GB2642099A - Regulated soft-switching electronic converter - Google Patents

Abstract

A single-stage, soft-switching, electronic converter circuit is capable of output voltage and current regulation in a wide range. The converter comprises two primary-side half-bridge or full-bridge inverters 1, 2, a set of decoupling capacitors 3, 4, at least one per primary-side inverter, a secondary-side full-wave rectifier 5 and a single complex electromagnetic component 6. The complex electromagnetic component transformer performs functions of both an electromagnetic transformer and a set of current-shaping inductors separately for each per primary-side inverter and comprises one primary-side winding 7,8 and one ferromagnetic core 9,10 per primary-side inverter, and a common single output winding 11 wound on all the ferromagnetic cores, with a paramagnetic gap inserted between all the ferromagnetic cores. A phase-shifting modulation technique regulates the output voltage of the converter circuit by multi-phase sine wave summing of magnetic fluxes in the complex electromagnetic component. The converter may be bi-directional.

Description

[0001] Regulated soft-switching electronic converter Description

[0002] Introduction

[0003] This invention relates to the technology of electrical energy conversion by means of electronic converters.

[0004] Specifically, it is applicable to the use cases where regulation of voltage and current in a wide range and the galvanic isolation are required to be performed by an electronic converter.

[0005] More specifically, it is best applicable to the use cases where beside the above listed requirements, additionally, a challenging combination of simplicity, small size, low own energy loss, and high reliability of an electronic converter is required.

[0006] Background of Prior Art

[0007] In the contemporary technology there are numerous types of electronic converters known which can satisfy the requirements of the regulation of voltage in a wide range and the galvanic isolation. However, regulation of voltage in a wide range is usually achieved by using modulation techniques and circuit solutions which result in significant commutation energy losses and sacrifice the energy conversion efficiency figure, which is another important parameter of electronic converters.

[0008] One of the best developed prior art technology examples, known to those skilled in the art as a phase-shifting full-bridge converter (hereafter PSFBC) and its derivatives and variations, as in particular described in patents U56356462B1, US9118259B2, US9621056B2, U510958180B2, is well suited for the regulation of voltage in a wide range, which is achieved by method of phase-shifting modulation (hereafter PSM) converted at its electromagnetic transformer into the equivalence of a pulse width modulation (hereafter PWM) effect. However, PSFBC by its nature exhibits extra energy loss because of unavoidable hard-switching operation of its secondary side. Also, this type of converter is not practically suitable for producing a high magnitude of the secondary-side voltage. Besides, PSFBC is not a preferred designer's choice if a bidirectional energy conversion is required.

[0009] Another prior art technology example, known to those skilled in the art as a series resonant converter (hereafter SRC), as in particular described in patents U55073849, U56008997, exhibits low commutation loss, and in some embodiments can achieve some of the best known figures of energy conversion efficiency, exceeding 99%, due to using a series resonant tank circuit (hereafter RTC), and adjusting the operation mode at or near the natural resonant frequency (hereafter NRF) of the RTC. However, by its nature, a basic SRC is not able to perform the voltage regulation effectively.

[0010] There is also a well-known variation of SRC circuit with a reduced magnetizing inductance, generally known to those skilled in the art as an inductor-inductor-capacitor type, or LLC-SRC, as described in patent US6344979, which can perform some regulation in a limited range of output voltage and/or current, by a general method of pulse frequency modulation (hereafter PFM); however, such limited regulation is achieved at the expense of somewhat reduced energy conversion efficiency around the extremes of the regulation range. Another known regulation method of LLC-SRC is a combined method of pulse width and frequency modulation (hereafter PWFM), by means of PFM+PSM, which particularly helps with regulation at a light load condition, but is not without its own drawbacks, such as a loss of soft switching operation in some conditions.

[0011] Different techniques have been proposed to reduce the side effects of cutting the operational electrical phase angle when applied in LLC-SRC, such as described in patents US8767416, US8717783. Generally, PWM or PSM extra regulation techniques do not yield truly universal regulation in a wide range of voltage and current, when applied on a conventional SRC, or LLC-SRC hardware basis.

[0012] Yet another known regulation method of LLC-SRC is a so called topology morphing, which is better suitable for the high power use cases, but offers a regulation range improvement by the factor of 2 times only, as compared with a basic LLC-SRC circuit; an example of such circuit and regulation method is described in patent US9263960B2.

[0013] If galvanic isolation, regulation in a wide range of voltage and load current, and high energy conversion efficiency are required together by the application use case, then in the prior art technology it results in a complex multi-stage, cumbersome, expensive solution. Very high energy conversion efficiency in excess of averaged figure of 98% still cannot be achieved; a trade-off would have to be made on the achievable parameters of the electronic converter.

[0014] Summary of the invention

[0015] Proposed single-stage, soft-switching electronic converter is a structurally simple and compact circuit which allows performing the electric energy conversion with a high figure of energy conversion efficiency of the level achievable by SRC, while providing voltage regulation in a wide range, equivalent to the ability of PSFBC.

[0016] The proposed converter is equally well suitable for producing either low voltage or high voltage at its output, thus overcoming a limitation of PSFBC.

[0017] The proposed converter circuit significantly improves other main parameters of electronic converters, when compared with the prior art technology, specifically: its size for the power rating, also described as the power density; cost of parts and materials; reliability.

[0018] The proposed converter is equally well suitable for either unidirectional or bidirectional electrical energy conversion, like SRC.

[0019] In summary, the newly proposed converter retains all the strong sides of the SRC, while additionally performing the voltage regulation in a wide range, like PSFBC does.

[0020] List of Figures Figure 1 represents a generic topology principle of the proposed electronic converter.

[0021] Figure 2 illustrates one simple geometrical embodiment of the complex electromagnetic component used in the proposed electronic converter.

[0022] Figure 3 compliments Figure 2, showing the principle of spatial configuration of the said complex electromagnetic component with one more set of a primary-side winding and a ferromagnetic core added, in a plan cross-section view.

[0023] Figure 4 illustrates an ideal normalized regulation characteristic curve of the output parameter with two identical input components, by the proposed regulation method.

[0024] Figure 5 illustrates one simple hardware embodiment of the proposed electronic converter with unidirectional electrical energy transfer ability.

[0025] Figure 6 compliments Figure 5, showing a possible variation of the converter circuit topology.

[0026] Figure 7 and Figure 8 show the electric waveforms of the operation of converter circuit with two different settings of a modulation parameter.

[0027] Figure 9 illustrates an embodiment of the hardware implementation of the proposed electronic converter, suitable for bidirectional energy transfer.

[0028] Figure 10 illustrates an ideal normalized output regulation characteristic curve in the backward energy transfer mode for a converter circuit shown on Figure 9.

[0029] Detailed description of the invention 1. Basic hardware block diagram A power oscillator or a power inverter circuit with a defined value of the output impedance is hereafter meant under the term of an AC voltage feeder, or simply an AC feeder.

[0030] In the simplest topological embodiment of the proposed electronic converter per Figure 1, shown therein blocks 1, 2 are primary-side AC voltage feeders; elements 3, 4 are decoupling electric capacitors; blocks is a secondary-side rectifier. Block 6 is a complex electromagnetic component with galvanic isolation, which can also be described as a parametrically defined multi-core transformer.

[0031] Both primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 are electrically supplied from the same input voltage source, and they operate at a frequency of a designer's choice. Crucially, whatever is the frequency chosen for their operation, both primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 must be generating the same output frequency. The input source can be a pure direct current (DC) voltage source, or a DC source with a superimposed AC waveform.

[0032] Importantly, for the purpose of good operation of the proposed converter the said primary-side AC voltage feeders 1, 2 should produce such voltage waveforms which, in combination with any defined serial impedances, will generate the AC currents of the wave shape close to sinusoidal, i.e., with low harmonics contents, to flow via the respective primary-side windings 7, 8.

[0033] Capacitors 3, 4 decouple the DC component of voltage and current between the primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 and the primary-side windings 7, 8. Additionally, capacitors 3, 4 help shaping the AC current wave forms, by means of their reactive impedances.

[0034] The complex electromagnetic component 6 contains separate ferromagnetic cores 9, 10, on which the primary-side windings 7, 8 are entirely and solely wound, respectively. The secondary-side winding 11, on the contrary, is wound on both cores 9, 10. Such a winding configuration aims to achieve relatively strong magnetic coupling in the respective winding pairs 7-11, 8-11, while at the same time, to achieve weak magnetic coupling in the primary-side winding pair 7-8. This is important for the proper operation of this converter, so that the primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 do not electrically interfere with each other, as would otherwise happen in a conventional transformer with a single ferromagnetic core.

[0035] A galvanic barrier between the primary side and the secondary side is naturally provided by this configuration of an electromagnetic transformer, too.

[0036] 2. Complex electromagnetic component Figure 2 illustrates the simplest embodiment of the mutual spatial arrangement of the cores and windings of the complex electromagnetic component.

[0037] Primary-side windings 1, 2 are wound on their respective ferromagnetic cores 1, 2; the two cores are separated from each other with help of a paramagnetic gap, but otherwise they are next to each other. The secondary-side winding is wound on the adjacent sides of both ferromagnetic cores 1, 2.

[0038] Once the electric circuit is connected, the AC currents IL 12 flow via the primary-side windings 1 and 2, respectively, and produce their respective magnetic fluxes 01, 02, that have weak interaction between themselves, due to the presence of a paramagnetic gap. However, from the point of view of the secondary-side winding, there is a resulting AC magnetic flux 03 formed as a sum of magnetic fluxes 01, 02, which will produce current 13 to flow via the secondary-side winding.

[0039] Furthermore, the same principle can be extended to include more than two primary-side ferromagnetic cores and windings, and their respective initially produced magnetic flux components; for instance, three initially generated magnetic fluxes 01, 02, 03 to produce the resulting output magnetic flux 04, and, in a general definition, (n-1) initially generated magnetic fluxes to produce the resulting output magnetic flux On: rilf1 ei = Figure 3 illustrates an embodiment of the complex electromagnetic component with three ferromagnetic cores and three primary-side windings in a plan view. In this embodiment the secondary-side winding is wound around all three cores.

[0040] Furthermore, the same principle can be extended to the use cases of the proposed converter with more than one input voltage source; for instance, with photovoltaic panels being one input voltage source, a wind turbine being another input voltage source, a diesel-electric generator being yet another voltage input source, and so on. In this case it is sufficient to scale the number of turns of the respective primary-side windings and/or the cross-section of the respective ferromagnetic cores, so that their respective generated magnetic fluxes 01, 02, 03, etc., become scaled to approximately the same magnitude, for the most effective regulation.

[0041] Importantly, the proposed method of geometrical arrangement of the windings per Figure 2, Figure 3, by spatially detaching them from each other, does result in a certain amount of leakage inductances introduced into the complex magnetic component by-design. The said leakage inductances will naturally participate in filtering out the unwanted harmonics of their respective currents, by means of their reactive impedances.

[0042] The said spatial detachment of the windings from each other also helps with cooling of the windings during the power operation, since each winding's outer surface has direct access to the external cooling medium. As a result, specific power density of such electromagnetic component is improved, when compared with the conventional power transformers with multi-layer windings.

[0043] Furthermore, the said spatial detachment of the windings from each other helps achieving high values of dielectric breakdown voltage of the transformer's galvanic barrier. As a result, such a spatial configuration of a complex electromagnetic component is particularly suitable for the use cases such as AC grid distribution-level high-voltage-to-low-voltage converters, or so called solid-state transformers.

[0044] This kind of a multi-core electromagnetic component is not new in its principle; it has been used for a long time in a substantially different field of applications, specifically, in the magnetic amplifiers, as in particular is described in patents US2762969, US2820109, US4675615. Magnetic amplifiers are characterized by utilising a DC bias magnetic field which can magnetically saturate the ferromagnetic core(s), and thus regulate certain electrical parameters, like inserted impedance, current, voltage. Magnetic amplifiers can also be used for the purpose of regulation in the electronic power converters, as in particular is described in patents US3323039, US3452268, US4736283, 1JS5654880, EP0255844.

[0045] On the contrary to the magnetic amplifiers though, the new proposed electronic converter intends to utilise its ferromagnetic cores entirely and solely in the linear region of the magnetic B-H hysteresis curve, and to explicitly avoid non-linear magnetic operation.

[0046] The principle of a multi-core electromagnetic component is being re-introduced because of the specific ability of the AC currents' adjustment, applied for the purpose of regulation in the otherwise non-regulated soft-switching electronic converters.

[0047] 3. Basic regulation method The output regulation method in its simplest embodiment is the same as used in the PSFBC circuits, that is, PSM. This method is characterized by producing two control signals of the same frequency, with a relative phase shift a between the two, which is variable depending on the required regulation. However, PSM produces different effects in the proposed new converter, as compared with PSFBC operation.

[0048] Considering the case of the sine wave shaped primary-side AC feeders' currents I, 12, the regulation method is as follows.

[0049] Each of the primary-side AC feeders produces a sine wave current of the same angular frequency: w = 2xnxf, where f is the chosen operation frequency.

[0050] Each of the said sine wave currents 13,12with identical amplitude A can be described by the formulae: = A x sin (tax t) /2 = A x sin (tax t + a) Assuming the two sine waves of the same amplitude A is very practical for an electronic converter indeed, since only a single supply source is available in most cases; the AC waveforms internally generated off such a single supply source by the identical AC feeder circuits will naturally be of the same magnitude.

[0051] For a certain given geometry of the electromagnetic transformer's windings and its ferromagnetic cores, and while operating in a linear region of the magnetic hysteresis curve, the generated magnetic flux 0 is linearly proportional to the electric current!flowing in a winding: 0 a I, and thus for the considered case of currents lb 12: 01 cc A x sin (w x () 02 CC Ax sin (co x t+ a) The above formulae for fluxes a, 02 assume identical geometry of the windings 1, 2 and of their respective ferromagnetic cores 1, 2, referring to Figure 2.

[0052] Due to specific spatial arrangement of the ferromagnetic cores in the complex electromagnetic component, as illustrated by Figure 2, only its secondary-side winding will be subject to the influence of both fluxes 01, 02, which will form their resulting sum flux 03; by a known mathematical conversion, the latter can be defined as: 03 a 2xAxcosE2xsin(coxt+ '12) As can be seen from the latter formula, cos 12 is the multiplier of magnitude of the resulting flux 03, meaning that the resulting flux 03 can be regulated in the wide range solely by changing the phase shift angle a. Namely, flux a can be adjusted between its maximum when a = 00, i.e., a cos -= 1, and its zero value when a =180°, i.e., cos-= 0, while the phase shift angle of the 2 2 resulting flux 03 remains constantly at a half of the phase shift angle a/2 between the two initially produced magnetic fluxes 01, 02.

[0053] From the physics point of view, the above formula for flux 03 definition makes perfect sense; indeed, if the two initially produced magnetic fluxes 01, 02 are perfectly in-phase with zero angle shift between them, then the resulting magnitude of flux 03 is a double value of each of the former, while if the former two are in the opposite phase with 1800 angle shift between them, then they completely mutually compensate each other, and the resulting flux 03 is zero.

[0054] Performing the reverse conversion from the output magnetic flux 03 into the output electric current 13, /3 cc 2 x Ax cos 52 x sin(a) x t + E2) Thus, the output current 13 is regulated in a wide range solely by a method of PSM applied to an electromagnetic component, while the latter is fed by two primary-side unregulated sources of AC currents 13,12.

[0055] In other terms, the proposed regulation principle is by multi-phase sine wave shaped magnetic flux summing in the closed multi-path magnetic circuit.

[0056] Notably, the regulation in the proposed electronic converter happens on the level of a complex electromagnetic component, which differs from the majority of other regulated electronic converters, where regulation happens on the level of an electric circuit itself.

[0057] Per the latter formula, the magnitude scaling factor 2 x cos1i exhibits symmetrical behaviour at either sign of the relative phase shift angle a; i.e., the angle a can be adjusted in either direction for the same output regulation effect. There is no discontinuity point on the ideal regulation curve of the output parameter vs. the angle a, as illustrated by Figure 4. This is beneficial for the robustness of the proposed regulation method, and robustness of the proposed electronic converter overall.

[0058] Furthermore, the frequency of the initially produced magnetic fluxes 01 and 02 does not necessarily have to stay constant, i.e., it may vary during the converter's operation. This allows extending the basic regulation technique of PSM to additionally include PFM, thus becoming a combined phase-shift-and-frequency modulation, should a designer prefer to use it.

[0059] 4. Hardware implementation for a unidirectional electrical energy transfer mode Figure 5 illustrates one simple embodiment of the hardware implementation of the proposed electronic converter, suitable for unidirectional energy transfer, specifically, from a primary side to a secondary side.

[0060] The primary-side AC voltage feeders 1, 2 are the half-bridge power circuits, also known as single-leg inverters, each consisting of two controlled unidirectional power electronic switches 13, 14 and 15, 16, respectively, e.g., of MOSFET or of IGBT type.

[0061] The secondary-side rectifier S is a full-wave rectifier bridge, consisting of four diodes 17, 18, 19, 20. There is a bus filtering capacitor 21 connected to the output of the said rectifier.

[0062] Each of the primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 produces at its respective output an AC waveform close to a rectangular shape with 50% duty cycle, at a frequency of the designer's choice.

[0063] These AC waveforms are then fed via the respective decoupling capacitors 3, 4 into the respective primary-side windings 7,8 of the complex electromagnetic component 6. The values of the capacitors 3, 4 should preferably be adjusted to the chosen operation frequency, so that each of the capacitors forms a RTC together with the respective leakage inductance of the primary-side

[0064] S

[0065] windings 7, 8, with their NRF close to the operation frequency. Thus, the primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 each form a conventional SRC circuit, with a benefit of a low commutation loss.

[0066] The secondary-side winding 11 has its own associated leakage inductance; to compensate the influence of its reactive impedance, capacitor 12 is included in series. The value of the capacitor 12 should preferably be adjusted to the chosen operation frequency, so that capacitor 12 forms a RTC together with the leakage inductance of the secondary-side winding 11, with the NRF close to the operation frequency.

[0067] The choice of SRC circuit for the primary-side AC feeders, beside a low own energy loss, covers another important aspect of the proposed output voltage regulation method; it is the low harmonic content of the AC feeders' 1, 2 output currents, when operated at, or near the NRF, assured by the nature of quasi-resonant operation of a SRC; a respective AC feeder's serial RTC does naturally filter out the harmonics of the feeders' output currents, by presenting a low serial impedance to the fundamental harmonic, and a higher serial impedance to the higher harmonics. The harmonic filtering action of a serial RTC is the most pronounced when operated near, or at the nominal load condition.

[0068] An LLC-SRC variation of the primary-side AC feeders' circuits can be used to enhance the soft-switching operation, known as a zero-voltage switching condition, in a wide load range, and further reduce the harmonic contents of the primary-side AC feeders' currents. Such a circuit variation will typically require inserting proportionally sized paramagnetic gaps into the respective ferromagnetic cores of a complex electromagnetic component, which technique does not differ from a mainstream LLC-SRC technology.

[0069] Illustrated by Figure 5 converter circuit can be modified and equally well implemented by either employing full-bridge power inverters in place of the primary-side AC feeders 1,2, or a half-bridge, full-wave rectifier in place of the secondary-side bridge rectifier 5, or both of these modifications applied.

[0070] The latter case of a circuit embodiment is illustrated by Figure 6, where the primary-side AC feeders 1, 2 are of a full-bridge type, and the secondary-side full-wave rectifier consists of two diodes 7, 8 and two capacitors 9, 10: a circuit generally known as a voltage doubler rectifier. Beside accomplishing a full-wave rectifier circuit, the said capacitors 9, 10 carry out the same function as does capacitor 12 shown on Figure 5; namely, they form a serial RTC together with the leakage inductance of the secondary winding of the complex electromagnetic component 6.

[0071] Figure 7 illustrates typical electric waveforms of operation of the proposed converter circuit as shown on Figure 5, with a modulation parameter setting a = 60'; AC voltages and currents of the primary and secondary sides' windings and electronic switches are shown respectively.

[0072] Figure 8 additionally illustrates the same set of AC voltages and currents of the primary and secondary sides' windings and electronic switches with a modulation parameter setting a = 1500, referring to the same circuit diagram shown on Figure 5.

[0073] 5. Hardware implementation for a bidirectional electrical energy transfer mode Figure 9 illustrates an embodiment of the hardware implementation of the proposed electronic converter, suitable for bidirectional energy transfer, where the definitions of a primary side and a secondary side become relative, depending on the energy transfer direction.

[0074] Because the energy transfer direction can be dynamically changing, and also for the purpose of semantic consistency with the previously considered converter circuit embodiments, the part of circuit on the left side will be hereafter called the primary side, and the part of circuit on the right side will be hereafter called the secondary side, regardless of the actual energy transfer direction.

[0075] With such a naming convention, the energy transfer from a primary side to a secondary side will be hereafter called the forward energy transfer mode, and the energy transfer from a secondary side to a primary side will be hereafter called the backward energy transfer mode.

[0076] The backward energy transfer mode is implied as the default one in the bidirectional converter circuit diagram shown on Figure 9, hence showing the electric energy input on the right side, and its output on the left side.

[0077] This circuit differs from the one shown on Figure 5 only by having four fully controlled electronic switches 17, 18, 19,20 in place of the diodes 17, 18, 19, 20, respectively.

[0078] The forward energy transfer operation mode of the circuit shown on Figure 9 is identical to that of the circuit shown on Figure 5, with the only difference that the electronic switches 17, 18, 19, 20 could be actively driven as synchronous rectifiers.

[0079] The backward energy transfer operation mode turns the electronic switches 17, 18, 19, 20 into the forward conducting ones, and thus a full-bridge of the electronic switches 17, 18, 19, 20 becomes an AC feeder from the input supply source and its filtering capacitor 21 into the secondary-side winding 11 via the decoupling capacitor 12. The said AC feeder is to operate at a switching frequency of the designer's choice. Magnetic fluxes are thus generated by winding 11 in the ferromagnetic cores 9, 10 of the complex electromagnetic component 6. The said magnetic fluxes are of equal magnitude, provided that both cores 9, 10 are of identical size, and are equally well encircled by winding 11. As a result, electromotive forces are generated in the respective primary-side windings 7, 8.

[0080] If the primary-side electronic switches 13,14 and 15, 16 were not actively driven as synchronous rectifiers, then a certain voltage would appear across the output voltage bus, due to rectification effect of the body diodes of the electronic switches 13, 14 and 15, 16; in this case there will be no output voltage regulation effect though.

[0081] However, if the electronic switches 13, 14 and 15, 16 are actively driven as synchronous rectifiers at the same synchronous frequency as that of the secondary-side AC feeder, then the output voltage regulation can be achieved by essentially the same regulation principle of P5M as described above, albeit applied in a backwards manner, as follows.

[0082] Because the reference phase angle in this case is located at the secondary side AC feeder, it is more practical to consider the control PSM signals' relative phase shifts of -112 and + °¶ to drive the respective primary sides' pairs of synchronous rectifiers 13, 14 and 15, 16.

[0083] Importantly, because the conversion ratio of secondary-to-primary is a reciprocal value of that of primary-to-secondary, it means that a normalized regulation characteristic curve in the backward energy transfer mode also becomes a reciprocal shape of that shown on Figure 4 for the forward energy transfer mode.

[0084] Figure 10 illustrates a generic view of an ideal normalized regulation characteristic curve of electromotive forces generated at the primary windings versus the regulation angle a for the converter circuit shown on Figure 9. Because of a wide vertical axis range, the curve on Figure 10 is drawn with a more convenient view of a logarithmic scale of the vertical axis.

[0085] As can be seen, the minimum output voltage in the backward energy transfer mode corresponds to the regulation angle a = 0°, while the theoretical maximum output voltage tends towards infinity at the regulation angle approaching a = 180°. The latter is untenable, meaning that in practical terms there has to be a certain limit setting to a maximum regulation angle a in the backward energy transfer direction, as otherwise saturation of the ferromagnetic cores, or overload of the AC feeder inverter may occur. Such a limit setting is not necessarily required in the forward energy transfer direction though.

[0086] If multi-quadrant operation in either energy transfer direction is specified for the same converter circuit, then the converter's controller might need to contain a dedicated detector of the energy flow direction, to be able to switch the above described regulation angle limit setting on and off, as appropriate.

[0087] There is another notable observation from Figure 10; disregarding the actual transformer ratio, a normalized output voltage cannot be lowered, but can only be boosted up across the regulation range of the angle a. Such a transfer characteristic is suitable for the use cases such as single-stage AC-DC converters, or active power factor corrector circuits, as a particular case of the former.

Claims (5)

1. Claims 1. A single-stage, soft-switching electronic converter circuit, capable of output voltage and current regulation in a wide range, comprising: - two primary-side switching type inverters, either half-bridge or full-bridge; - a set of decoupling capacitors, being minimum one capacitor per the said primary-side switching type inverter; - a secondary-side output full-wave rectifier; - a parametrically defined multi-core electromagnetic component, comprising one primary-side winding per the said primary-side switching type inverter, one ferromagnetic core per the said primary-side switching type inverter, and a common single output winding wound on all the ferromagnetic cores, with a paramagnetic gap inserted between all the ferromagnetic cores.Crucially, and complementing the described hardware means, a method of regulation of the output voltage of the said single-stage electronic soft-switching converter circuit by multi-phase sine wave summing of magnetic fluxes in the said multi-core magnetic circuit, by means of a phase-shifting modulation technique.

2. Embodiment of a soft-switching electronic converter circuit according to Claim 1, comprising three or more primary-side switching type inverters, with a corresponding increase in the number of their respective decoupling capacitors, their respective primary-side windings, and their respective ferromagnetic cores in the multi-core electromagnetic component.

3. Embodiment of an electronic soft-switching converter circuit according to Claim 1, where the output regulation is performed by means of a combined phase-shift-and-frequency modulation technique.

4. Embodiment of a soft-switching electronic converter circuit according to Claim 1, with the secondary-side output rectifier replaced with a switching type inverter, either half-bridge or full-bridge, and a modification to a phase-shifting modulation technique, applied to both the primary-side and the secondary-side switching type inverters, allowing to perform electric energy conversion in either a primary-to-secondary, or a secondary-to-primary direction, while maintaining the regulation ability of voltage and current in a wide range.

5. An arbitrary combination of the features described in any of the preceding claims, resulting in the variety of implementation embodiments of the proposed soft-switching electronic converter circuit. For instance, a soft-switching electronic converter circuit comprising three groups of primary-side switching type inverters and other respective parts as per claim 2, and the secondary-side output rectifier replaced with a switching type inverter, and a modification to a phase-shifting modulation technique, applied to both the primary-side and the secondary-side switching type inverters, as per claim 4.