A High-Efficiency High Step-Up Converter With Low Switch Voltage Stress for Fuel-Cell System Applications

In this paper, a novel high step-up converter is proposed for fuel-cell system applications. As an illustration, a two-phase version configuration is given for demonstration. First, an interleaved structure is adapted for reducing input and output ripples. Then, a Cuk-type converter is integrated to the first phase to achieve a much higher voltage conversion ratio and avoid operating at extreme duty ratio. In addition, additional capacitors are added as voltage dividers for the two phases for reducing the voltage stress of active switches and diodes, which enables one to adopt lower voltage rating devices to further reduce both switching and conduction losses. Furthermore, the corresponding model is also derived, and analysis of the steady-state characteristic is made to show the merits of the proposed converter. Finally, a 200-W rating prototype system is also constructed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed converter. It is seen that an efficiency of 93.3% can be achieved when the output power is 150-W and the output voltage is 200-V with 0.56 duty ratio.