In today's versatile requirements for reducing fuel consumption, a lot of different approaches are in development like hybridization, reducing the amount of cylinders with the same power as before or operating point-independent components and auxiliaries. Within this thesis, one of the approaches is shown: electrified auxiliaries including an operation strategy. Replacing conventional auxiliaries with electrified ones, the need of more electrical power becomes bigger. Due to the limits within the 12V power net, the 48V approach is the logical conclusion in terms of cost benefit and availability of the needed resources to use the electrified components. The 48V power net introduces new or modified parts to the vehicle including a new power net topology. Fuzzy logic was chosen to control the auxiliaries, because of the number of input variables, the flexibility of using it for different cars and being robust during the usage. The results showed a significant improvement of fuel consumption with the developed control strategy for the selected power net topology. This improvement was evident in all cycles, which were discussed within this thesis. In this thesis a new approach for reducing fuel consumption was shown, which includes several electrified auxiliaries and the operation strategy to control them within the vehicle during different cycles. The necessary models for the approach were developed including the auxiliaries, the controller and the needed parts for the power net. / In der heutigen Zeit mit den steigenden Ansprüchen zur Reduzierung des Kraftstoffverbrauchs sind viele verschiedene Ansätze und Technologien in der Entwicklung, wie zum Beispiel Hybridisierung, Zylinderreduktion mit der gleichen Leistungsausbeute wie zuvor oder auch vom Verbrennungsmotor unabhängigen Komponenten und Nebenaggregaten. Innerhalb dieser Arbeit wurde einer dieser Ansätze näher erläutert: elektrifizierte Nebenaggregate inklusive einer Betriebsstrategie. Durch den Austausch der konventionellen Nebenaggregate mit den elektrifizierten Nebenaggregaten steigt der Bedarf an mehr elektrischer Leistung. Durch die Limitierungen im 12V Bordnetz, ist der 48V Ansatz der nächste logische Schritt hinsichtlich des Kosten/Nutzen-Verhältnis und der Ressourcenverfügbarkeit für die Nutzung der elektrifizierten Komponenten. Das 48V Bordnetz benötigt neue bzw. modifizierte Komponenten inclusive einer neuen Bordnetztopologie. Fuzzy-Logik wurde zur Regelung der Nebenaggregate ausgewählt. Grund hierfür waren: Anzahl an Eingangsvariablen, Flexibilität in der Übertragung auf andere Fahrzeuge und dem robusten Verhalten in der Anwendung. Die Ergebnisse zeigten ein signifikantes Einsparpotential durch die Verwendung der entwickelten Betriebsstrategie für die ausgewählte Bordnetztopologie. Die Einsparung war in allen diskutierten Zyklen deutlich zu sehen. In dieser Arbeit wurde ein neuer Ansatz zur Verbrauchsreduktion gezeigt inklusive elektrifizierter Nebenaggregate und der benötigten Betriebsstrategie, um diese im Fahrzeug in verschiedenen Zyklen zu steuern. Die benötigten Modelle wurden entwickelt, wie zum Beispiel die Nebenaggregate, der Regler und den Bordnetzkomponenten.

High step-down dc/dc converters are widely adopted in a variety of areas such as industrial, automotive, and telecommunication. The 48 V power delivery system becomes increasingly popular for powering high-current and low-voltage chips. The Series-Capacitor Buck (SCB) converter doubles the duty ratio and equalizes the current between the two phases. Hard switching has hindered efforts to reduce volume via increased switching frequency, although a monolithically integrated SCB converter has boosted current density. A Series-Resonator Buck (SRB) converter is realized by adding a resonant tank in series with the series capacitor Cs. All switches turn on at zero-voltage (ZVOn), and the low-side switches turn off at zero-current (ZCOff). The design of the SRB converter includes characterizing the design variables' impacts on the converter performances and designing low-loss resonant components as the series resonator. The Series-Resonator Buck converter belongs to the class of quasi-resonant converters. Its resonant frequency is higher than the switching frequency, and its waveforms are quasi-sinusoidal. This work develops a steady-state model of the SRB converter to calculate voltage gain, component peak voltages, and resonant inductor peak current. Each switching cycle is modeled based on the concept of generalized state-space averaging. The soft-switching condition of the high-side switches is derived. The ZVS condition depends on the normalized control variable and the load condition. The gain equation models the load-dependent characteristic and the peak gain boundary. The theoretical peak voltage gain of the SRB converter is smaller than the maximum gain of the SCB converter. A smaller normalized load condition results in a larger peak voltage gain of the SRB converter. The large-signal model of the SRB converter characterizes the low-frequency behavior of the low-pass filters with the series capacitor and the high-frequency behavior of the resonant elements. A design recommendation of t_off f_r<0.5 is suggested to avoid the oscillation between the series capacitor Cs and the output inductors Lo. In other words, the off-duration of the low-side switches is less than half of 1/fr, and therefore the negative damping effect from the parallel resonant tank to the vCs response is reduced. The transfer functions of the SRB converter are presented and compared with those of the SCB converter. The series resonator brings in an extra damping effect to the response of output capacitor voltage. The understanding of the analytical relationships among the resonant tank energy, voltage gain, and component stresses was utilized to guide the converter design of the converter's parameters. A normalized load condition at √2 minimizes the stresses of the series resonator by balancing the peak energy in the resonant elements Lr and Cr. The f_s variation with voltage gain M is less than 10%. The non-resonant components C_s, L_oa, and L_ob are designed according to the specified switching ripples. The ac winding loss complicates the winding design of a resonant inductor. This work replaces the rectangular window with a rhombic window to reduce the eddy current loss caused by the fringing effect. The window ratio k_y is added as a design variable. The impacts of the design variables on the inductance, core loss, and winding loss are discussed. The air-gap length l_g is designed to control the inductance. A larger k_y design results in a short inductor length l_c and a smaller winding loss. The disadvantages include a smaller energy density design and a larger core loss due to the smaller cross-sectional area. In the design example presented in the thesis, the presence of the rhombic shape increases the gap-to-winding distance by two times, and also reduces the y-component of the magnetic field by a factor of two. The total inductor loss is reduced by 56% compared to a conventional design with a rectangular winding window while keeping the same inductance and the same inductor volume. This dissertation implements a resonator, replacing the series capacitor, in an SCB converter. The resultant SRB converter shows a 30% reduction in loss and a 50% increase in power density. The root cause of the divergence issue is identified by modeling the negative damping effect caused by resonant elements. The presented transient design guideline clears the barriers to closed-loop regulation and commercialization of the SRB converter. This work also reshapes winding windows from rectangle to rhombus which is a low-cost change that reduces magnetic loss by half. The theoretical analysis and design procedures are demonstrated in a 200 W prototype with 7% peak efficiency increase compared to the commonly used 30 W commercial SCB product. / Doctor of Philosophy / High step-down dc/dc converters are widely adopted in a variety of areas such as industrial, automotive, and telecommunication areas. The 48 V power delivery system becomes increasingly popular for powering high-current and low-voltage chips. The Series-Capacitor Buck (SCB) converter doubles the duty ratio and equalizes the current between the two phases. Hard switching has hindered efforts to reduce volume via increased switching frequency although a monolithically integrated SCB converter has boosted current density. A Series-Resonator Buck (SRB) converter is realized by adding a resonant tank in series with the series capacitor Cs. All switches turn on at zero-voltage (ZVOn), and the low-side switches turn off at zero-current (ZCOff). The challenges to designing the SRB converter include characterizing the design variables' impacts on the converter performances and designing low-loss resonant components as the series resonator. The resultant SRB converter shows a 30% reduction in loss and a 50% increase in power density. The root cause of the divergence issue is identified by modeling the negative damping effect caused by the resonant elements. The presented transient design guideline clears the barriers of closed-loop regulation and commercialization of the SRB converter. This work also reshapes winding windows from rectangle to rhombus, which is a low-cost change that reduces magnetic loss by half. The theoretical analysis and design procedures are demonstrated in a 200 W prototype with 7% peak efficiency increase compared to the commonly used 30 W commercial SCB product.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Möglichkeiten zur Maximierung der Effizienz von stromregelnden DC/DC-Wandlern für den Betrieb von Hochleistungs-LEDs in PKW-und Motorrad-Beleuchtungseinrichtungen untersucht, mit dem Ziel, das Gewicht und den Energieverbrauch der Steuergeräte zu reduzieren und so zu dem stetigen Bestreben der Minimierung der Gesamtfahrzeugemissionen beizutragen. Dafür werden verschiedene, teils sequenziell aufbauende Maßnahmen in Topologie, Bauelementen, Dimensionierung und Betriebsart betrachtet. Eine grundlegende Herausforderung für die Auslegung der Schaltung stellt dabei deren universelle Verwendbarkeit als Gleichteil in einem großen Bereich an Ausgangsstrom und -spannung in den individuellen Scheinwerfersystemen der verschiedenen Fahrzeugderivate dar. Die Grundlage für die Verringerung der Verlustleistung bildet die Vereinfachung der Schaltreglertopologie hinsichtlich des Bauteilaufwands. Dies wird durch die Versorgung der Schaltung aus dem 48 V-Energiebordnetz und die Verwendung der Topologie des Tiefsetzstellers erreicht. Elementarer Anteil dieser Arbeit ist die Untersuchung der Wirksamkeit des Einsatzes neuartiger Galliumnitrid-Leistungsschalter (GaN-HEMTs) anstelle der konventionellen Silizium-MOSFETs, was zunächst an Hand von Berechnungen und schaltungstechnischen, parasitärbehafteten und zeitvarianten Simulationen durchgeführt wird. Bereits bei herkömmlichen Schaltfrequenzen und hartgeschaltetem Betrieb können signifikante Verbesserungen des Wirkungsgrades erreicht werden. Weitergehend wird der Nutzen der durch die GaN-Transistoren ermöglichten höheren Schaltfrequenzen eruiert. Die um bis zu Faktor 20 erhöhte Schaltfrequenz macht den Einsatz einer resonanten Betriebsart (Zero-Voltage-Switching) und einer Luftspule als Hauptinduktivität notwendig. Auf Steuergeräteebene kann somit die Verlustleistung auf unter ein Drittel reduziert werden, was zudem ein deutlich einfacheres und kompakteres Gehäuse ermöglicht, wodurch das Gesamtgewicht etwa halbiert werden kann. Abschließend wird die Schaltung in einem Prototypen praktisch umgesetzt und die Funktionsfähigkeit im ZVS-Betrieb bei Schaltfrequenzen von bis zu 10 MHz verifiziert. / This thesis deals with the research of possibilities for maximising efficiency of current-regulating DC/DC-Converters for driving high-power-LEDs in passenger-car- and motorcycle-lighting-devices. The ambition is to reduce weight and energy-consumption of the electronic-control-units, to contribute to reach the continuously decreasing target-values for vehicle-emissions. Therefor different approaches in topology, components, design and operating mode are considered. A key-challenge for the circuit-design is the common-part-strategy for usage in many individual vehicle-headlamp-systems with a wide range of output-current and LED-string-voltages. Basis for the reduction of power-losses is the simplification of the converters topology in terms of quantity of components. This is achieved by using the 48 V -vehicle-electrical-system as voltage-supply and a step-down-topology. Mainpart of this research is about the potential benefits of applying novel Galliumnitride High-electron-mobility-transistors (GaN-HEMTs) instead of silicon MOS-FETs. Initially this is done by calculations and parasitic-afflicted, timevariant circuit-simulations. Already in hardswitching operation under conventional switching-frequencies significant improvements in converter-efficiency can be achieved. Furthermore the advantages of higher switching-frequencies, offered by the GaN-transistors, are investigated. Up to 20 times higher switching-frequencies necessitate a resonant operating mode of the circuit (Zero-voltage-switching) and the use of an aircoil as main-inductor. On ECU-level power-losses can be reduced down to less than one third, which enables a more simplified and compact housing-concept, so that the overall weight can drop to about the half. Finally the designed circuit is build up in a prototype and the functional capability is verified in ZVS-mode with up to 10 MHz switching-frequency.