A High-Efficiency Step-Up Current-Fed Push–Pull Quasi-Resonant Converter With Fewer Components for Fuel Cell Application

Abstract

In this paper, a new high-efficiency step-up current-fed push–pull quasi-resonant converter is proposed, which is suitable for low-voltage fuel cell power conditioning system. The proposed converter conserves inherent advantages of low-input-current stress and high voltage conversion ratio of the conventional current-fed push–pull converter. All of power devices can achieve soft switching at light load improving the overall efficiency. Moreover, similar features have been obtained with fewer components in comparison with the active-clamped current-fed push–pull converter [37] and current-fed push–pull resonant converter [40] , that enabling to reduce the cost and improve system reliability. In addition, the voltage-doubler rectifier is adopted to eliminate the reverse-recovery problem of secondary diodes and provides much higher voltage conversion ratio resulting in small turn ratio of the high-frequency transformer. Detailed operation, analysis, design, comparative study, experimental results, and loss breakdown for the proposed converter are presented in the paper. A 510-W prototype verifies the theoretical analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed concept.