Experimental Evaluation of Medium-Voltage Cascode Gallium Nitride(GaN)Devices for Bidirectional DC-DC Converters

Wide bandgap(WBG)semiconductors,such as silicon carbide(SiC)and gallium nitride(GaN),exhibit superior physical properties and demonstrate great potential for replacing conventional silicon(Si)semiconductors with WBG technology,pushing the boundaries of power devices to handle higher blocking voltages,switching frequencies,output power levels,and operating temperatures.However,tradeoffs in switching performance and converter efficiency when substituting GaN devices for Si and SiC counterparts are not well-defined,especially in a cascode configuration.Additional research with further detailed investigation and analysis is necessitated for medium-voltage GaN devices in power converter applications.Therefore,the aim of this research is to experimentally investigate the impact of emerging 650/900 V cascode GaN devices on bidirectional dc-dc converters that are suitable for energy storage and distributed renewable energy systems.Dynamic characteristics of Si,SiC,and cascode GaN power devices are examined through the double-pulse test(DPT)circuit at different gate resistance values,device currents,and DC bus voltages.Furthermore,the switching behavior and energy loss as well as the rate of voltage and current changes over the time are studied and analyzed at various operating conditions.A 500 W experimental converter prototype is implemented to validate the benefits of cascode GaN devices on the converter operation and performance.Comprehensive analysis of the power losses and efficiency improvements for Si-based,SiC-based,and GaN-based converters are performed and evaluated as the switching frequency,working temperature,and output power level are in-creased.The experimental results reveal significant improvements in switching performance and energy efficiency from the emerging cascode GaN devices in the bidirectional converters.

Design and Implementation of Bi-Directional DC-DC Converter for Wind Energy System

This paper proposes a design and implementation of the bi-directional DC-DC converter for Wind Energy Conversion System. The proposed project consists of boost DC/DC converter, bi-directional DC/DC converter (BDC), permanent magnet DC generator and batteries. A DC-DC boost converter is interface with proposed wind system to step up the initial generator voltage and maintain constant output voltage. The fluctuation nature of wind makes them unsuitable for standalone operation. To overcome the drawbacks an energy storage device is used in the proposed system to compensate the fluctuations and to maintain a smooth and continuous power flow in all operating modes to load. Bi-directional DC-DC converter (BDC) is capable of transforming energy between two DC buses. It can operate as a boost converter which supplies energy to the load when the wind generator output power is greater than the required load power. It also operates in buck mode which charges from DC bus when output power is less than the required load power. The proposed converter reduces the component losses and increases the performance of the overall system. The complete system is implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK and verified with hardware.

Application of non-isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters for renewable and sustainable energy systems:a review

The primary challenge in renewable-energy utilization is an energy-storage system involving its power converter.The systems have to promise high efficiency,reliability and durability.Also,all of these can be realized at an economical cost.Buck and boost converters connected in parallel can convert power in both directions.It is the basic non-isolated bidirectional topology commonly used with energy-storage systems.The primary issue with the buck-boost non-isolated bidirectional converter is how to enhance its performance,so the modification involving this topology is still conducted.This paper examines 29 proposed converters from 30 research publications published in the last 10 years,the most recent of which focuses on modified non-isolated bidirectional converters based on the buck-boost topology.These are classified into eight modification schemes,which involve adding new components or circuits to the base topology.Each is evaluated against six parameters:the number of components,control complexity,power-rating applications,soft-switching ability,efficiency outcome and capacity to minimize losses.Moreover,each modified non-isolated bidirectional converter was compared from the renewable-energy-based power-generation-source perspective utilized.Based on these studies,researchers might think of ways to improve the buck-boost converter by changing it to make a new non-isolated bidirectional converter that can be used in systems that need it.

The Hybrid Bidirectional DC/DC Converter:Mutual Control and Stability Analysis

A hybrid bidirectional DC/DC converter(BDC)is proposed as the fundamental DC/DC module in solid-state transformers,which combines a bidirectional LLC converter and a dual-active-bridge(DAB)converter.Integrated with a mutual control scheme,both parts of this hybrid BDC can be unified into an interdependent community.In this hybrid BDC,the LLC converter supports the output voltage and improves stability by working at the resonant frequency mode and the DAB converter enhances the BDC power capability by controlling the LLC output current constant.The BDC can achieve the full-load-range soft switching of all active switches by designing the auxiliary inductor of LLC and the minimum output current of DAB.By comparing to the single DAB,the proposed BDC has the higher phase and gain margin which means the BDC improved the relative stability based on Nyquist criterion.To solve the bidirectional power control problem,a dead-band voltage control logic is adopted which can determine the BDC’s power direction based on the output voltage change.A 200 V experimental system has verified the aforementioned features and functions of the BDC.

Circulating Current Suppression Method with Adaptive Virtual Impedance for Multi-bidirectional Power Converters Under Unbalanced Conditions

Multi-paralleled bidirectional power converters(BPCs)are commonly used to improve the power capacity and reliability in an AC/DC hybrid microgrid.However,circulating current through multi-BPCs has been one of the challenges and it can be aggravated in the presence of non-ideal operating conditions,such as unbalanced AC voltages,and the mismatch of hardware parameters.In order to suppress the circulating current,this paper proposes a distributed method based on adaptive virtual impedance,which also employs positive sequence power droop control and voltage deviation compensation control.The traditional positive sequence power droop control is adopted to only regulate the positive components of the BPCs output voltage.The negative sequence power term is fed to an adaptive virtual impedance generator to modify the damping characteristics of the BPCs.Also,an adaptive virtual impedance-based voltage deviation compensation method is proposed to recover the fluctuated output voltage of the BPCs due to droop action and the power fluctuations.The fully distributed regulation of adaptive virtual impedance enables the load power to be shared accurately among BPC modules and thus the circulating current can be effectively suppressed.The proposed control strategy does not require an additional communication system and the precise parameters of hardware equipment and line impedance.Furthermore,the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the experimental results.

Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of a High-Efficiency Battery Control System

This paper explains step-by-step modeling and simulation of the full circuits of a battery control system and connected together starting from the AC input source to the battery control and storage system.The three-phase half-controlled rectifier has been designed to control and convert the AC power into DC power.In addition,two types of direct current converters have been used in this paper which are a buck and bidirectional DC/DC converters.These systems adjust the output voltage to be lower or higher than the input voltage.In the buck converters,the main switch operates in conduction or cut-off mode and is triggered by a Pulse-Width Modulated(PWM)signal.The output and input voltage levels ratio are used to calculate thePWMsignal’s duty cycle.Therefore,the duty cycle indicates the operation mode of the converter in steady-state operation.In this study,we analyze and control of a buck converter with the PWM signal.Besides,the bidirectional DC/DC converter has been achieved and optimized by PI control methods to control the battery charging and discharging modes.The simulation has been applied via the Matlab/Simulink environment.The results show the activity of each part of the designed circuits starting from the converters and the battery control system in charge and discharge modes.

A Review of Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converters for Data Centers

In today’s fast-paced,information-driven world,data centers can offer high-speed,intricate capabilities on a larger scale owing to the ever-growing demand for networks and information systems.Because data centers process and transmit information,stability and reliability are important.Data center power supply architectures rely heavily on isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters to ensure safety and stability.For the smooth operation of a data center,the power supply must be reliable and uninterrupted.In this study,we summarize the basic principle,topology,switch conversion strategy,and control technology of the existing isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters.Subsequently,existing research results and problems with isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters are reviewed.Finally,future trends in the development of isolated bidirectional DC-DC converters for data centers are presented,which offer valuable insights for solving engineering obstacles and future research directions in the field.

Maximum Power Point Tracking of Hybrid Tidal Current—Supercapacitor Energy Conversion System

This paper proposes control of maximum power tracking system of tidal current energy system. A permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) works as a variable speed generator in the proposed energy system. A controller was applied to achieve the maximum power control of tidal current turbine on a wide range of water current speed change. A dynamic model and simulation of the energy system coupled with current change are presented. The measured DC voltage and DC current are used to determine the position of maximum power point that controls the DC/DC boost converter duty cycle depending on the Hill Climb Search (HCS) algorithm. This algorithm doesn’t require any information or measurements about current’s speed change or generator’s characteristics. A supercapacitor added to fix the load voltage despite of tidal current speed or load variations. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the controller proposed system.

Non-isolated stacked bidirectional soft-switching DC-DC converter with PWM plus phase-shift control scheme

In this paper, a non-isolated stacked bidirectional DC-DC converter with zero-voltage-switching(ZVS) is introduced for the high step-up/step-down conversion systems. The extremely narrow turn-on and/or turn-off duty cycle existing in the conventional bidirectional buck-boost converters can be extended due to the stacked module configuration for large voltage conversion ratio applications. Furthermore, the switch voltage stress is halved because of the series connection of half bridge modules. The PWM plus phase-shift control strategy is employed, where the duty cycle is adopted to regulate the voltages between the input and output sides and the phaseshift angle is applied to achieve the power flow regulation.This decoupled control scheme can not only realize seamless bidirectional transition operation, but also achieve adaptive voltage balance for the power switches. In addition, ZVS soft-switching operation for all active switches is realized to minimize the switching losses. Finally, a prototype of 1 kW operating at 100 kHz is built and tested to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed converter and the control strategy.