The 6th International Power Electronics Drive Systems and Technologies Conference (PEDSTC20l5)

3-4 February 2015, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Application of a New High Step-up Double-Input

Converter in a Novel Module- Integrated-Inverter
Photovoltaic System
M. Mohammadi, N. Safari, J. Milimonfared, J. S. Moghani
Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
Tehran, Iran
E-mail: mohammadi9044@gmail.com

inverter GPV [3], each string is connected to the network using

a separate inverter (fig. Ib). As a result, the partial shadow
effect decreases and efficiency of GPV considerably increases.
To achieve a high voltage DC link at the input side of the
inverter, 16 PVs are connected in seriesCin Europe) which
results a voltage up to 720V at the input terminal of the
inverter; So a high voltage power switch is required [I]. In
order to decrease the maximum voltage of DC-link, it is
possible to use a multi-string inverter GPV (Fig.Ic). In this
configuration lower number of PV s are utilized and the voltage
is boosted by a DC-DC converter [4]. considering the use of
a central inverter, both former methods result in lower mass
production cost and lower mismatch losses of the PV modules.
Module-integrated-inverter GPVs [5] are the last type of GPV
systems in which a PV module with a power conditioning
system(amplification and conversion to AC) creates a module
integrated-inverter GPV(MII-GPV) (fig. Id). Due to the low
generated voltage of PV modules, MII-GPVs require a high
voltage amplification which decreases the efficiency of the
system. But, low cost of mass production of this type of GPVs
causes the manufacturers to be interested in this kind of GPVs.
High step-up DC-DC converters [6] are good choices to
be used in this application to increase the efficiency of the
converter by operating in a low duty cycle and soft switching
condition [7], [8]; however, the use of soft switching high step
up converters is not an optimal solution, for achieving high
efficiency performance. The main method for soft switching
operation in these converters is to insert lag current into
power switches; but this results in increasing the magnetic
losses of the converter, also turning off switching losses are
increased due to extra magnetic current that is required for
soft switching. Overall, the soft switching operation that is
achieved by this method, increases the efficiency of converter
with respect to hard switching operation. To achieve higher
efficiency in high gain DC-DC converters, it is required to
use new methods to achieve soft switching condition without
increasing magnetic current.
In this paper a novel module-integrated-inverter GPV struc
ture is proposed based on double-input DC-DC converters [9].
In this topology which is shown in Fig.2 a couple of PV
modules are used as a Dual-PV-Module ( DPVM). So, two

Abstract-Grid-connected photovoltaic (GPV) using module

integrated-inverters is a well known method to use PVs in power
networks. This paper proposes a novel structure of module
integrated GPV based on double input DC-DC converters. Special
structure

and switching strategy of the proposed converter

result in high efficient power conditioning system for GPVs.

The proposed structure of module-integrated GPV uses Dual

PV module(DPVM) contains two PVs. DPVM is connected to

the proposed converter and the output of the converter is
connected to the inverter. Two inputs of the converter assist

the soft switching operation and lead to a high efficient power

conditioning GPV. The proposed DPVM is presented and the

application of high step up multi-input converter in DPVM is
discussed. high step-up capability of the proposed converter
is validated by mathematical relations. Experimental results
are presented to evaluate the characteristics of the proposed
converter.

Index

Terms-Grid-connected

PV,high

step-up

converter,

double-input converter, soft switching , non-isolated converter.

1. INTRODUCTION

Photovoltaics has become more interesting in recent years

due to their clean power generation by the sunlight. As PV s
mass production cost has been decreased, cost reduction of
power conditioning systems used in GPVs needs to happen.
Due to low DC voltage generated by PVs, a power condition
ing system is required to connect PV to the power network
[1]. GPV systems include four categories, which are listed as
follows:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Central inverter GPY.

String inverter GPY.
Multi-string inverter GPY.
Module-integrated-inverter GPV(AC module).

Centralized inverters [1], [2] which are shown in fig.la

connect a large number of PVs to the power network. In
this GPV configuration, PV modules are connected in se
ries, that is called a string, to achieve a high voltage for
central inverter. String diodes are used in this configuration
to connect string PVs in parallel and achieve high power
structure. Due to central maximum power point tracker used
in this configuration, partial shadow and maximum power
point mismatches, reduction of efficiency occurs. Also, mass
production of this configuration is not possible [1]. In string

978-1-4799-7653-9/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

53

Multi-String Inverter Based

Grid connected-PV
String Inverter Based Grid
connected-PV

PVn

Micro-Inverter Based
Grid cOlmected-PV

PVn

DC-DC
Converter
Central
Inverter

DC-DC
Converter
PV

Central
Inverter

Central
Inverter

Micro-Inverter

3phase

( a)

To Grid

3phase

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 1: Different types of grid connected PVs

PV terminals exist in a single DPVM and it is possible to

use a double-input high gain DC-DC converter to amplify
PV modules to an appropriate value for grid-connected in
verter. The aim of using double-input DC-DC converter in
the proposed structure is to achieve higher reliability, higher
efficiency and inexpensive MII-GPV. Unlike High step-up DC
DC converters which use an extra current to achieve soft
switching operation, in the proposed structure a double-input
converter is used to provide soft switching condition based on
switching techniques; as a result turning-on switching losses
is omitted without using extra current, so total losses of the
converter decreases further, with respect to high step up soft
switching DC-DC converters in literature.

PVI

PV2

1---.......

--1 To Grid

---

Power Conditioner

The proposed converter is shown in Fig.3. The converter

contains a three-switch cell, a boosting transformer and a
voltage mUltiplier. As the switching strategy leads to soft
switching operation in the converter, no transformer branch
is required to guarantee soft switching operation. Thereby,it
is possible for the converter to operate in under resonance
frequency and large magnetizing inductance of the transformer
and consequently the conducting losses of the converter will
be alleviated. Moreover operation of the converter in un
der resonance frequency helps to operate in high switching
frequency and the value of multiplier's capacitors becomes
small. subsequently, the converter size decreases sufficiently.
In section II the proposed converter is analyzed and its
operation intervals are discussed. voltage gain of the converter
is derived in section III and compared in different values
of transformer tum ratio. A design example is presented in
section IV. The experimental results of the proposed converter
are shown and analyzed in section V to validate the proposed
converter performance.

Fig. 2: Basic structure of proposed Module-Integrated-PV

. ---------------------------

,-----------------------------------------Do

12 :

MultiPort Cell

----------------------------

Voltage Amplifier cell

Fig. 3: Proposed double input converter

54

II.

PROPOSED TOPOLOGY

D[

In this section the proposed converter are discussed, ana

lyzed, and different modes of operation of the converter is
presented. Fig.3 illustrates a detailed view of the proposed
converter. According to this figure the converter contains two
main parts. First is a double input cell that two inputs are
connected to this cell. This part contains three switches and
two inductors that are used to reduce ripple of PV sources.
The switching strategy of the converter is Pulse width mod
ulation(PWM) with a special structure. Fig.5 shows the key
waveforms of the converter in double input operation mode.
According to this figure, switches 51 and 53 are turned on
simultaneously. During this switching strategy the current of
inductor L2 flows through body diode of 51 and 53. Also,
according to connection of capacitor Ci to the Switch 53,
soft switching of this switch is guaranteed due to Alternative
Current(AC) of capacitors in steady state condition. These
result in Zero Voltage Switching Z
( VS) of the switches in
double input mode. Second part of the converter is voltage
amplifier cell. This part contains a boosting transformer and a
voltage multiplier. Voltage multiplier increases voltage gain of
the converter by three times that results in lower turns ratio of
the transformer and as a result, lower current stress of switches
of the multi input cell.
The converter operates in six intervals which are discussed
here. Before analyzing the converter's operation modes, fol
lowing assumptions are considered:

I
I

I,

________________-+__w-___

1m

------+----

1m f++----+-+f--+---t-H--

All switches and diodes are ideal.

Inductors and capacitors are ideal.
Voltage of Ci and Co have no ripple.

IIA

Interval 1: [to, I
t l This interval starts when 51 and 53 are
turned on, simultaneously. Switch 52 is off in this interval.
Inductor Ll charges and L2 discharges into capacitor Ci.
During this interval diode Do is on and the power of load is
supplied by PV sources. Due to low value ofCk the current of
secondary side of the boosting transfonner varies sinusoidally
1
with the frequency of
0, and at the end of this interval,
27r L'""2
diode Do turns off and . s interval finishes.
Interval 2: [l
t ,2
t l This interval starts when diode Do turns
off. During this interval the state of switches remains constant
and no power is transfered to the output. In this interval the
output power is supplied by Co and the voltage of Ck remains
constant.i2 still charges Ci. at the end of this interval 53 is
turned off.
Interval 3: This interval occurs fast that during it, the
current that flew through switch 53 charges drain-source
capacitor(Coss) of 53 and discharges Coss of 52. when the
voltage of switch 52 reaches zero value, body diode of this
switch starts to conduct and now the currentiS3 flows through
body diode of switch 52. Due to AC current of capacitor
Ci, this phenomena occurs certainly. As a result Switch 52,
always, is turned on inZVS condition.
Interval 4: [2
t , t3l At start of this interval switch 52 is
turned on in zero-voltage condition. During this interval,
both switches 51 and 52 are on and input inductors store

------+---I

t(

I
I

t2

t4

t;

t7

Fig. 5: Key waveforms of the proposed converter

energy. Do still is off and Co supplies the load, but the

current of secondary side of the transformer(ik) is not zero
and charges Ck. In this interval both diodes Dl and D2
operate similarly. The current ik varies sinusoidally with the
' According to intervals 1 and 4, the
frequency of27r
converter operates in two resonant condition. So the current of
multiplier diodes vary more linear. this phenomena is helpful,
because switch is turned off in the next interval when theses
diodes are on. so to have lower tum-off switching losses, it
is desirable to operate with smaller current. As a result the
best operating point of the converter could be the resonant
frequency of Lk -Ck 2
( 7r
)' because at this switching
frequency, output diode operates in under resonant frequency
and mUltiplier diodes operate in above-resonant frequency.
Interval 4 finishes when the switch 51 is turned off.
IntervaI5: [3
t ,4
t l At start of this interval switch 51 is turned
off and the inductor Ll chargesCi. This interval finishes when
the current ik reaches zero. So, at the end of this interval
diodes Dl and D2 tum off.

55

--,
.:..
r"-rv'---==-.-t==-!f-;r-

"

.L.....l
'-----,---- __-+_

(b)

(a)

l:n

L. -

' I

D
."

\0,

D,

Co

:::" "

"

(c)
D

(::,-,

+
"I/o

V()

(d)

(f)

(g)

Fig. 4: Operation intervals of the proposed converter

2) Calculating Vmin: To calculate the minimum voltage of

capacitors Ck this fact is used that the current of the
diodes are equal to output current. So the minimum
voltage of Ck is as follows:

Interval 6: At start of this interval switch 52 is turned off.

When this switch gets off, its current charges Coss of this
switch and dischargesC088 of 53. When the voltage of switch
53 reaches zero the body diode of 53 turns on and the current
that flew through 52 now flows through body diode of 51 and
53. Soft switching operation of these switches is guaranteed
due to positive DC currentiL2.
Interval 7:[t5, t6J At start of this interval, switches 51 and
As a
53 are turned on, so the voltage Vp is equal to
result the voltage across output diode becomes positive and it
starts to conduct. So the power of load is supplied by input
sources.

( 2)
3) Calculating Vrna:,,:

f!J;;.

III.

VCk(t)

ffi

Vrnin-nV2

Where WI is equal to
t5 +

.l:.k..
2C"

.
smwl (t - t4)

Vc"

nV2 +

JoTs
2Ck

(4)

nV2

(5)

5) Calculate the currentik in interval 1:

ik(t)

lli
c"

.J

- t5 + 7r
at t 6) As the average
then the output
,

(1)

2
2V:max -Va + 1D2V
- D2

Where W2 is equal to
L"C"
2 '

L' C"
2

sinW2 (t-to )

(6)

The current becomes zero

value of iDn is equal to output current

voltage is derived as follows:
Va

n(V2 + Va,)

(7)

7) Calculating the voltage gain:

L ck' The current becomes zero

v2

7r V2LkCk.

Vrnax

(3)

4) Calculating the average voltage of Ck:

VOLTAGE GAIN DERIVATION

k
2

nV2-(nV2- Vrnin)COSW(t-t4)

vc" (t5)

Voltage gain is an important specification of high step up

converters. In this section the voltage gain of the converter is
derived based on voltage balance of the inductors. According
to this fact, the current of an inductor remains stable, if the
integration of its voltage becomes zero during a period of
switching. to derive the voltage gain, the current of diodes
which are equal to the output current are considered. The ideal
formula of voltage gain is derived by use of the following
steps:
I) calculating the currentik:

at t

n(V2 + Va,)

lvh
=

56

VI

(8)

the maximum value of switches' current is that one of switch

51 , as follows:

35
ir====
=====------
Voltage gain for n=2
30 .......... Voltage gain for n=3
Voltage gain for n=4
25
........ . Conventional boost
--

20

Use of (11) results in maximum current of switches equal

to 15.5A. So the switch IXFC96N15P of IXYS company is
selected for power switches. According to maximum voltage
and current of the output diodes which are equal to 310V
and 2.4A, respectively, ultrafast diode MUR460 is selected
for output diodes.

15
10

0.4

0.5
0.6
Duty eycle D 1

0.7

0.8

B. Passive components

To select the input inductors, the ripple of input current of

the converter which is presented below is used.

Fig. 6: Voltage gain of proposed converter with respect to duty

cycle Dl for various values of n

il

8) If the connection of output side of the transfonner is

reversed then the voltage gain is calculated according to
above steps as follows:
M2

n(2Vc; -V2)
=

VI

i 2

( 9)

Fig.6 shows the voltage gain of proposed converter, with

respect to duty cycle Dl for various values of turns ratio n.
According to this figure, using a small value of turns ratio
of the transformer it is possible to achieve high voltage gain
and reach 400V for connecting to DC link. According to this
figure as the turns ratio is increased the required duty cycle
for reaching 400V decreases.

V.

V2D2T.,
2L2

(12)

(13)

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

To validate the characteristics of the proposed converter, it

was prototyped in laboratory. In this section the Experimental
results is presented and discussed. The main goal of this
prototype is to show soft switching operation of the proposed
converter in double input operation mode. To show the soft
switching condition, voltage of gate-source and drain-source
are shown in figs.7a, 7c and 7e. As the current i2 flows
through body diode of 51 and 53 before they are turned on,
these switches operate in zero voltage switching condition,
clearly. According to figs.7b, 7d and 7f which show the
current of switches, all the currents are negative when the
gate-source voltage is applied to switches. Fig.7g shows the
primary current of the transformer and fig.7h illustrates the
current of leakage inductance of the transfonner. This figure
shows the resonant operation of the converter. Figs.7i and 7j
are presented to show the zero current switching operation
of output diodes. The efficiency of proposed converter was
calculated as 96.4% for 200W output load.

DESIGN EXAMPLE

This section presents a design example of the converter

which its characteristics is as follows:

2Ll

(10)

VIDIT.,

According to (12) and (13), for achieving a ripple equal to 2A

for the inputs, Ll and L2 are designed for 130pH and 140pH,
respectively. According to fig.6 the transformer turns ratio is
selected as n
2.3 to achieve the required voltage gain.
Capacitor 0 has the maximum voltage equal to 120V and for
achieving voltage ripple equal less than 5V, a polystere 4.7pF
is selected. Due to the leakage inductance of the transformer
which is equal to 40pH, the required value of Ok is equal
to 270nF. So the maximum voltage across Ok is equal to
130V and a 150 volts polystere capacitor is chosen. The output
capacitor is selected as 22pF to achieve an output voltage with
less than IV voltage ripple.

To achieve the optimized voltage gain the connection of the

secondary side of the transformer is detennined according to
the ratio of V2 divided by VI . lvh is grater than M2 if the
following condition exists:

IV.

input voltage VI : 30-40V,

input voltage V2: 35-5 0V ,
output voltage Va: 400V,
output power Po: 200W,
ripple of output voltage Va: IV,
Switching frequency F,,: 50kHz.

A. Power Semiconductors

According to duty cycle of the switches and the value of

input sources, voltage of Vc is no larger than 120 volts. Also,

57

Tek

Stop

JL

..

M POS: 0,0005

n Vn'l

,.-J
"

CH1 5.001/

CH2 50,01,1

M 2.S0..us

eStop

..

..

JL

Tek

MPo;:-300,Ons

,JlJlj

2'
"

JL

Tek

MP05:1O.00n;

VOS2

eStop

..

M Pos: -300,On5

c
JlJlJ
'

CHl 50,(1\1

(b)

(a)

..

eStop

VDS2

UV""

JL

Tek

CH2"'S,OO,.,

(c)

M 5,OOw

(d)

:
,.

CHl 5.00\'/

CH2 50.0\'/

M 2.50)J

CHl 50.01,1

CH2 5.00A

(e)

M 5,oo)J5

(f)
Tek

JL

eStop

..

CHl 51),011

M Po;: -300,01"15

Tek

,JlJLj
CHl 50,01,1

CH2 2.00A

M 5,OO

CH2 5,00,0,

JL

CHl 50,0\'/

5,00)J5

(g)
eStop

CHl+-S.OOA

..

CH 50OV

M Po,: -300.0ns

CH2 5.00A

M 5.00

(h)

M 5.00)J5

(i)

Fig. 7: Experimental results. (a) VDS and Vcs of switch 51 , ( b) Vcs and ID of switch 51 , (c) VDS and Vcs of switch 52, (d)
Vcs and ID of switch 52, ( e) VDS and Vcs of switch 53, (f) Vcs and ID of switch 53, ( g) Vcs of switch 52 and primary
side current of the transformer, (h) secondary side voltage and current of the transformer, ( i) cathode-anode voltage and anode
current of the mUltiplier diodes, (j) cathode-anode voltage and anode current of the output diode.

VI.

[3] S. Strache, R. Wunderlich, and S. Heinen, "A comprehensive, quantitative

comparison of inverter architectures for various pv systems, pv cells, and
irradiance profiles," Sustainable Energy, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 5,
no. 3, pp. 813-822, July 2014.
[41 H. Keyhani and H. Toliyat, "Single-stage multistring pv inverter with
an isolated high-frequency link and soft-switching operation," Power
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 29, no. 8, pp. 3919-3929, Aug
2014.
[51 S. Harb and R. S. Balog, "Reliability of candidate photovoltaic module
integrated-inverter (pv-mii) topologies-a usage model approach," Power
Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 3019-3027, 2013.
[6] J.-H. Lee, T.-J. Liang, and J.-F. Chen, "Isolated coupled-inductor
integrated dc-dc converter with nondissipative snubber for solar energy
applications," Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 61, no. 7,
pp. 3337-3348, July 2014.
[7] R-J. Wai, c.-y. Lin, R-Y. Duan, and Y.-R Chang, "High-efficiency
power conversion system for kilowatt-level stand-alone generation unit
with low input voltage," Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on,
vol. 55, no. 10, pp. 3702-3714, Oct 2008.
[81 M. Mohammadi, M. Mohammadian Behbahani, J. Milimonfared, and
M. Taheri, "New high step-up flyback-based zvs!zcs dc-dc converter;' in

CONCLUSION

This article proposed a novel module-integrated-based GPV

using a new high gain double input DC-DC converter with soft
switching for micro-grids applications. the proposed converter
used a low voltage DC-link to connect PVs to each other and
used them to achieve soft switching operation without using
extra inductive currents. To achieve high voltage gain by use of
low turns ratio of the boosting transformer, a voltage mUltiplier
which increases the voltage gain three times, was used that its
diodes operated in zero current switching condition due to
leakage inductance of the transformer. The characteristics of
the proposed converter was validated by experimental results.
REF ERENCES

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STC),

58