AbstractIn this paper, a hybrid topology In this paper, a hybrid topology In this paper, a hybrid topology In this paper,

gy In this paper, a hybrid topology that that that that combines combines combines combines
clamp-mode coupled inductor and voltage multiplier cell is
proposed to provide high voltage gain, reduced switching losses
and higher power density. The duty ratio of the converter is
also maintained at safe limits while obtaining the required
voltage gain. The topology has been designed for a 220V, 1kW
application operating from 12V input. The reactive elements
are designed for a switching frequency of 50 kHz. Various
operating modes, design equations, simulation and hardware
results are presented. Hardware results prove that the
converter performs satisfactorily.
Index TermsCoupled inductor, dc-dc power conversion,
voltage gain, voltage multiplier cell.
I. INTRODUCTION
ecently, DC-DC converters with high voltage gain are
usually required in battery powered applications like
renewable energy system, fuel cells, embedded system,
uninterrupted power supply (UPS) and automotive
applications [1]-[7]. These applications demand high step-
up static gain, high efficiency and high power density.
Hence, it is preferable for the high voltage boost converters
to possess high voltage gain (more than 10), high efficiency
and high power density.
The step-up DC-DC converter needs to be highly
efficient and usually deals with high output voltage.
Therefore a careful study must be done in order to select a
particular topology for a high step-up application. Some
classical converters with magnetic coupling such as fly back
converter can easily achieve high step-up voltage gain [1].
The power transformer volume is a problem for the
development of the compact converter. The energy of the
transformer leakage inductance can produce high voltage
stress, increases the switching losses and the
electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems, reducing the
converter efficiency.
Active clamping soft communication technique can be
used to reduce the switching losses and the EMI generation
[2]. However the voltage stress is higher than in the hard
switching structure, the cost and circuit complicity are
increased. Thus the weight, volume and losses of power
transformer are limiting factors for the isolator DC - DC
converters used in particular applications.
In [3] [5], coupled inductors were used to reduce the
volume of the isolation transformer and provide the required
high voltage gain. These non-isolated DC-DC converters
can provide high step up voltage gain, but with penalty of
high voltage, current stress and high duty cycle operations.
Voltage multiplier cell based non-isolated DC - DC
topologies were proposed in [6], [7]. The required voltage
gain was obtained by adding required number of multiplier
cells consisting of capacitors and diodes. However, the
required output voltage depends on the number of multiplier
cells. Further, soft switching was not achieved in these
topologies.
In this paper an alternative method of implementing high
boost converter is proposed. The proposed implementation
is a combination of voltage multiplier cell and clamp-mode
coupled inductor technique integrated with classical non-
isolated DC-DC converters. This paper is organized as
follows: Section II presents the topology identification
followed by analysis of the chosen topology in section III.
The design details are presented in section IV. Section V
describes the simulated and hardware results followed by
conclusion in section VI.
II. TOPOLOGY IDENTIFICATION
A. Clamped Mode Coupled Inductor Boost Converter
Coupled inductor converter, such as the fly back
converter is good technique for high voltage applications. In
this case the leakage inductance of the coupled inductor can
induce high voltage stress and also degrades the efficiency.
To improve this configuration, active clamp fly back
converters can be used. It recovers leakage energy and
minimizes the voltage stress. But the main drawbacks are
topology complexity and losses related to clamp circuit.
That is the active clamp solution requires two switches
isolated gate drives. To overcome the drawbacks of active
clamp fly back converters, a clamp mode coupled inductor
Soft Switched High Step-up DC-DC
Converter for Automotive Application
M. Prabhakar Dr.V. Kamaraj
Asst. Professor, Department of EEE, Professor / Department of EEE,
Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, SSN College of Engineering,
Sriperumbudur, India. 602105. Kalavakkam, India. 603110.
mprabhakar.ped@gmail.com kamarajv@ssn.edu.in
R
46 978-1-61284-379-7/11$26.00 c 2011 IEEE
topology is developed with higher efficiency. This is more
cost effective and reliable than active clamp fly back
converter for applications that do not require isolation.
Fig.1. gives the circuit diagram of the clamped mode
coupled inductor based boost converter.
Fig. 1. Circuit diagram of clamped mode coupled inductor boost
converter.
Fig. 2. Voltage multiplier cell based boost converter.
B. Voltage Multiplier Cell
Another alternative to overcome the limitations of
classical DC-DC converters for high performance and large
conversion ratio based applications is to develop voltage
multiplier cells and integrate them with non isolated DC-DC
converters. The voltage multiplier cell increases the static
gain of a classical boost by a factor (M+1), where M is the
number of multiplier cells. The output of the converter is
equal to the output voltage of the classical boost multiplied
by the factor (M+1) while the switch voltage is always equal
to the output voltage of the classical boost and is
independent of the factor M.
When properly designed, it allows the power switch to
operate with zero current switching (ZCS) turn off and
negative effects of the reverse recovery current of all diodes
are minimized. This characteristic reduces the converter
commutation losses, allowing the operation with high
switching frequency and provides high efficiency.
C. Proposed Hybrid Topology
Converters used in automotive applications require high
voltage gain, high efficiency and high power density
(compact in size). A hybrid topology is proposed which
combines clamped mode coupled inductor and voltage
multiplier cell based dc-dc converter. This circuit is used to
avoid the extreme duty ratios, high voltage stress, large
switching losses, and severe EMI problems.
Fig. 3. Proposed hybrid topology.
III. ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED HYBRID TOPOLOGY
Mode 1(t0<t < t1): The source current flows through the
coupled inductors L
p
and L
s
. The switch S is in OFF state as
shown in Fig.4. The clamp capacitor C
c
is charging through
diode D
c
. The energy is transferred to output capacitor C
o

through D
o
. The multiplier capacitor CM1 is charged
through DM1.
Mode 2(t1 < t <t2): The clamp capacitor C
c
is charged
fully. The clamp capacitor C
c
and coupled inductor L
p
starts
resonate. The turn on of the switch S is at zero current.
Fig.5. shows the circuit during this mode.
Mode3 (t2<t<t3): The resonant inductor L
p
and the
resonant capacitor C
c
resonate during this interval. The
diode D
c
is turned off after the resonant interval. The
current in the switch rises in a sinusoidal manner. The
equivalent circuit during this interval is shown in Fig.6.
Mode 4(t3<t< t4): The equivalent circuit of this interval
is shown in Fig.7. The multiplier cell capacitor CM1 is
discharged through diode DM2. The load current flows
through the capacitor C
o
. diode DM2 will be turned off at
zero current crossing of the resonant current.
Mode 5(t
4
< t <t
5
): All the diodes will be turned off and the
current flows through switch S. The inductor L
p
stores
energy during this interval. The equivalent circuit of this
interval is shown in Fig.8. Switch S is turned off at the end
of this mode and the cycle repeats.
Fig. 4. Circuit for mode 1.
Fig. 5. Circuit for mode 2.
2011 1st International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems 47
Fig. 6. Circuit for mode 3.
Fig. 7. Circuit for mode 4.
Fig. 8. Circuit for mode 5.
IV. DESIGN OF THE PROPOSED CIRCUIT
The design of the proposed converter topology is as
follows: The input DC voltage is 12 Volt fed from the
battery source. The output voltage and output power is
230V, 1kW respectively. The switching frequency is
50kHz. The voltage gain is obtained separately for clamp-
mode coupled inductor topology and voltage multiplier cell.
The calculated equivalent resistance R
o
for the required
load specification is 52.9 O. The voltage gain for clamp-
mode coupled inductor topology as shown in equation (1)
(1)
For a duty cycle (d) of 0.7 and turns ratio (N) of 5,
voltage gain is obtained by using equation (1) and is found
to be 14. The voltage gain for voltage multiplier cell as
shown in equation (2)
(2)
For a duty cycle (D) of 0.7 and multiplier cell (M)
considered as 1, voltage gain is obtained by using equation
(2) and is found to be 7.
V.RESULTS
Simulated and hardware results of the 1kW, 50 kHz boost
converter implemented using clamping circuit and voltage
multiplier cell is presented in this section. The boost
converter was simulated in PSpice environment and the
results of the same are presented in Figs. 9 and 10.
Fig. 9. shows the load voltage obtained by simulating the
hybrid topology. It can be observed that the load voltage is
around 220 volts and hence meets the load requirement. Fig.
10. shows voltage across the switch and current through the
switch. It is observed that soft switching is obtained during
turn off. An experimental set up of the proposed topology
was constructed and tested. The details of the experimental
setup are given in Table 1. Fig. 11. shows the output voltage
obtained from the experimental setup.
TABLE 1. DETAILS OF EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Detail Value Detail Value
Input Voltage 12V CM1, CM2 3.3 F
Output Voltage 230V Lp, Ls 15H, 45H
Output Power 1kW Diodes MUR480
Switching
Frequency
50kHz MOSFET IRFZ45
Cc 2.2F Co 220F
Fig. 9. Output waveform obtained from simulation.
Fig. 10. Simulated waveforms showing gate pulse, voltage across switch
and current through switch.
48 2011 1st International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems
Fig. 11. Load voltage waveform obtained from experimental setup. Scale:
50V/div, Time: 10ms/div.
Fig. 12. Gate pulse and voltage across the switch waveform obtained from
experimental setup. Scale: Ch3: 50V/div, Ch4: 10V/div, Time: 5s/div.
A 1hp motor was connected across the load terminals and
suitably loaded till it drew 3.5A. The average output voltage
was 254 volts under this condition. Fig.12. shows the gate
pulse and switch voltage waveforms. It can be observed that
soft turn off has been obtained. In addition, the maximum
switch stress is around 50 volts. This is advantageous as the
device needs to be rated for a lower voltage though the
output voltage is quite high.
VI. CONCLUSION
The topology consisting of clamp mode coupled inductor
and voltage multiplier cell is presented in this paper.
Existing step up dcdc converters can provide high voltage
gain, but with the penalty of high voltage and current stress,
high duty-cycle operation and limited dynamic response.
The proposed hybrid topology is expected to provide high
voltage gain, high efficiency and high power density
overcoming the above mentioned drawbacks and hence
would be suitable for automotive application. Simulation
results are presented for a 1kW, 50 kHz DC DC
converter.
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2011 1st International Conference on Electrical Energy Systems 49