• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.13 no.5
• /
• pp.766-778
• /
• 2013

The depletion of natural resources and renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV) energy, has been highlighted for global energy solution. The PV power control unit in the PV power-generation technology requires a high step-up DC-DC converter. The conventional step-up DC-DC converter has low efficiency and limited step-up ratio. To overcome these problems, a novel high step-up DC-DC converter using an isolated switched capacitor cell is proposed. The step-up converter uses the proposed transformer and employs the switched-capacitor cell to enable integration with the boost inductor. The output of the boost converter and isolated switched-capacitor cell are connected in series to obtain high step-up with low turn-on ratio. A hardware prototype with 30 V to 40 V input voltage and 340 V output voltage is implemented to verify the performance of the proposed converter. As an extended version, another novel high step-up isolated switched-capacitor single-ended DC-DC converter integrated with a tapped-inductor (TI) boost converter is proposed. The TI boost converter and isolated-switched-capacitor outputs are connected in series to achieve high step-up. All magnetic components are integrated in a single magnetic core to lower costs. A prototype hardware with 20 V to 40 V input voltage, 340 V output voltage, and 100 W output power is implemented to verify the performance of the proposed converter.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.300-307
• /
• 2009

In this paper, design and control is proposed for a four input-series-output-series-connected ZVS full bridge converter for the photovoltaic power conditioning system (PCS). The novel topology for a photovoltaic (PV) DC/DC converter that can dramatically reduce the power rating and increase the efficiency of a PV system by analyzing PV module characteristics is proposed. The control scheme, including an input voltage controller is proposed to achieve equal sharing of the input voltage as well output voltages by a four series connected module. Design methods for ZVS power stage are also introduced. The total PV system is implemented for a 250-kW PV power conditioning system (PCS). This system has only three DC/DC converters with a 25-kW power rating and uses only one-third of the total PV PCS power. The 25-kW prototype PV DC/DC converter is introduced to verify experimentally the proposed topology. In addition, an experimental result shows that the proposed topology exhibits good performance.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.6 no.3
• /
• pp.375-383
• /
• 2011

This paper describes a real-time hardware simulator for a grid-tied Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) wind power system, which consists of an anemometer, a data logger, a motor-generator set with vector drive, and a back-to-back power converter with a digital signal processor (DSP) controller. The anemometer measures real wind speed, and the data is sent to the data logger to calculate the turbine torque. The calculated torque is sent to the vector drive for the induction motor after it is scaled down to the rated simulator power. The motor generates the mechanical power for the PMSG, and the generated electrical power is connected to the grid through a back-to-back converter. The generator-side converter in a back-to-back converter operates in current control mode to track the maximum power point at the given wind speed. The grid-side converter operates to control the direct current link voltage and to correct the power factor. The developed simulator can be used to analyze various mechanical and electrical characteristics of a grid-tied PMSG wind power system. It can also be utilized to educate students or engineers on the operation of grid-tied PMSG wind power system.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.899-909
• /
• 2015

A dual-input boost-buck converter with coupled inductors (DIBBC-CI) is proposed as a thermoelectric generator (TEG) power conditioner with a wide input voltage range. The DIBBC-CI is built by cascading two boost cells and a buck cell with shared inverse coupled filter inductors. Low current ripple on both sides of the TEG and the battery are achieved. Reduced size and power losses of the filter inductors are benefited from the DC magnetic flux cancellation in the inductor core, leading to high efficiency and high power density. The operational principle, impact of coupled inductors, and design considerations for the proposed converter are analyzed in detail. Distributed maximum power point tracking, battery charging, and output control are implemented using a competitive logic to ensure seamless switching among operational modes. Both the simulation and experimental results verify the feasibility of the proposed topology and control.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.312-323
• /
• 2017

This paper introduces the bidirectional dc-dc converter design case study, which employs silicon-carbide (SiC) MOSFETs for battery energy storage system (BESS). This converter topology is selected as bidirectional synchronous buck converter, which is composed of a half bridge converter, an inductor, and a capacitor, where the converter has less conduction loss than that of a unidirectional buck and boost converter, and to improve the converter efficiency, both the power stage design and power conversion architecture are described in detail. The conduction and switching losses are compared among three different SiC devices in this paper. In addition, the thermal analysis using Maxwell software of each switching device supports the loss analyses, in which both the 2 kW prototype analyses and experimental results show very good agreement.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.177-185
• /
• 2005

A new high efficiency DC/DC converter is proposed, which is derived from the conventional asymmetric half-bridge converter. Because the proposed converter has better ZVS condition compared with the conventional asymmetric half-bridge converter, it shows a high efficiency along the wide load range. In this paper, the basic operations of the proposed converter is analyzed and compared with that of the conventional half-bridge converter, and the excellent performance of the proposed converter is verified by the experimental results with the 425W, 385-170Vdc prototype of the power supply for PDP (Plasma Display Panel) Sustain Driver of PDP TV.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.1-10
• /
• 2014

This paper proposes a high-efficiency supercapacitor charger. Conventional two-switch forward converter can be used for charging supercapacitors. However, the efficiency of conventional converters is low because of their switching losses. This study presents a high-efficiency two-switch forward converter for supercapacitor chargers. The proposed converter improves power efficiency by 4 %, from 89 % to 93 %. The proposed converter has the advantages of reduced switch voltage stresses and minimized circulating current when compared to other converter topologies. The performance of the proposed converter is evaluated by experimental results using a 300 W prototype circuit for a 54-V, 35-F supercapacitor bank.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.80-85
• /
• 2015

In the issues of interleaved topology which have been in limelight as high power converter, various soft-switching methods are studied to reduce switching losses in high power application. The interleaved ZCT converter has an additional filter inductor to reduce losses of diodes during reverse recovery process. However, additional current conduction modes are occurred by the inductor, we need to analyze switching losses with inductor values on each mode. In this paper, current conduction modes and boundary conditions of interleaved ZCT converter are analyzed. In the conclusion, the minimum of switching losses in converter operation modes is analyzed by calculating switching losses.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.301-309
• /
• 2007

The flyback converter is one of the most attractive isolated converters in small power applications because of its simple structure. However, it suffers from high device stress, large transformer size, and high voltage stress across its switch and diode. To solve these problems a new cost-effective PWM single-switch isolated converter is proposed. The proposed converter has no output filter inductor, reduced voltage stress on the secondary devices, and reduced transformer size. Moreover, the switch turn-off loss is reduced and no dissipative snubber across the secondary diode is required. Therefore, it features a simple structure, a low cost, and high efficiency. The operational principle and characteristics of the proposed converter are presented and compared with the flyback converter and then verified experimentally.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
• /
• 2004.07b
• /
• pp.610-614
• /
• 2004

Recently, an active-clamp, full-bridge boost converter has been actively studied for high-power applications such as power factor correction and battery discharger. However, DC and AC modeling for this converter has not conquered. In this paper, a DC and small-signal AC modeling for the active-clamp, full-bridge boost converter is described. Based on the operation principle, the ac part of the converter can be replaced by a do counterpart. Then, a conceptual equivalent circuit is derived by rearranging the switches. The equivalent circuit for this converter consists of CCM (Continuous conduction mode) boost and DCM (Discontinuous conduction mode) buck converter. The analyses for the equivalent CCM boost and DCM buck converter are done using the model of PWM switch. The theoretical modeling results are confirmed through experiment or SIMPLIS simulation.