frequency voltage insulation continuously.
Transformer magnetic core materials were reviewed and
compared. Winding layout alternatives for leakage,
magnetizing inductance and insulation were compared. An
insulation strategy based on split core and separate winding
structure with inserted insulation layer between the C cores
was proposed. One 6.7kVA high voltage high frequency
transformer prototype was built and the test results were
reported.

I. INTRODUCTION
The solid state transformer is potentially beneficial for
future power system. For example, with increased
residential electric load capacity, the power rating of Fig.1: The topology of the 7.2kV to 120V/240V 20kVA Gen-I Solid
distribution transformer should be improved. However, State Transformer (SST)
there is limited underground space to accommodate a
TABLE I: SPECIFICATIONS OF THE HIGH VOLTAGE HIGH FREQUENCY
larger transformer. So increased power density of TRANSFORMER IN GEN-I SST
distribution transformers is a good option to deliver more
power [1]. Solid state transformer (SST) also exhibits Number of transformers 3
Switching frequency fs 3kHz
good features such as high power density, small volume Bi-directional DC-DC topology Dual active bridges (DAB)
and weight, controlled power factor, voltage sag ride High voltage DC link VH 3800V
through, etc. compared to traditional line frequency Low voltage DC link VL 400V
transformer [2-3]. Due to environment and safety Power rating per transformer 6.7kVA
consideration, oil free or dry type insulated high Minimal insulation voltage 15kV (continuous)
Max. allowed temperature rise 55C (nature air cooling)
frequency transformer is highly preferred for solid state
transformer and is often considered as one advantage of There are three major challenges to design this high-
SST. voltage and high-frequency transformer. Due to the 3kHz
The topology of a 7.2kV to 120/240V 20kVA switching frequency, the required leakage inductance for
FREEDM Gen-I solid state transformer (SST) is shown optimal operation of DAB is about 36mH, which is
in Fig.1 [4]. The input is single phase 7.2kV AC line referred to the high voltage side, if no external inductor is
from the distribution grid, and the output is 120V/240V needed. The second challenge is to provide a sufficient
two phase AC terminals with a neutral line. The high magnetizing inductance; otherwise the amplitude of
voltage side AC-DC stage consists of three cascaded full magnetizing current is comparable to load current and
bridges. The AC-DC stage is then followed by the DC- will cause additional power loss. The third challenge is
DC stage of three dual active bridges with output in the insulation design since oil-free or dry type insulation
978-1-4244-5226-2/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE 493
is required in a compact structure. These issues are
addressed in the following sections. But before discussing at 3kHz frequency due to the limited peak flux density.
these trade offs, several high frequency soft magnetic The second disadvantage is that ferrite cores are brittle.
materials were reviewed and compared for the solid state The size of the high voltage high frequency transformer
transformer application. in SST is not compact since the switching frequency is
only 3kHz with 6.5kV silicon IGBTs. The mechanical
II. MAGNETIC CORE MATERIAL SELECTION strength of ferrite might not be strong enough to support
Several types of magnetic core materials can be the structure. Therefore, the ferrite core materials are not
considered for the high frequency transformer in SST considered here.
applications, as shown in Table II. Silicon steel materials have high saturation flux
density (about 1.5T) and high permeability. Some
TABLE II: SEVERAL HIGH FREQUENCY MAGNETIC CORE MATERIALS manufactures provide laminations with gauge down to
UNDER CONSIDERATION
1mil or 25um. However, compared with other
Saturation Strip
Material Series Density (T) Thickness Permeability transformer magnetic materials such as ferrite, nano-
@ 25C (um) crystalline and amorphous cores, their specific loss is
Silicon Steel Arnold Arnon5 1.48 127 High relatively high at 3kHz. This will result in a larger core
Amorphous Metglas 2605SA1 1.56 25 High size with small peak flux density or result in reduced
Ferrite Ferroxcube 3C96 0.44 N/A Medium
efficiency with high flux amplitude and smaller core size.
Ferrite Epcos N97 0.41 N/A Medium
Nano- Hitachi Finemet
The nanocrystalline core materials are very promising
1.23 18 High for high frequency transformers. The nanocrystalline core
crystalline FT-3M
Nano- VAC
1.20 N/A High
is metallic tape-wound core made of nanocrystalline soft
crystalline Vitroperm500F magnetic material. It exhibits high saturation flux density
Nano- Magmet Namglass (1.2T) and extremely low specific loss up to about 100
1.23 25 High
crystalline 4
kilo hertz frequency. Table III shows the specific core
One of the important considerations for high frequency
loss from several nanocrystalline core manufacturers,
transformer design is the core loss. A widely used
which exhibit lowest core loss at 3kHz frequency. On the
calculation of specific core loss is Steinmetz equation,
other hand, 1.2T saturation flux density allows the
Pcv = K f Bac (1) selection of high operating peak flux amplitude.
where Bac is the peak flux amplitude, Pcv is the time- Therefore, with nanocrystalline core materials, the high
average power loss per unit volume, and f is the frequency transformer can potentially be designed to be
frequency of sinusoidal excitation, and K, , and are extremely compact and efficient at 3kHz. However, there
constants found by curve fitting [5]. The Steinmetz are also several disadvantages for nanocrystalline cores.
equation coefficients were extracted for the magnetic core The first one is the relatively high material cost. Secondly,
materials listed in Table II based on the core loss graph although special shapes in oval or rectangular design with
from manufacturer datasheets. These coefficients are or without cut can be produced, the standard off-the-shelf
listed in Table III and the specific core loss at 3kHz with core shape is toroidal uncut tape-wound core. The
0.3T peak flux density are also compared in this table, leakage inductance is small due to the toroidal geometry
where the unit for Pcv is mW/cm3, and f and Bac use kHz and low number of turns. While the required leakage
and Tesla respectively. inductance is quite large since the DAB switching
frequency is 3kHz.
TABLE III: EXTRACTED STEINMETZ EQUATION COEFFICIENTS FOR
DIFFERENT MAGNETIC CORE MATERIALS
Another option is amorphous materials. Amorphous
cores also exhibit high saturation induction (1.56T) and
Core Materials
K

Loss at 3kHz 0.3T high permeability. High peak flux density can potentially
3
(mW/cm ) (mW/cm3) be selected at 3kHz as well. The core is laminated with
Silicon Steel 278.4 1.39 1.80 147 1mil amorphous tape. The specific core loss is several
Amorphous 46.7 1.51 1.74 30.2
Ferrite A 42.8 1.53 2.98 6.3
times lower than silicon steel but still higher than that of
Ferrite B 44.0 1.36 2.72 7.4 nanocrystalline and ferrite cores. However, the cost of
Nanocrystalline A 8.03 1.62 1.98 4.39 amorphous core is relatively low and the performance to
Nanocrystalline B 2.48 1.80 2.08 1.47 cost factor is excellent at 3kHz frequency for this SST
Nanocrystalline C 3.75 1.71 1.97 2.30 transformer. The mechanical strength is good enough to
build larger transformers. In addition, cut C-core with
One typical soft magnetic core material used from large geometry and I-core formers are commercially
several tens kilo-hertz to several mega-hertz range for available, offering more design flexibilities. Therefore,
high-frequency high-voltage transformers is ferrite [6-8]. amorphous core material is selected for the 6.5kV silicon
It can be found in Table III that the ferrite core loss is low IGBT based SST transformer.
at 3kHz. And the cost of ferrite core materials is also The B-H curve of selected amorphous core is shown in
relatively low. However, there are two major Fig.2. The magnetic core material used in this project is
disadvantages for ferrite materials. The first one is the Metglas amorphous Alloy 2605SA1. The selected core
low saturation flux density. At room temperature, it is geometry parameters are listed in Fig.3. It can be found
around 0.4T and it becomes worse when core temperature that the core fill factor is 82%. The core is AMCC-1000
increases. This can potentially result in a larger core size of Powerlite series from Metglas and it is the largest
494
out-of-shell amorphous core. Several pairs of C cores can determined by (3) with d=1 to minimize the reactive
be paralleled to provide sufficient core cross section area. power in the circuit and maximize the zero voltage
switching (ZVS) range at light load condition [10].
N H VH 3800 (3)
= = = 9.5
NL VL 400
The number of turns can be calculated by (4),
10 4 VH
NH = (4)
4.44 4 Bac f s Ac

Fig. 2: B-H curve of selected amorphous core material 2605SA1 [9]

Fig.3: Geometry of selected C-C core pair AMCC1000 [9]

Fig.4: The ratio of reactive power to output power in dual
The Steinmetz equation coefficients of specific core active bridges (DAB) DC-DC converter
loss formula of U-cores AMCC1000 under square-wave
input voltage are recalculated by collecting power loss B. Major Design Considerations
data in terms of frequency f and peak flux density Bac There are several challenges to design this high
because the Steinmetz equation provided on datasheet is voltage and high frequency transformer. The first one is
the test result from no-cut toroidal cores under sinusoidal to provide sufficient leakage inductance such that no
voltage excitation. Square-wave voltage inputs are external inductor is required in dual active bridges DC-
injected on one winding while the other winding is open DC converter. The required series inductance for a dual
and the power losses are carefully measured. The active bridge converter can be calculated in (5):
coefficients of the formula are achieved by curve-fitting VH
power loss data, as shown in Table IV. Ls = ( ) (5)
2 d 2 f s Po
TABLE IV: COEFFICIENTS OF SPECIFIC CORE LOSS OF 2605SA1
K (mW/cm )
3
Pcv at 3kHz, 0.25T where Ls is the required leakage inductance (referred to
Datasheet high voltage side); VH is input voltage (3.8kV); d is
46.7 1.51 1.74 21.99 (mW/cm3)
(sinusoidal) defined in (2) and equal to 1 here; fs is switching
Measurement frequency (3kHz); Po is output power of DAB (6.7kW)
106.3 1.19 1.97 25.61(mW/cm3)
(square input)
and is the phase-shift angle between two H-bridges
[10]. From Fig.4, the smaller the phase-shift angle is, the
III. TRANSFORMER DESIGN TRADE OFF lower the ratio of reactive power can be obtained when d
is equal to 1. However, practically the neither transformer
A. Selection of Transformer Turns Ratio
turns ratio nor the voltage regulation can be controlled
The selection of the transformer turns ratio and very accurately. 10% variation of d (d=0.9 or d=1.1) can
required leakage inductance has great impact on the result in otherwise increased reactive power ratio with
performance of dual active bridges (DAB) DC-DC small phase-shift angles. One suggested maximal phase-
converter. For example, from DAB conduction loss point shift angle which is corresponding to 6.7kW full load is
of view, the reactive power in the circuit should be 20 or /9. Therefore, the DAB requires an inductance of
minimized. The ratio of the reactive power Q to output 36mH as referred to the high voltage side for optimal
power P for DAB converter is shown in Fig.4, where the operation. It is highly preferred that the inductance is
reactive power is defined by the product of rms current provided by the leakage inductance of the transformer or
through the leakage inductance and rms voltage across it. it can be integrated into the transformer for lower volume,
The parameter d is defined as, weight and cost. It should be noted that in this scenario,
V N (2) the leakage inductance should be increased since the
d= H L
VL N H input voltage is high and switching frequency and output
where VH is high voltage DC-link voltage, VL is low power are relatively low, instead of minimizing the
voltage DC-link voltage, NH is the number of turns for leakage inductance in some low voltage, high frequency
high voltage winding and NL is the number of turns for and high power applications [11].
low voltage winding. The second challenge is to have high magnetizing
Based on Fig.4, the transformer turns ratio is inductance; otherwise the magnetizing current is
495
comparable to load current and will increase the power in terms of the leakage inductance, magnetizing
stage loss. At 3kHz frequency, 250mH magnetizing inductance, ease of insulation and winding loss, which
inductance, which is referred to primary side, is required are four key aspects of the high voltage high frequency
to limit the magnetizing current lower than one-forth of transformer for SST applications.
the primary winding full load current. On the other hand,
C. Leakage and Magnetizing Inductance
this level of magnetizing current will potentially help the
ZVS of switches at light load condition [10]. The leakage inductance of the high voltage high
The third challenge is high voltage insulation. frequency transformer was compared based on two types
Transformer oil is used for conventional high voltage of winding layout in Max3D FEA simulation. With
transformer as insulation and cooling medium. This coaxial winding structure as shown in Fig.5, the distance
might cause environmental, safety and maintenance between high voltage and low voltage winding is small
issues, especially for distribution transformer. So oil free and the magnetic field intensity is also relatively small
or dry type high frequency transformer is highly preferred because the winding is divided into two parts. There is no
for SST. But it is difficult for insulation design in such a energy stored in the major part of the space of the
small core window area with air insulation, which window. With separate winding structure as shown in
requires large air clearance distance that is comparable to Fig.6, the high voltage winding and the low voltage
the core window geometry. winding are far away from each other and then there is a
In addition, the winding loss or winding AC resistance lot of magnetic energy stored in the window space.
should be considered. The winding AC resistance can be Therefore, larger leakage inductance is expected from the
predicted by Dowells model [13]. When the number of separate winding structure.
winding layers increases, the magnetic leakage energy Based on the Max3D FEA simulation results, with the
stored in the winding area also increase, which results in coaxial winding structure, the leakage inductance is
a great increase of winding AC resistance. For high 5.5mH and the magnetizing inductance with 0.1mm air
voltage transformers, due to the insulation clearance, gap is 1476mH. This leakage inductance is much lower
winding interleave cannot be used and the high voltage than required value. However, with the separate winding
winding is put separately with low voltage winding. The structure, the leakage inductance increases to 35.5mH and
leakage magnetic energy storage is more than that of the 1.0mm solid insulation layer thickness provides 273mH
conventional low voltage transformer. This helps to magnetizing inductance, which is enough to mitigate
increase the leakage inductance but the winding AC magnetizing current. It should be noted that 82% core
resistance and loss will also increase a lot. stack fill factor needs to be considered in simulation. If
Two transformer winding structures can be considered. the insulation layer or gap thickness is too small, the
The first one is more widely used, as shown in Fig.5. The dielectric stress of the gap is too high to insulate the high
high voltage and low voltage windings are divided into voltage based on the proposed HV insulation strategy.
two equal parts. Two low voltage windings surround the D. High Voltage Insulation Strategy
transformer core legs and then two high voltage windings
surround two low voltage windings respectively. The SST high voltage and high frequency transformer is
designed as dry-type transformer to meet the demand for
other option is to separate the high voltage winding from
environmentally friendly product. Hence, there is one
low voltage winding, as shown in Fig.6. A solid
insulation layer is inserted between two C cores. additional important concern about the insulation for safe
and reliable operation of a transformer. When the voltage
insulation is taken into consideration, at least 15kV
insulation has to be obtained between the high voltage
winding and low voltage winding in continuous operation.
The maximal winding voltage insulation requirement
occurs in the top-most transformer as shown in Fig.1, in
which the voltage potential referred to ground can be
raised up to 11.4kV. Air is normally a good insulator but
it begins to break down under electric field strength of
Fig.5: Coaxial high voltage and low voltage winding layout more than about 3kV/mm at 1cm distance, which can
lead to spark or arc that bridges the gap between
conductors. NEMA's (National Electrical Manufacturers
Association) standards TR 1 mentions that the minimum
clearance between live parts of dry type transformer is 5
inches for distribution transformers under 15kV but the
realizable minimum distance for SST application is
investigated to reduce the size and volume of the
transformer. Obviously 5-inch clearance distance cannot
be met by the limited window size of the high frequency
Fig.6: Separate high voltage and low voltage winding layout transformer. Therefore, additional voltage insulation
The above two winding layout structures are compared 496 strategy should be proposed.
For co-axial winding layout, 15kV has to be supported
by the space between the high voltage and low voltage current generated by winding capacitance is very small
windings. It can also be found that in core window area compared to load current and does not have much impact
two 15kV insulation structures between the high voltage on circuit. But the impact of the parasitic capacitance on
and low voltage windings should be used. In addition, common mode current and EMI needs to be further
large clearance is required for 15kV level insulation if air studied.
is used as the insulator. Therefore, it is very difficult to TABLE VI: MAJOR SPECIFICATIONS OF THE PROTOTYPE TRANSFORMER
insulate windings with the compact window geometry in
Switching frequency 3kHz
the high frequency transformer.
High voltage winding 3.8kV (Square wave)
One of the oil-free insulation strategies is proposed Low voltage winding 400V (Square wave)
and shown in Fig.6. A thin insulation layer (red), such as Power rating 6.7kVA
polypropylene or epoxy plate, is inserted into the gap Core cross section area 69cm2
between two C cores. The insulation layer mitigates the Core window area 42 cm2
isolation requirement between winding and core, if the Peak flux density 0.242T (>0.3T very noisy)
Number of high voltage winding turns 190
primary core is electrically connected to negative Number of low voltage winding turns 20
terminal of DC-link in its belonged stage, and the High voltage wire insulation layer 0.45mm PFA coating [12]
secondary core is electrically connected to negative DC- Magnetizing inductance (referred to Tested:287mH
link terminal of the adjacently next lower cascaded stage high voltage winding side) Simulated: 273mH
in high voltage side. Thus, the primary winding to ground Leakage inductance (referred to high Tested: 36.0mH
voltage winding side) Simulated: 35.5mH
high voltage is partly supported by the inserted insulation
layer and winding to core insulation requirement is TABLE VII: MEASUREMENT OF PARASITIC CAPACITANCE
mitigated. With this insulation structure, the winding to High voltage winding capacitance 35pF
core insulation voltage is reduced to 3.8kV instead of Low voltage winding capacitance 24pF
11.4kV, which can be easily met by bobbin and selected HV winding to core capacitance 175pF
wires with HV insulation coating. In worst scenario, the LV winding to core capacitance 240pF
inserted insulation layer will support a maximal primary
core to secondary core voltage of 3.8kV. With 1mm
thickness, the dielectric strength of inserted insulation
layer can be good enough with appropriate edge
termination design to avoid sharp edges or corners, if
20kV/mm maximal dielectric strength is considered.
E. Summary of Comparison
The advantages and disadvantages for two winding
structures are summarized in Table V. Since it is easier to Fig.7: Prototype of 3.8kV to 400V 6.7kVA 3kHz transformer for SST
obtain the required leakage inductance value and the
required insulation voltage, while the magnetizing
inductance is acceptable, the separate winding layout
structure is used in this project. In the prototype, the
black wire is low voltage winding and blue wire is high
voltage winding.
TABLE V: COMPARISON OF TWO WINDING LAYOUT STRUCTURE
Co-axial winding Separate winding
Leakage inductance Low High
Winding AC resistance Medium High
Magnetizing inductance High Medium
Insulation Difficult Easier Fig.8: High voltage winding AC resistance
The AC resistance of the high voltage wire is also
IV. PROTOTYPE AND TEST RESULTS important since the number of high voltage winding turns
is large and there are so many layers as well. The
One high voltage high frequency transformer Dowells model [13] is used to predict the AC resistance
prototype was built to verify the design. The major at high frequency range for high voltage winding, as
specifications of the transformer are listed in Table VI shown in Fig.8. The winding AC resistance at 3kHz is
and the prototype is shown in Fig.7. about four times of the DC resistance. The AC resistance
The parasitic capacitance of the prototype transformer measurement was also conducted and the measured
was measured and the results are listed in Table VII. The winding resistance coincides well with model prediction
parasitic capacitance is important for high voltage high in lower frequency range but it increases faster in higher
frequency transformer design since the parasitic frequency range.
capacitance will generate high reactive current and also The prototype transformer was tested at 400V 3kHz
common mode current in the circuit. In our case, since input in low voltage side with 7kW resistor bank load
the switching frequency is relatively low (3kHz) and the connected to high voltage winding. The test waveforms
high voltage winding capacitance is 35pF, the reactive were shown in Fig.9. It can be found that L/R time
497
constant is 85uS and the corresponding leakage additional reactive current in the circuit. The measured
inductance is 35.7mH, which is very close to 36mH core loss is 81W and transformer efficiency is close to
measured value by LRC meter. The high voltage winding 97% from half to full load range. The measured maximal
was excited to 3.8kV. The loss and efficiency test results surface temperature rise is 35C with nature air cooling.
are listed in Table VIII. The partial discharge issue and the performance of
proposed insulation structure should be evaluated in the
future work.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by ERC Program of the U.S.
National Science Foundation under Award Number EEC-
08212121.

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