A Class of Single-Phase Z-Source AC–AC Converters With Magnetic Coupling and Safe-Commutation Strategy

Abstract

This article proposes a family of single-phase transformer based Z-source ac-ac converters (ZSACs). The proposed converters inherit all the benefits associated with the classical single-phase ZSAC, which are providing the buck-boost operation, maintaining or reversing the phase angle, and improving reliability. The proposed converters also have the improved input profile, continuous input current, and shared ground between input and output. Moreover, they use the turns ratio of transformers to produce the required voltage gain, which can be tuned by either increasing or decreasing the turns ratio of transformer depending on the configuration of Z-source structure. A safe-commutation strategy is also presented to achieve the soft commutation, which eliminates the voltage and current spikes without any additional snubber circuits. The features of proposed converters are comprehensively discussed with the detailed theoretical analysis. Thereafter, its performances are evaluated by both simulation and experimental tests.