In this paper, a new single soft switched forward converter with a self driven synchronous rectification (SDSR) is introduced. In the proposed converter, a soft switching condition (ZCS turn on and ZVS turn off) is provided for the switch, by an auxiliary circuit without any extra switch. In additional, this auxiliary circuit does not impose high voltage or current stresses on the converter. Since the proposed converter uses SDSR to reduce conductive loss of output rectifier, the rectifier switches are switched under soft switching condition. So, the conductive and switching losses on the converter reduce considerably. Also, implementing control circuit of this converter is very simple, due to the self-driven method employed in driving synchronous rectification and the converter is controlled by pulse width modulation (PWM). The experimental results of the proposed converter are presented to confirm the theoretical analysis.

An arc model has been applied in this paper to study the fundamental interruption environment of a 550 kV SF6 single-break tank circuit breaker. The full differential model takes into account of all important physical mechanisms and is implemented into a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package, PHOENICS. The model takes a magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) approach and the governing equations are solved using the Finite Volume Method (FVM). Through the simulation, the flow velocity vector and mach number for capacitive current switching and short-circuit current breaking are analyzed, and flow dynamic characteristics are obtained. The simulation can provide helpful reference for the design of 550 kV SF6 single-break tank circuit breaker.

Using the transient current switch circuit in parallel with the energizing switching contacts for timely control of breaking operation, the increase of contact voltage is suppressed at the last stage of the breaking of electric contacts. Breaking contact voltage Vc and current Ic of electromagnetic relays with Ag contacting electrodes were measured with 12.5-50 V and 0.1-20 A for two hinge springs (Spring constants; 2 N/mm and 0.2 N/mm). The current-decreasing process was clearly measured at the melting voltage Um. After Vc=Um, the breaking time of contact current did not depend on mechanical motion controlled by the two hinge springs and energizing power-supply voltage, but depended on the contact current. The residue of melt electrode was observed optically as a white fusion spot, with radius depending on the energizing current.

Using the transient current switch circuit in parallel with the energizing contacts, the slow decay of the contact current due to thermal fusion of metal was observed just after the contact voltage exceeded the melting contact voltage Um. At that time, the contact voltage was higher than the boiling contact voltage Ub. These results contradict Holm's θ theory. A new melting model of breaking mechanical contact is proposed. The area surrounding a cluster of contacting a-spots melts, the melt metal diffuses, and the contact spot thermally shrinks. Including the metal phase transition from solid to liquid, the increase of contact resistance is introduced to the electric circuit analysis. The numerical analysis agrees qualitatively with measured V-I characteristics.

The proposed quasi-resonant (QR) zero current switching (ZCS) switched-capacitor (SC) converter is a new type of bidirectional power flow control conversion scheme. The proposed converter is able to provide voltage conversion ratios from -3/- (triple-mode/ trisection-mode) to -n/- (-n-mode/--mode) by adding a different number of switched-capacitors and power MOSFET switches with a small series connected resonant inductor for forward and reverse power flow control schemes. It possesses the advantages of low switching losses and current stress in this QR ZCS SC converter. The principle of operation, theoretical analysis of the proposed triple-mode/ trisection-mode bidirectional power conversion scheme is described in detail with circuit model analysis. Simulation and experimental studies are carried out to verify the performance of the proposed inverting type ZCS SC QR bidirectional converter. The proposed converters can be applied to battery equalization for battery management system (BMS).

VI time responses of a conventional electromagnetic relay during breaking contact operations were measured. In a conventional switching circuit, unstable contact resistance, irregular bouncing, and poor reproducibility were confirmed. Using a transient current switch circuit and two sharpened contact electrodes, bouncing during a breaking operation was suppressed, and unstable contact resistance changes and reproducibility of breaking operation were also improved.

There are two interesting phenomena for the electrical contact characteristics of YBCO bulk. One is the transition between low and high contact resistance states at a threshold current value which is called a transfer current; the other is the forming reason of the residual resistance when the carrying current is lower than the transfer current. In this paper, an axial symmetric model is constructed to investigate these two phenomena. During the calculation, the thermal field, the electrical field and the self magnetic field are coupled with each other. The detailed fields' distributions are obtained. The calculation results are accordance with the experimental results. And some useful conclusions are drawn based on the numerical analyses.

A persistent current switch (PCS) is used for superconducting applications, such as superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) system. The authors have proposed a mechanical switch of Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) bulk as a mechanical PCS. In previous study, the authors have successfully reduced a residual resistance by depositing with metal on contact surface. This paper focused on a current carrying area (called a-spot) on contact surface and presented an effect of deposited metal on electrical contact characteristics in order to clear the contact mechanism. As the results of experiments and simulation using FEM, it became clear that it was effective for reducing the residual resistance from a view point of increasing the a-spot by depositing with metal.

The proposed zero-current switching switched-capacitor (ZCS SC) DC-DC converter is an innovative bi-directional power flow control conversion scheme. A zero-current switching switched-capacitor step-up/step-down bi-directional converter is presented that can improve the current stress problem during bi-directional power flow control processing. It can provide a high voltage conversion ratio of n/ (n-mode/-mode) using four power MOSFET main switches, a set of switched-capacitors and a small resonant inductor. Simulation and experimental results are carried out to verify the concept and performance of the proposed quadruple-mode/quarter-mode bi-directional DC-DC converter.

A fully integrated current-steering 10-b CMOS Digital-to-Analog Converter with on-chip terminated resistors is presented. In order to improve the device-mismatching problem of internal termination resistors, a self-calibrated current bias circuit is designed. With the self-calibrated current bias circuit, the gain error of the output voltage swing is reduced within 0.5%. For the purpose of reducing glitch noises, furthermore, a novel current switch based on a deglitching circuit is proposed. The prototype circuit has been fabricated with a 3 V 0.35 µm 2-poly 3-metal CMOS technology, and it occupies 1350 µm750 µm silicon area with 45 mW power consumption. The measured INL and DNL are within 0.5LSB, respectively. The measured SFDR is about 65 dB, when an input signal is about 8 MHz at 100 MHz clock frequency.

High-end graphic systems with 3 million pixels require 8-bit D/A converters with more than 300-MS/s conversion rate. Furthermore, D/A converters need to operate with low supply voltage when they are integrated with large-scale digital circuits on a harf-micron CMOS process. This paper describes a 350-MS/s 8-bit CMOS D/A converter with 3.3-V power supply. A current source circuit with a delayed driving scheme is developed. This driving scheme reduces a fluctuation of internal node voltage of the current source circuit and high-speed swiching is realized. In addition to this driving scheme, two stages of latches are inserted into matrix decoder for reducing glitch energy and for enhancing decoding speed. The D/A converter is fabricated in a 0.5-µm CMOS process with single poly-silicon layer and double aluminum layers. Its settling time is less than 2.4 ns and it successfully operates at 350 MS/s.

A current source with current switches (switched current source) is widely used in various analog ICs. One of its typical application is data converters. This paper describes an analysis of the transient behavior of a switched current source. The analysis has clarified conditions and causes of overshooting in the output waveform. The analysis also clarifies dependence of the settling time on parameters. The waveform heavily depends on time constant and initial charge at the internal node where current source and current switch are connected. They can cause the overshooting and limit the settling time. A phenomenon of acceleration of the settling time and an influence of the charge coupling through current switches are also discussed. A chart mentioned in this paper is useful for the initial design and the improvement of switched current sources.