A High-Efficiency Resonant Solar Micro-Inverter

Madhuwanti Joshi, Ehab Shoubaki, Ruba Amarin, Bruce Modick, and Johan Enslin
Petra Solar Inc.
South Plainfield, New Jersey, 07080, USA
info@petrasolar.com

Keywords
Solar, AC modules, micro-inverter, resonant, ZVS

Abstract
Transmission grids worldwide are presently facing challenges in integrating large scale renewable
systems due to their limited power transmission capacity. This paper presents a novel circuit topology and
control for grid connected micro-inverters suitable for solar AC modules. This topology is based on the
single-stage DC to AC conversion approach. The circuit has an L-C series resonant converter, a high
frequency transformer and a line frequency unfolder. Design and control considerations are presented
along with the detailed design of resonant components. The circuit components and controls have been
optimized to achieve very high efficiency at various load and input conditions. A controller has been
designed and simulated using a Simulink® numeric package. An experimental prototype was designed to
achieve a high California Energy Commission (CEC) efficiency rating

Introduction
Grid-tied solar inverters are one of the important elements of distributed power generation systems. There
are two types of solar inverters, namely string inverters and the micro-inverters. In the first type, a single
inverter is affixed to an array of solar panels connected in series. In the second type, one inverter is
connected to each solar panel. The AC modules are essentially micro-inverters attached to the back of
solar panels. The solar power generating system consisting of AC modules has many advantages over
string inverter systems. Some of the advantages are: ease of upgrading, built in redundancy, maximum
power point tracking of individual panels; hence less effect of shading. However, all these advantages
come with additional design challenges. The two main challenges are achieving the high efficiency and
keeping low cost-per-watt of generation. These become very significant due to several system constraints:
high-voltage transformation ratio from low-voltage DC panel voltage to grid compatible AC-voltage,
safety isolation requirements, extreme temperature variations and uncontrolled environments due to its
mounting to the solar panels, lower profile and expectation of very high reliability (comparable with the
solar panel itself). Due to these design challenges there is always a quest for newer and better
topologies/techniques in solar inverter manufacturers.

Traditionally two approaches for energy conversion are being used in the solar inverters. The first
approach is to use a single-stage topology. In this approach, the solar panel DC-voltage is converted to
AC-voltage in a single step or there is only a high frequency switching stage. The second approach is
called as two-stage or multiple-stage approach. In this type the solar panel, voltage is converted to AC-
voltage in multiple stages of power conversion. First, the low voltage from the panel is converted into a
high-voltage DC and then the high-voltage DC is converted to a grid-compatible AC-voltage. Since the
single-stage architecture has a single high frequency switching converter, the overall losses in the system
are lower. This leads to the conclusion that this is a better approach for achieving high efficiency.

A detailed overview of all the topologies for the solar inverters is presented in [1]. It appears that the
Flyback converter-based topologies are being used for low-power solar inverters and forward /full bridge
type of topologies are being used for higher power inverters. Resonant converters are a special type of
forward converters offering the zero-voltage-switching and higher converter efficiency. They also have
the advantages of less number of snubber components and sinusoidal currents and/or voltages in the
circuit. Despite all these advantages of resonant converters, their use in solar inverters has been limited.
Although some literature exists with the resonant converters in photovoltaic systems [3, 4, 5], the concept
needs to be revisited in the light of achieving high efficiency with the new developments in the
component technology. There are also recent efforts of using synchronous rectifiers with the resonant
converter [6] but they have the challenge of complex control to synchronize all the MOSFETs for zero-
voltage-switching.

In this paper a single-stage inverter topology based on the resonant converter is presented. The low-
voltage DC from the panel is converted to a rectified sinusoidal high-voltage DC using a resonant
converter and a high-frequency transformer and a diode rectifier. Later, it is unfolded to generate a grid
compatible sine wave. The topology itself is very simple since it is based on the fast recovery diodes
rather than the synchronous rectifiers. Control and design modification are carried out to this general
architecture to achieve high efficiency which are discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.

Design of the converter

The design of the converter was carried out by a set of design specifications discussed in the next
subsection.

Design specifications
The primary objective for this design was to have a grid tied micro-inverter with the specifications given
in Table I.

Table I: Design Specifications

Input voltage 22 to 44V

Output voltage 240V, 60Hz
Power 200 Watt
MPPT voltage 30V
CEC efficiency (as per Table II) >95%
Cost <$0.3/Watt
Height <1.3 "

All the solar inverter efficiencies in the U.S. are measured by California Energy Commission (CEC)
efficiency standard. In this standard a weight is associated with each output power level of the inverter
and then a weighted average efficiency is computed. The weights for each power level are given in Table
II [7].
Table II: CEC Efficiency Standards

Output 100% 75% 50% 30% 20% 10%

power %
Weight 0.05 0.53 0.21 0.12 0.05 0.04

Selection of the topology

From the specifications given earlier, it is clear that the solar micro-inverter needed to have a topology
which offers low losses and lower component count at all the power levels. Resonant converters are
known to offer low switching losses. With its smaller-sized magnetic components, they can be operated at
very high switching frequencies. So it was decided to use the resonant converter for this solar inverter.
There was a possibility of three different configurations of resonant converters [8], namely series resonant
converters, parallel resonant converters and the series-parallel resonant converters. Since parallel-resonant
and series-parallel resonant converters always have a circulating current along with the load current they
have lower efficiencies compared to the series-resonant converters. This makes the series-resonant
converter an obvious choice for this application.

Figure 1 shows the converter topology. The first section is resonant converters which convert the low-
voltage input DC from the solar panel to a high-frequency AC voltage. Due to the low-input voltage it
was decided to use full bridge at the input. The high frequency AC voltage is amplified by a high
frequency high-voltage AC using the high frequency transformer. The diode rectifier converts this AC-
voltage into a rectified sinusoidal voltage having a grid frequency envelope and the unfolder unfolds the
rectified DC-voltage into an AC-voltage and hence an AC current. The output current is controlled by
modulating the switching frequency from the primary side switches.

Fig. 1: Series resonant converter topology

Component design and selection

Detailed component design was carried out for different sections of the topology. All the component
design was optimized with the focus of CEC weights listed in Table II. The losses were optimized at
70%, 50% and 30% power levels. This is discussed in the subsequent paragraphs.

Input filter

All the single-stage topologies have the filtering at the primary side. Since the BOM cost for the topology
was required to be under $0.3/Watt, the high temperature electrolytic capacitors were the obvious choice.
The design of the capacitors was governed by (1) [9]:
 (1)

The capacitors were sized for a maximum of 8% ripple on the minimum input bus voltage specified in
Table I.

Input full bridge MOSFETs

In the full bridge configuration the maximum voltage across the MOSFETs is always the same as the
solar panel voltage. So they were selected based on the optimum combination of maximum panel voltage,
maximum switching frequency and the minimum MOSFET on-state resistance.

Resonant tank components and the transformer

Transformer turns ratio, n, design was based on the maximum grid voltage and the minimum solar panel
voltage and is given by (2).

(2)

Minimum load resistance Rl is given by (3)

(3)
√

(4)

where Rres is the reflected load resistance on the resonant converter and is given by (4). The resonant
inductor, Lres, is given by (5).

(5)

where Q is the quality factor for the series resonant circuit and ωres is the resonant frequency [8]. The
resonant capacitor, Cres, is given by (6).

(6)

Diode rectifier
Since the resonant tank and the transformer have sinusoidal current for most of the time, the rectifier
diodes have zero-current switching. This makes the use of less expensive, fast recovery diodes possible.
The voltage rating of these diodes is based on the maximum grid voltage.

Unfolder MOSFETs
Because of the high efficiency requirements, MOSFETs were selected for the line frequency unfolder.
The maximum MOSFET voltage was designed based on the maximum grid voltage. The unfolder
MOSFETs switch at grid voltage frequency so they have near zero switching losses. The MOSFETs with
minimum MOSFET on-state resistance are selected for this purpose.

Control strategy for efficiency optimization

Three different strategies of DC to AC power transfer are used for efficiency optimization. They are
discussed in the following subsections.
Frequency modulation for above-resonant operation
The series resonant circuit has its characteristic resonant frequency. If the switching frequency of the
input switch matches with the resonant frequency, then the maximum power gets transferred from the DC
to AC side. As the switching frequency is modulated, the impedance of the resonant circuit changes and
the power transfer to the AC side is reduced [8]. If the operating switching frequency of the resonant
circuit is higher than the resonant frequency, then the operation is called an above-resonant operation. The
tank impedance is inductive in this case. If the operating switching frequency of the resonant circuit is
less than the resonant frequency then the operation is called a below-resonant operation. The impedance
of the series resonant tank is capacitive. Figure 2 shows the resonant tank voltage and current. As shown
in the figure, the switches S1 to S4 operate at zero-voltage switching (ZVS).

Pulse width modulation

Series resonant converters have poor load regulation at light loads. Hence pulse width modulation was
used to control the output power during low-power operation modes.

Figure 3 shows the variation of the frequency and duty cycle with respect to the control variable.

Fig. 2: Above resonant operation showing zero-voltage switching

Fig. 3: Variation of frequency and duty cycle with respect to the control variable
Detailed Controller Design
Inverter Modeling
High-level architecture of the proposed inverter is shown in Figure 4. A main micro-controller modulates
the panel voltage to produce a varying frequency input at the resonant tank. Said frequency is higher than
the tanks resonant frequency. Since the gain of the tank is inversely proportional to frequency above-
resonance frequency control is used to inject desired current into the grid. The high-frequency current
passes through a diode bridge and then its low-frequency component is injected into the grid.

Fig. 4: High-level architecture of a control system

The inverter can be approached as a linear resonant tank excited by the two stiff signals Vgs(t) and Vgrids(t),
both modulated at above-tank resonant frequency. The main complication that arises is determining the
phase shift of the excitation coming from the grid side, which is driven by the phase shift of the tank
current. The state-space representation of such system is given by (7),

(7)

where the matrices are found to be,

 0 C
0

0 (8)
L L
0 0 0
0 0
L L (9)
0 L

0 (10)

0 R
(11)

where rc is the ESR of the resonant capacitors, rl is the series resistance of the resonant inductor and the
transformer representing copper loss, Rm is the parallel resistance representing core loss of the transformer
and Lm is the magnetizing inductance of the transformer.

The input excitation of this system is given by (12),

V t
(12)
V t

which can be expressed in complex phasor form as noted by (13),

(13)

where, Fs is the switching frequency and d is the duty cycle.

Note that the duty cycle, is included as an extra degree of freedom.

Taking out the periodic components as explained by (14) through (17),

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

The Phasor static equation is given by (18),

2 (18)
which has the following solution as described in (19),

2 (19)

which is a function of , and can be found by solving (20),

(20)

Equation (20) can only be solved numerically.

Closed-Loop Simulation
Model described in the previous section was implemented within the Simulink numerical package for the
purpose of closing the loop around the output current control of the inverter. Figure 5 shows the Simulink
model and Figure 6 shows the closed-loop simulation results.

Fig. 5: Simulink simulation of model

Fig. 6: Simulation results

Experimental results
A 200 Watt prototype resonant converter was designed as per the specifications mentioned in Table I. A
grid frequency sinusoidal output voltage (240V, 60Hz) was generated and applied to a resistive load to
generate sinusoidal current. The efficiency was measured at different power levels by varying the load
resistance. Figure 7 shows the output voltage of the inverter.

Fig. 7: Output voltage from the experimental prototype of resonant converter

Figure 8 shows the efficiency plot at different input voltages and power levels.
 0.96
0.95
0.94
22V input
0.93
40V input
0.92
0.91
0 50 100 150 200 250

Fig. 8: Efficiency at different output power

Conclusion
This paper presents a topology and micro-inverter design suitable for single-phase solar power
applications. The topology is based on the single-stage series resonant converter with a high frequency
transformer, a diode rectifier and a grid-frequency unfolder. Detailed component design is carried out.
Different control strategies are presented at different load conditions. An experimental prototype is
designed for 200 Watt output power. The topology itself is capable for achieving the CEC efficiency
targets.

References
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