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High Step-Up Active-Clamp Converter With Input-Current Doubler and Output-Voltage Doubler for Fuel Cell Power Systems
Jung-Min Kwon, Student Member, IEEE, and Bong-Hwan Kwon, Member, IEEE
AbstractA high-efciency high step-up dcdc converter is proposed for fuel cell power systems. The proposed system consists of an input-current doubler, an output-voltage doubler, and an activeclamp circuit. The input-current doubler and the output-voltage doubler provide a much higher voltage conversion ratio without using a high turns ratio in the transformer and increase the overall efciency. A series-resonant circuit of the output-voltage doubler removes the reverse-recovery problem of the rectifying diodes. The active-clamp circuit clamps the surge voltage of switches and recycles the energy stored in the leakage inductance of the transformer. The operation principle of the converter is analyzed and veried. A 1 kW prototype is implemented to show the performance of the proposed converter. The prototype achieved a European efciency of 96% at an input voltage of 30 V. Index TermsActive-clamp circuit, input-current doubler, voltage-doubler rectier.

I. INTRODUCTION

NVIRONMENTAL concerns about global warming, fossil fuel exhaustion, and the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions provided the stimulus to seek renewable energy sources. Fuel cells are one of the most promising technologies to solve the aforementioned environmental concerns. Interest in fuel cell systems arises not only because of their essentially zero pollution emission, but also because of their energy conversion efciency, which can be higher than that of a conventional power plant [1], [2]. Additionally, thermal energy generated as the byproduct of fuel cell operation can be used for heating. Since the power density of a fuel cell is higher than other renewable energies, it can be widely used for grid-connected generation, vehicles, and portable applications [3]. Generally, the fuel cell stack has a low voltage and its current ripple should be small [4]. Therefore, a high step-up dcdc converter with high voltage conversion ratio, low input-current ripple, and high efciency is required. Voltage-fed converters are often used in the step-up dcdc converter for fuel cells [5][8]. However, these voltage-fed converters may not be optimal due to large input-current ripple [9]. Reducing the input-current ripple in the voltage-fed converter

Fig. 1. Proposed active-clamped dcdc converter with input-current doubler and output-voltage doubler for fuel cell power systems.

Manuscript received June 5, 2008; revised August 7, 2008; accepted September 14, 2008. First published December 16, 2008; current version published February 6, 2009. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor H. S. H. Chung. The authors are with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang 790-784, Korea (e-mail: bhkwon@postech.ac.kr). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPEL.2008.2006268

requires an additional LC lter across the fuel cell stack, which lowers the power efciency. Also, a high turns ratio between the primary and secondary sides of the high-frequency transformer is required. However, current-fed converters decrease the input-current ripple by using an inductor. Current-fed converters have advantages such as high voltage conversion ratio, low input-current ripple, and low conduction loss of switches. Several current-fed converters have been developed such as a current-fed pushpull converter [10], [11], a current-fed fullbridge converter [12][14], and a current-fed half-bridge converter [15][18]. A conventional current-fed half-bridge converter has the input-current doubler function. Since the input current divides into two inductor currents, reducing the primary current of the transformer, the related conduction loss is reduced. However, this converter has several problems such as voltage spikes of switches resulting from the leakage inductance of the transformer, high-voltage stress of the rectifying diodes, and low power conversion efciency. Recently, active clamping current-fed half-bridge converters [16], [17] have been presented to solve the aforementioned problems. Its active-clamp circuit clamps the surge voltage of switches and recycles the energy stored in the leakage inductance. However, the reverse-recovery problem of the output rectifying diodes still exists. A high-efciency high step-up dcdc converter consisting of an input-current doubler, an output-voltage doubler, and an active-clamp circuit is proposed, as shown in Fig. 1. The

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Fig. 2.

Simplied circuit model of the proposed converter.

proposed dcdc converter has low conduction loss in the primary side, since the input-current doubler divides the input current into two inductor currents, reducing the primary current of the transformer, and the primary switches with the activeclamp circuit have low ON-resistance by reducing voltage stress. The input-current doubler and the output-voltage doubler provide a much higher voltage conversion ratio without using a high turns-ratio transformer and increase the overall efciency. The output-voltage doubler doubles the conversion ratio and the voltage stress on rectifying diodes is conned to the output voltage [19]. This voltage doubler provides a series-resonant circuit that consists of a transformer leakage inductance and a resonant capacitor. Then, the zero-current turn-OFF of the output rectifying diodes is achieved, and the reverse-recovery losses are eliminated. The operation of the proposed converter is analyzed. Experimental results and waveforms at 1 kW show the performance of the proposed high-efcient high step-up converter. II. OPERATION OF THE PROPOSED CONVERTER The proposed dcdc converter consists of an input-current doubler, an output-voltage doubler, and an active-clamp circuit, as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows its simplied circuit model. Two 180 out-of-phase pulses of equal and adjustable widths are supplied to drive the main switches S1 and S2 of the step-up converter. Auxiliary switches S3 and S4 are driven complementarily with S1 and S2 , respectively. Since the magnetizing inductance of the transformer is large and bidirectionally excited, the magnetizing current is nearly zero. Therefore, the magnetizing inductance can be neglected and the transformer T is modeled as an ideal transformer with leakage inductance Llk . The inductors L1 and L2 are connected to the transformer, and to S1 and S2 , respectively. The active-clamp circuit is composed of the clamp capacitor Cc and auxiliary switches S3 and S4 . The voltage-doubler rectier is composed of the rectifying diodes D1 and D2 and the capacitor Cr . This voltage doubler provides a series-resonant circuit composed of the transformer leakage inductance Llk and the resonant capacitor Cr , achieving the zero-current turn-OFF of the output rectifying diodes.

In order to analyze the operation, several assumptions are made. The switches S1 , S2 , S3 , and S4 are ideal except for their body diodes DS 1 , DS 2 , DS 3 , and DS 4 . The output voltage Vo is constant during one switching period Ts because the capacitance of the output capacitor Co is sufciently large. Similarly, the clamp capacitor Cc is sufciently large so that its voltage ripple is negligible, and the clamp capacitor voltage Vc is constant during one switching period. Figs. 3 and 4 show the operating modes during one switching period Ts and their theoretical waveforms, respectively. Prior to Mode 1, the inductor current iL 1 ows into the active-clamp switch S3 and the inductor current iL 2 ows into the main switch S2 . Mode 1 [t0 , t1 ]: At t0 , S1 is turned ON. Then, the inductor current iL 1 ows into S1 and the inductor current iL 2 ows into S2 . Since both the main switches S1 and S2 are conducting, the primary voltage vp of the transformer is zero. Also, the primary current ip and the secondary current is are zero. Then, the inductor currents iL 1 and iL 2 increase linearly as follows: VFC (t t0 ) (1) iL 1 (t) = iL 1 (t0 ) + L1 iL 2 (t) = iL 2 (t0 ) + VFC (t t0 ) L2 (2)

where VFC is the input voltage from the fuel cell stack. Mode 2 [t1 , t2 ]: At t1 , S2 is turned OFF. After a short dead time, S4 is turned ON while its body diode is conducting. iL 1 increases continuously as in (1) and iL 2 decreases linearly as follows: Vc VFC (t t1 ) . (3) iL 2 (t) = iL 2 (t1 ) L2 During this mode, the input power is transferred to the secondary side. The secondary winding voltage is vs = nVc (4)

where the turns-ratio n of the transformer is given by N2 /N1 . The voltage across Llk is the difference between the secondary winding voltage vs and the resonant capacitor voltage vC r . Since D2 is conducting, the leakage inductance Llk

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Fig. 3.

Operating modes of the proposed converter. (a) Mode 1, (b) Mode 2, (c) Mode 3, (d) Mode 4, (e) Mode 5, (f) Mode 6.

resonates with the resonant capacitor Cr while the secondary current is ows. The state equations can be written as follows: Llk dis (t) = vC r (t) nVc dt dvC r (t) . is (t) = Cr dt (5) (6)

where Is,p eak is the peak value of the primary current is , and the angular resonant frequency r and the resonant impedance Zr are given by 1 , r = Llk Cr Zr = Llk . Cr (9)

Here, vC r and is are obtained as follows: vC r (t) = nVc [nVc vC r (t1 )] cos r (t t1 ) is (t) = nVc vC r (t1 ) sin r (t t1 ) Zr (8) (7)

= Is,p eak sin r (t t1 )

Mode 3 [t2 , t3 ]: At t2 , the diode current iD 2 becomes zero. iL 1 still decreases and iL 2 increases, as shown in Fig. 4. Since the resonance among Llk and Cr is terminated at t2 , the diode D2 is turned OFF at zero current. The zero-current turn-OFF of D2 removes its reverse-recovery problem. Mode 4 [t3 , t4 ]: At t3 , S2 is turned ON. This mode is analogous to Mode 1. Therefore, the analysis of this mode is omitted.

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The resonant equivalent capacitance is a series capacitance of Cr and Co . Since the output capacitance Co is sufciently large, the equivalent capacitance is Cr . Thus, the leakage inductance Llk and the equivalent capacitance Cr begin to resonate. The state equations can be written as follows: dis (t) = vC r (t) + nVc Vo dt dvC r (t) . is (t) = Cr dt and is are obtained as follows: Llk nVc vC r (t4 ) sin r (t t4 ) Zr (15) (12) (13)

Here, vC r

vC r (t) = nVc [nVc vC r (t4 )] cos r (t t4 ) (14) is (t) =

= Is,p eak sin r (t t4 ).

Mode 6 [t5 , t6 ]: At t5 , the diode current iD 1 becomes zero and the diode D1 is turned OFF at zero current. The zero-current turn-OFF of D1 removes its reverse-recovery problem. The output current Io is Io = 1 Ts
t5 t4

Is,p eak sin r (t t4 ).

(16)

Thus, from (15) and (16), Is,p eak is obtained as Is,p eak = = nVc vC r (t4 ) Zr r Io Ts . 2 (17)

III. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN GUIDELINE A. Voltage Conversion Ratio The volt-second balance law of Llk during one switching period provides the following relation between VC r and Vo : (VC r + nVc Vo ) (1 D) + (VC r nVc ) (1 D) = 0 (18) where D is the duty ratio. Then, the resonant capacitor voltage VC r is obtained as VC r = 0.5Vo .
Fig. 4. Theoretical waveforms of the proposed converter.

(19)

From (7) and (14), the average value VC r of the resonant capacitor voltage vC r becomes nVc . Then, the clamp capacitor voltage Vc is given by 1 Vo . (20) 2n This equation shows that the clamp capacitor voltage Vc is constant without any relationship with the input voltage. Thus, the rated voltage of the power semiconductor switches can be selected without respect to the input voltage. The conduction loss can be reduced by using a lower rated voltage. The volt-second balance law of L1 during one switching period provides the relation between VFC and Vc as follows: Vc = VFC D + (VFC Vc ) (1 D) = 0. (21)

Mode 5 [t4 , t5 ]: At t4 , S1 is turned OFF. S3 is turned ON while its body diode is conducting. iL 2 increases continuously as in (2) and iL 1 decreases linearly as follows: iL 1 (t) = iL 1 (t4 ) Vc VFC (t t4 ). L1 (10)

During this mode, the input power is transferred to the secondary side like in Mode 2. The secondary winding voltage is vs = nVc . (11)

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Then, (21) can be rewritten as Vc 1 . = VFC 1D (22)

D. Design Procedure 1) From (20), the clamp capacitor voltage Vc is constant without any relationship with the input voltage and duty ratio. Thus, the clamp capacitor voltage gives the maximum voltage of the power semiconductor switches. 2) From (23), the turns-ratio of the transformer T can be selected. 3) The leakage inductance Llk is the estimated or measured leakage inductance depending on the winding method and turns-ratio of the transformer T . From (25), the resonant capacitor Cr can be selected. 4) From (29), the boost inductors L1 and L2 can be selected. 5) Since the peak voltage stresses on the diodes D1 and D2 are equal to the output voltage Vo , the maximum voltage of the diodes D1 and D2 becomes the output voltage Vo . IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The high-efciency high step-up dcdc converter for fuel cell power systems in Fig. 1 was implemented and experiments carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. The input voltage range, output voltage, and the maximum power of the converter were specied as Vi = 2050 V, Vo = 350 V, and Po,m ax = 1 kW. The major components and parameters of the prototype are as follows: Switches S1 and S2 : IRFB4310 2 Active-clamp switches S3 and S4 : IRFB4310 Switching frequency: fs = 50 kHz Primary winding turns: N1 = 8 turns Secondary winding turns: N2 = 17 turns Leakage inductance: Llk = 1.45 H Inductance of boost inductors: L1 = L2 = 60 H Resonant capacitor: Cr = 4 F Clamp capacitors: Cc = 20 F Input capacitor: CFC = 10 F Output capacitor: Co = 680 F. The overall system was implemented fully in software using a single-chip microcontroller, Microchip dsPIC30F3011. Voltage and current signals were measured with the 10-bit A/D converter in the microcontroller. The PSPICE simulation waveforms of the proposed converter are shown in Fig. 5 and the experimental waveforms are shown in Figs. 611. Fig. 6 shows the voltage and current waveforms of the switch S1 and the current waveform of the auxiliary switch S3 . Since the calculated clamp capacitor voltage Vc from (20) is 82 V, the voltages of the switches are also 82 V when the switches are turned OFF. The waveform of vS1 veries that the voltage vS1 is 82 V when the switch S1 is turned OFF. Also, the current waveforms of the switches S1 and S3 are similar to theoretical waveforms. The turn-ON switching loss is related with the energy stored in the switch capacitance. The energy stored in the output capacitance of the main switch is 2 2 Cs Vc2 = (3 540 pF) (82 V)2 . 3 3 (30)

From (20) and (22), the relation between the input voltage VFC and the output voltage Vo is given by 2 Vo . =n VFC 1D B. Resonant Capacitor Cr For the zero-current turn-OFF of the diode, the half resonant period /r corresponding to the time interval [t4 , t5 ] should be less than the turn-OFF time (1 D)Ts of the main switch S1 as follows: < (1 D)Ts . (24) r From (23) and (24), the resonant capacitor Cr for the zerocurrent turn-OFF of the diodes is designed as Cr < 1 Llk VFC 2nTs Vo
2

(23)

(25)

Since the resonant capacitor Cr is operated at high frequency, high-frequency capacitors, such as a Miller capacitor, are used. C. Input-Current Ripple Assuming that the boost inductors L1 and L2 are of the same value as L, the input-current ripple IFC from the fuel cell stack is (iL 1 + iL 2 ) = = VFC Vc VFC DTs L L 2VFC Vc DTs . L (26)

The maximum input-current ripple IFC,m ax occurs at the duty ratio D = 0.25 or 0.75. The maximum input-current ripple IFC,m ax is IFC,m ax = (IL 1 + IL 2 )m ax = Vo Ts . 16nL (27)

The current ripple of L1 and L2 is IL 1 = IL 2 = VFC DTs L (1 D)D Vc Ts = L

(28)

and the maximum current ripple at the duty ratio D = 0.5 is IL 1,m ax = IL 2,m ax = Vo Ts . 8nL (29)

From (27) and (29), the maximum input-current ripple is half of that of iL 1 and iL 2 .

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Fig. 7. Voltage waveform across the secondary windings of transformer T and secondary current waveform.

Fig. 5.

Simulation waveforms.

Fig. 8.

Voltage and current waveforms of the diodes D 1 and D 2 .

Fig. 6.

Experimental waveforms of switches S 1 and S 3 .

The operation of the main switch is hard switching. However, the turn-ON switching loss is not severe because the energy stored in the output capacitances of switches is small at a low voltage. Therefore, zero-voltage switching for reducing this turn-ON switching loss does not improve the efciency sufciently and the hard switching at low voltage does not nearly increase EMI noise. Fig. 7 shows the voltage and current waveforms across the secondary windings of transformer T . Fig. 8 shows the experimental waveforms of the voltages vD 1 and vD 2 across the output diodes D1 and D2 and the currents iD 1 and iD 2 owing through these diodes. The diode currents iD 1 and iD 2 reach

Fig. 9.

Current waveforms of IF C and iL 1 .

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Fig. 12.

Measured efciency.

Fig. 10.

Output voltage V o and current Io .

Fig. 12 shows the measured efciency of the proposed converter in order to show its performance. The efciency was measured by the digital power meter Yokogawa WT130. The measured European efciency is 96% at an input voltage of 30 V. V. CONCLUSION A high-efciency high step-up dcdc converter for fuel cell power systems was proposed. The proposed system consisted of an input-current doubler, an output-voltage doubler, and an active-clamp circuit. By employing the input-current doubler and the output-voltage doubler, a much higher voltage conversion ratio was obtained without using a high turns-ratio transformer. The reduced turns ratio increased the overall efciency. A series-resonant circuit of the output-voltage doubler removed the reverse-recovery problem of the rectifying diodes. The active-clamp circuit clamped the surge voltage of switches and recycled the energy stored in the leakage inductance. The operation principle of the converter was analyzed and a 1 kW prototype for home applications was implemented to verify the analysis. The prototype achieved a European efciency of 96% at an input voltage of 30 V. REFERENCES
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Fig. 11. Output voltage V o and current Io when the load is changed abruptly from 0 to 1 kW.

zero before the diodes D1 and D2 are reversely biased, which guarantees zero-current turn-OFF of the diodes. Since the body diodes of the MOSFET DS 3 and DS 4 are slow, the currents iL 1 and iL 2 do not ow the body diode immediately at the turn-OFF of the main switches. Therefore, the current sources of iL 1 and iL 2 may increase the secondary current is immediately. If the fast diodes are used in DS 3 and DS 4 , the experimental waveform will be the same as the analysis waveform in Fig. 4. Fig. 9 shows the current waveforms of iL 1 and iL 2 . Since iFC is the sum of iL 1 and iL 2 , the ripple frequency of the input current iFC is twice the switching frequency. As a result, the current ripple of the input current iFC is relatively low. Fig. 10 shows the output voltage Vo and current Io . The voltage and current ripples are almost zero. Fig. 11 shows the output voltage Vo and current Io during step transient of the load. When the load is changed from 0 kW (0%) to 1 kW (100%), the output voltage is recovered during 20 ms. In the prototype, the output capacitor Co is 680 F. The voltage transient can be reduced more by increasing the output capacitor value.

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[18] T. J. Liang, R. Y. Chen, and J. F. Chen, Current-fed parallel-resonant dc ac inverter for cold-cathode uorescent lamp with zero-current switching, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 22062210, Jul. 2008. [19] J. J. Lee, J. M. Kwon, E. H. Kim, and B. H. Kwon, Dual series-resonant active-clamp converter, IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 699709, Feb. 2008.

Jung-Min Kwon (S08) was born in Ulsan, Korea, in 1981. He received the B.S. degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 2004. He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in electronic and electrical engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea. His current research interests include renewable energy, distributed generation, and switchmode power supplies.

Bong-Hwan Kwon (M91) was born in Pohang, Korea, in 1958. He received the B.S. degree from Kyungbuk National University, Taegu, Korea, in 1982, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Korea, in 1984 and 1987, respectively. Since 1987, he has been with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, Korea, where he is currently a Professor. His current research interests include renewable energy, high-frequency converters, and switch-mode power supplies.