IEEE PEDS 2017, Honolulu, USA
12 – 15 December 2017
A Single Phase DC-AC Dual Active Bridge Series
Resonant Converter For Photovoltaic Applications
Jiatu Hong, D.M.Vilathgamuwa, N.Ghasemi, T.Ishrat
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
jiatu.hong@hdr.qut.edu.au
Abstract—Due to the presence of inherent double-line-
frequency power ripple at the AC side, the operation of the
maximum power point tracking (MPPT) can be significantly
affected in single-phase DC-AC photovoltaic applications. To
reduce the ripple power and enhance the MPPT performance, a
large capacitor at the DC side is normally used. However, it can
decrease the power density of the converter and cannot
completely eliminate the ripple power. To mitigate the effect of
power ripple, a single phase DC-AC Dual Active Bridge (DAB)
converter for photovoltaic applications is proposed. It is free of
common large capacitors at DC power stages with the proposed
control strategy. In this paper, a LC power decoupling circuit
with the specific control strategy is proposed to completely
eliminate the ripple power and thus realize high accuracy of
MPPT.
Keywords—DC-AC; dual active bridge; series resonant
converter; power decoupling; photovoltaic
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, industrial applications such as battery chargers
for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) [1], grid-
connected renewable energy systems [2], uninterruptible
power supplies (UPS) [3] and vehicle-to-grid (V2G)
applications [4, 5] require isolated single phase DC-AC bi-
directional power transfer, and the dual active bridge (DAB)
converter can be considered as a suitable topology [6-8].
Proposed in the early 1990s, the DAB DC-DC converter has
attracted great research interests, mainly for its high-power-
density, isolated and bidirectional characteristics. Massive
research work has been conducted on the DAB converter in
terms of mathematical model analysis, converter topology,
control strategy, soft-switching technique, hardware design
and industrial applications [9].
A common dual-stage DC-AC DAB converter consists of
a galvanically isolated DC-DC DAB converter, followed by a
DC-AC single phase voltage source inverter [10]. As the AC
side power fluctuates at double line frequency, while the
power through the DC-DC DAB converter is almost constant,
a large DC link electrolytic capacitor is normally used to
stabilize the DC link voltage and balance the power mismatch
between the voltage source inverter and the DAB converter.
However, the electrolytic capacitor is well-known for its low
reliability caused by the diffusion of the inside electrolyte
978-1-5090-2364-6/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Jiang You
College of Engineering
Harbin Engineering University
Harbin, China
youjiang@hrbeu.edu.cn
[11]. Compared with the commonly used dual-stage topology,
the single-stage topology has the potential to benefit the
converter performance with regard to efficiency, power
density, reliability and costs, due to the effective omission of
a complete energy conversion stage ( intermediate DC link of
the dual-stage topology consisting of a large low-frequency
electrolytic capacitor) [12]. In this paper, a single phase DC-
AC DAB series resonant single-stage converter is proposed to
realize active power decoupling and MPPT operation for
photovoltaic applications. By using the proposed control
strategy, the ripple power can be completely eliminated and
thus high accuracy of MPPT can be achieved.
II. BASIC ANALYSIS
The proposed converter for photovoltaic applications is
shown in Fig. 1. This is a single-stage DC-AC converter with
a pseudo intermediate DC link compared with the common
dual-stage DC-AC converter. The AC voltage vg is folded
into a DC voltage vDC1 with a frequency twice that of the AC
voltage, which is given by
vDC1 = vg = Vg sin (ωg t ) (1)
where Vg is the magnitude of vg and Ȧg is the angular
frequency of vg.
The converter with the duty cycle modulation on leg A is
controlled by a triple phase shift modulation scheme which is
shown in Fig. 2. The duty cycle of the leg A can be regulated,
while the duty cycles of other legs are fixed at 50%. Two legs
of the primary side bridge are phase shifted by the angle ij1
and two legs of the secondary side bridge are phase shifted by
the angle ij2. The phase shift angle ș between the voltages vAB
and vCD is the third element of this triple phase shift
modulation scheme, which determines the direction of the
power transfer.
The converter can be represented by using the frequency-
domain model as shown in Fig. 3. The voltage across the
switch Sp2 vAO and the voltage across the switch Sp4 vBO are
given by (2) and (3) as
∞
2vDC 1
vAO = DvDC +
π
¦ n sin nDπ cos ª¬n (ω t − Dπ )º¼
n =1
s (2)
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 Fig. 1 The proposed DC-AC dual active bridge converter.

vsp2 (1-D)2ʌ where N is the turns ratio of the high-frequency transformer,

vDC 2ʌD U ABn and U CDn are the phasors of the nth harmonic
component of v and v . U
AB and U
CD are given by
ABn CDn
vsp4
vDC ­sin nDπ ( cos nDπ − j sin nDπ ) − ½
2v ° °
vAB U ABn = DC ® nπ ª §π · §π · º ¾ (7)
ij1 nπ °sin « cos n ¨ + ϕ1 ¸ − j sin n ¨ + ϕ1 ¸ » °
vDC 2 ¬ ©2 ¹ ©2 ¹¼ ¿
¯
vCD 4v nϕ ª § ϕ1 · § ϕ1 ·º
ij2 ș U CDn = DC1 sin 2 «cos n ¨ 2 + θ ¸ − j sin n ¨ 2 + θ ¸ » (8)
vDC1 nπ 2 ¬ © ¹ © ¹¼
The nth harmonic component of the average power Pan is
given by
Fig. 2 Triple phase shift modulation scheme for the DAB converter.
nωs Cr
Pan = Re ª¬U ABn Irn * º¼ = ×
(n ω 2 2
s Lr Cr − 1) N (9)
U ABnU CDn sin (φABn − φCDn )

where U ABn and U CDn represent the magnitudes of U ABn and

U CDn , φABn and φCDn represent the arguments of U ABn and
Fig. 3 Frequency-domain model of the converter. U .The transmission power of the converter is given by
CDn

vDC 2vDC ∞
1 nπ ª § π ·º 4vDC vDC1ωs Cr ∞
nϕ 2 1
vBO =
2
+
π
¦ n sin 2
cos « n ¨ ωs t − − ϕ1 ¸ »
2
(3) Pa =
π 2N
¦ sin
2 n ( n 2ωs2 Lr Cr − 1)
×
n =1 ¬ © ¹¼ n =1,3...

where ωs is the switching frequency. According to equations ª § ϕ1 · º

«sin nDπ sin n ¨ + θ − Dπ ¸ − » (10)
(2) and (3), vAB is given by « © 2 ¹ »
« nπ § π + ϕ1 · »
§ 1· «sin sin n ¨ θ − »
vAB = vAO − vBO = ¨ D − ¸ vDC + 2 2 ¹ ¸
© 2¹ ¬ © ¼
ªsin nDπ cos n ( ωs t − Dπ ) −º (4) Considering only the fundamental power component, the
2vDC ∞ 1 « »
¦
π n =1 n «sin
nπ § π ·
cos n ¨ ωs t − − ϕ1 ¸ »
transmission power of the converter is given by (11) as
«¬ 2 © 2 ¹ »¼ ª § ϕ1 · º
«sin Dπ sin ¨ 2 + θ − Dπ ¸ − »
Also, vCD is given similarly by 4vDC vDC1 ϕ2 « © ¹ »
Pa1 = 2 sin (11)
π X1 N 2 « § π + ϕ1 · »
∞
nϕ ª § ϕ ·º «sin ¨ θ − »
2 ¸¹
4vDC1 1
vCD =
π
¦
n =1,3... n
sin 2 cos « n ¨ ωs t − 1 − θ ¸ »
2 2
(5) ¬ © ¼
¬ © ¹¼
where the reactance X1 of the resonant tank at the
The nth harmonic of ir is given by fundamental frequency is given by
jnωs Cr §  U CDn · 1
Irn = ¨ U ABn − ¸ (6) X 1 = ωs Lr − (12)
1 − n 2ωs2 Lr Cr © N ¹ ωs Cr
If D is near 1/2, then (11) can be simplified as

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 8vDC vDC1 ϕ ϕ
Pa1 = sin 1 sin 2 sin θ
π 2 X1 N 2 2
III. CONTROL
The double-line-frequency power transmission nature at
AC side of single-phase power converters is shown in Fig. 4.
To eliminate the double-line-frequency ripple power in
single-phase power converters, different power decoupling
techniques are introduced and classified [13]. If only
conventional electrolytic capacitors used, the required value
for the capacitor is given in [13] as
Vg I g
CDC =
8π f gVDC ΔVDC
where ΔVDC is the amplitude of the DC voltage ripple. From
(14), in order to further reduce the voltage ripple, a larger DC
side capacitor is always required if the DC voltage is kept
constant.
An active power decoupling method is introduced for
CLLC-type resonant DC-AC DAB converter operating in
open loop [14]. The basic concept of the active power
decoupling technique is to balance the AC and DC side
instantaneous power through intermediate energy buffers so
that the ripple power at DC side can be reduced. For example,
LC circuits connected in parallel with the existing switches of
either full bridge can be used for DC ripple power reduction.
By actively controlling the voltage of the specific switches, or
the duty cycle of the specific leg of two bridges, the ripple
power appearing at the DC side can be steered into such LC
circuits and thus DC ripple power reduction can be realized.
The relation between the power decoupling capacitor Cs
and the duty cycle deviation d is given in [14] as
V g Ig
Cs =
2ωgVDC
2
d max
where d max is the maximum deviation magnitude of the
modulated duty cycle D.
The proposed active power decoupling method is able to
completely eliminate the double-line-frequency ripple power
at DC side by using proper control methods. Among those
Fig. 4 The double-line-frequency power transmission nature at AC side.
control methods, proportional resonant (PR) control [15] is
(13) prominent. The non-ideal PR controller transfer function is
given as
2 K i ωc s
GPR ( s ) = K P + 2 (16)
s + 2ωc s + ω02
where K P , Ki , ωc and ω0 represent the proportional term,
the resonant term gain, the cut-off frequency and the resonant
frequency respectively. The operation feature of the PV
model is shown in Fig. 5. The overall control diagram is
shown in Fig. 6. Phase shift angle ij2 is defined as, ϕ 2 = 2ωg t .
And the phase shift angle ș is fixed as ʌ/2. ij1 is used to
control the DC side voltage through a PI controller (VE as
(14) input, ij1 as output). The target reference value of the DC side
voltage is obtained by the MPPT algorithm. Additionally, the
ripple power elimination is realized by the PR controller (-
vripple as input, D as output). The average component Vavg and
ripple component vripple of the DC side voltage vDC are used as
feedback signals for the control system.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
Parameters of the proposed converter are given in Table 1.
In the simulations, the sun irradiance drops from 1 kW/m2 to
0.5 kW/m2 at 1 s, and rises back to 1 kW/m2 at 2.5 s.
A. Simulation Results With CDC=1500 μF
The DC side voltage vDC and current iDC with a capacitor
CDC=1500 μF at DC side, and without the proposed control
strategy are shown in Fig. 7. The system fluctuates near the
maximum power point due to the presence of the ripple
power thus the accuracy of MPPT is relatively low.
The zoom-in figures of the DC side voltage vDC, current
iDC and power pDC with CDC=1500 μF are shown in Fig. 8.
From Fig. 8, it is clear that the power at PV side is distorted,
which can cause distortion in the grid current. The grid
current is shown in Fig. 9. It is clear that ig is distorted (THD:
(15)
7.69%) resulting from the ripple power at PV side.
Table 1 Main parameters of the proposed DC-AC DAB converter.
Parameter Value Parameter Value
vg 150 V (Vg) Ls 1000 μH
fg 50 Hz Cr 2 μF
fs 20 kHz Lr 44 μH
Cs 2500 μF N 1:4
Fig. 5 The operation feature of the PV model.
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 Fig. 6 Overall converter control diagram for photovoltaic applications.
80 B. Simulation Results With CDC=3000 μF
60
To address these issues, a larger DC side capacitor can
normally be used. With CDC=3000 μF, the system simulations
40
are conducted below. The DC side voltage vDC and current iDC
20 with a capacitor CDC=3000 μF at DC side, and without the
0 proposed control strategy are shown in Fig. 10. Compared
(a) with Fig. 7, the fluctuation ranges of vDC and iDC get smaller.
8 The PV side power is shown in Fig. 11. Compared with
6 Fig. 8 (c), the ripple power at PV side gets smaller. However,
4 the ripple power still cannot be eliminated and a larger CDC is
2
required. The grid current is shown in Fig. 12. Compared
with Fig. 9 (b), the distortion of the grid current (THD: 5.78%)
0
0 1 2 3 4 reduces but still cannot be eliminated.
Time (s)
80
(b)
60
Fig. 7 (a) DC side voltage vDC and (b) DC side current iDC without the

vDC (V)
proposed control strategy (CDC=1500 μF). 40

20
vDC (V)

0
0 1 2 3 4
(a)

(a) 6
i DC (A)

2
i DC (A)

0
0 1 2 3 4
Time (s)
(b)
(b) Fig. 10 (a) DC side voltage vDC and (b) DC side current iDC without the
proposed control strategy (CDC=3000 μF).
p DC (W)

(c)
Fig. 8 The zoom-in figures of (a) DC side voltage vDC, (b) DC side current
iDC and (c) DC side power pDC (CDC=1500 μF). Fig. 11 The PV side power with CDC=3000 μF.
i g (A)

Fig. 9 The grid current (a) zoom-out, (b) zoom-in (CDC=1500 μF).
F Fig. 12 The grid current with CDC=3000 μF.

884
C. Simulation Results With The Proposed Control Strategy
The DC side voltage vDC and current iDC with a capacitor
CDC=200 μF at DC side, and with the proposed control
strategy are shown in Fig. 13. Compared with Fig. 7 and Fig.
10, vDC and iDC get more stable at the maximum power point.
The zoom-in figures of the DC side voltage vDC, current
iDC and power pDC with CDC=200 μF at DC side, and with the
Fig. 15 The grid current (a) zoom-out, (b) zoom-in with the proposed control
proposed control strategy are shown in Fig. 14. It is clear that
strategy.
the ripple power at PV side is almost eliminated and thus high The DC voltage reference value VDC* (calculated by
accuracy of MPPT is obtained. The grid current in this case is MPPT algorithm), the error value VE, and the phase-shift
shown in Fig. 15. Compared with Fig. 9 (b) and Fig. 12, the angle ij1 is shown in Fig. 16.
grid current distortion effect (THD: 1.48%) is drastically
reduced with the proposed control strategy. The decoupling capacitor Cs voltage vs and current is are
shown in Fig. 17.
vDC (V)

V*DC (V)
(a)
iDC (A)

VE (V)

Fig. 13 (a) DC side voltage vDC and (b) DC side current iDC with the
proposed control strategy (CDC=200 μF).
(b)
70

60
vDC (V)

(rad)

50
1

40
(a)

8 (c)
i DC (A)

Fig. 16 (a) The DC voltage reference value VDC*, (b) The error value VE and
6 (c) The phase-shift angle ij1.

4
40
(b) 35
450 30
25
20
400
p DC (W)

3 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06

20
350
10
300 0
3 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06
-10
Time (s)
(c) -20
3 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06
Time (s)
Fig. 14 The zoom-in figures of the DC side voltage vDC (a), current iDC (b)
and power pDC (c) with the proposed control strategy (CDC=200 μF).
Fig. 17 The decoupling capacitor Cs voltage vs and current is.

According to Fig. 16 (b), the maximum power point

tracking is realized near 1 s, 2 s and 3.5 s (where VE=0) in
three periods of different sun irradiance conditions. With the

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regulation of ij1, the DC voltage can be controlled at the [5]
desired value VDC* (which is obtained by the MPPT algorithm)
through the PI controller (VE as input). [6]
As shown in Fig. 17, the 100 Hz ripple power is steered
into the decoupling circuit, and the voltage (or energy storage)
of decoupling capacitor Cs fluctuates at 100 Hz. [7]
V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a single phase DC-AC DAB series
resonant single-stage converter to realize active power
decoupling and improve MPPT operation for photovoltaic
applications. Simulations have been conducted under three
conditions: (A) CDC=1500 μF, (B) CDC=3000 μF and (C)
CDC=200 μF with the proposed control strategy. A larger DC
capacitor CDC is able to improve the MPPT operation but still
cannot eliminate the ripple power. In addition, a larger DC
capacitor can decrease the power density of the converter. By
using the proposed control strategy, the ripple power can be
completely eliminated with a relatively small capacitor at DC
side and thus high accuracy of MPPT can be achieved.
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