2015 International Conference on Control, Communication & Computing India (ICCC) | 19-21 November 2015 | Trivandrum
A High Efficiency Resonant DC-DC Power
Converter- Analysis and Comparison of P&O and
INC Algorithms
Sreejith S
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
College of Engineering
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
sreejithincet@gmail.com
Abstract This thesis paper explains the development
of a single-switch resonant power converter and the comparison
of different control strategies for photovoltaic (PV) generation
applications. The circuit arrangement integrates a single-switch
resonant dc-dc converter with zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) and
an output diode operating with zero-current-switching (ZCS).
Here the energy conversion is achieved through a single switch,
which can reduce the cost of the switches and its control circuits.
The single power switch can be controlled by either open loop
pulse-width-modulation (PWM) techniques or Maximum power
point Tracking (MPPT) techniques. The Input to the single-
switch resonant power converter was supplied by a photovoltaic
(PV) generation system. Due to low switching losses, the
developed resonant boost converter offers very high efficiency
than other conventional converters. The performance of the
single switch resonant converter was analyzed, and the
characteristic waveforms were plotted. With designed circuit
parameters, the active switch can be operated with zero-voltage
switching and an energy conversion efficiency of 97.8% can be
achieved using closed loop control strategies. The comparisons of
different closed loop control strategies were studied and the
simulation results are presented with different atmospheric
conditions.
Index Terms Zero-voltage switching (ZVS); Zero-
current switching (ZCS); Photo-Voltaic (PV); Maximum power
point Tracking (MPPT)
I. INTRODUCTION
Fossil fuels are the major source of power in our
daily life. Due to increased fuel consumption, it may exhaust
in the future. Environmental pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions are serious issues in India. Therefore, renewable
energy generation has becoming more and more effective in
these days. The major source of green energy includes wind
turbines, photovoltaic (PV) modules, and fuel cell systems.
The photovoltaic generation system cannot always operate
optimally, if the DC output of the systems is directly
connected to a battery energy storage system (BESS) [1]. So,
In order to ensure the optimum operation, a DC/DC interface
must be installed between the photovoltaic system and the
BESS.
978-1-4673-7349-4/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE
Smitha K S
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Electrical & Electronics
College of Engineering
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
As the switching frequency increases, the converter
switching loss also increases proportionally. This increase in
switching frequency, increases stresses on the device and
system electromagnetic interference (EMI) noise. The large
dv/dt and di/dt caused by the increased switching speed set an
upper limit on the frequencies of the conventional hard-
switching PWM converters. By solving high voltage and
current stress problems, resonant converters can be utilized in
the application of photovoltaic generation systems [1]-[2].
Small size and high efficiency are the basic requirements
of a high frequency resonant converter. In order to reduce the
switching loss, due to high switching frequency, some soft
switching techniques have to be used in resonant converters.
Zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) and zero-current-switching
(ZCS) are two commonly used soft switching techniques in
resonant converters. In these techniques, switching losses can
be reduced by making either voltage or current is zero during
the switching transition, hence by increasing the reliability of
resonant converters in renewable energy generation systems.
[1][3].Here, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method
is used with closed loop converter control, to ensure high
output and efficiency. Perturb and Observe (P&O) method and
Incremental Conductance (IC) method are the two important
closed loop control methods used with the switching device.
These methods are performed and the results are analyzed
with different atmospheric temperatures and irradiation
conditions [6].
II. CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION AND OPERATING PRINCIPLES
A. Circuit Description
The objective of the work is to develop a high-
efficiency resonant DC-DC boost converter for renewable
energy generation applications and its open loop and closed
loop performance with different operating conditions. Figure 1
shows the complete circuit block diagram of the proposed
system with closed loop controller. It consists of input PV
panel session, DC-DC converter session and controller
session.
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Fig. 1 Simplified block diagram of the resonant converter
Figure 2 shows the basic DC-DC boost converter
session. It consists of an input choke inductor Lm, a metal
oxidesemiconductor fieldeffect transistor (MOSFET) that
operates as a power switch S, a shunt capacitor C, a resonant
Ls, an energy-blocking diode D, and a filter capacitor Co. The
output capacitor Co together with load resistance R forms a
first-order low-pass filter, which reduces the ripple voltage
below a certain level. The MOSFET can be used as an active
power switch because its body diode will act as an anti-
parallel diode DE for bidirectional power switch. Proper design
of the circuit parameters ensures ZVS of the switch ZCS of the
output diode [1][6].
Fig. 2 Basic circuit diagram of the resonant converter
B. Circuit Operating Principles
One switching cycle is divided into six modes of
operations, which are described as follows.
Mode I: (between t0 and t1)
Before Mode I, the active power switch S is off. The
resonant tank current iLs is positive and is greater than input
current iLm. The stored energy in the resonant capacitor C will
dissipate through the switch S. But in order to turn on S at
ZVS condition, the anti-parallel diode DE must conduct before
the power switch is turned on. A turn-on signal is applied to
the gate of the active power switch S, when the capacitor
voltage vC falls to zero. Thus the switch can maintain ZVS
condition. Thus the current iLs is the sum of currents iLm and ic.
The diode D is forward biased, because the resonant tank
current iLs is positive. This mode ends as soon as the anti-
parallel diode DE current becomes zero.
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Mode II: (between t1 and t2)
In this mode, the switch S will be in on-state. The line
voltage is applied across the choke inductor Lm, and iLm
continuously increases. It naturally commutates from the anti-
parallel diode DE to the active power switch S. Voltage across
the capacitor C is clamped at zero. Diode D is forward biased
by the resonant current iLs.
When the inductor current iLs decreases and comes to zero,
Mode III starts.
ModeIII: (between t2 and t3)
In Mode III, iLm increases continuously through the active
power switch S. The resonant inductor current iLs decreases
and reaches zero. The output current is supplied by the output
filter capacitor C0. The input Energy is stored in the choke
inductor Lm and is transferred to the output load when the
active power switch is turned off.
Mode IV: (between t3 and t4)
At this Mode, the active power switch S is turned off at
ZVS condition. The input current iLm is shifted to iC. The
capacitor voltage vc increases from zero to a finite positive
value at a rate that is proportional to iLm. The capacitor current
ic, transferring the energy from the DC input source to
capacitor C. The output power of load resistor R is supplied by
the output capacitor Co.
When the diode D is forward-biased, the circuit operation
enters Mode V operation
ModeV: (between t4 and t5)
In Mode V, the active power switch S continues in the off
state. The diode D gets turned on, when the inductor current iLs
is positive. This positive inductor current offers a resonant
stage between inductor Ls and capacitor C. Since the capacitor
current iC is still positive, the capacitor voltage vc continues to
increase to its peak value.
Here the resonance frequency is given by,
0=2f0=1/LSC and the characteristic impedance Z0=LS/C,
respectively.
When capacitor current iC resonates to zero at t5, Mode V
ends and Mode VI begins.
ModeVI: (between t5 and 2)
This mode begins at t5 when capacitor voltage vc
resonates from negative values to zero. To eliminate switching
losses, the active power switch S is turned on when =2.
In addition to the active power switch S, the output diode
D is also commutated under soft-switching. This feature
makes the single-switch resonant power converter circuit more
effective for high-efficiency energy conversion applications.
III. OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS
Figure 3 displays the idealized steady-state voltage and
current waveforms of the single-switch resonant power
converter for a switching frequency fs and a resonant
frequency fo. The switching frequency fs and resonant
frequency fo should be related as.

(1)
When the output diode D is turned on, to achieve
resonant operation, the resonant circuit must be under-
damped. That is,
(2)
The conversion efficiency of the converter is given by
(3)
Fig.3 Idealized circuit waveforms of the resonant converter
IV. MPPT CONTROL STRATEGY
B.
Under varying atmospheric conditions, the maximum
power point (MPP) and corresponding operate voltage of a PV
cell will change continuously. In the proposed PV system,
maximum energy harvesting of the PV plant is provided by 36
series-connected PV arrays, and providing MPPT of each
array via the resonant boost converter interface. The PV panel
model is developed in Matlab and is incorporated with the
proposed system. MPPT algorithms proposed includes Perturb
and Observe(P&O) method and Incremental conductance(IC)
method which varying in complexity, accuracy, convergence
speed and cost[6]. Both methods involve the perturbation of
either the duty ratio or the input voltage reference of the power
converter and measuring the change in power due to the
perturbation [4]-[6].
A. Perturb and Observe (P&O)Method
In this algorithm a small perturbation in voltage is
introduced in the system. This small perturbation causes the
corresponding change of power of the solar PV module. If the
power change is in the positive direction, then the perturbation
is continued in the same direction.
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Once the peak power is reached, the next instant of
increase in voltage, decreases the power and hence
thereafter the perturbation reverses. The algorithm
oscillates around the peak point, when the steady state is
reached Figure 4 shows the P-V curve of the panel and
Figure 5 represents the P&O algorithm[6].
Fig. 4 P&O P-V curve of the panel
Fig.5 P&O Controller Algorithm
Incremental Conductance (IC)Method
Under fast varying atmospheric condition, the
disadvantage of the Perturb and Observe method to track
the peak power is overcome by IC method. The algorithm
once determines the Maximum power point (MPP), it stops
perturbing the operating point. If this condition is not met,
the direction in which the MPPT operating point must be
perturbed can be calculated using the relationship between
dl/dV and I/V. This relationship is derived from the fact
that dP/dV is negative when the MPPT is to the right of the
MPP and positive when it is to the left of the MPP. This
main advantage of this method over P&O is that, it
determines when the MPPT has reached the MPP, where
P&O oscillates around the MPP. Also, incremental
conductance can track rapidly varying atmospheric
conditions with higher accuracy than perturb and observe
method. The disadvantage of this algorithm is the increased
complexity when compared to P&O method. Figure 6
shows the P-V curve of the panel and Figure 7 represents
the IC algorithm [6].

Fig. 6 P-V curve of the panel(IC method)
Figure 8-12 depicts the input and output voltage, current
and power waveforms converter employing P&O method.
Figure 13-17 depicts the input and output voltage, current and
power waveforms converter employing IC method. Figure 18
shows the output power waveforms of the converter under
three different methods. The table 2 shows the efficiency
comparison of all the methods under different operating
conditions and table 3 displays the overall performance
comparison of different control techniques.

Fig.8 Output and Input current with different irradiations

(P&O method)

Fig. 7 IC controller algorithm

V. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The input of the single-switch resonant power
converter was connected to a solar PV model that consists of
36 series connected cells with open circuit voltage 21.24V. To
realize ZVS and ZCS operation, the switching frequency fs
should be less than resonant frequency fo. The output was
connected to a 10 load resistor. The Matlab simulation was
performed under the following conditions; Fig.9 Output and Input current with different operating Temperatures
(P&O method)
Open loop: switching frequency fs=70 kHz, resonant
frequency fo=86kHz, duty cycle k=0.357,
Irradiance=200W/m2, 600W/m2, 1000W/m2 and Atmospheric
temperatures= 27oC, 50oC, 75oC.
Closed loop (P&O and IC): switching frequency
fs=70kHz, resonant frequency fo=86kHz, Irradiance=200W/m2,
600W/m2, 1000W/m2 and Atmospheric temperatures= 27oC,
50oC, 75oC.

TABLE 1. CIRCUIT SPECIFICATIONS

Maximum power Pm 37.08W
Voltage maximum power Vm 16.56 V Fig.10 Output and Input Voltage with different operating Temperatures
Current at max power Im 2.25A (P&O method)
Open circuit voltage of the PV panel Voc 21.24V
Short circuit Current of the PV panel Isc 2.5A
Total No. of cells in series Ns 36
Total No. of cells in parallel Np 1
Input Inductor Lm 8mH
Switch S MOSFET(IRF840)
Resonant Capacitor C 0.18F
Resonant inductor Ls 19H
Output Capacitor Co 220F
Resistive load R 10
Switching frequency fs 70kHz
Resonant Frequency fr 86kHz

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Fig.11 Output and Input Power with different Irradiations (P&O method)

Fig.16 Output and Input Power with different Irradiations

(IC method)

Fig.12 Output and Input Power with different operating Temperatures

(P&O method)

Fig.17 Output and Input Power with different operating Temperatures

(IC method)

Fig.13 Output and Input current with different operating Temperatures

(IC method)

Fig.18 Converter Output Power comparison with open loop method, P&O
method and IC method

TABLE 2. CONVERTER EFFICIENCY COMPARISON

Efficiency (%)
Irradiance(W/m2)
Fig.14 Output and Input current with different Irradiations(IC method) Open Loop P&O IC
200 68.2 77.7 74.4
600 78.1 84.2 84.5
1000 93.6 97 97.83

Fig.15 Output and Input Voltage with different operating Temperatures

(IC method)
Fig.19 Converter Efficiency curve with open loop method, P&O method and
IC method

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TABLE 3 PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS OF DIFFERENT MPPT
Periodic
MPPT Convergence Implementation Disadvantages
tuning
techniques speed complexity
It can easily lose track, if the irradiation
Perturb & No changes rapidly, small oscillations
Varies Low
Observe around MPP at steady state

Incremental
Varies At low irradiance, efficiency decreases
Conductance Medium No

Open loop Fast Low efficiency at dynamic conditions

Low Yes

The energy conversion efficiency of the single-switch

resonant power converter is as high as 97.83% under
Incremental Conductance(IC) method. Additionally, closed
loop single-switch resonant power converter has great
potential for use in renewable energy generation applications.
VI CONCLUSIONS
The structure of the single switch resonant converter
is simpler and cheaper than other conventional power
converters, which require numerous components. The single
switch resonant converter performance was analyzed under
open loop and closed loop structures at different operating
conditions and matlab simulation results were presented. The
output power of the converter was analyzed in all the methods
and corresponding efficiency curves were plotted. The input to
the single-switch resonant power converter is supplied by a
solar energy generation system to yield the required output
conditions. When the high-frequency closed loop single-switch
resonant power converter is applied to a resistive load,
satisfactory energy conversion efficiency of 97.83% can be
achieved using Incremental Conductance(IC) method.
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