A Varian of High Performance Boost Converter

Subiyanto
#

Teknik Elektro, Universitas Negeri Semarang

Gd E8 Lt. 1 Kampus Unnes Sekaran Gunungpati Semarang 50229, Indonesia
subiyanto@mail.unnes.ac.id

Abstract This paper presents a new boost converter topology

that can be applied to high performance in power conditioning.
Boost converter has been designed using a coupled inductor and
passive and active snuber. High performance is meant in this case
to provide very high gain between the output voltage of the
converter input. Coupled inductor very important role in
enhance the gain. Snuber serves to minimize losses in the
switching converter and also helps increase the gain of the output
voltage resulting. Mathematical analysis and simulation results
and experiments have shown gains new boost converter is much
higher than the conventional boost converter. The experimental
results also demonstrate improved efficiency of the boost
converter from 81.74% to 90.05% of the conventional.

Keywords Boost Converter, gain, snuber, switching, coupled

inductor

I. INTRODUCTION
Power conditioner devices in renewable energy based
electric generating is used process and control the flow of
electric power by supplying voltage s and currents in a form
that is optimally suited for user loads or from side to othe
side . The power conditioners are used depending on the type
of Electric power generating system applications. A typical
power conditioner which is consist of some DC-DC
converters and DC-AC inverter for distributed generation such
as PV system .
In general, the DC-DC converter applied in PV systems is
classified into three types: step-up or boost converter, stepdown or buck converter and step-up/down or buck-boost
converter . The most common DC-DC converter used in grid
connected PV systems is the boost converter . In this thesis,
the boost converter topology is selected considering the
voltage ratings of the PV module and the three phase inverter
used for grid connected PV system application.
The conventional boost converter operates in hard
switching thus making it inefficient where voltages and
currents in semiconductor switching devices are changed
abruptly from high values to zero and vice versa at turn-on
and turn-off times, thus causing switching losses and
electromagnetic interference
. The conventional boost
converters
can
rise
reverse
recovery
problems,
electromagnetic interference (EMI) problem so that reduce
efficiency the power conversion . To overcome the reverserecovery problem of the output diode in high-level

voltage, some voltage-clamped techniques are used in the

converter design . However, there still exists large switching
voltage stresses and that the voltage gain is limited by the
turn-on time of the switching devices. Moreover, to increase
the voltage gain and conversion efficiency of a boost
converter, coupled inductors are usually used to make the
voltage gain higher referring the turn ratio like as
transformer . However, the use of coupled inductors may
cause leakage energy problem in the coupled inductor when
the switch is turned off. It will give a high-voltage ripple
across the switching device since there is the leakage current
which causes a resonant phenomenon. Moreover, the capacity
of the magnetic core has to be increased substantially when
the demand of high output power is required. To overcome the
drawbacks of coupled inductor based boost converter, a small
capacitor is placed so as to connect the primary with
secondary inductor of the coupled inductor and by adding a
passive regenerative snubber circuit . However, the use of a
snubber circuit is less effective to increase the voltage gain.
Considering these facts, a new variant of high gain soft
switching DC-DC converter is proposed in this thesis so as to
reduce the numbers of connected PV modules in series and to
improve the conversion efficiency.
To develop a high performance boost converter, a new
converter topology is proposed in this paperby using auxiliary
boost circuit which acts as an active snubber to reduce
switching losses of the converter. This research focuses on the
development of a high performance DC-DC boost converter
as the power electronic component of PV systems. The
proposed boost converter will reduce the switching losses and
enhance the converter voltage gain to meet the needs of the
three-phase inverter input in grid connected PV system.
The initial work carried out in this research focused on
designing a new coupled inductor based boost converter. The
topology of the boost converter circuit is improved by adding
active and passive snubber circuits. The snubber circuits
provide soft switching operation for the converter in order to
reduce the switching losses and consequently increase the
conversion efficiency. The active snubber circuit plays the role
as an auxiliary boost that improves the gain of the main boost.
The switching losses in the main boost are stored by a
capacitor in the active snubber. Basically, this capacitor
becomes the "power supply" for the active snubber. The
performance of the new boost converter is evaluated by

making comparisons with the previously designed boost

converter circuits.
II. IMPROVEMENT OF BOOST CONVERTER CIRCUIT
CONFIGURATION

A boost converter is a DC to DC power converter with

output voltage always greater than the input voltage . Fig. 1
shows a conventional boost converter, consisting of DC input
voltage source Vin, boost inductor L, controlled switch S,
diode D, output filter capacitor C, and load RL. During switch
S is closed (0 < t < ton) and switch S is opened (ton < t < TS).
The voltage gain (Gi) of the ideal boost converter is given as
(1)[ Mohan et al. 2003].

Gi

Vo
T
1
S
Vin t off 1 d

been verified and the inductor's magnetic fields affect each

other.
Zhao and Lee (2003) developed a high gain boost converter
by using a coupled inductor to increase step-up of DC voltage.
The topology of the boost is shown in Fig. 2. The function of
the coupled inductor is like a transformer. To reduce switching
losses, a capacitor snubber is added. However, after the switch
is turned on the leakage inductance and the parasitic
capacitance of the semiconductor devices rise. Therefore, to
eliminate this phenomenon, it is needed a snubber circuit in
the boost converter main circuit.

(1)

Fig. 2 Zhao and Lee boost converter topology

Fig. 1 A simple boost converter circuit [Mohan et al. 2003]

To improve efficiency of the power conversion, various

topologies of boost converter have been developed. Because
the conventional boost converter works in hard switching
operation so it makes inefficient where curves of voltages and
currents in semiconductor devices are changed abruptly from
high values to zero and vice versa at turn-on and turn-off
times, thus causing switching losses and electromagnetic
interference .
Switching losses and electromagnetic interference level in
DC-DC converters can be reduced by using soft switching
techniques, that is zero-voltage switching and zero-current
switching .
Bodur and Bakan (2002) proposed a new variant of zero
voltage transition for the pulse width modulation boost
converter. The switching devices in the boost converter are
turned on and off under exact or close to zero voltage
switching and/or zero current switching by using active
snubber circuit. However, the active snubber acts as a cascade
switch boost in which the main switch still has high losses.
Zhang and Sen (2003) used an auxiliary inductor and
hysteresis current control to achieve zero voltage switching
conditions for the boost converter. The main inductor current
is kept in continuous conduction mode with small ripple,
which allows high output power and small filter parameters.
The auxiliary inductor is used for the purpose of commutation.
This scheme aims to improve the efficiency of the converter
because it is operated under soft-switching conditions.
However, the effectiveness of the auxiliary inductor has not

Wai and Duan (2005) improved the step-up voltage of the

coupled inductor based boost converter by replacing capacitor
between the primary and secondary inductor and adding
snubber circuit as depicted in Fig. 3. To reduce the resonance
effect of the coupled inductor, a clamp diode is added in the
snubber circuit. The improvement in the voltage gain depends
on voltage of the snubber capacitor. The disadvantage of this
circuit configuration is that there is resonance effect in the
parasitic capacitance of the clamp diode.

Fig. 3 Wai and Duan boost converter topology

A boost converter by using a coupled inductor and two

switching devices (MOSFETs) for active clamping has been
presented . The boost converter gives voltage gain higher than
conventional boost. A sub circuit of passive clamping is used
to reduce undesired resonance between leakage inductor of
the coupled inductors and parasitic capacitor of the boost
diode for recovering leakage energy. However, the voltage
gain is still lower than Wais boost converter. Moreover, the
boost very complicate to be applied as MPPT controller,
because the two switching need synchronization. The
topology of the boost converter is represented in Fig. 4.

Moreover, the circuit operation is also described. The aim of

the designing is to provide a high gain of input - output
voltage conversion using soft switching technique to alleviate
the switching losses and increase the conversion efficiency.

Fig. 4 Wus boost converter topology

Santos et al (2006) added a passive snubber circuit in the

boost converter and applied to maximum power point tracking
for PV systems. Many components are required to develop the
snubber circuit and the voltage gain is not very much
improved than the conventional boost converter. Selvaganesan
et al (2008) proposed a high step-up fly-back DC-DC
converter for PV system. The converter used a coupled
inductor to increase the turns ratio of the output voltage.
However, there are energy losses in the switching process of
the converter, because the converter operated in hard
switching. In this thesis, a new family of coupled inductor
based boost converter has been developed by using active
snubber instead of passive snubber. By using an auxiliary
boost which acts as an active snubber, the boost converter
voltage gain can be enhanced. The active snubber uses a soft
switching technique which reduces switching losses of the
boost converter so as to increase its performance. This new
topology of boost converter is applied for MPPT controller in
PV system.

Fig. 5 Santos boost converter topology

III. DEVELOPMENT OF A HIGH PERFORMANCE BOOST

CONVERTER
A power conditioner for PV system application is designed
with MPPT controller to draw maximum power from PV
panel. Usually, an MPPT controller is embedded in a front end
of the power conditioner which is referred to a DC-DC/ boost
converter. This chapter describes the proposed boost converter
design that is a new high performance boost converter.

A. Design of the new High Performance Boost Converter

The circuit diagram of the boost converter for the MPPT of
PV system is depicted in Fig. 6. It comprises of six parts: a
source with input-filter (part 1), a primary side circuit (part 2),
a secondary side circuit (part 3), a snubber circuit parts 4a and
4b), an output filter with load (part 5) and a PWM control
mechanism (part 6). The detailed components of the converter
represented by the respective symbols are described according
to the various parts of the circuit.

Fig. 6 Proposed circuit design of the boost converter

The input filter (part 1) and the primary circuit (part 2) with
source power are represented:
Vin : DC voltage from PV panel
Iin : DC current from PV panel
Cin : DC capacitor of input filter
L1 : coupled inductor of the primary side
Z1 : IGBT as a switching device with a diode, DZ1
The secondary side of the coupled inductor sub-circuit (part 3)
consists of the following components:
L2 : coupled inductor of the secondary side
C3 : connecting capacitor
D4 : rectifier diode
DO : rectifier output diode
There are two parts in the snubber circuit, namely, the active
regenerative snubber circuit (part 4a) and the passive
regenerative snubber circuit (part 4b). The components in the
active regenerative snubber circuit are:
Z2 : IGBT as a switching device with a diode DZ2
C1 : input capacitor
C2 : output capacitor
D1 : input diode to input capacitor, C1
D2 : input diode to switching device Z2.
LS : snubber inductor
D3 : rectifier diode
While the passive regenerative snubber circuit (part 4b) has
the following components:
D5, D6 : diodes
Cs
: snubber capacitor
The output filter and output side (part 5) is represented by the
following components:

Co
Vo

: filter capacitor
: output voltage of the proposed boost (load
terminal)
: output current of the proposed boost flows on the
load.

Io

depicted in Fig. 8. From this waveform, the proposed boost

converter circuit analysis is considered in four operation
modes in one switching cycle.
VGZ
H

B. Analysis of the Proposed Boost Converter Circuit

The coupled inductor can be regarded as an transformer
with turns ratio, n and coupling coefficient, k as shown in Fig.
7. Hence, the coupled inductor of the proposed boost
converter is modeled by a leakage inductance (Lk), a
magnetizing inductance (Lm), a primary inductance (L1) and a
secondary inductance (L2).

0
t1

t2 t3

t4 t5

time

Fig. 8 Triggering signal waveform for switching

(a)

(b)

Fig. 7 Coupled inductor model as (a) schematic diagram and

(b) transformer circuit

The mathematical model can be derived from the

transformer model by the following equation according to the
well-known basic circuit theory .

N 2 VL 2

N1 VL1

(2)

Lm
Lk Lm

(3)

Where, N1 and N2 denote the primary and secondary sides

winding turns of the coupled inductor, respectively. The
values of coupling coefficient, k are in the bound of 0 k
1 . Lm is the magnetizing inductor and Lk is the leakage
inductor.
The inductor, L1 consists of the magnetizing inductor, Lm
and leakage inductor, Lk . Moreover, the relationship between
Lk, Lm and L1 can be expressed as,
L1 Lk Lm
(4)
C. Operation Modes of the Proposed Boost Converter
The proposed boost converter is designed to be operated in
continuous conduction mode. Moreover, the analysis below
considers the steady state condition for the boost operation.
Therefore, the capacitors and the inductors were assumed
already stored energy.
The theoretical waveforms of PWM triggering signal for
the switching device of the proposed boost converter is

The triggering signal is in terms of the IGBT gate voltage

(VGZ), with a high (H) value to switch on the IGBT and a low
value (0) to switch off the IGBT in the boost converter circuit.
The converter operating modes in terms of steady state
operation based on switching times in Fig. 8, which are
considered as mode 1 (t1- t2), mode 2 (t2- t3), mode 3 (t3- t4)
and mode 4 (t4- t5). The detailed explanations on modes of
operation of the proposed boost converter are described as
follows;
Operation of mode 1 (t1 t2). In this mode of operation, the
i.
switches Z1 and Z2 are turned on for a certain time as
shown in Fig. 9. At this time, the magnetizing inductor, Lm
is charged by the input voltage source, Vin, causing the
magnetizing current, ILm to increase gradually and induce
current in inductor, L2. In this circuit, the active snubber
which consists of capacitor C1, storage inductor Ls, switch
Z2, rectifier diode D3 and output filter capacitor C2, acts as
an auxiliary its energy and boost. When Z2 switch on, it is
formed a loop C1- Ls- Z2. Thus, capacitor, C1 discharges
its energy to inductor, Ls. In this mode, the inductor, Ls
store energy like as inductor of conventional boost. The
passive snubber circuit which consists of diodes, D5 and
D6 and capacitor Cs is used to protect the switch Z2 from
switching transient. The secondary current that flows
through capacitor C2, rectifier diode D4 and inductor L2
will then charge the high-voltage capacitor, C3. As the
capacitor voltage, VC3 gradually increases the magnitude of
the secondary current, IL2 decreases.
Lk

L1
Lm

L2
C3

D4

DO

LS

+
V in
-

Z1

D1
DZ1

PWM

C1

D3

D2
Z2

D5
DZ2

Ro
D6
Cs

Co
C2

PWM

Fig. 9 Current flowing of the proposed boost converter in mode 1 operation

ii.

Operation of mode 2 (t2 t3). The boost operation of this

mode is shown in Fig. 10. From the figure, switches Z1 and
Z2 are turned off under zero voltage switching at time, t2.
In this mode the secondary current, IL2 decrease gradually
and reach to zero at time t = t2. When the switch voltage of
IGBT- Z1 is greater than voltage of the clamped capacitor,
VC1, the clamped diode, D1 transfers energy of the primary
inductor, L1 toward the capacitor, C1 while clamped diode,
D5 transmits the energy of the inductor, Ls into the
capacitor, Cs. Hereinafter, two diodes, D3 and D6 transfer
energy of the snubber inductor, Ls to the capacitor, C2. In
this case, the clamped capacitor, C1 acts as energy storage,
with an appropriate response at high frequencies, so its
voltage, VC1 can be maintained as a constant DC voltage
with low ripple. Here, the clamped diodes, D1 and D5 are
assumed as very fast conductive devices. The ultra fast
diodes with low power consumption may be a better
choice. Capacitors, C1 and Cs act as snubber for switches,
Z1 and Z2, respectively.

on under zero current switching at time, t4. This soft

switching property is helpful for reducing the switching
losses. Here, while the primary current, IL1 increases, the
secondary current, IL2 decreases. Moreover, the output
terminal is still energized by flowing current from
secondary inductor, L2, though the current magnitude
decreased gradually. After t = t5, the operation of the boost
converter returns to mode 1.

Fig. 12

Current flowing of the proposed boost converter in mode 4

operation

D. Mathematical Analysis on the Proposed Boost Converter

Operation

Fig. 10

iii.

Current flowing of the proposed boost converter in mode 2

operation

Operation of mode 3 (t3 t4). Fig. 11 describes the boost

operation of this mode. From the figure, at time t = t3, the
primary current, IL1 charges the clamped capacitor, C1 and
the secondary current, IL2 delivers current to the output
terminal through the diode Do. The snubber inductor, Ls
releases its energy to charge the auxiliary boost capacitor,
C2. The clamped diode, D4 restrains the current from the
inductor, IL2 from flowing into the capacitor C2. Thus, the
current, IL2 flow into the output terminal and charge the
output capacitor, Co.

Operation modes 1 and 3 are called the steady state

operation modes while operation modes 2 and 4 are called the
transient operation modes. From here, operation modes 1 and
3 for the ON and OFF switching states are considered for the
mathematical analysis of the proposed boost converter.
Considering the mode 1 operation, when the switch Z1 is
turned on, a loop is formed on the primary side, consisting of
Vin, L1 and switch-on (Z1). By assuming Z1 is an ideal switch
(resistance = 0) and applying the Kirchhoffs voltage law on
this loop, the voltages across the primary inductor, L1 can be
expressed as,
VL1 Vin
(5)
By applying the Kirchhoffs voltage law to equation (4),
the voltage across the primary inductor (L1), VL1 can be
expressed as,
VL1 Vin VLk VLm
(6)
Besides that, the voltage across the primary inductor (L1), VL1
can also be expressed as,

VL1 L1

dI L1
dt

(7)

While, the voltage across the magnetizing inductor, Lm can be

expressed by,
Fig. 11

iv.

Current flowing of the proposed boost converter in mode 3

operation

Operation of mode 4 (t4 t5). Referring to Fig. 12 that

decribes this mode, both the switches, Z1 and Z2 are turned

VLm Lm

dI Lm
dt

(8)

Considering the current at Lm equals the current at L1

(ILm = IL1), and substituting (7) into (8), resulting equation for
the voltage across the magnetizing inductor, Lm as follow,

VLm Lm

VL1
L1

(9)

By substituting (4) into (9), the voltage across

magnetizing inductor, Lm can be rewritten as,

V Lm

Lm
V L1
Lm Lk

(10)

Furtheremore, substituting (5) into (11), the voltage VLm

becomes,
VLm kVin
(12)
Regarding the voltage across the leakage inductor
can be derived by substituting (12) into (6), thus resulting
following equation,
VLk (1 k )Vin
(13)
Considering that the coupled inductor acts as a
transformer and substituting (11) into (2), the voltage across
terminals of the secondary inductor (VL2) is given by,
VL 2 nVLm nkVin
(14)
The voltage across terminals of the capacitor C3
(VC3), is the summation of voltage across the secondary
inductor, L2 (VL2) and voltage across the capacitor, C2 (VC2),
which is given by,
VC 3 nkVin VC 2
(15)
Now consider the mode 3 operation and apply the
Kirchhoff's voltage law. The voltage across the primary
coupled inductor (VL1) becomes,
VL1 Vin VZ
(16)
Since in steady state time, the inductor voltage over
one time period (TS) which is the summation of voltages
during switching on (ton) and switching off (toff) must be zero .
VL1 (t on ) VL1 (t off ) 0
(17)
(18)

where,

1
Vin
1 d

(19)

TS : switching period (TS = ton + toff),

d : duty cycle of the triggering switching signal d
= ton/toff.

d Vin
(1 d )

(21)
Furthermore, by substituting (21) into (11) the voltages across
the magnetizing inductor, VLm becomes,

VLm

d k Vin
(1 d )

(22)

Voltage VC1 is the summation of the voltages VLk, VLm

and Vin. Voltage VC1 is the summation of the voltages VLk, VLm
and Vin. Assuming that the diode D 1 is an ideal diode, the open
switch voltage, VZ is equal to the voltage across C1 (VC1) and
it is given by
VC1 VZ
(23)
Substituting (23) into (19), the voltage across C1, VC1
becomes,

VC1

Vin
1 d

(24)

The relationship between the output voltage of

auxiliary boost, VC2 and the input voltage of auxiliary boost,
VC1 applies the relationship of input-output voltage of the
conventional boost converter and is given by,

VC 2

VC1
1 d

(25)

Substituting (24) into (25), the output voltage of auxiliary

boost, VC2 becomes,

VC 2

Vin
(1 d ) 2

(26)

By substituting (26) into (15), the voltage across C3, VC3

becomes,

VC 3 nkVin

Dividing (18) both sides by TS and rearranging yields,

VZ

Substituting (19) into (20), VL1 can be rewritten as,

VL1

When the equation (3) is substituted into (10), the voltage

across magnetizing inductor, Lm becomes,
VLm kVL1
(11)

Vin (t on ) Vin VZ (t off ) 0

From (19), it can be noted that at steady state

condition, the switching voltage, Vz1 is greater than Vin. By
applying Kirchhoffs voltage law on the primary side of the
circuit, the voltage VL1 can be derived as,
VL1 VZ Vin
(20)

Vin
(1 d ) 2

(27)

Substituting (22) into (14), the secondary inductor voltage, VL2

becomes,

VL 2

d n k Vin
(1 d )

(28)

By applying the Kirchhoffs voltage law, the output

voltage of the proposed boost converter, VO is the summation
of voltages VC1, VC3 and VL2. Hence, the output voltage is
represented as,
Vo VC1 VC 3 V L 2
(29)

35
30

Moreover, substituting (24), (27) and (28) into (29),

the output voltage of the proposed boost converter, VO is
obtained as follow,

Vo
1 d n k
1
nk

Vin
1 d
(1 d ) 2

1 d n
1

1 d
(1 d ) 2

15
10

(31)
0.2

By assuming the coupling coefficient, k is ideal (k =

1.0), then the voltage gain, Gi becomes,

Gi n

20

(30)

If both sides of the equation (30) are devided by Vin, it will

obtained that the proposed boost converter will provide
voltage gain (VO/Vin) as follows,

Gi

25

Voltage gain (Gi)

1 d n k
1
Vo (nk

)Vin
1 d
(1 d ) 2

Proposed Boost
Couple Inductor based boost (Wai & Duan 2005)
Conventional boost
Couple Inductor based boost (Zhao & Lee 2003)

Fig. 13

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

Duty cycle (d)

0.7

0.8

Comparison of boost converter voltage gains for k=1 and n=1

(32)

Referring to the equations (31) and (32), it is obvious that the

voltage gain of the proposed boost converter is much greater
than the voltage gain of the conventional boost converter as
discussed in chapter II. Besides, depending on the duty cycle
(d), the voltage gain is also influenced by the turns ratio (n)
and coupling coefficient of coupled inductor.
E. Performance Hypothesis Of The Proposed Boost
Converter
Based on operation analysis of the proposed boost
converter, it can be hypothesized that the proposed boost
converter will give high performance and better than previous
studied boost converter.
Assuming that k = 1 and n = 1, for d = 0.5 and referring to
equation (31) the proposed boost converter gives a voltage
gain (Gi) of four times greater than the coupled inductor based
high step-up converter introduced by Zhao & Lee (2003). It is
also noted that the proposed boost converter results voltage
gain (Gi) of 1.333 times the voltage gain of the high step-up
boost converter introduced by Wai and Duan (2005). For the
various values of the duty cycle d, the voltage gain is
calculated and plotted as depicted in Fig. 13. The voltage gain
curve of the proposed boost converter is denoted by line
labeled star, the pure line represents the conventional boost
converter voltage gain curve and the triangle and circle lines
represent the other previous topology coupled boost converter
voltage gain. It can be seen from Fig. 13, the voltage gain of
the proposed boost converter is much greater than the other
compared converters.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the simulation and experimental
results of the proposed boost converter and the HFLC based
MPPT algorithm of the PV MPPT controller. The converter
simulation results compare and evaluate the performance of
the four boost converter topologies, namely, the conventional
boost converter with R-C-D snubber, boost converter using
coupled inductor with C-D snubber, boost converter using
coupled inductor with passive snubber and proposed boost
converter using coupled inductor with active snubber.
The four boost converter topologies as mentioned above are
tested using the parameters shown in Table I. The values of
these parameters are used in the OrCAD/PSpice simulation
and in testing the prototype boost converter hardware. For the
experimental testing, the Skytronic 600VA and TR8072AN
6kVA power supplies have been used as the DC supply power.
The output waveforms are captured using the Tektronix
TDS2024B digital oscilloscope with 200MHz bandwidth. The
current and voltage are measured using the ampere meter SK5000E model and the digital meter DMM3800.
TABLE I

PARAMETER VALUES FOR BOOST CONVERTER TESTING

Parameter
Switching frequency
Input voltage
Resistive load
Duty cycle

Value
50 kHz
30, 50, 100, 200 V
210
0.2, 0.3, 0.4

A. Simulation and Experimental Triggering Signals

To ensure proper synchronization of boost converter
operation, the triggering signals, Vpwm for the developed
boost converter switching are first considered. Figs. 14 (a) and

Proposed boost converter

Wais boost converter
Zhaos boost converter
Conventional boost converter
Input voltage of converter
150
Voltage (V)

(b) show the waveforms of the triggering signals obtained

from simulation and experiment respectively for the duty
cycles of 0.3. From the triggering signals shown in the figures,
the simulation and experimental triggering signals are in good
agreement as the signals are of square waveform with a lower
side voltage, 0V and an upper side voltage, 15 V. The 15 V
voltage can turn on the IGBT of the boost converter, whereas,
the 0V is used to turn off the IGBT. However, there is slight
difference in the wave shape of the triggering signals obtained
from experiment. This is due to the parasitic impedance
between the gate and emitter ports of the IGBT, which is
neglected in the simulation.

100

50

Ton = 0.006ms
15

Voltage
(V)

199.0

199.2

199.4

Ts =
0.02ms

10

Fig. 15

0
99.93

99.94

99.95

99.96

99.97

99.98 99.99

Time (ms)
(a)

199.6

199.8
Time (ms)

200.0

Output voltages of the boost converters from PSpice Simulation

Figs. 16 (a) and (b) depict the output voltages obtained

from experiment for the proposed boost converter and the
conventional boost converter, respectively.
From the
experimental results, it can be observed that the output
voltages of the proposed boost converter (140 V) is
approximately three times greater than the conventional boost
converter (45V).

(b)
Fig. 14

Gate triggering signals at duty cycle 0.3 obtained from (a) PSpice
simulation and (b) experiment

(a)

B. Boost Converter Performance in Terms of Voltage Gain

To evaluate the performance of the proposed boost
converter, it is compared with other boost converter
topologies. Fig. 15 shows the output voltages of the proposed
boost converter and the compared boost converters, obtained
from the PSpice simulation for input voltage, 30 V and duty
cycle of the triggering signal set at 0.3. From the figure it can
be observed that the output voltage of the proposed boost
converter (141 V) is the highest compared to the output
voltages of the compared boost converters, namely,
conventional boost converter (44 V), Zhaos boost converter
(71 V) and Wais boost converter (119 V).
(b)
Fig. 16

Output voltages obtained from experiment (a) proposed boost

converter and (b) conventional boost converter

C. Effect of Duty Cycle on the Converter Output Voltage

The effect of the duty cycle on the boost converter output
voltage was investigated. Fig. 17 shows the simulation results
of the output voltages of the proposed boost converter for a 30
V input voltage. From the figure, the output voltages are 113
V, 141 V and 180 V at duty cycles of 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4,
respectively. The effect of duty cycle and various input
voltages on the simulation output voltages of the various boost
converter topologies is summarized as shown in Table II. It
can be observed that by increasing the duty cycle, the output
voltages of the various boost converters are increased.
However, the proposed boost converter produces the highest
output voltage among all the compared boost converters.

efficiency of the proposed boost converter is 90.05% at input

power of 3.6 kW. It is also noted that the proposed boost
converter is able to enhance the efficiency of the conventional
boost converter by approximately 8.31%.
V(input)

V(D 0.2)

V(D 0.3)

100

0
199.0
Fig. 17

199.2

199.4

VARIOUS BOOST CONVERTERS AT VARIOUS INPUT VOLTAGES AND

DUTY CYCLES

30

50

100

200

Duty
cycle
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.2
0.3
0.4

Output voltage (V) of various boost converters

Conventional. Zha
Wai
Proposed
o
39
66
104
113
44
71
119
141
52
78
139
180
65
111
176
191
74
120
201
230
87
132
235
287
131
224
356
388
150
242
412
468
176
267
479
584
263
450
717
870
301
487
827
954
352
536
955
1175

Fig. 18 shows the output voltages of the proposed boost

converter obtained from experiment at duty cycles of 0.2, 0.3
and 0.4, respectively. At an input voltage of 30 V, the
converter output voltages are 116 V, 140 V and 200 V,
respectively. It can be observed that by increasing the duty
cycle, the output voltages of the boost are increased.
D. Result of Conversion Efficiency of the Boost Converter
Fig. 19 shows the plot of the proposed and conventional
boost converters efficiency against input power based on
observations. From the figure, it is shown that the maximum

199.6
Time (ms)

199.8

Output voltages of the proposed boost converter in PSpice

simulation

TABLE II COMPARISON OF SIMULATION OUTPUT VOLTAGES OF THE

Input
voltage
(V)

V(D 0.4)

200
Voltage (V)

Comparing the output voltages obtained from simulation

and experiment, it is also noted that there are slight differences
in magnitudes of the output voltages of the proposed and the
conventional boost converters. This may be due to the fact
that the hardware components in the experimental work such
as resistors, inductors and capacitors have tolerance value but
in the PSpice simulation model they do not have it. Moreover,
in the library of the OrCAD/PSpice does not provide all the
various components of existing brands on the market. Even so
in this research the value of the components in the experiment
and simulation has been made equal.

(a)

(b)

200.0

(c)

Conversion efficiency (%)

Fig. 18

Effect of duty cycle on output voltage of the proposed boost

converter from experiment at 30 V input voltage and duty cycle (a)
0.2, (b) 0.3 and (c) 0.4

converter design with a novel algorithm for the MPPT. Three

research objectives have been presented for the development
of the new MPPT controller. To accomplish the first objective
of the research, an improved high performance boost
converter has been designed and implemented using a coupled
inductor and an active snubber circuit as an auxiliary small
boost for increasing the output voltage gain. A hardware
prototype of the proposed boost converter has been developed
and tested to verify the new topology. The simulation and
experimental results showed that the combined use of coupled
inductor and active snubber can produce higher voltage gain
in DC-DC conversion. The proposed boost converter gives
average voltage gain of 3.26 times the voltage gain of the
conventional boost converter. Moreover, the proposed boost
converter gives better energy conversion efficiency (90.05%)
compared to the efficiency of the conventional boost converter
(81.74%).

REFERENCES
[1]
95

[2]
[3]

90
85
80

[4]

75
70

[5]

65

Proposed boost
Conventional boost

60

[6]

55
50

1st

2nd

3rd

4th 5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th 11th 12th

Observation
(Watt)

Fig. 19

Proposed and conventional boost converter efficiencies

V. CONCLUSIONS
In this chapter, the simulation and experimental results for
the proposed boost converter and MPPT controller have been
presented. The high-frequency PWM signal for triggering of
gate control signals for the boost converter and the high gain
of the proposed boost converter has been validated.
This thesis has presented a new MPPT controller for PV
generation system using a new coupled inductor based boost

[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
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