A novel active soft switched phase-shifted full-bridge (PSFB) dc-dc converter is presented in this paper. An auxiliary circuit is added to the pulse width modulation counterpart to achieve the soft switching. The proposed circuit achieves soft switching for both main and auxiliary switches, without increasing the main device current/voltage rating. The auxiliary circuit is gated appropriately in order to achieve zero voltage switching for lagging leg. Tapping in the primary winding of power transformer is added for the purpose of commutation. The proposed circuit is capable of operating at elevated switching frequencies of several hundreds of kilohertz in a range of line and load variations. Steady-state analysis and evaluation of losses for the proposed circuit is presented. Analytical models valid for steady state and dynamic performance are proposed. A 350-W, 100-kHz active soft switched PSFB dc-dc converter prototype is implemented. The proposed analytical models are validated experimentally on 350-W prototype. Experimental results verifying steady state and dynamic models are presented. © 1986-2012 IEEE.