Design and Experimental Validation of a Single-Stage PV String Inverter with Optimal Number of Interleaved Buck-Boost Cells

Abstract

Increasing converter power density is a problem of topical interest. This paper discusses an interleaved approach of the efficiency increase in the buck-boost stage of an inverter with unfolding circuit in terms of losses in semiconductors, output voltage ripples and power density. Main trends in the power converter development are reviewed. A losses model was designed and used for the proposed solution to find an optimal number of interleaved cells. It describes static and dynamic losses in semiconductor switches for buck and boost mode. The presented calculation results demonstrate the efficiency of the interleaved approach for photovoltaic system. 1 kW power converter prototype was designed with two parallel dc-dc cells for experimental verification of obtained theoretical results. The experimental results confirm theoretical statements.

Keywords

• buck-boost cell
• unfolding circuit
• interleaved approach