Design and Analysis of Closed Loop Interleaved
Boost Converter with Arduino based Soft PI
Controller for Photovoltiac Application
Md. Khairul Alam
Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering
University of Asia Pacific
Dhaka, Bangladesh
khairul@uap-bd.edu
Abstract—Low switching losses and high step up ratio is often
desirable in renewable application namely in high power
photovoltaic system with low voltage and current ripple. In this
paper, a two-phase closed loop Interleaved Boost Converter
(IBC) has been presented to obtain better stability in high
power PV application. Arduino based software generated
Proportional Integral (PI) controller is used to generate
appropriate Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) pulse switching.
Interleaved boost converter is used as it leads the system
towards lower voltage and current ripples at both input and
output side. Besides, it can also provide higher power and
better control compared to Single Phase Boost Converter.
Arduino based PI controller is used instead of hardware-based
PI controller since it reduces the complexity and improves
stability as well as reliability. A complete SIMULINK model
has been developed and the simulation results have been
provided in the paper.
Keywords—pv system, interleaved boost converter, arduino,
pi controller, closed loop.
I. INTRODUCTION
Traditional energy resources are on the verge of
exhaustion while inducing terrible effects on environment.
On the other contrary, constant search for clean and
abundant source of energy continues for remote areas where
power grids are unavailable. Considering the mentioned
criteria, solar energy is the most suitable and sustainable
solution for the growing demands. Wind and geothermal
energy are also becoming quite popular. However, voltage
levels obtained from such renewable energy sources quite
low and produce unregulated voltage output. Therefore,
suitable power converters especially boost converters may
be used to step up the output voltage as well as regulate it.
DC-DC power converters play a major role in
photovoltaic power generation and other renewable energy
application. Boost converter helps increase the voltage level,
improve stability and power factor. In some cases, boost
converter may also be used as a pre-regulator. It is evident
that DC-DC converters require acceptable and efficient
operation for the PV system to be effective.
978-1-5386-8158-9/19/$31.00 2019 IEEE
Prof. Dr. Md. Ashraful Hoque
Department of Electrical and Electronic
Engineering
Islamic University of Technology (IUT)
Gazipur, Bangladesh
mahoque@iut-dhaka.edu
The ripple current is increased due to the inductor used in
boost converters. In high power applications, it is
advantageous to use multiple boost converters connected
parallelly, also known as interleaved connection, to improve
the power level at the output as well as minimize ripple both
at the input and output end. Interleaved converters provide
higher efficiency, lower voltage at the output and lower
ripple in the input current; lower complexity than multiple
cascaded converters. In IBC, effective switching frequency
can be doubled which helps to increase the reliability and
reduce switching losses. Although power loss is incurred
due to switching components and inductors, the interleaved
architecture enhances the performance of converter.
Overall system efficiency can be increased by 1.5% by
incorporating IBC with resonant soft switching method
instead of conventional hard switching [1]. S.V. Dhople et
al. interleaved three boost converter and superior current
characteristics were found compared to coupled inductor
converters [2]. Soft switching was obtained by A. Vazquez
et al. using two extra switches operating on Synchronous
Conduction Mode (SCM) [3]. Majid Delshad and his fellow
researchers showed that ZVS condition can be achieved by
replacing two inductors with two transformers without using
any auxiliary switch [4]. Jiang Fei et al. have proposed a
simple IBC topology with soft switching devoid of any
operating switches [5]. K. Matsumura et al. has integrated
multilevel boost converter and IBC in a novel topology to
achieve large increase in voltage and efficiency level [6].
Switching and reverse-recovery losses of boost diodes can
be decreased by adopting a simple structure [7]-[8].
Switching losses and voltage stress can also be reduced by
using coupling capacitor in IBC [9]. Niraj Rana has
minimized the ripple and improved the dynamic response by
implementing tri-state IBC [10]. Daigoro Ebisumoto et al.
investigated IBC with Closed-Coupled Inductor [11]. Sayed
Mokhtar Gheasaryan et al. has increased the efficiency of
the system using soft switching technique [12].
 Simplicity and robustness are of primary importance in
PV system. One of the obstacles of IBC is concerned with
complexity. Another challenge is balancing the phase shift
among different switches. An interleaved closed loop boost
converter has been suggested in this paper for photovoltaic
operations. It is proven that better stability can be achieved
by closed loop IBC. An Arduino based PID controller is
implemented for feedback control. The Arduino utilizes
input signal to calculate its required derivative and integral
constants according to the predicted output and generates
the appropriate PWM signal. The complexity of the circuit
is reduced due to Arduino microcontroller. Moreover, it also
helps manage the phase shift and duty cycle efficiently.
MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to examine the design and
the simulation results have thus demonstrated in the paper.
II. INTERLEAVED BOOST CONVERTER
A boost or step-up converter is a power converter which has
a higher DC voltage at the output than at the input. Owing to
the large ripple content in the current, conventional boost
converters are incompatible in applications involving high
power. Rather interleaved boost converter is suited for high
power application due to lower ripple content in current.
Multiple identical step-up converters having same phase
shift and switching frequency is assembled parallelly to
construct an interleaved boost converter. IBC has lower
ripple in input-output current and voltage waveforms. It can
operate on higher switching frequency and thus reduces loss
and scale down the converter. The circuit diagram of a two-
phase IBC is given in “Fig. 1”.
Fig. 1. Circuit Diagram of IBC
In a two-phase boost converter, a pair of boost converters is
kept 180° apart in phase. Current at the input is the
summation of individual inductor current (e.g. & ).
Since the converter operates 180° out of phase, each
inductor cancels the ripple of the other and thus the total
input current ripple is reduced.
When switch is on and switch is off, the current
and of the inductor is,
(1)
(2)
Considering first phase when one switch ( is off and
other switch (e.g. is on, the inductor current is,
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
The current of the inductors is out of phase and cancels the
ripple of one another. From equation “Eq. 5”and “Eq. 6” the
value of the inductor can be calculated for known value of
input and output voltage. The duty cycle, can be found
using “Eq. 7” given below.
(7)
Duty cycle is expressed in percentage and is the ratio of
time the circuit is ON to the total time period. It is generated
by a reference DC signal along with a saw-tooth waveform
is fed to the input of a comparator to generate a pulse with
desired duty cycle. The value of the capacitor, can be
found using “Eq. 8” shown below.
(8)
Where, output voltage change is denoted by , load
resistance by and the switching frequency by . To
calculate all the basic parameters, (e.g. value of inductor,
capacitor, duty cycle) the above equations are used.
III. SIMULINK MODEL OF PROPOSED CONVERTER
In this paper, a PI controller incorporated IBC is
proposed to minimize the ripple of output voltage and
current. Microcontroller based PI controller is implemented
to simplify the system with increased stability. A PI
controller is a feedback mechanism in control system used
extensively in industrial applications. The difference between
the measured output and its desired value is computed as the
error by the PI controller. According to the calculated error,
the proportional and the integral gain is adjusted. The
proposed SIMULINK model of the close loop IBC has been
illustrated in “Fig. 2”. The Arduino microcontroller, shown
as a subsystem in the model, is used for testing the system.
The reference and actual output voltage are fed to the
microcontroller and two PWM pulses are generated
according to the inputs to drive two MOSFETs. Software
based PI controller is implemented here. Based on the input
data, the microcontroller calculates the values for
proportional (P) and integral (I) constant programmatically.
Phase shift and duty cycle is controlled automatically which
improves the system stability and reduces the complexity.
 Fig. 2. Simulink model of proposed converter Fig. 4. Transient current (inductor, input, load)

After calculating the percentage error, the microcontroller The system was further simulated for different inductor
checks if the error is greater than the allowable limit and values. “Fig. 5” shows the response for three different values
recalculate the duty cycle and phase shift by adjusting P and of inductors. Peak current is larger for lower values of
I. An error of 2% is used as an example in the flow chart. All inductor but reaches steady state faster.
parameters like percentage error, P & I can be set
programmatically. The implemented algorithm for Arduino
microcontroller is presented by a flow chart in “Fig. 3”.
Start

Read expected
output & actual
output

Calculate Error

Error <= 2% Fig. 5. Transient load current for different inductor values
No
“Fig. 6” depicts the result for different capacitance. It is
apparent from the simulation result that, increasing
capacitance decreases the oscillation however, settling time
Yes
Calculate Duty cycle & is increased.
phase shift

Output Gate Pulse

Stop

Fig. 3. Flowchart of PI controller

IV. SIMULATION RESULT

A. Transient Response of the Proposed Model
The complete model is simulated in
MATLAB/SIMULINK. The transient response of the system
is presented in this section. The system was simulated for an
input voltage of 48V, using 1 mH inductors and 33 µF
capacitor. In “Fig. 4”, the transient result for inductor current, Fig. 6. Transient load current for different capacitor values
input current and load current have been shown. From the
result, it is evident that input current has maximum peak
under transient condition.
Fig. 7. Transient load current for different resistance

In “Fig. 9” demonstrates the effect of different duty

cycles for same input voltage. The duty cycle is changed
manually for investigating the change of input and output
current. Both output current and voltage increases with
increased duty cycle.

Fig. 9. Transient load current for different duty cycle
The Arduino microcontroller is simulated for different
input voltage setting a fixed output voltage of 160 V. The
input voltage is changed from 40 V to 65 V and the duty
cycle calculated by the microcontroller is observed. The
“Table 1”, shows the found duty cycle for the corresponding
input voltage where input voltage is fixed to 160 V.
B. Stedy State Response
The simulation results in steady state region are presented
here. In “Fig. 11”, inductor currents, input current and load
current have been shown.
The proposed model is simulated for different input
voltages. The microcontroller calculates the appropriate duty
cycle for expected output voltage by adjusting proportional
and integral constant. Simulated steady state load current for
five different input voltages are presented here. In “Fig. 12”,
the effect of input voltage on steady state output voltage is
displayed. The steady state load currents for different input
voltages are presented in “Fig. 13”. From “Fig. 12” and “Fig.
13” it is noticeable that, though the voltage and current at the
output corresponding to various input voltages are identical,
it still consists of some ripple. The ripple current for
proposed converter is calculated and tabulated in “Table 2”
with other values.
Fig. 11. Steady state current

TABLE I. MICROCONTROLLER GENERATED DUTY CYCLE FOR

DIFFERENT INPUT VOLTAGE Fig. 11. Steady state current

Desired Output Duty cycle generated

Input Voltage (V)
Voltage (V) by Arduino (%)
40 75.09
48 70.12
55 160 65.78
Fig. 12. Output voltage for different input voltag
60 62.66
65 59.56

Fig. 11. Steady state inductor current, input and output current

Fig. 10. Effect of change of input voltage on output voltage

Fig. 12. Output voltage for different input voltage
The transient output voltage for corresponding input
voltage is shown in “Fig. 10”. From the output voltage
response, it is clear that the transient period is increased with Fig. 13. Steady state output current for different input voltage
a decrease in input voltage but overshoot decreases as input
voltage increases.
 controller. The ripple current is thereby reduced using
software-based PI controller. SIMULINK has been used to
simulate the proposed model and the simulation results have
been presented in the paper. The ripple current is calculated
and compared with other boost converters in “Table 2”. In
proposed converter, the ripple content in the current is
limited to 0.0024. Efficiency of the proposed converter is
also increased to 82% by adjusting duty cycle
programmatically and the result is consequently compared
with other converters in “Table 3”.

REFERENCES

[1] Doo-Yong Jung; Young-Hyok Ji; Sang-Hoon Park; Yong-Chae Jung;

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[11] Daigoro Ebisumoto, Shota Kimura,Masataka Ishihara, “Analytical
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and the results may be analyzed and compared.

VI. CONCLUSION
The closed loop interleaved boost converter circuit is
simplified by implementing it with microcontroller-based PI