A DC-DC Converter with High Voltage Conversion Ratio Recommended for Renewable Energy Application

In this article, a novel topology of DC-DC converter based on voltage multiplier cell and coupled inductor with higher efficiency and low blocking voltage across semiconductor is proposed for renewable energy application. The recommended topology obtains a high voltage gain using voltage multiplier cell and one coupled inductor. Only one power switch is utilized in this structure, which reduces the converter's cost. The other benefits of this converter are low number of components, high efficiency due to the zero-voltage switching and the zero-current switching of diodes, and low blocking voltage of the power switch and diodes. Besides, the voltage multiplier cell acts as a passive clamp circuit and reduces the voltage stress across the power switch. Thus, a low rated power switch can be used in the presented topology. Due to the zero-current switching in Off-state, the reverse recovery problem of diodes is reduced. To illustrate the performance and superiority of the presented topology, operation modes, steady-state and efficiency analysis, and the comparison study with other similar converters are presented. Finally, a 160~W experimental prototype with 50~kHz switching frequency and 17 V input voltage are built to confirm the theoretical investigation and effectiveness of the proposed converter.