A Multilevel Boost Converter with Reduced Inductor Current

DC–DC converters are gaining attention due to their importance in key applications like renewable energy generation. A desirable feature in new DC–DC converters is a reduction in the size, which can be achieved with a reduction in the energy stored in the inductors. This article introduces a new step-up DC–DC converter topology with the following advantages: (i) a larger relation of duty cycle vs. voltage gain compared with the classical boost topology and (ii) an inductor with smaller current and smaller inductance (for the same power conversion characteristics) compared to the traditional boost converter. The smaller inductor current is an advantage against many step-up topologies with the inductor in series with the input (and then the input and the inductor currents are equal). The necessary inductance to achieve a certain current ripple is also reduced compared to the classical boost topology. This results in an inductor with a smaller amount of stored energy, lower inductance, and lower current. The proposed topology can be scaled to have a full family of large-voltage-gain converters. This paper presents the mathematical analysis, simulations, and experiments to assess the benefits of the proposition

A Single-Phase Globally Stable Frequency-Locked Loop Based on the Second-Order Harmonic Oscillator Model

This paper presents a novel frequency-locked-loop (FLL) scheme that provides estimates of the in-phase and square-phase fundamental components of a distorted single-phase reference signal and an estimate of its fundamental angular frequency. The main feature of the proposed scheme is that its design is fully based on the dynamical model of a single-phase signal generator, namely, the second-order harmonic oscillator (SOHO), which adds originality to the scheme. In fact, the proposed scheme owns a particular structure involving a set of orthogonal signals, which can be seen as the fixed-frame representation of three-phase balanced signals. Additionally, a plug-in block is included as a mechanism to mitigate the effect of the harmonic distortion. A proof of global stability for the proposed scheme based on nonlinear argumentation is also included, which contributes to the novelty of the work and ensures convergence disregarding the initial conditions of the to-be-estimated signal components. In addition, explicit conditions are presented for the tuning of control parameters. Experimental results corroborate the performance of the proposed scheme under angular frequency variations, phase jumps, voltage sags and harmonic distortion on the reference signal. For comparison purposes, also the state-of-the-art second-order-generalized-integrator-based FLL and the single-phase synchronous-reference frame phase-locked loop are tested

An Overview of Non-Isolated Hybrid Switched-Capacitor Step-Up DC–DC Converters

The increasing interest in renewable energy sources has brought attention to large voltage-gain dc–dc converters; among the different available solutions to perform a large voltage-gain conversion, this article presents an overview of non-isolated dc–dc converter topologies that utilize switched-capacitor circuits, i.e., diode-capacitors voltage multipliers. The review includes combinations of a traditional power stage with a diode-capacitor-based voltage multiplier, such as the multilevel boost converter. This article starts by reviewing switched-capacitor (SC) circuits, different topologies, and different types of charge exchange; it provides a straightforward analysis to understand the discharging losses. It then covers the multilevel boost converter and other topologies recently introduced to the state-of-the-art. Special attention is put on SC circuits with resonant charge interchange that have recently been probed to achieve very good efficiency. An additional contribution of the article is new proof of the discharging losses in resonant switched-capacitor circuits focused on the initial and final stored energy in capacitors, and this proof explains the relatively large efficiency obtained with SC resonant converters

Single-Phase Five-Level Multilevel Inverter Based on a Transistors Six-Pack Module

This article introduces a single-phase five-level multilevel inverter based on six switches and two transformers. The proposed converter requires a single dc input source with low voltage. The disposition of switches makes it possible to build the converter with a transistors six-pack module off-the-shelves, traditionally used to build three-phase inverters, which simplifies the manufacturing process. The converter increases the voltage with two transformers; for that reason, it does not require an auxiliary step-up converter. The use of transformers (with the transformer’s turns ratio) allows for using the same topology for several input voltage levels. To verify the operation of the proposed multilevel inverter, a computer-based simulation was performed with PSIM, a software that considers parasitic components. The results show that the proposed converter can work properly