A Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter for Renewable Energy Systems

Huang-Jen Chiu, Member, IEEE, Hsiu-Ming Huang, Li-Wei Lin, Ming-Hsiang Tseng
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Chung-Yuan Christian Univ., Taiwan
Abstract This paper presents a multiple-input DC/DC El
Wind Turbie
converter for renewable energy systems. The proposed E3
DC/DC converter can be used to obtain well-regulated Piotovoltaic AiTa F
output voltage from several power sources, such as wind Fuel Ce 3 Mtle-Iiput A Load
DCDC Couerer
le
turbines, photovoltaic arrays, fuel cells, etc. The energy
provided by these power sources can be simultaneously
EN
transferred into the load. The proposed multiple-input Colmercial AC Lhie
DC/DC converter has the advantages of simple (a)
configuration, fewer components, lower cost and high
efficiency. The operating principle, theoretical analysis,
and design criteria are provided in this paper. A
laboratory prototype with two different power sources I
tj
was successfully implemented and tested. The
simulation and experimental results are given to verify E3
I

the feasibility of the proposed scheme.

Keywords- Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter, E7t*- 0

Renewable Energy System, Current-Fed 14 SSwtchlLi Peijod. T P-_N

(b)
I. Introduction Fig. 1 The Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter for Renewable Energy
Recently, clean energy resources such as wind System
turbines, photovoltaic arrays or fuel cells have been
exploited for developing renewable electric power
generation systems [1-3]. The multiple-input DC/ DC
converter shown in Figure l(a), is useful for combining
several energy sources whose power capacity and/ or
voltage levels are different to obtain well-regulated
output voltage [4-7]. The input-stage circuits for
different energy sources can be put in parallel using a
coupled transformer. Only one power source is allowed
to transfer energy (El-EN) into the load at a time. These
input-stage circuits are designed in an "interleaving
operation mode" as shown in Fig. 1(b) to prevent power
(a)
coupling effects. The current ratings for these
input-stage circuits are higher with more complicated
interleaving control circuits. A multiple-input power *El
supply system based on the current-fed full-bridge I F -I |-E 2
converter, shown in Fig. 2(a), is considered a better
choice for such applications [8-10]. By using a
phase-shift PWM control scheme, the energy from the I I I IIP*Ex
different power sources can be simultaneously 4 ~ SwitciL Period, T 1
(b)
transferred into the load through a multi-winding Fig. 2 The Conventional Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter
transformer as shown in Fig. 2(b). However, a large
number of power switches and a complicated gating
driver and controller are needed, thus requiring high cost JI
and a large size for this conventional converter. As
shown in Fug. 3, a novel multiple-input DC/DC L _I
converter is presented for renewable energy systems.
The proposed converter has the advantages of simple iJ
Irpt-Stage CDircuit 7* I
+ E
configuration, fewer components, lower cost and high
efficiency. The design and operating principles will be
discussed in detail in the following sections, IsSpice
simulations are given to confirm the theoretical analysis.
A two-input laboratory prototype was implemented and InpugStage Circit MtN
tested to show the performance of the proposed Fig. 3 The Proposed Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter
converter.

0-7803-9484-4/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 1304

 II.Operating Principle of the Proposed Converter
For operating analysis convenience, a simplified
circuit diagram of the proposed DC/DC converter with
two-input is shown and discussed in Fig. 4. It is
composed of two current-fed input-stage circuits, a
coupled transformer, and a secondary bridge-rectifier.
Each input-stage circuit consists of two power switches
and two choke inductors. The duty ratio 61 for the power
switches Ql and Q2 in the first input-stage circuit and
the duty ratio 62 for the power switches Q3 and Q4 in the
second input-stage circuit are regulated independently by
two separated control loops. Both 61 and 62 exceed 0.5 to
implement the overlapping operation. The proposed
multiple-input DC/DC converter is suitable for
high-voltage output applications due to the current-fed
circuit topology that requires no output indictor.
I IL2
Fig. 4 The Circuit Diagram of the Proposed DC/DC Converter with
Two-Input
Based on the symbols and signal polarities
introduced in Fig. 4, the theoretical waveforms are
shown in Figs. 5, where the overlapping-times +j and +2
can be expressed as follows.
jI = (261 1)Ts
- 2, (1)
+2 = (262 ])T/
- 2, (2)
.
i~~~~~~~~.
TIn p in of the pr s D
r Q2
Fi.5 h ThoetclT Waeom fo_n wthnyl
convrte cabhe
Texpained
Wavfrs follOnSws. higCyl
Mode I (QI,Q2, Q3, and Q4 on): During this interval,
all power switches Q1VQ4 are on. The inductor currents,
ILi and IL2 flow back to the first voltage source, Vi
1305
through QI and Q2. The inductor currents, IL3 and IL4
flow back to the second voltage source, V2 through Q3
and Q4. The surviving energy in the leakage inductance
of the second primary winding is also delivered to the
load through the transformer. When the surviving energy
is released completely, the transformer secondary
winding current will collapse to zero. All the rectifying
diodes are off and the load power is provided alone by
the output capacitor CO.
Mode II (Qi, Q2 and Q3 on; Q4 off): During this
interval, the power switches Ql and Q2 are on. Both of
the inductor currents, ILi and IL2 flow back to the first
voltage source, VI through Ql and Q2. The falling
current in Q4 occurs at zero voltage and there is no
dissipation caused by Q4 turning off. The inductor
current, IL3 flows through Q3 back to the second voltage
source, V2. Only the inductor current, IL4 flows into the
transformer primary winding. The energy from the
second power source is transferred to the load through
the rectifying diodes DI and D4. The transformer
secondary current, Is satisfies Equation (3).
IS N IL4' (3)
Mode III (Qi and Q3 on; Q2 and Q4 off): The falling
current in Q2 occurs at zero voltage and there is no
dissipation caused by Q2 turning off. The inductor
current, ILI flows through QI back to the first voltage
source, VI and the inductor current, IL3 flows through
Q3 back to the second voltage source, V2. The inductor
current, IL2 flows into the first transformer primary
winding and the inductor current, IL4 flows into the
second transformer primary winding. Thus, the
transformer secondary current, Is satisfies Equation (4).
The energy from the two power sources is transferred to
the load through the rectifying diodes DI and D4.
IS= N IL2 + N IL4 1 (4)
Mode IV (Qi, Q2, Q3, and Q4 on): During this
interval, all power switches Q1VQ4 are on. The inductor
currents, IL, and IL2 flow back to the first voltage source,
VI through QI and Q2. The inductor currents, IL3 and IL4
flow back to the second voltage source, V2 through Q3
and Q4. The rising currents in Q2 and Q4 occur at zero
voltage and there is no dissipation caused by Q2 and Q4
turning on. The surviving energy in the leakage
inductance of the second primary winding is also
delivered to the load through the transformer. When the
surviving energy is released completely, the transformer
secondary winding current will collapse to zero. All the
rectifying diodes are off and the load power is provided
alone by the output capacitor CO.
Mode V (Qi, Q2 and Q4 on; Q3 off): During this
interval, the power switch Q3 is off. The falling current
in Q3 occurs at zero voltage and there is no dissipation
caused by Q3 turning off. The inductor current, IL3 flows
through the transformer primary winding. Both of the
inductor currents, IL1 and'L2 still flow back to the first
voltage source, VI through Qi and Q2. The inductor
current, IL4 flows through Q4 back to the second voltage
 s~ I
source, V2. The energy transferred to the load through III. Steady-State Analysis
the rectifying diodes D2 and D3 is from the second Assuming the output capacitor CO is large enough so
power source. The transformer secondary current, Is that the voltage ripple on it is negligible. The voltage
satisfies Equation (5). transfer ratio VTR of the proposed multiple-input
DC/DC converter can be derived from the volt-second
N I3 (5) balance condition across the choke inductors and
expressed by Equations (7) and (8).
Mode VI (Q2 and Q4 on; Qi and Q3 off): The falling
current in QI occurs at zero voltage and there is no VTR VO = NS 1 (7)
dissipation caused by Ql turning off. The inductor V1 Npl 1-81
current, IL2 flows through Q2 back to the first voltage
VTR2 = VO NsS 1 (8)
source, VI and the inductor current, IL4 flows through
Q4 back to the second voltage source, V2. The inductor V2 Np2 1-52
current, ILI flows through the first transformer primary where 61 is the duty ratio of the power switches Ql, Q2
winding and the inductor current, IL3 flows through the in the first input-circuit and 62 is the duty ratio of the
second transformer primary winding. Thus, the power switches Q3, Q4 in the second input-circuit. The
transformer secondary current, Is satisfies Equation (6). voltage and current stresses of the power switches can be
The energy from the two power sources is transferred to found as follows:
the load through the rectifying diodes D2 and D3. N-P VI
Npl Np2 VQJ,Q2 N .O (9)
IS =-(
Ns IL3)^
LI + (6)
Ns _2 V2
(10)
The circuit will then proceed back to Mode I after VQ3,Q4 NV 1-8
completing one operating cycle Ts. The rising currents in
QI and Q3 occur at zero voltage and there is no IQi,Q2 =ILI + IL2 =Ii (11)
dissipation caused by Ql and Q3 turning on. The IQ3,Q4 = IL3 + IL4 = I2
leakage inductances of the first and second primary (12)
windings release their surviving energy to the load From Equations (11) and (13), it is obvious that the
through the transformer. When the surviving energy is power switches subject only one source current and not
released completely, the transformer secondary winding twice as do the conventional two-switch circuit
current will collapse to zero. topologies such as push-pull converter or half-bridge
converter. For the low-voltage energy source such as
Mode I Mode II fuel cells, this is a very important merit. As discussed
(Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 on) (Q1, Q2 and Q3 on; Q4 off) above, all switches have negligible dissipation as they
k~~~~~~~j have the transformer leakage inductance in series and
hence turn on at zero voltage. The
I L q | L X~~~~J- Q2 _N
zero-voltage-switching condition of the power switches
,'E`7v _~_,LQS- P can be derived as follows.
Ll 2 2Votr(max) NP1 (13)
I1 NS
Mode III Mode IV 2VOtr(max) Np2 (14)
t12-
(QI and Q3 on; Q2 and Q4 off) (Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 on) 12
AT
IVs
V~2i+I 0~~I
Q2 1 where LI, and L12 are respectively the leakage
inductances of the first and the second primary windings
and t, is the maximum rise time of the switch current.
The inductances of LI-L4 can be determined by the
L._^D2 AjjW AD4II
requirements of the inductor current ripples as follows:
LI = L2 2 A,L26V217
0/0)IIfs
(15)
Mode V
(Q1, Q2 and Q4 on; Q3 off)
Mode VI
(Q2 and Q4 on; QI and Q3 off) L3 = L4 2 21V2 (16)
AIL (0/0)I2fs
\ + 1 <
|~~iD In3 Q' XD1 In where fs is the switching frequency of the power
switches, AIL(Jo%) is the percentage ripple current on the
1,
Q ~ ~~ ~
Q jI 11 choke inductors Lr-L4. The equivalent circuit of the
|D~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~
input-stage circuit is shown in Fig. 7(a). Vs and Is
Q i-q

represent respectively the source voltage (V1, V2) and

fr source current (I1, 12). IL,i is the upper inductor current
Fig. 6 Equivalent Circuits under Different Switching Modes (IL2, IL4) and ILj is the lower inductor current (IL1, 1L3)

1306
Assuming the transformer turn ratio is n, the voltages Vi' can be achieved. Thus, the leakage inductances of the
and Vj' may be 0 or (VJ/n) for different switching modes. transformer first and second primary windings can be
From the theoretical waveforms shown in Fig. 7(b), the determined as follows.
ripple cancellation on source current can be observed.
This produces relatively ripple-free source current that is LllL 2 21. 0r(max)
° lg Np13l3plH,
I] Ns
H = (25)
(5
desirable for the low-voltage renewable energy sources
such as fuel cells, photovoltaic arrays etc. From the L 2Votr(max) Np2 4pH (26)
energy conservation relationship, the output power PO is
the summation of the two source powers P1 and P2. Thus,
12 '-
NI2s
2

the following Equations must be satisfied. C. Choke Inductors

Let the peak-to-peak current ripples be 30 percent of
VoIo = VjII + V2I2, (17) the inductor currents under full power. The inductance of
I, (I -51 ) Npl I, +(I 152) Np2 I21
the choke inductors LI-L4 can be determined using
= (18) Equations (15) and (16) as follows.
Ns Ns
A voltage feedback loop is necessary to regulate the L = L2 . 2 IV7 2x0.6x12 1.2mH (27)
output voltage and two current control loops are also IL (lo)II fs 0.3 x 4 x 100k
needed to control the source current and power by each 231V2 2x0.6x24 -1.6mH,(28)
power source. L3 L4
AIL(O)I2fs 0.3x6x100k
Because of the ripple cancellation on the source
current, a larger ripple current in choke inductors can be
allowed in practical applications. Thus, the inductance
and the size of these choke inductors might be smaller.
D. Output Capacitor
(a) (b) The output capacitor must be large enough to
Fig. 7(a) The Equivalent Circuit and (b) the Theoretical Waveforms of
the Input-Stage Circuit provide the load power during Mode III and Mode VI
without the voltage across it decreasing too much. The
IV.Design Example of the Proposed Converter output capacitance can be then determined using
To verify the feasibility of the proposed scheme, a Equation (27).
laboratory prototype with following specifications was
CO 2 o,max Ts
x
designed and tested. The design considerations for the
l x lO,u 52uF, (29)
key components will be discussed in this section. IAVO O.OOlx 192
* Source voltage: V1=12VDC, V2=24VDC Select C0=200&F.
* Source current: I1=4A, I2=6A E. Controller Design
* Output voltage: VO=192VDC A block diagram of the control circuit for the
* Output current: Io= 1A proposed multiple-input DC/DC converter is shown in
* Switching frequency: fs=IOOkHz Fig. 8. VO is the output voltage, Vref is the reference
A. Power Switches voltage, 11ref and 12 ref are the reference currents for the
The voltage and current ratings for the power two source currents, h1 and I2. 'e1 and Ie2 are the current
switches can be calculated using Equations (9) to (12) as error signals generated by the corresponding current
follows: error amplifiers (CEAI and CEA2). V, is the voltage
error signal generated by the voltage error-amplifiers,
VI 12 (19)
VQQ =-1
VQQ2 -
1-1 1- 0.6 = 30V, VEA. The overlapping-time control signal f,, is the
summation of V, and 1e1, where kc2 is the summation of
V2 24 (20) Ve and Ie2. The overlapping-times +, and +2 for the
VQ3,Q4 -
1- '2
- ~
1- 0.6
60V,
power switches in each input-stage circuit can be
(21) controlled by the control signals f,, and ,c2. By
IQJ,Q2 = I-= 4A, adjusting the overlapping-times +, and k2, the output
IQ3,Q4 = I2 = 6A, (22) voltage regulation and proper power sharing between
B. Transformer Design different energy sources can be achieved.
Gating Signals Gatfg Sigals
From the output voltage specification, the for Q1 ad Q2 for Q3 d Q4

transformer turn ratios can be determined using I FI Gate Driv-

Equations (7) and (8). O1eppi,g Si || hpp Signl1
(18)V 192
|Ge-lert or Cicuit |Geeat .rCircit

n =0s
_ 1 )-='(1-0.6) -6.4, (23)
Npl ~VI 12
Ns
n2 =N
V 192
= -1 2) 0= (1 - 0. 6) 224 3.2, (24)
CEAI Zi2 ZBAZ2 CEA2 Zi4

Np2 ~ V2 I r ;fZil
e i I

Equations (13) and (14) must be satisfied such Fig. 8 Block Diagram of the Control Circuit for the Proposed
that the zero-voltage-switching of the power switches Multiple-Input DC/DC Converter

1307
 Efficiency. %7
V. Simulation and Experimental Verification
To verify the theoretical operating principles, a

design example was simulated using IsSpice. Figure 9

shows the simulated results for the proposed
multiple-input DC/DC converter. There is a good
-4- Con vei tiolial
agreement between the simulation results and theoretical ---Proposedt
analysis. In this research, a laboratory prototype was
40 60 RO u0 E2' }4 160 1W0 200
implemented and tested to evaluate the performance of Load Powver. W
the proposed DC/DC converter. Figures 10(a) and 10(b) Fig. 11I The Efficiency Comparisons with a Conventional Converter
show the measured waveforms for the laboratory Presented in [8]

prototype. Figure 10(a) shows the measured waveforms

for the first and second inductor currents, ILi and'L2. The VI. Conclusion

ripple cancellation can be observed and it is desirable for

A multiple-input DC/DC converter for renewable

low-voltage power sources. In Figure 10(b), the energy systems was proposed in this paper. This novel

zero-voltage-switching details of the power switches are type of DC/DC converter has advantages such as simple
shown. Figure efficiency comparisons with
shows the configuration, fewer components, lower cost and high
a conventional converter presented in [8] under the load
efficiency. The principles operating
and design
variations. Because of the device count reduction, higher considerations analyzed and described in detail.
were

Simulation results from the proposed circuit were given

efficiency can be achieved using the proposed scheme in
to verify the theoretical analysis. A laboratory prototype
this paper.
was implemented and tested to show its performance.

The experimental results were satisfactory.

iI... QI Acknowledgment
L. L.jr... Q2 The authors would like to acknowledge the financial

Q3 support of the National Science Council of Taiwan, R. 0.

Q4 C. through grant number NSC93-2213-E033-009.

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