A Soft Switched DC-DC Boost Converter for Use in Grid Connected Inverters

This paper presents a soft-switching DC-DC boost converter, which can be utilized in renewable energy systems such as photovoltaic array, and wind turbine connections to infinite bus of a big power network, using grid connected inverters. In the proposed topology for the DC-DC boost converter, the main and the auxiliary power switches are turned on and turned off with zero voltage switching (ZVS) and zero current switching (ZCS), respectively. Furthermore, by applying soft-switching techniques to driving power switches, the power losses and stresses associated with commutation of power devices decrease significantly. The efficiency of the proposed soft-switched DC-DC converter at various output powers is compared with that of the traditional DC-DC converter and a few topologies proposed in recent literature. This comparison indicates that the proposed DC-DC boost converter is much more efficient around the rated power (1 kW). The power topology and the control strategy applied to the proposed soft-switched DC-DC boost converter, which is connected to a grid-tied inverter, are analyzed theoretically by simulation studies. Moreover, an experimental prototype is implemented to verify the theoretical analysis and the simulation studies.