IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO.

3, MARCH 2011

897

A High-Efficiency PV Module-Integrated DC/DC

Converter for PV Energy Harvest
in FREEDM Systems
Zhigang Liang, Student Member, IEEE, Rong Guo, Member, IEEE, Jun Li, Student Member, IEEE,
and Alex Q. Huang, Fellow, IEEE

AbstractThe future renewable electric energy delivery and

management (FREEDM) system provides a dc interface for alternative energy sources. As a result, photovoltaic (PV) energy can be
easily delivered through a dc/dc converter to the FREEDM systems
dc bus. The module-integrated converter (MIC) topology is a good
candidate for a PV converter designed to work with the FREEDM
system. This paper compares the parallel connected dc MIC structure with its counterpart, the series connected MIC architecture.
From the presented analysis, the parallel connected architecture
was shown to have more advantages. In this paper, a high-efficiency
dual mode resonant converter topology is proposed for parallel connected dc MICs. This new resonant converter topology can change
resonant modes adaptively depending on the panel operation conditions. The converter achieves zero-voltage switching for primaryside switches and zero-current switching for secondary-side diodes
for both resonant modes. The circulation energy is minimized particularly for 550% of the rated power level. Thus, the converter
can maintain a high efficiency for a wide input range at different
output power levels. This study explains the operation principle of
the proposed converter and presents a dc gain analysis based on
the fundamental harmonic analysis method. A 240-W prototype
with an embedded maximum power point tracking controller was
built to evaluate the performance of the proposed converter. The
prototypes maximum efficiency reaches 96.5% and an efficiency
increase of more than 10% under light load conditions is shown
when compared with a conventional LLC resonant converter.
Index TermsDC-DC power converters, photovoltaic systems,
smart grid, solar power generation.

I. INTRODUCTION
HE global demand for electric energy has continuously
increased over the last few decades. Energy and the environment have become serious concerns in todays world [1].
Alternative sources of energy generation have drawn more and
more attention in recent years. Photovoltaic (PV) sources are

Manuscript received July 1, 2010; revised January 9, 2011; accepted January

10, 2011. Date of current version May 13, 2011. Recommended for publication
by Associate Editor J. M. Guerrero.
Z. Liang and A. Q. Huang are with the Future Renewable Electric Energy
Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
27695 USA (e-mail: zliang2@ncsu.edu; aqhuang@ncsu.edu).
R. Guo is with the International Rectifier Rhode Island Design Center,
Warwick, RI 02818 USA (e-mail: rguo1@irf.com).
J. Li is with the ABB U.S. Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC 27606
USA (e-mail: jun.li@us.abb.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2011.2107581

Fig. 1.

Part of the FREEDM system diagram.

predicted to become the biggest contributors to electricity generation among all renewable energy generation candidates by
2040 [2], [3]. In 2009, almost 7.5 GW of new PV capacity was
added worldwide and it is expected that the global installed PV
capacity could reach 10 GW in 2010 [4].
The large-scale utilization of renewable energy depends on
an advanced smart grid infrastructure where the users have the
ability to manage their energy consumption as well as use plugand-generate and plug-and-store energy devices at home and
in industrial applications [5], [6]. The future renewable electric
energy delivery and management (FREEDM) system is an intelligent electric power grid integrating highly distributed and
scalable alternative generating sources and storage with existing power systems to facilitate a renewable energy-based society [5]. The 400-V dc bus in the FREEDM system provides an
alternative interface for PV converters. Fig. 1 shows part of the
FREEDM system including an Intelligent Energy Management
(IEM) module. As a result, PV converters in a FREEDM system only need to have a dc/dc stage to interface with the dc bus.
Generally, this structure has several advantages.
1) Since the solid state transformer (SST) is the component
interfacing with electric grid, the PV converters controller
does not require a phase locked loop, current regulator, or
anti-islanding controller. Thus, the control task becomes
much simpler.
2) The PV converter can be comprised of a single power
stage.

0885-8993/$26.00 2011 IEEE

898

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

Fig. 2. Two types of dc MIC structure: (a) parallel connection and (b) series
connection.

Therefore, it is very possible to reduce the system cost for end

users. At present, significant research effort has been made to
improve the performance of PV converters [7][9]; PV moduleintegrated converters (MICs) are gaining increasing amounts of
attention due to their distinctive features [10][20].
1) The MIC is an integrated part of the PV panel. MICs remove losses due to the mismatch between panels and support panel level maximum power point tracking (MPPT).
For a string inverter or a centralized inverter, a string or
multistring of PV panels shares a single MPPT controller,
but the mismatch loss is serious in partial shading conditions [21]. Considering the mismatch loss together with
the dc/ac conversion loss contributing to the whole PV
system loss, string/centralized inverters may have lower
system efficiency than MICs due to higher mismatch loss
although they usually have higher dc/ac conversion efficiency than MICs.
2) Panel level hot-spot risk is removed [11] and panel lifetime can be improved. Hot spot takes place when a shaded
cell within a partially shaded panel becomes reverse biased and dissipates power in the form of heat [22]. For
series connected PV panels used with a string/centralized
inverter, a by-pass diode is added to each panel in practice.
For the MIC solution, the by-pass diode is not necessary
because each panel has its own MIC, leading to no direct
connection between PV panels.
3) Its plug and play feature simplifies system installation.
In summary, the MIC solution allows for more flexible PV
project planning and multifacet PV panel installation.
II. COMPARISON OF MICS IN SERIES AND
PARALLEL CONNECTIONS
Both dc MICs and ac MICs are available in the market. Only
dc MICs will be discussed in this paper, as they are suitable for
the FREEDM system. As shown in Fig. 2, dc MICs have two
kinds of connection structures. Fig. 2(a) shows a type I dc MIC
configuration, consisting of multiple parallel connected MICs
directly interfaced with a dc bus. Type II dc MICs, shown in
Fig. 2(b), need to form a series connection to obtain a voltage
high enough for interfacing with the dc bus. Generally, the power
rating of both types of dc MICs is around 200 W300 W.
The two system structures have different features. Table I
summarizes the comparison results of the two MIC structures:
the parallel connection is more flexible due to its stronger an-

tipartial cloud capability, and the fact that any single failure of
an MIC will not impact any other part of the system. As a result,
MICs in a parallel configuration have higher fault tolerance and
reliability that make them more promising for PV application in
a FREEDM system. However, the high gain requirement usually
compromises its efficiency.
The topologies suitable for this application can be categorized
into two groups: nonisolated topologies and isolated topologies.
For nonisolated topologies, boost, buckboost, zeta, cuk, or their
derivatives [23][32] are commonly used. Isolated topologies
mainly include flyback [33][39], current-fed pushpull [40],
[41], and resonant converters [42], [43]. The typical maximum
efficiency of these converters is around 8097% [10][12], [19].
Among these topologies, the half-bridge LLC resonant converter is a good candidate due to its several unique advantages [44][46]. However, it is difficult for an LLC resonant
converter to maintain high efficiency for a wide input range under different load conditions. In this paper, a new resonant dc/dc
converter with dual operation modes is proposed. By changing operation modes adaptively according to VPV and PPV , the
converters efficiency is improved.

III. OPERATION PRINCIPLE OF THE NEW

RESONANT CONVERTER
Fig. 3 shows a circuit diagram of the proposed resonant converter. S1 and S2 are two power MOSFETs; DS 1 , CS 1 and
DS 2 , CS 2 are the body diodes and parasitic capacitances of S1
and S2 , respectively. Cr is the resonant capacitor; Lr and Lm
are the magnetizing inductance of transformers Tx2 and Tx1 ,
respectively. Llkg is the sum of the leakage inductance of Tx1
and Tx2 . D1 , D2 and Co1 , Co2 form a voltage doubler at the
secondary side of Tx1 . A half-wave rectifier (HWR) formed by
D3 , S3 , D4 , and CO 3 is added to the secondary side of transformer Tx2 . Diode D3 blocks the conductive path of the body
diode of S3 . Thus, D3 and S3 form a unidirectional switch to enable or disable the HWR. When the HWR is enabled, the HWR
and voltage doubler will support the 400-V dc bus with their
summed outputs. Table II summarizes the operation modes for
the proposed converter and Vth is a predefined threshold voltage that is usually equal to the nominal voltage Vnom . For the
first three operation conditions listed in Table II, the HWR is
disabled by turning off switch S3 . As a result, the converter
behaves like a traditional LLC resonant converter with a voltage
doubler [46]: an equivalent resonant inductor Lr , comprised of
Lr and Llkg , participates in the resonant circuit formed by Lm
and Cr . Diode D4 is conducting to provide a path for the load
current. Once VPV is smaller than Vth and PPV is lower than
50% of the rated power (Prated ), the PV panel is working under
condition #4 and the converter will operate in Mode II.
For one switching period, the operation of the converter in
Mode II can be divided into nine stages. The equivalent circuit
for each stage is shown in Fig. 4 and its key waveforms are
depicted in Fig. 5. For the description of circuit operation (and
for the subsequent dc gain derivation in the next section), the
following assumptions are made.

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

899

TABLE I
COMPARISON OF TWO TYPES OF DC MIC STRUCTURE

Fig. 3.

Circuit diagram of the proposed resonant converter.

TABLE II
SUMMARY OF OPERATION MODES FOR THE PROPOSED RESONANT CONVERTER

1) All the components are ideal. The body diodes and parasitic capacitance of S1 and S2 have been taken into account. The output capacitors have equal values (Co1 =
Co2 = Co3 ).
2) Inductor Llkg includes the leakage inductance of TX 1 and
TX 2 ; it also includes the wire parasitic inductance.

3) The turn ratio NT X 2 (Npri : Nsec ) of transformer TX 2 is

the half of NT X 1 . Define NT X 2 = 1/2 NT X 1 = N .
The operation processes of Mode II are specified as follows.
Stage 1 (t0 t1 ): When S2 is turned off at t = t0 , stage 1 begins. Since Ipri is negative, capacitor Cs2 (Cs1 ) will be charged
(discharged) and the switching node voltage Vsw will increase
accordingly. Inductors Lm , Lr , and Llkg are all in resonance
with Cr . Vcr continues to decrease and no current flows through
the secondary side of either transformer. The output capacitors
Co1 , Co2 together with Co3 supply the load current and VC o1
VC o3 all decrease in this period.
Stage 2 (t1 t2 ): At time t = t1 , Vsw reaches Vpv . Ds1 is
forward biased and starts to conduct a current Ipri . Ipri starts
to decrease. Once Ipri becomes smaller than the magnetizing
currents IL r and IL m , the resonance of [Lm , Lr , Llkg ] and Cr

900

Fig. 4.

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

Equivalent circuits for each operation stage (Mode II operation).

is stopped. Lr and Lm will be out of the resonance following

this. The difference between Ipri and IL m will flow in the secondary side of Tx1 . Similarly, the secondary side of Tx2 will
conduct the current difference between Ipri and IL r . Thus, the
voltage across the primary side of Tx1 and Tx2 is clamped by
Vout . IL r and IL m start to decrease linearly.
Stage 3 (t2 t4 ): This stage begins when S1 is turned on at t =
t2 . At this moment, the primary-side current Ipri is negative and
flows through the body diode of S1 . Thus, ZVS turn on of S1
can be achieved at t2 . The current Ipri continues to decrease and

changes its direction at t = t3 . The leakage inductor Llkg still

resonates with Cr , and Ipri keeps increasing. The magnetizing
currents IL r and IL m continue to increase with the same slope
as in Mode 2. The rectifier diodes D1 and D3 conduct current
and power is delivered to the load. This stage ends when Ipri is
equal to IL m .
Stage 4 (t4 t5 ): At t = t4 , Ipri and IL m are equal. The output
current of the transformer Tx1 reaches zero. Transformer Tx1 s
secondary voltage is lower than the output voltage. The output
is separated from transformer Tx1 . Meanwhile, since Ipri is still

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

901

balance of the transformers Tx1 and Tx2 has still been preserved.
Further, if a full-wave rectifier (FWR) is added instead of the
HWR, Ipri will become symmetrical and the other characteristics of the converter will remain. The theoretical analysis of
the aforementioned Mode II operation has been verified by the
simulation with Simetrix. Fig. 6 shows the simulation results
of the proposed converter with following operation conditions:
Vpv = 22 V, Vout = 400 V, Pout = 120 W (50% of Prated ), fs =
83 kHz.
IV. DC GAIN ANALYSIS FOR THE PROPOSED CONVERTER
OPERATION IN MODE II

Fig. 5.

Key waveforms of the proposed converter (Mode II operation).

larger than IL r , the output current of Tx2 is not zero and power
is delivered to the load through Tx2 . During this stage, Lm
participates into the resonance again and the resonance between
[Llkg , Lm ] and Cr begins.
Stage 5 (t5 t6 ): Switch S1 is turned off at t = t5 . The current
Ipri is positive and switching node voltage will decrease due to
charging (discharging) of Cs1 (Cs2 ).
Stage 6 (t6 t7 ): At time t = t6 , Vsw drops to zero that causes
the conduction of the body diode Ds2 . With the drop of Vsw , the
voltage applied to Lm (VL m ) decreases to zero and continues to
become more negative. Once VL m is higher than a certain level,
diode D2 on the secondary side of Tx1 will be forward biased.
Thus, the voltage applied to Lm is clamped and IL m will drop
linearly. Lm is out of resonance with Cr . Instead, only Llkg
resonates with Cr and Ipri decreases steeply. This stage ends
when IL r is equal to Ipri .
Stage 7 (t7 t8 ): At time t = t7 , IL r is equal to Ipri ; no
more current will flow in the secondary side of Tx2 . The output
is separated from Tx2 . D3 is turned off with ZCS. The voltage
applied to Lr is not clamped and Lr participates in the resonance
again with Cr and Llkg . The current Ipri is positive and continues
to flow through Ds2 , which creates the ZVS condition for S2 if
S2 is turned on at this moment.
Stage 8 (t8 t10 ): At t = t8 , S2 is turned on with ZVS. The
current Ipri continues to decrease due to the resonance between
[Lr , Llkg ] and Cr . The transformer Tx1 delivers power to the
output. This stage ends when current Ipri = IL m .
Stage 9 (t10 t11 ): At t = t9 , Ipri = IL m . No more current will
flow in the secondary side of Tx1 . The voltage applied to Lm
is not clamped anymore and Lm participates in the resonance
again with Lr , Llkg , and Cr . At t = t11 , S2 is turned off and a
new switching cycle begins.
From the aforementioned analysis, the energy transferred by
Tx1 and Tx2 is different. The positive and negative parts of the
current Ipri are not symmetrical. However, the voltage-second

Understanding of the dc gain characteristic for a resonant converter has equal importance as knowing its operation principle.
Since the dc gain characteristic for Mode I operation is the same
as LLC resonant converter, only Mode II operation requires a
new analysis to be developed. The fundamental harmonic analysis (FHA) method is widely used for dc gain analysis of resonant
converters [47][50] and it is also valid for the analysis developed in this paper. This approach is based on the assumption
that the power transfer from the source to the load through the
resonant tank is almost completely dependent on the fundamental harmonic of the Fourier expansion of the currents and the
voltage involved. The voltage at the input of the two rectifiers
Vosq (t) can be expressed as
Vosq (t) = Vab (t) + Vcd (t)

(1)

where Vab (t) and Vcd (t) are the secondary-side terminal voltages of transformers TX 2 and TX 1 (see Fig. 3). Like the conventional LLC resonant converter, the current in the secondary
side is quasi-sinusoidal and the voltage Vosq (t) reverses when
the current becomes zero. Therefore, Vosq (t) is an alternative
square wave in phase with the rectifier current. The Fourier
expression of Vosq (t) is
 1
4
sin(n2fsw t).
(2)
Vosq (t) = Vout

n
n =1,3,5,...
For convenience, the phase angle of Vosq (t) is assumed to be
zero in (2). Its fundamental component Vo FHA (t) is
4
Vout sin(2fsw t).
(3)

The rms amplitude of Vo FHA (t) is

2 2
Vout .
(4)
Vo FHA =

Define the fundamental part of the rectifier current to be

(5)
irect (t) = 2Irect sin(2fsw t).
Vo

Vo

FHA (t)

The phase angle of Irect is also zero since it is in phase with

FHA (t). Thus, the average value of Iout can be calculated as

 TSW
2
2
2 2Irect
.
(6)
Iout =
irect (t)dt =
TSW 0

Iout can be expressed as

Iout =

Vout
.
Rout

(7)

902

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

Fig. 6.

Simulation results of the proposed converter operating in Mode II.

Fig. 7.

Equivalent FHA resonant circuit model for the proposed converter operation in Mode II.

Equation (8) can be derived by combining (6) and (7) as

follows:

2Vout
Irect =
.
(8)
4Rout
Insert (8) into (5)



2Vout
Vout
sin(2fsw t) =
sin(2fsw t).
irect (t) = 2
4Rout
2Rout
(9)
The equivalent ac output impedance Ro ac can be derived by
combining (4) and (8) as follows:
Ro

ac

Vo FHA
8Rout
=
.
Irect
2

(10)

The expression for Ro ac is the same as the one for a conventional LLC resonant converter. With the known Ro ac , the equivalent FHA resonant circuit model can be obtained, as shown in
Fig. 7.
In this model, Vi FHA is the rms value of the fundamental
component of the voltage at the switching node SW (VSW ). The
voltage VSW is generated by the controlled switches S1 and S2 .
The output current Iout is produced from Irect after the rectifier
network and filter capacitors. From a turn ratio perspective, the
conversion gain of a transformer with turn ratio 2N followed
by a voltage doubler is equal to a transformer with turn ratio N .
Therefore, transformer Tx1 together with voltage doubler can be

substituted by an equivalent transformer Txe with turn ratio N .

The resulting expression for the dc gain of the converter can be
derived through a circuit analysis based on the model in Fig. 7.
Define the dc gain
N Vo FHA
.
Vi FHA

(11)

 1
2
Vdc
+ Vdc
sin(n2fsw t).
2

n
n =1,3,5,...

(12)

M=
Consider
VSW (t) =
vi

FHA (t)

is the fundamental part of VSW (t)

vi

Vi

FHA

FHA (t)

2
Vdc sin(2fsw t).

(13)

can be derived as follows:

Vi

FHA (t) =

2
Vdc .

(14)

Combining with (4), (11), and (14), the input-to-output voltage conversion ratio is
Vout
1
|M | .
=
Vdc
2N

(15)

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

903

From the FHA model, Zout is the impedance seen from the
primary side of the two transformers
Zout =

N 2 Ro ac Lm r S
N 2 Ro ac + Lm r S

(16)

where Lm r = Lm + Lr . The dc gain M can be derived as

follows:
Zout
.
(17)
M (S) =
(1/S Cr ) + S Llkg + Zout
By substituting S = j2fSW , the amplitude of M (S) is, as
shown (18), at the bottom of this page.
For convenience, (18) can be rewritten as
1
M (fn ) = 
. (19)
2
2
(1 + (/fn )) + Q2 (fn (1/fn ))2
The parameters in (19) are defined as follows:
fr =
Q=

1

2 Llkg Cr
N2

Z0
Ro

fn =

f SW
.
fr

(20)
(21)

ac

Llkg
Lm + Lr

Llkg
Z0 =
Cr
=

(22)
(23)
(24)

Equations (19)(24) reveal the dc gain characteristics for

Mode II operation. It is interesting that Mode II operation has
similar dc gain expression to Mode I but with different parameters for the resonant tank. A series of example of dc gain curves
of Mode II operation under different load conditions (with different Q values) are plotted in Fig. 8. For very light load conditions
(small Q), the gain has a large peak. On the contrary, the gain
becomes flat under heavy load conditions (large Q). Similar to
an LLC converter, the dc characteristic of Mode II operation
can be divided into ZVS and ZCS regions, and the converter
should be prevented from entering the ZCS region. With proper
choice of the resonant tank, Mode II operation can stay in the
ZVS region for Vpv and Ppv variations. The ZVS region can be
further divided into regions I and II due to slightly operation
differences. In practical designs, the converter has unity gain at
Vpv = Vnom and the converter enters Mode II operation only
when Vpv Vnom . Therefore, it is impossible for the proposed
resonant converter to work in region I after entering Mode II
operation. Mode II operation can only be active in region II.
Furthermore, the discussion about Mode II operation in the last
section is dedicated for region II. On the contrary, Mode I operation can only be active in region I (see Fig. 9) because the
required dc gain should be lower than 1 in Mode I (Vpv > Vnom ).
M=

Fig. 8. Series of example of dc gain curves of a new resonant converter with

different Q value (Mode II).

Fig. 9. Series of example of dc gain curves for a new resonant converter with
different Q value (Mode I).

V. DC GAIN VERIFICATION AND COMPARISON

To verify the dc gain expression derived in section IV, a
series of simulations have been performed for different Vpv for
a given load condition. The converters switching frequency fs
is recorded. Equation (19) is used to calculate the dc gain result
at a given fs for the same operation condition. Through the
comparison between the dc gain from simulation (Msimulation )
and the theoretical analysis result (Mcalculation ), the accuracy
of (19) can be evaluated. Table III shows the comparison results
for a 50% load condition where Msimulation is defined by
Msimulation =

Vout N
.
Vpv /2

(25)

From Table III, Mcalculation matches with Msimulation very

well. Therefore, (19) is accurate enough for engineering design
of the proposed converter. Furthermore, a comparison of the dc
gain between Mode I and II operations is conducted in order to
reveal the general dc gain features of the proposed converter.

2 N 2
32 2 Cr Lm r Rout fSW
2 N 2 8R
2
3
2
2
2 2
3
5
2
(32 2 Cr Lm r Rout fSW
out N + 32 Cr Llkg Rout fSW N ) + (2 Lm r fSW + 8 Cr Lm r Llkg fSW )

(18)

904

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

TABLE III
DC GAIN COMPARISON BETWEEN SIMULATION AND CALCULATION

TABLE IV
LIST OF PARAMETERS OF THE PROPOSED CONVERTER FOR GAIN ANALYSIS

The normalized frequency fn has a different base for Mode I

and II operations since they have different fr :
fn

M o deI

fSW
fr

M o deI

where fr
fn

M o deII

fSW
fr

M o deI

1

2 (Llkg + Lr ) Cr

, where fr

M o deII

M o deII

(26)

1

.
2 Llkg Cr
(27)

For further analysis, fn needs to be unified using the same

base, for fn M o deI :
fn

M o deI

fSW
fr

M o deII

= fn

M o deII

fr M o deII
fr M o deI

fr M o deII
= fn
fr M o deI

M o deII .

(28)

Both the dc gain expressions for Modes I and II can be written

as functions of fn M o deII , as shown (29) and (30), at the bottom
of this page.
Table IV gives the resonant tank parameters for example design. For comparison, the equations for calculating several key
parameters are also listed in Table IV. The gain curves for the
two operation modes can be plotted in the same figure, as shown
in Fig. 10.
From Fig. 10, the two curves reach their peaks at the same
frequency fn M defined by
fn

fM
fn

M o deII

1

2 (Lr + Llkg + Lm ) Cr fn

Fig. 10.

2) The frequency difference becomes larger with higher input

voltage. Fig. 10 takes Vpv = 22 V and Vpv = 32 V as examples. It shows the switching frequency almost doubles
if the converter operates in Mode II with 32-V input.
3) The gain curve of Mode II becomes much flatter at high
frequency. The gain is almost constant and stops decreasing. Considering that higher Vm pp requires smaller dc
gain, this implies that the PV panel voltage may be out of
regulation in Mode II when Vm pp is too high. Therefore,
it is reasonable to keep the converter operating in Mode I
when Vm pp is higher than a certain value.

.
M o deII

(31)
Similar to the LLC resonant converter, operation in the region
where fn < fn M is forbidden. In the region fn M < fn <
f0 , MM o deI is always higher than MM o deII . On the contrary,
MM o deI becomes lower than MM o deII in region fn > f0 . For
a desired dc gain in the latter region, the following conclusion
can be drawn.
1) Mode II operation needs a higher switching frequency
than Mode I operation.

MM o deI (fn
MM o deII (fn

M o deII )

M o deII )

=
=

(1 + M o deI (M o deI /( fn

DC gain comparison between Modes I and II at 50% rated power.

M odeII

)2 ))2

1
+ Q2M o deI ( fn

M o deII

(1/ fn

1
(1 + M o deII

(M o deII /fn2

M odeII

))2

+ Q2M o deII (fn

M odeII

(1/fn

.
))2
M odeII

M odeII

))2

(29)
(30)

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

TABLE V
CIRCUIT PARAMETERS FOR EXPERIMENT

905

TABLE VI
LOSS BREAKDOWN OF THE PROPOSED CONVERTER IN MODE II WITH 10% OF
P ra te d (V pv 32 V)

TABLE VII
LOSS BREAKDOWN OF THE LLC CONVERTER WITH 10% OF P ra te d
(V pv 32 V)

Fig. 11. Efficiency improvement of the proposed converter in Mode II

operation.

VI. DESIGN EXAMPLE AND EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS

The MIC will be operated with PV panels that normally have
Vm pp of around 2240 V. Vnom for this design is 32 V and
Prated is equal to 240 W. The transformer primary side is the
low-voltage side and it has high resonant current circulating.
In order to minimize the conduction loss, a 75-V MOSFET
with low Rdson is preferred and multistrand Litz wire should be
used to reduce the ac resistance of the primary winding of the
transformer. There is no strict limitation on volume and size for
MICs. Thus, a lower switching frequency fs (<200 kHz) can
be adopted to benefit the converter efficiency.
Table V gives component parameters for the MIC prototype.
The threshold voltage Vth for operation mode decision is chosen
to be equal to Vnom . One can design Cr , Lr , Lm , and Tx1
with a conventional design procedure for an LLC converter.
Then, a secondary winding is added to Lr such that it forms
the transformer Tx2 . The devices D3 , D4 , and S3 in HWR
have the same current rating as D1 and D2 in voltage doubler.
Considering that a practical transformer has a certain leakage
inductance, the value of Llkg can be chosen to be 515% of
(Lr + Lm ).
A comprehensive loss analysis has been conducted to evaluate the efficiency of the designed converter. For comparison,
the efficiency of a traditional LLC resonant converter with the
same circuit parameters is also analyzed. Their efficiency difference is plotted in Fig. 11 for 550% of Prated . The efficiency

Fig. 12. System diagram for the experiment with a work flow chart for the
dc/dc controller.

Fig. 13.

Picture of a 240-W MIC prototype.

906

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

Fig. 14. Waveforms of an MIC prototype: (a) Mode I (ch1: 10 V/div; ch4: 10 A/div; t = 4 s) and (b) Mode II (ch1: 50 V/div; ch2: 200 V/div; ch3: 1 A/div;
ch4: 10 A/div).

Fig. 15. Waveforms to verify the ZVS operation in Mode II (ch1: 10 V/div; ch2: 20 V/div; ch4: 10 A/div). (a) V in = 22 V, 20% of P ra te d (verify upper side
switch ZVS) and (b) V in = 22 V, 20% of P ra te d (verify lower side switch ZVS).

improvement drops when Ppv increases. When Ppv approaches

50% of Prated , the efficiency improvement is reduced to almost
zero. Therefore, there is no benefit to keep converter running
in Mode II when Ppv > 50% of Prated and mode change is
required.
To get a better understanding of the efficiency improvement
in Mode II operation, a loss breakdown is conducted for both
Mode II operation and normal LLC operation with Vpv < 32 V
and Ppv = 10% of Prated . Tables VI and VII give the analysis
results. As discussed in the previous section, Mode II operation
will increase the switching frequency. Thus, the switching loss
of MOSFET may increase due to the increase in the number of
switching events. However, the data in Table VI show a significant decrease in the total switching loss. This is because higher
frequency operation leads to a much lower resonant current
through the MOSFET during its turn-off event. Due to the same
reason, the MOSFET conduction loss and transformer copper
loss are also greatly reduced. Moreover, the higher frequency

operation reduces the transformer core loss by causing smaller

variation of the magnetic field strength in a switching period.
As a result, the total loss is dramatically reduced by Mode II
operation.
VII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
An experimental prototype has been built to verify the performance of the proposed converter. Fig. 12 depicts the system
diagram for experiment and Fig. 13 shows a picture of the prototype. An MPPT controller implemented in a microcontroller
will provide a reference voltage Vpv ref that will be used by the
dc/dc controller to determine the converters operation mode
based on the criteria described in Table II. The dc/dc controller
will check Vpv and Ppv every few minutes and its operation
follows the work flow chart in Fig. 12.
Fig. 14 shows the operation waveforms of MIC prototype in
Modes I and II. In Mode II, only the positive part of current

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

907

converters performance have been validated by the experiment

results from a 240-W prototype. Future work includes the completion of an advanced energy controller design for the MIC that
can receive commands from the IEM and allows for a flexible
control of the power generation profile.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Fig. 16. Measured efficiency improvements with HWR (Mode II) for 550%
of P ra te d (V pv 32 V).

The authors would like to thank Edward Van Brunts help

during the manuscript revision. This work made use of ERC
shared facilities supported by the National Science Foundation
under Award Number EEC-0812121.
REFERENCES

Fig. 17.

Efficiency measurement results for the designed MIC prototype.

Isec TX1 will flow through the HWR. Since Isec TX1 returns to
zero before each half cycle ends, ZCS turn off of diodes D1 D3
is realized. Fig. 15 verifies the ZVS feature of the proposed
converter for Mode II operation. It clearly shows that ZVS turn
on is achieved for both the high-side and the low-side MOSFETs
in Mode II.
The efficiency of the proposed converter under different Vpv
and Ppv is measured in the experiment. For comparison, the efficiency of operation without the HWR (normal LLC operation) is
also recorded. Fig. 16 shows the efficiency difference between
Mode II operation and normal LLC operation. From Fig. 16,
the maximum efficiency improvement happens at 5% of Prated
for all input conditions. For this condition, over 10% improvement is achieved. With an increase of the load, the efficiency
improvement drops. Fig. 17 gives the complete efficiency data
for the MIC prototype. A high efficiency of 96.5% occurs in
Mode II with Vpv = 32 V and Ppv = 50% of Prated . The highest
weighted efficiency is 95.8% in the experiment.
VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
The PV converters can take advantage of the 400-V dc bus
in FREEDM systems to reduce its complexity as well as costs
to the end user. The parallel connected dc MICs are good candidates for this application. In this paper, a high-efficiency dual
mode resonant converter topology is proposed for dc MICs. The
new resonant converter can change resonant modes adaptively
depending on the PV panel operation conditions. A detailed
theoretical analysis of the converter operation and its dc gain
features is presented in this paper. The analysis and the new

[1] B. K. Bose, Global warming: Energy, environmental pollution, and the

impact of power electronics, IEEE Ind. Electron. Mag., vol. 4, no. 1,
pp. 617, Mar. 2010.
[2] European Renewable Energy Council (2004, May). Renewable Energy
Scenario to 2040 [Online]. Available: http://www.erec-renewables.org/
documents/targets_2040/EREC_Scenario%202040.pdf
[3] Q. Li and P. Wolfs, A review of the single phase photovoltaic module integrated converter topologies with three different DC link configurations,
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 13201333, May 2008.
[4] IMS Research. (2010, Apr. 15). [Online]. Available: http://www.pv-tech.
org/lib/printable/8848/
[5] A. Q. Huang, Renewable energy system research and education at the
NSF FREEDM systems center, in Proc. IEEE Power Energy Soc. (PES)
Gen. Meeting, Calgary, AB, Canada, 2009, pp. 16.
[6] H. Laaksonen, Protection principles for future microgrids, IEEE Trans.
Power Electron., vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 29102918, Dec. 2010.
[7] Y. Fang and X. Ma, A novel PV micro-inverter with coupled inductors
and double boost topology, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. PP, no. 99,
p. 1, 2010.
[8] B. Yang, W. Li, Y. Zhao, and X. He, Design and analysis of a gridconnected photovoltaic power system, IEEE Trans. Power Electron.,
vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 9921000, Apr. 2010.
[9] T. Kerekes, M. Liserre, R. Teodorescu, C. Klumpner, and M. Sumner,
Evaluation of three-phase transformerless photovoltaic inverter topologies, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 22022211, Sep.
2009.
[10] S. B. Kjaer, J. K. Pedersen, and F. Blaabjerg, A review of single-phase
grid-connected inverters for photovoltaic modules, IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 12921306, Sep./Oct. 2005.
[11] S. B. Kjaer, J. K. Pedersen, and F. Blaabjerg, Power inverter topologies
for photovoltaic modulesa review, in Proc. IEEE Ind. Appl. Soc. (IAS)
Annu. Meeting, Dec. 2002, vol. 2, pp. 782788.
[12] J. M. A. Myrzik and M. Calais, String and module integrated inverters for
single-phase grid connected photovoltaic systemsA review, presented
at the IEEE Power Tech. Conf., Bologna, Italy, 2003.
[13] Q. Li and P. Worlfs, A review of the single phase photovoltaic module integrated converter topologies with three different DC link configurations,
IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 13201333, May 2008.
[14] Y. Xue, L. Chang, S. B. Kjaer, J. Bordonau, and T. Shimizu, Topologies of single-phase inverters for small distributed power generators: An
overview, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 13051314,
Sep. 2004.
[15] W.-Y. Choi, B.-H. Kwon, and J.-S. Lai, High-efficiency grid-connected
photovoltaic module integrated converter system, in Proc. IEEE . 35th
Annu. Conf. Ind. Electron. (IECON), Porto, Portugal, 2009.
[16] E. Roman, R. Alonso, P. Ibanez, S. Elorduizapatarietxe, and D. Goitia,
Intelligent PV module for grid-connected PV systems, IEEE Trans.
Ind. Appl., vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 10661073, Jun. 2006.
[17] G. R. Walker and J. C. Pierce, Photovoltaic DCDC module integrated
converter for novel cascaded and bypass grid connection topologies-design
and optimization, in Proc. IEEE 37th Power Electron. Spec. Conf.
(PESC), Jun. 2006, pp. 17.
[18] G. R. Walker and P. C. Sernia, Cascaded DCDC converter connection
of photovoltaic modules, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 19, no. 4,
pp. 11301139, Jul. 2004.
[19] B. Liu, C. Liang, and S. Duan, Design considerations and topology
selection for dc-module-based building integrated photovoltaic system,

908

[20]
[21]
[22]

[23]

[24]
[25]
[26]
[27]
[28]
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
[33]
[34]
[35]

[36]

[37]

[38]
[39]
[40]
[41]

[42]

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 26, NO. 3, MARCH 2011

in Proc. 3rd IEEE Conf. Ind. Electron. Appl. (ICIEA), Jun. 2008, pp. 1066
1070.
Solar Edge System Overview. (Jan. 2011). [Online]. Available:
http://www.solaredge.com/files/pdfs/se_system_overview.pdf
R. A. Messenger and J. Ventre, Photovoltaic Systems Engineering,
2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2003.
W. Herrmann, W. Wiesner, and W. Vaassen, Hot spot investigation on PV
modulesNew concepts for a test standard and consequences for module
design with respect to bypass diodes, in Proc. 26th IEEE Photovoltaic
Spec. Conf. (PSC), Sep./Oct. 1997, pp. 11291132.
T. Boutot and L. Chang, Development of a single-phase inverter for
small wind turbines, in Proc. IEEE Canadian Conf. Electrical Computer
Engineering (CCECE98), Waterloo, ON, Canada, May 2428, pp. 305
308.
R. O. Caceres and I. Barbi, A boost dcac converter: Analysis, design, and
experimentation, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 134
141, Jan. 1999.
S. Saha and V. P. Sundarsingh, Novel grid-connected photovoltaic inverter, in Proc. Inst. Elect. Eng., Mar. 1996, vol. 143, pp. 219224.
F. Kang, C. Kim, S. Park, and H. Park, Interface circuit for photovoltaic
system based on buckboost currentsource PWM inverter, in Proc. IEEE
Ind. Electron. Conf. (IECON), 2002, pp. 32573261.
K. Chomsuwan, P. Prisuwanna, and V. Monyakul, Photovoltaic grid connected inverter using two-switch buckboost converter, in Proc. IEEE
Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., 2002, pp. 15271530.
S. Funabiki, T. Tanaka, and T. Nishi, A new buckboost-operation-based
sinusoidal inverter circuit, in Proc. IEEE Power Electronics Spec. Conf.
(PESC), 2002, pp. 16241629.
J. Myrzik, Static converter unit for photovoltaic or single-phase applications, German Patent DE 19603823A1, Aug. 14, 1996.
J. M. A. Myrzik, Power conditioning of low-voltage generators with
transformerless grid connected inverter topologies, in Proc. Eur. Conf.
Power Electron. Appl., 1997, pp. 2.6252.630.
J. Myrzik and P. Zacharias, New inverter technology and harmonic distortion problems in modular PV systems, in Proc. Eur. Photovoltaic Solar
Energy Conf. Exhib., 1997, pp. 22072210.
J. M. A. Myrzik, Novel inverter topologies for single-phase standalone or
grid-connected photovoltaic systems, in Proc. Power Electronics Drive
Systems (PEDS), 2001, pp. 103108.
D. C. Martins and R. Demonti, Photovoltaic energy processing for utility
connected system, in Proc. IEEE Ind.l Electron. Soc. (IECON), 2001,
pp. 12921296.
D. C. Martins and R. Demonti, Grid connected PV system using two
energy processing stages, in Proc. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf., 2002,
pp. 16491652.
T. Shimizu, K. Wada, and N. Nakamura, A flyback-type single phase
utility interactive inverter with low-frequency ripple current reduction on
the DC input for an AC photovoltaic module system, in Proc. IEEE Power
Electron. Spec. Conf. (PESC), 2002, pp. 14831488.
T. Shimizu, K. Wada, and N. Nakamura, Flyback-type single-phase utility
interactive inverter with power pulsation decoupling on the dc input for an
ac photovoltaic module system, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 21,
no. 5, pp. 12641272, Sep. 2006.
N. P. Papanikolaou, E. C. Tatakis, A. Critsis, and D. Klimis, Simplified
high frequency converters in decentralized grid-connected PV systems:
A novel low-cost solution, in Proc. Eur. Conf. Power Electron. Appl.,
[CD-ROM], 2003.
N. Kasa, T. Iida, and A. K. S. Bhat, Zero-voltage transition flyback
inverter for small scale photovoltaic power system, in Proc. IEEE Power
Electron. Spec. Conf. (PESC), 2005, pp. 20982103.
A. Fernandez, J. Sebastian, M. M. Hernando, M. Arias, and G. Perez, Single stage inverter for a direct ac connection of a photovoltaic cell module,
in Proc. IEEE Power Electron. Spec. Conf. (PESC), 2006, pp. 9398.
S.-J. Jang, C.-Y. Won, B.-K. Lee, and J. Hur, Fuel cell generation system
with a new active clamping current-fed half-bridge converter, IEEE
Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 332340, Jun. 2007.
S.-K. Han, H.-K. Yoon, G.-W. Moon, M.-J. Youn, Y.-H. Kim, and
K.-H. Lee, A new active clamping zero-voltage switching PWM currentfed half-bridge converter, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 20, no. 6,
pp. 12711279, Nov. 2005.
M. Meinhardt, T. ODonnell, H. Schneider, J. Flannery, C. O. Mathuna,
P. Zacharias, and T. Krieger, Miniaturised low profile module integrated converter for photovoltaic applications with integrated magnetic
components, in Proc. IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference Exposition (APEC), Mar. 1999, vol. 1, pp. 305311.

[43] A. Lohner, T. Meyer, and A. Nagel, A new panel-integratable inverter

concept for grid-connected photovoltaic systems, in Proc. IEEE Int.
Symp. Ind. Electron. (ISIE), vol. 2, Warsaw, Poland, Jun. 1996, pp. 827
831.
[44] B. Lu et al., Optimal design methodology for LLC resonant converter, in
Proc. IEEE 21st Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo. (APEC-06), pp. 1923.
[45] B. Yang, Topology investigation for front end DC/DC power conversion
for distributed power system, Ph.D. dissertation, Virginia Polytech. Inst.
State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, 2003.
[46] Y. Gu, L. Hang, Z. Lu, Z. Qian, and D. Xu, Voltage doubler application
in isolated resonant converters, in Proc. IEEE 31st Annu. Conf. Ind.
Electron. Soc. (IECON), Nov. 2005, pp. 11841188.
[47] R. W. Erickson and D. Maksimovic, Fundamentals of Power Electronics,
2nd ed. Springer Science+Business Media, 2001.
[48] J. F. Lazar and R. Martinelli, Steady-state analysis of the LLC series
resonant converter, in Proc. IEEE 16th Annu. Conf. Appl. Power Electron.
Conf. Expo. (APEC), Anaheim, CA, Mar. 2001, pp. 728735.
[49] S. De Simone, C. Adragna, C. Spini, and G. Gattavari, Design-oriented
steady-state analysis of LLC resonant converters based on FHA, in Proc.
Int. Symp. Power Electron., Electr. Drives, Autom. Motion (SPEEDAM),
2006, pp. 1623.
[50] Application Notes, Half-bridge LLC resonant converter design using
FSFR-series Fairchild Power Switch (FPS), Application Note AN-4151
(2007). [Online]. Available: http://www.fairchildsemi.com/an/AN/AN4151.pdf
[51] T. Esram and P. L. Chapman, Comparison of photovoltaic array maximum
power point tracking techniques, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 22,
no. 2, pp. 439449, Jun. 2007.

Zhigang Liang (S10) was born in Sichuan, China,

in 1981. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electrical engineering from Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China, in 2003 and 2006, respectively.
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree
in the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery
and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center, North
Carolina State University, Raleigh.
From 2006 to 2007, he was a System Engineer with
Monolithic Power Systems (MPS), Inc., Hangzhou,
China. His research interests include high-efficiency
power conversion, micro inverters and MICs for Photovoltaic applications, and
energy management in dc microgrid.

Rong Guo (M10) was born in Hunan, China, in

1982. She received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and automation from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China, in 2003, the M.S. degree in power
electronics from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou,
China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, in 2010.
She is currently an Application Engineer at the
Rhode Island IC Design Center, International Rectier,
Warwick, RI, engaged on the denition and application of multiphase dc/dc converter ICs for servers and desktop computers. Her
research interests include high-frequency power conversion, analog IC design,
and lighting technology.

LIANG et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY PV MODULE-INTEGRATED DC/DC CONVERTER FOR PV ENERGY HARVEST IN FREEDM SYSTEMS

Jun Li (S07) was born in Liaoning, China, in 1981.

He received the B.S. degree in automation from
Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, in 2004, the M.S.
degree in power electronics from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 2006, and the Ph.D. degree
in power electronics from North Carolina State University, Raleigh, in 2010.
He is currently a Senior R&D Engineer in ABB
U.S. Corporate Research Center, Raleigh, NC. His
research interests include topology and control of
high-power multilevel converters for MV drives and
renewable energy generation.

909

Alex Q. Huang (S91M94SM96F05) received

the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1983, the
M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the
Chengdu Institute of Radio Engineering, Chengdu,
China, in 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from
Cambridge University, Cambridge, U.K., in 1992.
From 1994 to 2004, he was a Professor with the
Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg.
Since 2004, he has been a Professor of Electrical
Engineering with North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh, and the
Director of NCSUs Semiconductor Power Electronics Center. He is also the
Progress Energy Distinguished Professor and the Director of the new National
Science Foundations Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management Systems, Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh. His research
areas are power management, emerging applications of power electronics, and
power semiconductor devices. He has published more than 200 papers in journals and conference proceedings, and holds 14 U.S. patents.
Prof. Huang is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the prestigious
R&D 100 Award.