Optimal Design of a DC-DC Converter for Photovoltaic Generation

This paper presents novel circuit topology of half-bridge soft-switching PWM inverter type DC-DC high power converter for DC bus feeding power plants. The proposed DC-DC power converter is composed of a typical voltage source-fed, half-bridge high frequency PWM inverter with a high frequency planar transformer link PWM control scheme and parallel capacitive lossless snubbers. The operating principle of the new DC-DC converter treated here is described by using switching mode-equivalent circuits, together with its unique features. All the active power switches in the half-bridge arms and input DC bus lines can achieve ZCS turn-on and ZVS turn-off commutation transitions. The total turn-off switching losses of the power switches can be significantly reduced. As a result, high switching frequency IGBTs can actually be selected in the frequency range of 40[kHz] under the principle of soft-switching. The performance evaluations of the experimental setup are illustrated practically.