There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

The authors discuss high-voltage power conversion. Conventional series connection and three-level voltage source inverter techniques are reviewed and compared. A novel versatile multilevel commutation cell is introduced: it is shown that this topology is safer and more simple to control, and delivers purer output waveforms. The authors show how this technique can be applied to either choppers or voltage-source inverters and generalized to any number of switches.<<ETX>>

Multi-level conversion : high voltage choppers and voltage-source inverters

Photovoltaic (PV) energy has grown at an average annual rate of 60% in the last five years, surpassing one third of the cumulative wind energy installed capacity, and is quickly becoming an important part of the energy mix in some regions and power systems. This has been driven by a reduction in the cost of PV modules. This growth has also triggered the evolution of classic PV power converters from conventional singlephase grid-tied inverters to more complex topologies to increase efficiency, power extraction from the modules, and reliability without impacting the cost. This article presents an overview of the existing PV energy conversion systems, addressing the system configuration of different PV plants and the PV converter topologies that have found practical applications for grid-connected systems. In addition, the recent research and emerging PV converter technology are discussed, highlighting their possible advantages compared with the present technology. Solar PV energy conversion systems have had a huge growth from an accumulative total power equal to approximately 1.2 GW in 1992 to 136 GW in 2013 (36 GW during 2013) [1]. This phenomenon has been possible because of several factors all working together to push the PV energy to cope with one important position today (and potentially a fundamental position in the near future). Among these factors are the cost reduction and increase in efficiency of the PV modules, the search for alternative clean energy sources (not based on fossil fuels), increased environmental awareness, and favorable political regulations from local governments (establishing feed-in tariffs designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies). It has become usual to see PV systems installed on the roofs of houses or PV farms next to the roads in the countryside. Grid-connected PV systems account for more than 99% of the PV installed capacity compared to

An Overview of Recent Research and Emerging PV Converter Technology

Photovoltaic (PV) energy has grown at an average annual rate of 60% in the last five years, surpassing one third of the cumulative wind energy installed capacity, and is quickly becoming an important part of the energy mix in some regions and power systems. This has been driven by a reduction in the cost of PV modules. This growth has also triggered the evolution of classic PV power converters from conventional single-phase grid-tied inverters to more complex topologies to increase efficiency, power extraction from the modules, and reliability without impacting the cost. This article presents an overview of the existing PV energy conversion systems, addressing the system configuration of different PV plants and the PV converter topologies that have found practical applications for grid-connected systems. In addition, the recent research and emerging PV converter technology are discussed, highlighting their possible advantages compared with the present technology.

Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems: An Overview of Recent Research and Emerging PV Converter Technology

With the number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the rise, there is a need for an adequate charging infrastructure to serve these vehicles. The emerging extreme fast-charging (XFC) technology has the potential to provide a refueling experience similar to that of gasoline vehicles. In this article, we review the state-of-the-art EV charging infrastructure and focus on the XFC technology, which will be necessary to support the current and future EV refueling needs. We present the design considerations of the XFC stations and review the typical power electronics converter topologies suitable to deliver XFC. We consider the benefits of using the solid-state transformers (SSTs) in the XFC stations to replace the conventional line-frequency transformers and further provide a comprehensive review of the medium-voltage SST designs for the XFC application.

Extreme Fast Charging of Electric Vehicles: A Technology Overview

Aiming for converters with high efficiency and high power density demands converter topologies with zero-voltage switching (ZVS) capabilities. This letter shows that in order to determine whether ZVS is provided at a given operating point, the stored charge within the mosfet s has to be considered and the condition $L I^2 \geq 2Q_\text{oss} V_\text{DC}$ has to be fulfilled. In the case of incomplete soft switching, nonzero losses occur which are analytically derived and experimentally verified in this letter. Furthermore, the issue of nonideal soft-switching behavior of Si superjunction mosfet s is addressed.

ZVS of Power MOSFETs Revisited

The strings of photovoltaic panels have a significantly reduced power output when mismatch between the panels occurs, as, e.g., caused by partial shading. With mismatch, either the panel-integrated diodes are bypassing the shaded panels if the string is operated at the current level of the unshaded panels, or some power of the unshaded panels is lost if the string current is reduced to the level of the shaded panels. With the implementation of dc-dc converters on panel level, the maximum available power can be extracted from each panel regardless of any mismatch. In this paper, different concepts of PV panel-integrated dc-dc converters are presented and their suitability for panel integration is evaluated. The buck-boost converter is identified as the most promising concept and an efficiency/power density ( η- ρ) Pareto optimization of this topology is shown. Based on the optimization results, two 275 W converter prototypes with either Silicon MOSFETs with a switching frequency of 100 kHz or gallium nitride FETs with a switching frequency of 400 kHz are designed for an input voltage range of 15 to 45 V and an output voltage range of 10 to 100 V. The theoretical considerations are verified by efficiency measurements which are compared to the characteristics of a commercial panel-integrated converter.

Classification and Comparative Evaluation of PV Panel-Integrated DC–DC Converter Concepts

Strings of photovoltaic panels have a significantly reduced power output when mismatch between the panels, such as partial shading, occurs since integrated diodes are then partly bypassing the shaded panels. With the implementation of DC-DC converters on panel level, the maximum available power can be extracted from each panel regardless of any shading. In this paper, different concepts of PV panel integrated DC-DC converters are presented, comparative evaluation is given and the converter design process is shown for the buck-boost converter which is identified as the best suited concept. Furthermore, the results of high precision efficiency measurements of an experimental prototype are presented and compared to a commercial MIC.

Classification and comparative evaluation of PV panel integrated DC-DC converter concepts

The rising electricity demand of data centers has initiated a development trend toward highly efficient power supplies. Therefore, a multicell converter approach for a telecom rectifier module breaking through the efficiency and power density barriers of traditional single-cell converter systems is presented in this paper. The potential of the multicell approach for high efficiency is derived from fundamental scaling laws of different system performance aspects in dependence of the number of converter cells and the benefits of the interleaving technique. Based on the available degrees of freedom in the design of such a converter system, a comprehensive multiobjective optimization of the entire system with respect to efficiency and power density is performed with detailed component loss and volume models. In order to verify the analytical models and the design procedure, a hardware demonstrator of a 3.3 kW multicell $\text{230}\,V_\text{AC}/\text{48}\, V_\text{DC}$ telecom power supply with $N_{\text{cells}}=6$ isolated converter cells in an input-series output-parallel arrangement is presented with measurement results indicating a maximum efficiency of $\eta =$ 97.7% and a power density of $\rho =$ 2.2 kW/dm3 (= 36 W/in3). Furthermore, different paths for future performance improvements of the multicell arrangement are outlined.

Design of a Highly Efficient (97.7%) and Very Compact (2.2 kW/dm $^3$) Isolated AC–DC Telecom Power Supply Module Based on the Multicell ISOP Converter Approach

Voltage conversions with high step-down ratios are required in many medium voltage applications for supplying auxiliary electronics. In this paper a new topology for high conversion ratios with low voltage stresses of components, modular structure and simple control is presented. The operation principles are described together with analytical descriptions of the average value of the inductor currents and RMS values of the switches. In addition, the influence of the efficiency of the individual modules on the total converter efficiency is provided. Possible modifications of the “Rainstick” converter with benefits for different applications are shown. Furthermore, the measurement results of a prototype with an input voltage range of up to 2.4 kV and 30 W output power are shown.

Matthias Kasper

Papers

ZVS of Power MOSFETs Revisited

Classification and Comparative Evaluation of PV Panel-Integrated DC–DC Converter Concepts

Classification and comparative evaluation of PV panel integrated DC-DC converter concepts

Design of a Highly Efficient (97.7%) and Very Compact (2.2 kW/dm $^3$) Isolated AC–DC Telecom Power Supply Module Based on the Multicell ISOP Converter Approach

Novel high voltage conversion ratio “Rainstick” DC/DC converters