Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

ScienceDirect
Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31
www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Novel high efficiency DC/DC boost converter for using

in photovoltaic systems
Hassan Fathabadi ⇑
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece

Received 4 September 2015; received in revised form 29 November 2015; accepted 30 November 2015
Available online 22 December 2015

Communicated by: Associate Editor Igor Tyukhov

Abstract

In this study, a novel high efficiency DC/DC boost converter is proposed to use in PV systems. The converter includes only one metal
oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) switch, and two diodes. It is shown theoretically and experimentally that the only
switch of the converter is turned on and turned off respectively under zero current switching (ZCS) and zero voltage switching (ZVS)
conditions, and the two diodes are turned on/off under ZCS condition, so there are no switching losses. To evaluate the performance
of the DC/DC boost converter, a novel photovoltaic (PV) based battery charger consisting of the proposed converter and other units
is also implemented. A prototype of the proposed PV battery charger has been built, and experimental results are presented that explicitly
validate theoretical results. It is experimentally verified that the contribution of this work is to present a novel high efficiency DC/DC
boost converter having the highest efficiency (98.21%) compared to the other DC/DC boost converter topologies reported in the
literature.
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV) systems; DC/DC boost converter; DC-link voltage

1. Introduction (2010). In this case, the charging voltage/current is not reg-

A PV module/panel together with an interface system
that provides an appropriate voltage/current to charge
rechargeable batteries is called PV battery charger. PV bat-
tery chargers have many applications in industry, for
instance, satellites, solar vehicles, and building integrated
photovoltaic systems use PV battery chargers (Maturi
et al., 2015). The interface system does not have a specific
structure, and is subject to change from a PV battery charger
to another charger. For example, charging a battery by a PV
module/panel without using any interface devices such as
converter or inverter was addressed in Thomas and Nelson
⇑ Tel./fax: +30 210 7722018.
E-mail address: h4477@hotmail.com
ulated, so battery damage and shortening the battery life
cycle are the two unavoidable results. In practice, a DC/
DC converter is necessary to regulate and provide suitable
charging voltage/current according to the battery specifica-
tions, although other units such as MPPT controller are also
needed to design a high efficiency PV battery charger. In
fact, high gain DC/DC converters are often used as an
important part of renewable energy conversion systems
(Shuhui et al., 2011; Alberto et al., 2009) because the most
of renewable energy sources such as fuel cells (Fathabadi,
2015a) and PV modules (Fathabadi, 2015b) usually provide
an output DC voltage in the range of 12–75V, so a sever
demand has been for high efficiency DC/DC boost convert-
ers over years. Non-isolated converters (Li et al., 2009), and
converters with transformer isolation (Li and Wolfs, 2008)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2015.11.047
0038-092X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31
are the two main types of DC/DC boost converters widely
used in renewable energy applications. Different types of
non-isolated DC/DC boost converters have been reported
in the literature. The interleaved boost converter topology
in which each switch is connected in parallel with the DC-
link capacitor was presented in Chunliu et al. (2009). The
design of a soft switching boost converter that uses two
switches operating in zero voltage switching (ZVS) mode
to reduce the switching losses was reported in Park et al.
(2010). The converter has a complicated structure because
of using a considerable number of components that
increases the conduction losses. An older version of this
topology type that uses only one switch was addressed in
da Silva et al. (2001). Flyback Wai and Duan, 2005 and
charge-pump (Yu et al., 2009) are the two other topologies
that have been utilized to obtain the efficiency more than
95%. Different topologies of DC/DC boost converters with
transformer isolation are also available as follows. The res-
onant push–pull topology in which isolation is performed
with a pulse transformer was proposed in Kim and Kwon
(2009). Current fed multi-resonant converter (CFMRC)
topology in which two switches are turned on/off under
ZVS condition was developed in Li et al. (2011) by providing
zero current switching (ZCS) mode for the two bridge diodes
used in the converter. Two inductors-two capacitors
(LLCC) series-parallel resonant converter (SPRC) topology
was introduced in Dick et al. (2010). Four metal oxide semi-
conductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) have been
used as a bridge that all the switches are turned on/off under
ZVS condition, and the two doubler diodes used in the con-
verter are turned off in ZSC mode. Two-transformer DC/
DC boost converter topology including two switches was
introduced in Choi et al. (2009). The primary sides of the
two transformers are connected in series, but the secondary
side of each transformer is independently connected to a
DC-link capacitor through a voltage doubler. Active clamp
topology that uses an active-clamp circuit was presented in
Kwon et al. (2009); it includes two switches, two diodes,
and two capacitors used as voltage doubler. This topology
has the advantages of forward/flyback DC/DC converter
while it uses only one active-clamp circuit in on/off state.
As an updated version of interleaved DC/DC boost convert-
ers, non-isolated high DC/DC boost converter built-in
transformer topology was proposed in Li et al. (2010). There
is no electric isolation although this topology uses
transformer.
Other hybrid topologies recently reported in the literature
are as follows. A DC/DC boost converter with ZVS turn-on
capability implemented using an active-clamp circuit with a
series-resonant voltage doubler was reported in Cha et al.
(2015). Hybrid transformer DC/DC converter with ZVS
turn-on and ZCS turn-off capabilities was proposed in Gu
et al. (2014). A non-isolated DC/DC converter with hybrid
transformer in which turn-off switching loss was decreased
by inserting the resonant operation mode into a pulse width
modulation (PWM) converter was addressed in Gu et al.
(2013), the increase in the efficiency is the other result of this
23
incorporation. A non-isolated asymmetrical half-bridge fly-
back converter including two switches and a transformer in
which the PV module is connected in series with the output
capacitor was proposed in Kima et al. (2010).
In this study, a novel high efficiency DC/DC boost con-
verter is proposed to use in PV systems. To evaluate the
performance of the converter, a PV battery charger is
implemented the key part of which is the proposed DC/
DC boost converter. A comparative study is also per-
formed between the DC/DC boost converter presented in
this study and the above-mentioned converter topologies.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
deals with the proposed DC/DC boost converter and its
DC-link voltage controller. Experimental results and a
comparative study to evaluate the performance of the pro-
posed DC/DC boost converter are presented in Section 3,
and the paper is concluded in Section 4.
2. High efficiency DC/DC boost converter and DC-link
voltage controller
The schematic diagram of the PV based battery charger
implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed
DC/DC boost converter is shown in Fig. 1. The battery
charger consists of the converter, a DC-link voltage con-
troller, and a DC/PWM inverter. The proposed high effi-
ciency DC/DC boost converter and the DC-link voltage
controller are explained in detail in this section.
2.1. Proposed high efficiency DC/DC boost converter
In a PV power conditioning system (PCS), a DC/DC
boost converter provides and regulates an appropriate
DC-link voltage V dc that its level is considerably more than
the PV module voltage. The DC-link voltage plays the role
of a constant DC voltage source for a DC/AC inverter gen-
erally cascaded with the DC/DC converter. The circuit of
the proposed high efficiency DC/DC boost converter is
shown in Fig. 2. To minimize the switching power losses,
only one MOSFET is used as the switch S 1 with a constant
switching period of T s ¼ 1=f s , where f s is the switching fre-
quency. The sole transformer used in the converter has
been modeled as an ideal transformer T with the turns ratio
of n ¼ N 2 =N 1 , and the primary-side leakage inductor Llk1 ,
secondary-side leakage inductor Llk2 , and equivalent mag-
netizing inductor Lm observed from the primary side of
the transformer T. The capacitor C pv acts as a low pass fil-
ter for the PV module to limit the sudden variations in the
PV module voltage V pv , and to reduce probable noise.
When the switch S 1 is turned off, the capacitor C 1 resonates
with the equivalent leakage inductor observed from the pri-
mary side of T ðLlk ¼ Llk1 þ n12 Llk2 Þ that is a very small
inductance, so ZVS condition is achieved. During the
switch S 1 is off, the capacitor C 1 together with Llk perform
a series resonant tank that reduces the electric current flow-
ing through the inductor to zero after several oscillations
24 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the implemented PV based battery charger.

Fig. 2. Proposed high efficiency DC/DC boost converter.

before turning on the MOSFET switch S 1 . Thus, ZCS con- time. Thus, the voltage across the primary winding of T
dition is also achieved for turning on the switch S 1 by is LmLþL
m
lk
V pv . The diode current I D1 ðtÞ flowing through the
choosing appropriate capacitance for C 1 . It is worthwhile path consisting of D1 ; Llk2 ; C 2 , and the secondary winding
to note that when the capacitance of C 1 is very small, it of T is expressed as:
can be replaced with the internal parasitic capacitance of
the MOSFET switch S 1 , in this case there is even no need n LmLþL
m
V pv  V C2
I D1 ðtÞ ¼ I 2 ðtÞ ¼ plk
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi sin½xd ðt  t0 Þ ð1Þ
for the physical capacitor C 1 . It can be summarized that n Llk =C 2
the MOSFET switch S 1 is respectively turned on and
turned off under ZCS and ZVS conditions caused by the where xd ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
is the angular resonant frequency of the
n Llk C 2
capacitor C 1 and very small leakage inductance. This series resonant tank consisting of Llk2 , the effect of Llk1 on
means that the switching losses of the switch S 1 are negligi- the secondary side of T, and C 2 . The diode current I D1 ðtÞ
ble and almost zero. The secondary winding of the trans- reaches zero after one half-period xpd because the diode D1
former T together with the diode D1 ;secondary-side
goes to reverse bias mode. The waveform of I D1 ðtÞ is shown
leakage inductor Llk2 , and capacitor C 2 perform a voltage
in Fig. 3(d). At the primary side of T, the magnetizing cur-
doubler. The diode D2 is a half-wave rectifier that rectifies
rent I Lm ðtÞ and switch current I S1 ðtÞ are obtained as:
the half of the secondary voltage of T, and C d is the DC-
link capacitor. Duty ratio DS1 is defined as DS1 ¼ ton =T s , I Lm ðtÞ ¼
V pv
ðt  t0 Þ ð2Þ
where ton is S 1 turn-on time. The steady state waveforms Lm þ Llk
of the different elements of the proposed DC/DC boost and
converter during one period ðT s Þ is shown in Fig. 3. It
can be seen that the converter operation during one period I S1 ðtÞ ¼ I lk1 ðtÞ ¼ I Lm ðtÞ þ I 1 ðtÞ ¼ I Lm ðtÞ þ nI D1 ðtÞ ð3Þ
can be divided into three time intervals as ½t0 ; t1 ; ½t1 ; t2 , and The waveforms of I Lm ðtÞ and I S1 ðtÞ are shown in Fig. 3(b).
½t2 ; t3  that is explained in detail as follows.
2.1.2. DC/DC converter operation during ½t1 ; t2 
2.1.1. DC/DC converter operation during ½t0 ; t1  The diode current I D1 ðtÞ reaches its half-period at t ¼ t1 ,
S 1 is turned on at t ¼ t0 as shown in Fig. 3(a), since the so it becomes zero, and the diode D1 is turned off under
capacitance of C 1 is very low, the voltage across C 1 is ZCS condition as shown in Fig. 3(d). Thus, I 1 ðtÞ ¼ 0, and
rapidly discharged into S 1 in a very short and negligible the switch current I S1 ðtÞ is found using Eqs. (2) and (3) as:
 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31
Fig. 3. Waveforms of the different elements of the proposed DC/DC
boost converter during one period ðT s Þ.
V pv
I S1 ðtÞ ¼ I lk1 ðtÞ ¼ I Lm ðtÞ ¼ ðt  t0 Þ
Lm þ Llk
Eq. (4) shows that the magnetizing current I Lm ðtÞ continues
to linearly increase through the switch S 1 in the time inter-
val of ½t1 ; t2  as shown in Fig. 3(b).
2.1.3. DC/DC converter operation during ½t2 ; t3 
In the DC/DC boost converter proposed in this study,
the capacitor C 1 is not physically available because its
capacitance is about 1:2 nF, so it represents the internal
parasitic capacitance of the MOSFET switch S 1 . Other lim-
itations are also available as n ¼ N 2 =N 1 > 1 and N 1 6 4, so
the equivalent leakage inductor observed from the primary
side of T ðLlk ¼ Llk1 þ n12 Llk2 Þ is very small, and it can be
even ignored in some cases. It is clear that this is not true
for the equivalent leakage inductor observed from the sec-
ondary side of T ðn2 Llk Þ. In practice, the approximate
amounts of the parameters are as follows:
Llk  10  20 nH;Lm  8  25 lH;N 1  3  5; n  2
10, and C 1  0:8  1:5 nF. The switch S 1 is turned off at
t ¼ t2 under ZVS condition resulted from the shunt capac-
itor C 1 , so the switch current immediately reaches zero
ðI S1 ðtÞ ¼ 0Þ as shown in Fig. 3(b). Since Llk << Lm and
C 1 is very small, the current flowing through Llk1 and C 1
is obtained using Eq. (4) as:
25
V pv
I C1 ðtÞ ¼ I lk1 ðtÞ ¼ ðt2  t0 Þ cos½xc ðt  t2 Þ ð5Þ
Lm þ Llk
where xc ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
is the angular resonant frequency of the
Llk C 1
series resonant tank consisting of Llk and C 1 . Since xc has a
large amount about 0:2  0:5G rad=s;I C1 ðtÞ rapidly reaches
zero after only one quarter-period that is a very short time,
in practice 4x 2p
c
 3  8 ns. As shown in Fig. 3(h), it finally
limits to zero after several oscillations with a frequency
close to xc (under damped mode) because of the real resis-
tance available in the current path. Thus, the voltage across
the capacitor C 1 ðV C1 ðtÞÞ also limits to zero after several
oscillations as shown in Fig. 3(g). It is worthwhile to note
that the negative parts of V C1 ðtÞ are removed by the inter-
nal diode of the MOSFET switch S 1 . It can be summarized
that I C1 ðtÞ and V C1 ðtÞ both appear in a very short time less
than 120 ns that their impacts on the other currents and
voltages can be even ignored as shown in Fig. 3(g)–(h). It
is clear that the current flowing through Lm cannot follow
such a fast variation, so it flows in the primary winding
of T. Thus, the diode D2 is turned on at the secondary side
of T, and its current ðI D2 Þ rapidly increase with a very short
rise time about one quarter-period ð4x 2p
c
Þ resulted from the
resonance between Llk and C 1 : The reverse voltage across
the diode D1 is V dc (DC-link voltage) as shown in Fig. 3
(c), and the voltage across the secondary winding of trans-
former T is ðV dc  V C2 Þ. The DC-link capacitor C dc is
now charged by the electric current passing through Llk2 ;
the secondary winding of transformer T, C 2 ; D2 , and C dc ,
and thus, the energy stored in C 2 is transferred to C dc . By
ignoring the above-mentioned very short rise time ð4x 2p
Þ,
c
ð4Þ the charging current can be approximated as:
I Lm ðt2 Þ V dc  V C2
I D2 ðtÞ ¼ I lk2 ðtÞ   2 ðt  t2 Þ; ð6Þ
n n Lm þ n2 Llk
and so, the electric current passing through Lm and the pri-
mary winding of T is obtained as:
V dc  V C2
I Lm ðtÞ ¼ I 1 ðtÞ ¼ nI D2 ðtÞ ¼ I Lm ðt2 Þ  ðt  t2 Þ
nLm þ nLlk
ð7Þ
The reverse voltage across the diode D2 and the wave-
form of I D2 are also shown in Fig 3(e–f). The DC voltage
across the secondary winding of T should be zero during
one cycle ðT s Þ, it can be expressed as:
DS1 V C2  ðV dc  V C2 Þð1  DS1 Þ ¼ 0 ð8Þ
Simplifying Eq. (8) results that
V C2 ¼ ð1  DS1 ÞV dc ð9Þ
The DC voltage across the primary winding of T should
be similarly zero during T s , so it is obtained that
1
DS1 V pv  ðV dc  V C2 Þð1  DS1 Þ ¼ 0 ð10Þ
n
The gain of the proposed DC/DC boost converter is
now obtained by substituting Eqs. (9) in (10) as follows:
26 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31

Fig. 4. Block diagram of the DC-link voltage controller.

V dc n the diodes D1 and D2 both are turned on and turned off

¼ ð11Þ
V pv 1  DS1 in ZCS mode. Thus, there are no switching losses in the
V
converter, and the power loss is limited to the very low con-
Since I Lm ðt2 Þ ¼ Lm þLpv
lk
ðt2  t0 Þ, t2  t0 ¼ ton ¼ DS1 T s , duction losses. As the main contribution, it will be experi-
t3  t2 ¼ toff ¼ ð1  DS1 ÞT s , and V C2 ¼ n V pv , the magnetiz- mentally verified that the proposed DC/DC boost
ing current I Lm ðtÞ at t ¼ t3 is found using Eq. (7) as: converter has higher efficiency compared to the other
V pv V dc  nV pv DC/DC boost converter topologies reported in the litera-
I Lm ðt3 Þ ¼ DS1 T s  ð1  DS1 ÞT s ð12Þ ture (Chunliu et al., 2009; Park et al., 2010; da Silva
Lm þ Llk nLm þ nLlk
et al., 2001; Wai and Duan, 2005; Yu et al., 2009; Kim
Substituting Eqs. (11) in (12), and simplifying it results and Kwon, 2009; Li et al., 2011, 2010; Dick et al., 2010;
that Choi et al., 2009; Kwon et al., 2009; Cha et al., 2015; Gu
et al., 2014, 2013; Kima et al., 2010).
n V pv  ð1  DS1 ÞV dc
I Lm ðt3 Þ ¼ Ts ¼ 0 ð13Þ
nLm þ nLlk
2.2. DC-link voltage controller
Thus, the magnetizing current I Lm ðtÞ at the end of the pre-
sent period ðt ¼ t3 Þ reaches to zero, and so ZCS condition is It is derived from Eq. (11) that
provided for the next switching of S 1 at the start of the next
n V pv
period ðt ¼ t3 Þ when S 1 is again turned on. At t ¼ t3 ; I D2 is V dc ¼ ð14Þ
1  DS1
zero because I D2 ðt3 Þ ¼  1n I 1 ðt3 Þ ¼ 1n I Lm ðt3 Þ ¼ 0. Thus, the
diode D2 is also turned off under ZCS condition at t ¼ t3 . In practice, the PV module voltage V pv continually var-
The equations presenting in this sub-section analyzed ies according to the environmental conditions such as shad-
and showed the exact behavior of each element of the pro- ing situations, cloudy sky, so it cannot be directly used as a
posed DC/DC boost converter. It was analytically proved constant supply voltage by the DC/PWM inverter. Thus,
that the MOSFET switch S 1 is turned on and turned off to provide a constant voltage to feed the DC/PWM inver-
under ZCS and ZVS conditions, respectively. Similarly, ter, it is necessary to produce a constant DC link voltage to

Fig. 5a. Circuit of the designed and constructed PV battery charger the main part of which is the proposed DC/DC boost converter.
 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31
Fig. 5b. Constructed prototype of the proposed DC/DC boost converter.
Fig. 6. I–V characteristics of PV module KC200GT under STC
ðG ¼ 1000 ½W=m2 , AM 1.5 spectrum, T ¼ 25  CÞ, T ¼ 50  C, and
T ¼ 75  C.
be used by the DC/PWM inverter. To provide a constant
DC-link voltage V dcref regardless of variations in V pv ,
the duty ratio DS1 should be continually controlled to reg-
ulate the DC-link voltage V dc . A negligible increase in V dc
caused by variation in V pv is immediately responded by
an appropriate decrease in DS1 , so that, V dc returns to its
adjusted level V dcref . Similarly, a decrease in V dc is com-
pensated by an increase in DS1 , so that, V dc immediately
returns to the desired constant voltage V dcref . The block
diagram of the DC-link voltage controller used in this
study is shown in Fig. 4.
3. Experimental results and performance evaluation
A PV battery charger the main part of which is the pro-
posed DC/DC boost converter has been designed and built
to experimentally validate the theoretical results, and to
evaluate the performance of the converter. The electric cir-
cuit of the constructed PV battery charger and a photo of
the constructed prototype of the proposed DC/DC boost
converter are respectively shown in Figs. 5a and 5b. The
DC-link controller has been implemented using the micro-
controller MC68HC11A8. The DC-link voltage is sensed
by the one A/D pin of the microcontroller after scaling it
using the potentiometer RV1. The DC-link voltage is sam-
27
Fig. 7. P–V characteristic of PV module KC200GT under STC.
pled with a sampling period of 10 ls; and then the micro-
controller determines the appropriate duty ratio DS1 . The
opto-diac S 1 is used to drive the MOSFET switch S 1 with
the appropriate duty ratio DS1 regulated by the microcon-
troller to adjust the DC-link voltage V dc to the constant
voltage V dcref . Similarly, the opto-diac S 2 delivers a peri-
odic switching pulse with the period of T i ¼ 1=f i and a
duty ratio of tS2on =T i , where f i ¼ 10 kHz and tS2on are
the switching frequency and S 2 turn-on time, to the MOS-
FET switch S 2 which acts as a DC/PWM inverter. The
turn-on time ðtS2on Þ is regulated by the microcontroller
to provide an appropriate charging current I char: for the
battery. When S 2 is turned on, the charging current I char:
flows through S 2 and charges the rechargeable battery con-
nected to the inverter. During tS2on , the charging current
I char: is obtained as:
V dc  V Bat:
I char: ðtÞ ¼  IB ð15Þ
Rds þ Resr þ Rbat
where V Bat: is the rechargeable battery voltage, Rds is the
drain-to-source on-resistance of the MOSFET switch
S 2 ; Resr is the equivalent series resistance (ESR) of capacitor
C dc at 10 kHz, and Rbat is the internal equivalent series
resistance of the rechargeable battery. Since V dc is constant,
the charging current I char: can be considered as a constant
current I B during tS2on by ignoring the negligible variations
of V Bat: compared to V dc , which is a large amount, during
charging process. On the other hand, when S 2 is turned
off, the charging current immediately reaches zero, and
thus, I char: has a PWM waveform as shown in Fig. 1.
As mentioned in Section 2, there are only two resonant
frequencies in the converter as below:
(A) The first resonant frequency is xd ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
that rep-
n Llk C 2
resents the angular resonant frequency of the series
resonant tank consisting of Llk2 , the effect of Llk1 on
28 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31

Fig. 9. Experimental waveforms: Charging current and DC-link voltage

for V pvmpp ¼ 26:3 V (PV module voltage) and P pvmpp ¼ 200:08 W (PV
module power) under the nominal condition.

99
98
97
96
95
94
93
92
91
90
89
88
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

19 0
5
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
6.
Fig. 10. Experimental result: Power efficiency of the proposed DC/DC
boost converter vs. its output power.

Llk1 and C 1 ðI C1 ðtÞÞ when the switch S 1 is turned off

Fig. 8. Experimental waveforms of the DC/DC boost converter for
V pvmpp ¼ 26:3 V (PV module voltage) and P pvmpp ¼ 200:08 W (PV mod-
ule power) under the nominal condition.
the secondary side of T, and C 2 . This resonant fre-
quency is related to I D1 ðtÞ that the transformer T
and capacitor C 2 are the two elements which con-
struct the corresponding series resonant tank.
(B) The second resonant frequency is xc ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
that
Llk C 1
presents the angular resonant frequency of the series
resonant tank consisting of Llk and C 1 . This resonant
frequency is related to the current flowing through
at t ¼ t2 under ZVS condition that was expressed by
Eq. (5). In this case, the transformer T and capacitor
C 1 are the two elements which construct the series res-
onant tank.
It can be summarized that the transformer T, capacitor
C 2 , and capacitor C 1 are the three elements which deter-
mine the two resonant frequencies available in the pro-
posed converter. The transformer T has been
implemented by a Samwha EER4242S-Mn-Zn type ferrite
core consisting of PL-13L ferrite material with 4 turns for
the primary winding and 10 turns for the secondary wind-
ing. Lm ¼ 9:82 lH and an equivalent leakage inductance of
99:75 nH in the secondary side of T were realized, so the
equivalent leakage inductance observed from the primary
side of T ðLlk Þ is Llk ¼ 2:51 2  99:75 ¼ 15:96 nH. The capac-
itor C 2 is a 18 lF=400 V premium metallized polypropylene
 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31 29

and different temperatures is shown in Fig. 6. The P–V

Fig. 11. Experimental waveforms: DC-link voltage and PV module
current when the solar irradiance impinging on the PV module surface
is varied from about 100 W m2 to 1000 W m2 .
capacitor with the capacitance tolerance of 5%.
Polypropylene capacitors exhibit very little change of
capacitance with time and voltage applied making them
ideal for applications where a stable level of capacitance
is needed. The capacitor C 1 is the parasitic capacitance of
the MOSFET switch S 1 (IRF1407) which has the capaci-
tance of 1200 pF with the capacitance tolerance of 2% .
The commercial PV module Kyocera KC200GT has
been used in this study that its technical specifications
under STC (standard test condition: Solar irradiance
G ¼ 1000 W m2 , air mass (AM) 1.5 solar radiation spec-
trum, cell temperature T ¼ 25  C, and solar angle
hz ¼ 48:19 Þ reported in its datasheet are summarized in
Table 1. A Li-ion battery has been used as the rechargeable
battery the specifications of which together with the con-
verter and inverter parameters are also reported in Table 1.
The I–V characteristic of PV module KC200GT under STC
characteristic under STC is also shown in Fig. 7. In this
study, nominal condition has been considered as
G ¼ Gn ¼ 1000 W m2 and T ¼ T n ¼ 25  C, where Gn and
T n are nominal solar irradiance and PV module tempera-
ture, respectively. The experimental waveforms related to
the different elements of the proposed DC/DC boost con-
verter when the sole PV module KC200GT used in the
charger operates at its maximum power point (MPP) under
the nominal condition are shown in Fig. 8. In this case,
V pvmpp ¼ 26:3 V and P pvmpp ¼ 200:08 W, where V pvmpp
and P pvmpp are respectively the PV module voltage and out-
put power at the MPP under the nominal condition.
Comparing the experimental waveforms shown in Fig. 8
with the theoretical waveforms shown in Fig. 3 explicitly
validates the theoretical analysis and results presented in
Section 2. As mentioned, the capacitor C 2 is a
18 lF=400 V premium metallized polypropylene capacitor
with the capacitance tolerance of 5%, so it maximally
causes a tolerance of 2:6% in xd . The capacitor C 1 is
the parasitic capacitance of the MOSFET switch S 1
(IRF1407) which has the capacitance of 1200 pF with the
capacitance tolerance of 2%, so it causes a tolerance of
1% in xc . As reported in Table 1, the measured leakage
inductances in primary and secondary sides of T are respec-
tively Llk1 ¼ 0:011 lH and Llk2 ¼ 0:031 lH, so the equiva-
lent leakage inductance observed from the primary side
of T ðLlk ¼ Llk1 þ n12 Llk2 Þ is 15:96 nH. Similarly, an induc-
tance tolerance of 2% resulted from temperature varia-
tion causes tolerance of 1% in both xc and xd . To
check the exactness of the numerical amounts of the reso-
nance elements, a simple calculation is performed as fol-
lows. Llk ¼ 15:96 nH, C 2 ¼ 18 lF, n ¼ 104 ¼ 2:5 and
xd ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
, so one half-period is obtained as
n Llk C 2
p
xd
¼ 4:2096 ls. Comparing this theoretical result with the

Table 1
Parameters of the converter, inverter, and the specifications of the Li-ion battery and PV module KC200GT used in the constructed PV battery charger.
PV module KC200GT DC/PWM inverter
Current at MPP I pvmpp (A) 7.61 f i (kHz) 10
Voltage at MPP V pvmpp (V) 26.3 MOSFET switch S 2 IRF1407
Output power at MPP P pvmpp (W) 200.1430 Drain-to-source on-resistance: Rds ðmXÞ 7.8
Short-circuit current I SC (A) 8.21 DC/DC boost converters
Open-circuit voltageV OC (V) 32.9 C pv ðlFÞ-aluminum electrolytic capacitor/100 V 680
Ns 54 f s (kHz) 100
Li-ion rechargeable battery C dc ðlFÞ-aluminum electrolytic capacitor/250 V 220
Equivalent series resistance of C dc at 10 kHz: Resr ðmXÞ 478
Number of unit cells per battery unit 10 C 2 ðlFÞ-Premium metallized polypropylene capacitor/400 V 18
Number of battery units in one battery pack 20 C 1 ðnFÞ-Parasitic capacitance of MOSFET IRF1407 1.2
Cell surface area (cm2) 368 DC-link voltage V dc (V) 150
Internal series resistance of one unit cell ðmXÞ 30 Type of transformer T Pulse
Electric capacity of each unit cell (Ah) 2 n ¼ N 2 =N 1 10=4
Electric capacity of each battery unit (Ah) 20 Lm ðlHÞ 9.82
Open-circuit voltage of each unit cell (V) 3.6 Llk2 ðlHÞ 0.031
Number of battery pack connected in series 2 Llk1 ðlHÞ 0.011
Total open-circuit voltage (V) 2  72 ¼ 144 MOSFET switch S 1 IRF1407
Total electric capacity (Ah) 20 Diode D1 15ETH06S
Total internal series resistance of battery: Rbat ðmXÞ 120 Diode D2 15ETH06S
30 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31

Table 2
Experimental results: Comparing the proposed DC/DC boost converter with the available DC/DC boost converter topologies used in grid-connected PV
systems.
Reference Topology Maximum Maximum
efficiency (%) converted
power (kW)
Chunliu et al. (2009) Transformerless DC/DC converter 97.3 2.5
Park et al. (2010) Transformerless DC/DC converter 96.2 0.60
da Silva et al. (2001) Transformerless DC/DC converter 95.4 0.50
Wai and Duan (2005) Transformerless DC/DC converter 97.0 0.8
Yu et al. (2009) Transformerless DC/DC converter 97.4 0.22
Kim and Kwon (2009) DC/DC converter with transformer isolation 95.5 1.5
Li et al. (2011) DC/DC converter with transformer isolation 96.0 0.15
Dick et al. (2010) DC/DC converter with transformer isolation 97.0 0.19
Choi et al. (2009) DC/DC converter with transformer isolation 97.0 0.26
Kwon et al. (2009) DC/DC converter with transformer isolation 94.0 0.10
Li et al. (2010) Non-isolated but includes a built-in transformer 94.7 1.0
Cha et al. (2015) DC/DC converter with ZVS turn-on capability 96.2 Not reported
Gu et al. (2014) DC/DC converter with ZVS turn-on and ZCS turn-off capability 96.7 Not reported
Gu et al. (2013) Non-isolated DC/DC converter with hybrid transformer 96.0 0.22
Kima et al. (2010) Asymmetrical half-bridge flyback DC/DC converter 95.7 0.053
This work DC/DC converter having only one switch with ZCS turn-on and ZVS turn-off 98.2 1.2
capability. All diodes are turned on and turned off under ZCS

real experimental waveform of I D1 ðtÞ shown in Fig. 8(a),
which represents a real one half-period of about the same
amount ð4:2 lsÞ, explicitly verifies the exactness of the
numerical quantities of the elements.
To calculate the efficiency of the converter, another
experiment was performed. At the first step, under the
nominal condition and by setting the PV module at its
MPP, the parameters of the PV module, converter, and
inverter have been measured as V pvmpp ¼ 26:3 V,
P pvmpp ¼ 200:08 W, V dc ¼ 150 V, and I DCchar: ¼ 1:31 A,
where I DCchar: is the DC term of the charging current.
All the waveforms related to this experiment are shown
in Figs. 8 and 9. As mentioned, Fig. 8 depicts the wave-
forms of the converter, and the load (charging) current
together with the DC-link voltage are shown in Fig. 9.
Thus, the efficiency of the proposed DC/DC boost con-
verter, when its output power is 196. 5 W
ðP out ¼ V dc I DCchar: ¼ 196:5 WÞ, can be computed as:
P out
Converter efficiency ¼  100
P in
V dc I DCchar:
¼  100 ¼ 98:21%
P pvmpp
where P in and P out are respectively the input and output
powers of the converter. At the second step, to calculate
the power efficiency of the converter at different output
power levels, the input and output power values were mea-
sured using two digital wattmeters for the PV module volt-
age of 26.3 V at the different output power levels produced
by variation in the solar irradiance impinging on the PV
module. The power efficiencies of the proposed converter
at different output power levels were calculated, and the
resulted graph showing the power efficiency of the con-
verter versus its output power is shown in Fig. 10.
On the other hand, the converted power of the converter
can be raised up to 1.2 kW by replacing the PV module
with a PV panel, and using another MOSFET with higher
power. The maximum power converted by the DC/DC
converter is limited to 1.2 kW because of the limitation
on the electric energy stored in C 2 through D1 : To provide
a comparative study between the DC/DC boost converter
proposed in this work and the other DC/DC boost con-
verter topologies reported in the literature (Chunliu et al.,
2009; Park et al., 2010; da Silva et al., 2001; Wai and
Duan, 2005; Yu et al., 2009; Kim and Kwon, 2009; Li
et al., 2011, 2010; Dick et al., 2010; Choi et al., 2009;
Kwon et al., 2009; Cha et al., 2015; Gu et al., 2014, 2013;
Kima et al., 2010), the maximum efficiency and converted
power of the proposed DC/DC boost converter and other
DC/DC boost converters are compared in Table 2. Com-
paring the experimental data explicitly verifies that the
DC/DC boost converter not only has the highest efficiency
compared to the other DC/DC converter topologies, but
also provides a significant maximum converted power of
1.2 kW, so that, its rank is 2 in Table 2.
ð16Þ To evaluate the performance of the proposed DC-link
voltage controller, the solar irradiance impinging on the
PV module surface was varied from about 100 W m2 to
1000 W m2 by shading the PV module, so the PV module
current I pv varied as shown in Fig. 11. The experimental
waveform of the DC-link voltage shown in Fig. 11 was
observed. It can be seen that there is no variation in the
DC-link voltage when solar irradiance varies over time.
Similarly, experimental waveform of the DC-link voltage
depicted in Fig. 9 shows that variation in the load (charg-
ing) current does not have any impact on the DC-link volt-
age, and thus, the excellent performance of the proposed
DC-link voltage controller is experimentally verified.
 H. Fathabadi / Solar Energy 125 (2016) 22–31
4. Conclusion
In this paper, a novel high efficiency DC/DC boost con-
verter was proposed to use in PV systems. A PV based bat-
tery charger was designed and implemented to evaluate the
performance of the converter. The key part of the charger
is the proposed DC/DC boost converter with a significant
maximum converted power of 1.2 kW, and the efficiency of
98.21% which is more than the other DC/DC converter
topologies reported in the literature. The only MOSFET
switch and the two diodes used in the converter all are
turned on or turned off under ZCS or ZVS conditions,
and so, there are not switching losses. An experimental
prototype of the proposed PV battery charger has been
built, and the experimental results were presented that
explicitly validated the theoretical results. As the future
work, a complete grid-connected PV system can be
designed based on the proposed DC/DC boost converter
and DC-link voltage controller.
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.solener.2015.11.047.
References
Alberto, M.P., Jorge, A., Miguel, J.P., Juan, A.M., 2009. A modular
strategy for isolated photovoltaic systems based on microcontroller.
Renewable Energy 34, 1825–1832.
Cha, W.J., Cho, Y.W., Kwon, J.M., Kwon, B.H., 2015. Highly efficient
microinverter with soft-switching step-up converter and single-switch-
modulation inverter. IEEE Trans. Indus. Electr. 62 (6), 3516–3523.
Choi, W.Y., Kim, S.M., Park, S.J., Kim, K.H., Lim, Y.C., 2009. High
step-up dc/dc converter with high efficiency for photovoltaic module
integrated converter systems. In: 31st International Telecommunica-
tion Energy Conference (INTELEC), pp. 1–4.
Chunliu, C., Chenghua, W., Feng, H., 2009. Research of an interleaved
boost converter with four interleaved boost convert cells. In: Asia
Pacific Conference on Postgraduate Research in Microelectronics &
Electronics (PrimeAsia), pp. 396–399.
da Silva, E.S., dos Reis Barbosa, L., Vieira Jr., J.B., de Freitas, L.C.,
Farias, V.J., 2001. An improved boost PWM soft-single switched
converter with low voltage and current stresses. IEEE Trans Indus.
Electr. 48 (6), 1174–1179.
Dick, C.P., Titiz, F.K., De Doncker, R.W., 2010. A high-efficient LLCC
series-parallel resonant converter. In: 25th Annual Applied Power
Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC), pp. 696–701.
31
Fathabadi, H., 2015a. Fuel cell/back-up battery hybrid energy conversion
systems: dynamic modeling and harmonic considerations. Energy
Convers. Manage. 103, 573–584.
Fathabadi, H., 2015b. Increasing energy efficiency of PV-converter-battery
section of standalone building integrated photovoltaic systems. Energy
Build. 101, 1–11.
Gu, B., Dominic, J., Lai, J.S., Zhao, Z., Liu, C., 2013. High boost ratio
hybrid transformer DC–DC converter for photovoltaic module
applications. IEEE Trans. Power Electr. 28 (4), 2048–2058.
Gu, B., Dominic, J., Chen, B., Zhang, L., Lai, J.S., 2014. Hybrid
transformer ZVS/ZCS DC–DC converter with optimized magnetics
and improved power devices utilization for photovoltaic module
applications. IEEE Trans. Power Electr. 30 (4), 2127–2136.
Kim, E.H., Kwon, B.H., 2009. High step-up resonant push–pull converter
with high efficiency. IET Power Electr. 2 (1), 79–89.
Kima, H.E., Kima, J.K., Kima, H.G., Leea, K., Kimb, J., Yoob, D.,
Shina, D., 2010. A high efficiency photovoltaic module integrated
converter with the asymmetrical half-bridge flyback converter. Sol.
Energy 84 (8), 1376–1381.
Kwon, J.M., Kwon, B.H., Nam, K.H., 2009. High-efficiency module-
integrated photovoltaic power conditioning system. IET Power Electr.
2 (4), 410–420.
Li, Q., Wolfs, P., 2008. A review of the single phase photovoltaic module
integrated converter topologies with three different DC link configu-
rations. IEEE Trans. Power Electr., 1320–1333
Li, W., Deng, Y., Liu, J., He, X., 2009. A review of non-isolated high step-
up DC/DC converters in renewable energy applications. In: 24th
Annual Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
(APEC) IEEE, pp. 1825–1832.
Li, W., Li, W., Ma, M, Deng, Y., He, X., 2010. A non-isolated high step-
up converter with built-in transformer derived from its isolated
counterpart. In: 36th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Elec-
tronics Society (IECON), pp. 3173–3178.
Li, D., Liu, B., Yuan, B., Yang, X., Duan, J., Zhai, J., 2011. A high step-
up current fed multi-resonant converter with output voltage doubler.
In: 26th Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition
(APEC), pp. 2020–2026.
Maturi, L., Lollini, R., Moser, D., Sparber, W., 2015. Experimental
investigation of a low cost passive strategy to improve the performance
of Building Integrated Photovoltaic systems. Sol. Energy 111, 288–296.
Park, S.H., Park, S.R., Yu, J.S., Jung, Y.C., Won, C.Y., 2010. Analysis
and design of a soft-switching boost converter with an hi-bridge
auxiliary resonant circuit. IEEE Trans. Power Electr. 25 (8), 2142–
2149.
Shuhui, L., Timothy, A.H., Dawen, L., Fei, H., 2011. Integrating
photovoltaic and power converter characteristics for energy extraction
study of solar PV systems. Renewable Energy 36, 3238–3245.
Thomas, L.G., Nelson, A.K., 2010. Solar photovoltaic charging of
lithium-ion batteries. J. Power Sources 195 (12), 3928–3932.
Wai, R.J., Duan, R.Y., 2005. High-efficiency DC/DC converter with high
voltage gain. IEE Proc. Electr. Power Appl. 152 (4), 793–802.
W. Yu, C. Hutchens, J.S. Lai, J. Zhang, G. Lisi, A. Djabbari, G. Smith, T.
Hegarty, High efficiency converter with charge pump and coupled
inductor for wide input photovoltaic AC module applications, Energy
Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2009, pp. 3895–3900.