Numerical Optimization of the Capacitors Selection in the MSBA Converter to Reduce the Output Voltage Ripple

Abstract

DC–DC power electronics converters are widely used in many applications, such as renewable energy systems. The multistage-stacked boost architecture (MSBA) converter is a large voltage gain converter whose PWM scheme may reduce a percentage of the output voltage ripple, taking advantage of the symmetry of the voltage signals in capacitors (they are triangular waveforms) to have a symmetry cancelation. The switching ripple is unavoidable; the correct selection of components can reduce it, but this may result in a large amount of stored energy (larger size). The selection of capacitors influences the output voltage ripple magnitude. This article proposes a design methodology that combines a recently introduced PWM scheme with a numerical optimization method to choose the capacitors for the MSBA converter. The objective is to minimize the output voltage ripple by choosing two capacitors simultaneously while ensuring the constraint of a certain (maximum) amount of stored energy in capacitors is not overpassed. The internal optimization was performed with the differential evolution algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed method that includes numerical optimization allows having a very low output voltage ripple with the same stored energy in capacitors compared to the traditional converter. In a design exercise, up to 60% reduction was observed in the output voltage ripple with the same stored energy in capacitors.