An Input-Series-Output-Parallel Cascaded Converter System Applied to DC Microgrids

Abstract

Direct current transformer (DCT) is a key piece of equipment in direct current (DC) microgrids, and the mainstream topologies mainly include LLC resonant converter (LLC) and dual active bridge (DAB). In this paper, a novel bi-directional buck/boost + CLLLC cascade topology is proposed for the input-series-output-parallel cascade converter system of a DC microgrid. To solve the problem that frequency variation causes the converter to deviate from the optimal operating point, resulting in low efficiency, and the inability to achieve a soft switching function. The CLLLC converter operates near the resonant frequency point as a DCT, only providing electrical isolation and voltage matching, while the buck/boost converter controls the output voltage and the voltage and current sharing of each module. Compared to other cascaded converter systems, the cascaded converter proposed in this paper has high efficiency, simplifies the parameter design, and is suitable for wide input and wide output operating conditions. The system adopts a three-loop control strategy, establishes the small-signal modeling of the system, and its stability is verified by theoretical analysis and simulation. The simulation and experimental results verify the correctness of the proposed cascaded converter based on buck/boost + CLLLC and the effectiveness of the control strategy.

Keywords

• DC transformer
• cascaded converter
• CLLLC converter
• buck/boost converter