power electronics
What is the main difference between half and full bridge topologies?
For instance, let's take the full and half bridge dual active bridge converter. I can understand that in the full bridge topologies, there are more switches. Thus we can use more complex and efficient control methods. Is there any main difference between the two topologies? When do we use the one topology instead of the other?
Full bridge
Half Bridge
I do not know what physics universe that you live in but the Vin to that chip can be no more than 40V DC. It is not suitable for connection to 240VAC. If you have not already burnt the chip I would guess that it will soon be cooked.
I saw nothing in the data sheet that would indicate that the above circuit you show is suitable for connection to 240VAC. If there is more to your circuit then you are going to have to show that otherwise the question is unanswerable other than to watch for smoke.
Duty cycle shortener (winny's suggested name): -
The lower waveform in the picture above can be used for top-left and bottom-right switches. An inverted version of the middle waveform (use a NAND gate instead) can be used to activate top-right and bottom-left switches.
Best Answer
They both do the same thing as you mentioned. You mentioned aswell that a full bridge is more complicated in controlling.
You could outline their characteristics to see the differences. Based on that you could make a motivated choice for your application.
Half bridge: cheap, simple, low currents and big cap needed if you want small ripple. Full bridge: more components so more expensive, more complicated and more efficient.
So to answer your question, you make a trade-off about what your application needs. If you want it to make it simple and cheap, because it is not that critical, you could go for a half bridge. If it is more critical then you mabye should implement a full bridge.