The Use of Tapped Inductors and Autotransformers in DC/DC
Converters Shown for the SEPIC
FELIX A. HIMMELSTOSS, HELMUT L. VOTZI
Faculty of Electronic Engineering and Entrepreneurship
University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien
Hoechstaedtplatz 6, 1200 Wien
AUSTRIA
Abstract: - Studying the function of DC/DC converters is an important topic when organizing a course in
Power Electronics. The use of tapped inductors or autotransformers changes the behavior of the converter and
also the stress of the semiconductors. In this paper, a simple way to teach these converters is shown and
demonstrated for two variants of the well-known SEPIC converter. Suggestive drawings and simple
calculations and simulations are used to demonstrate the operation of the converters. The large signal and the
small signal models for one variant are calculated.
Key-Words: - DC/DC converter, SEPIC, autotransformer, coupled coils, tapped inductor, large signal model,
small signal model, simulations.
Received: September 9, 2023. Revised: May 5, 2024. Accepted: June 11, 2024. Published: August 6, 2024.
1 Introduction
Replacing a coil of a DC/DC converter with a
tapped inductor or an autotransformer changes the
voltage transformation ratio, changes the stress of
the semiconductors, and gives an additional degree
of freedom for the design. The input and the output
voltages can be adapted in such a way that the duty
ratio of the active switch has no extreme values near
zero or near one. So the efficiency can be increased.
Here we discuss in a didactical way the function of a
Sepic converter, when the first coil is replaced by
two coupled windings. The best way to understand
the function of a converter is by sketching the
voltages across and the currents through the
components. So the comprehension of converters is
deepened. Both variants used here are done for the
first inductor, and in the first case, the coupled coils
behave like a transformer, and in the second variant
as a tapped inductor. First, a look at the literature
concerning tapped coils used in DC/DC converters,
especially the SEPIC converter is done.
A short paper describing basic bidirectional
converters with tapped inductors is [1]. In [2] tapped
inductor technology-based DC-DC converters are
shown. The modeling of the tapped inductor SEPIC
converter by the TIS-SFG approach is treated in [3].
A high step-up tapped inductor SEPIC converter
with a charge pump cell can be found in [4]. [5],
treats an analysis and design of a charge pump-
assisted high step-up tapped inductor SEPIC
converter with a regenerative snubber. The analysis
of a bidirectional SEPIC/Zeta converter with a
coupled inductor [6] uses the coupling of both
inductors of the original topologies. A family of
high step-up soft-switching integrated Sepic
converters with a Y-source coupled inductor is
discussed in [7]. Other applications with tapped
inductors are shown in [8] and [9]. It should be
mentioned that the original SEPIC topology is
treated in the textbooks on Power Electronic, e.g.
[10], [11], [12].
In its basic form, the Sepic converter consists of
an active (S) and a passive switch (D), two coils
(L1, L2), and two capacitors (C1, C2). The circuit
diagram is shown in Figure 1. During the steady
state the voltages across the inductors are zero in the
mean, so it is easy to see that the voltage across C1
must be equal to the input voltage U1. With the help
of the voltage-time balance, the voltage
transformation ratio is equal to a Buck-Boost
converter according to
(1)
Fig. 1: Circuit diagram of the Sepic converter
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on CIRCUITS and SYSTEMS
DOI: 10.37394/23201.2024.23.10
Felix A. Himmelstoss, Helmut L. Votzi