2014 International Symposium on Computer, Consumer and Control
A Single-Stage Grid-Connected PV Micro-Inverter
Based on Interleaved Flyback Converter Topology
Ching-Ming Lai
Department of Electrical Engineering
Chung Yuan Christian University
Abstract—Grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) micro-inverters
deliver the solar energy from a single PV panel to AC utility.
Compared with conventional centralized inverters, micro-
inverters have several advantages, such as higher maximum
power tracking efficiency, easier installation and longer life-time.
In this paper, a single-stage grid-connected micro-inverter based
on interleaved flyback converter topology is presented. A
prototype with input power rating of 250W and output power
rating of 230W/220Vac is constructed and compatible with 60
cell and 72 cell solar modules applications. Experimental results
verify the feasibility of the developed micro-inverter which
delivers greater energy harvest, higher reliability and more
intelligent operation.
Keywords—PV micro-inverter, Interleaved flyback converter.
I. INTRODUCTION
PV module is a sustainable energy source device and the
best known as a method for generating electric power by using
solar cells to convert energy from the sun. By the end of 2012,
the 100GW PV generation system installed capacity milestone
was achieved. As Fig. 1, the global inverter market continues
to play a major role along the solar PV supply chain with
advances in inverter technology promising more sophisticated
grid support and system optimization for residential
installations up to utility-scale PV projects.
Fig. 1 Global PV inverter shipments by inverter size.
Inverter technology development is attracting and will
continue to attract greater investment and attention as gains in
long-term project generation and reliability become crucial to
achieve project bankability.
978-1-4799-5277-9/14 $31.00 © 2014 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/IS3C.2014.59
Different to centralized inverter, the micro-inverter is
another suitable choice. Since 2007, the market of the micro-
inverter whose maximum power is less than 300W power
rating, grow at a relatively fast speed. Micro-inverters have
several advantages, especially higher maximum power
tracking efficiency. It can be seen that from Fig. 2, for the PV
partial shading operation, it can be seen that the power
generation performance of micro-inverters is higher than that
of conventional inverters. Typical structures of the PV micro-
inverter consist of several power conversion stages [1]-[6].
The front stage has a maximum power point (MPP) tracker for
maximizing the output power of the panel, because the
maximum power drawn from the panel varies with
temperature and insolation. The grid-connected stage usually
uses a full-bridge inverter toward the grid, either self-
commutated with a high switching frequency, or grid-
commutated at the grid frequency. In the conventional two-
stage structure, it consists of a boost and a full-bridge inverter.
Whereas the panel voltage is firstly boosted to the grid level
together with the tracker. For DC/AC conversion stage, this is
usually a pulse-width-modulated (PWM) voltage-source
inverter, shapes and inverts the output current. The power
conversion efficiency of the conventional two-stage structure
is poor due to the two-stage power conversion.
In this paper, a single-stage grid-connected PV micro-
inverter based on interleaved flyback converter topology is
presented. The MPP tracker, voltage boost, and output current
shaping are performed in the front stage. The full bridge is
switched at the grid frequency for inverting the shaped output
current. It is an attractive solution for PV module applications
because of several advantages, such as simple closed loop
control, less circuit bill of material (BOM), and potentially
low cost. Prototype and test bench are constructed. The
corresponding experimental results validate the proposed
concept.
Fig. 2 Comparisons of power generation performance between conventional
inverters and micro-inverters.
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 Fig. 3 Circuit topology of the studied single-stageʳPV micro-inverter.

II. CIRCUIT TOPOLOGY AND OPERATION Next, the presented flyback converter topology based
The circuit topology of the studied micro-inverter is shown micro-inverter in DCM operation has a perfect PFC
in Fig. 3. The circuit is considered a single-stage power characteristic will be shown.
conversion design because only the DC-DC converter is
performing PWM. The PWM contains a fixed-frequency but
variable duty cycle high-frequency AC signal that is half-
wave symmetrical with respect to the line frequency. The DC-
DC converter contains two flyback converters interleaving
each other to reduce the high-frequency noise back to the
Fig. 5 Illustration of real power output (PF=1) for the micro-inverter.
source. Primary switches S1 and S2 are the main switches
performing the PWM function, and D1 and D2 are the
secondary silicon carbide diode that used to avoid diode
reverse recovery loss. The output of the flyback converter is
high-voltage AC and is rectified to obtain half-wave
symmetry sinusoidal PWM voltage, which is then unfolded to
sinusoidal AC output with four power MOSFET switches, S H1,
SL1, SH2, and SL2. Switch pair SH1 and SL2 turn on during
positive half line cycles, and SH2 and SL1 turn on during
negative line cycles. Fig. 4 shows the current waveforms of Fig. 6 Magnetizing current of one phase flyback converter.
the interleaved flyback converter topology. Each phase is 180o
phase shifted in one switching period to achieved ripple It can be seen from Fig. 6, the grid current is
cancellation, and a lower output filter inductance can be used. I pk
1
igrid =< isec >= d1 × (1)
2 N
VPV V
where, I pk = d × Ts ; d1 = PV Nd .
Lm vgrid

Rearrange the Equ. (1), we have

2
d 2 VPV Ts
igrid = × (2)
2 Lm vgrid

If the unity power factor be achieved in DCM flyback

converter, the average duty cycle can be designed as

Fig. 4 Current waveforms of the interleaved flyback converter topology. K × vgrid

d= ; vgrid = Vgrid sin ω t (3)
Vgrid
III. CRITICAL MAGNETIZATION INDUCTANCE DESIGN
To achieve a perfect power factor correction characteristic Substitute Eq. (3) to Eq. (2), we can obtain
i.e. full real power output as shown in Fig. 5 have to satisfy § K 2 VPV
2
T ·
igrid=Kvgrid, that is output impedance is resistive. igrid = ¨ × 2 s ¸¸ vgrid (4)
¨ 2 Lm Vgrid
© ¹

188
 Assume the conversion efficiency of unity and power
balance relationship 0.5 × Vgrid I grid = PPV , then the constant K
can be found as
1 Lm
K= 4 PPV (5)
Ts

VPV
IPV
VPV

G1

G2
When MPPT is performed, the average duty cycle with
maximum power transfer as
1 Lm
d= 4 PPV × sin ωt (6)
VPV Ts
where, VPV and PPV are maximum power point and correspond
with PV voltage.
(a)
Though the flyback converter can achieve unity power
factor when average duty cycle is designed as igrid=Kvgrid, the
operating in DCM is necessary. Now, the critical
magnetization inductance design equation is derived to ensure
flyback converter operation in DCMs. The necessary
condition in DCM is
DMAX + D1, MIN < 1 (7)

Using volt-sec balance on magnetization inductance, we have

NVPV
DMAX + (1 + ) <1 (8)
Vgrid
(b)
To compose Eq. (6) and Eq. (8), the critical inductance Fig. 7 The studied single-stage grid-connected PV micro-inverter:
design can be obtain as follows, (a) System block diagram, and (b) implemented prototype.
2
T ª NVPV º
Lm = s «VPV (1 + )» (9)
4 PPV ¬« Vgrid »¼

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

To verify the validity of the proposed grid-connected PV
micro-inverter, the system block diagram and a laboratory
prototype as shown in Fig. 7 is constructed to verify the
proposed solution with the following specification: (1) input
voltage Vdc: 25-59V; output voltage vo,rms: 220V; (2) output
power Po: 230W; (3) frequency fo: 60Hz. The power stage
parameters of the prototype are shown in Table I.

TABLE I
POWER STAGE PARAMETERS OF THE PROTOTYPE
Parameter
Input capacitor bank (Cin)
Magnetizing inductance (Lm1, Lm2)
Transformer turn-ratio(N1, N2)
Primary power MOSFET (S1, S2)
Secondary power diode (D1, D2)
H-bridge unfolder (SH1, SL1, S H2, S L2)
Bus filter capacitor (Cbus)
Output filter Inductance (Lo1, Lo2)
Output filter Inductance (Co)
[2ms/div]
Fig. 8 Measured waveforms of DC bus voltage [100V/div] and gate signals of
Values/Part No. low-side H-bridge unfolder switches (SL1, SL2) [5V/div].
1800uF/63V 4pcs
6uH The system block diagram of the micro-inverter includes of
Ns1/Np1=Ns2/Np2=7 power stage, driver circuits, signal sensing and feedback
IPB072N15N3G circuits. The power stage is constructed based on the
C2D05120E interleaved flyback converter operating in DCM. In this
SPB17N80C3 system, a dsPIC33FJ16GS504T microcontroller (MCU) is
used to control the output voltage of the interleaved flyabck
22nF/310V 2pcs
converter to have the shape of a rectified sinusoid. This
150uH
rectified sinusoid waveform is then inverted into a full
0.33uF/330V sinusoidal waveform using an H-bridge unfolder that
interfaces to the grid voltage.

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 Fig. 9 MPP tracking performance of the constructed micro-inverter.
In Fig. 8, it can be seen that the DC bus voltage is
modulated to a rectified sinusoidal waveform on bus filter
capacitor Cbus that is connected with grid system via the
polarity selector (i.e. unfolder) and the output filter. Fig. 8 also
shows the measured gate signals for the low-side H-bridge
unfolder switches. For convenience in the experiments, solar
array simulator Chroma 62100H-600S is used as the power
source. Fig. 9 shows the monitoring screen of MPP tracking
performance of the constructed micro-inverter. In this paper,
the perturbation and observation (P&O) method is adopted for
PV maximum power tracking control. The test result verifies
the excellent maximum power point tracking performance of
the inverter for the specific I-V and P-V curves.
[2s/div]
Fig. 10 Maximum power tracking waveforms under 250W PV power input.
[5ms/div]
Fig. 11 Steady-state waveforms of gird voltage vo [200V/div] and grid current io
[0.5A/div] respectively for the proposed micro-inverter.
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Fig. 10 shows the tracking operation for the maximum
power point of 250W PV input. As can be seen that, when the
power tracking mechanism is started, the PV voltage drops
from the open circuit voltage Voc of 34.8V to the voltage Vmp
of 29.67V; the PV current increases from zero to 8.33A, the
maximum power of 250W is achieved with the tracking
response time of 9 seconds. Fig. 11 shows the steady-state
waveforms of grid connected operation for full load output of
230W, the grid current harmonic is below 5%. The maximum
conversion efficiency of the built prototype is about 93%
V. CONCLUSIONS
A prototype with input power rating of 250W and output
power rating of 230W/220Vac is constructed and compatible
with 60 cell and 72 cell solar modules applications.
Experimental results verify the feasibility of the developed
micro-inverter which delivers greater energy harvest, higher
reliability and more intelligent operation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and
Technology (formally National Science Council), Taiwan,
R.O.C. under Grant NSC 102-2218-E-033-004.
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