A Family of Z-source and Quasi-Z-source DC-DC

Converters
Dong Cao, Fang Z. Peng
The Department of ECE at Michigan State University
2120 Engineering Building
East Lansing, MI 48824 USA

Abstract-This paper presents a family of four-quadrant dc-dc active switches, inductors and capacitors has been minimized,
converters with minimal number of switches and passive devices. which makes the circuit more reliable and cost efficient. One
These converters employ a Z-source or a quasi-Z-source network of the active switches of some topologies can also be replaced
with two active switches to provide four quadrant operation
by a diode, making it a single switch bi-polar output circuit. A
which means bipolar output voltage and bidirectional current
40W Z-source dc-dc converter was built to confirm the
operation. Bipolar output operation can also be realized by using
one active switch and a diode. They also own buck and boost operation. Experiment results are given to demonstrate the
characteristics when the duty cycle is changed from zero to one. specific features of proposed circuits.
At 0.5 duty cycle, these converters can output either zero or II. PROPOSED CIRCUIT AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE
infinity voltage. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the
validity and features of these circuits. A. Topology derivation
Fig.1 shows the basic structures of Z-source and quasi-Z-
I. INTRODUCTION source dc-dc converter. Fig.1a shows the basic structure of Z-
At present, many renewable DC sources (photovoltaic source dc-dc converter, with a Z-source network and two
arrays, fuel cells, thermoelectric modules) have been used for switches. Fig.1b shows the basic structure of quasi-Z-source
DC motor drives. A four quadrant dc-dc converter is needed dc-dc converter with a quasi-Z-source network and two
for the four-quadrant operation of motor (forward, backward switches.
motoring and breaking).[1, 2] H-bridge has been used to Each structure is formed by two inductors, two capacitors,
operate in four quadrant operation for motor drives for many two switches (active or passive) and an input voltage source.
years, but it utilizes four active switches which are costly and Load can be added to either of the capacitor and the position of
bulky. By utilizing Z-source network, Z-source and quasi-Z- voltage source and the capacitors position can be exchanged. In
source inverter has been proposed recently with buck, boost this way eight different circuits can be derived as shown in
and voltage bipolar characteristics.[3-6] Other topologies that Fig.2.
make use of the Z-source network as a basic cell to achieve
four quadrant operation dc-dc converters have been
investigated.[7] Some topologies using coupled inductor or
hybrid Z-network to achieve four quadrant operation have been
investigated.[4, 8] However, all existing topologies have to use
additional active switches, extra inductor and capacitor or
coupled inductor to attain four-quadrant operation thus
increasing costs, circuit complexity and reducing the reliability.
(a). Z-source dc-dc converter basic structure
This paper presents a family of dc-dc converters based on
Z-source or Z-network structure that is able to achieve the four
quadrant operation without increasing the cost significantly.
This Z-source dc-dc converter family utilizes a basic Z-source
structure and a quasi-Z-source structure to generalize a group
of dc-dc converters. By employing two active switches
(MOSFETs with their anti-parallel diodes) four of these
converters can realize bidirectional and bipolar operation. This
family owns both buck and boost characteristics depending on
control of the duty cycle. At 0.5 duty cycle four of these (b). quasi-Z-source dc-dc converter basic structure
Fig. 1. Z-source and quasi-Z-source dc-dc converter basic
converters can output zero voltage while others can output the structure
infinity voltage theoretically. Duty cycle 0.5 is the boundary of
the positive output and negative output. The number of the

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 1097

 B. The DC operation mode of proposed converter
The topology shown in Fig. 2(c) is used as an example to
demonstrate the circuit DC working stages: in the first stage S1
is on, S2 is off as shown in Fig. 4(a, c) and in the second stage
S2 is on, S1 is off as shown in Fig. 4(b, d). D is the duty cycle
of S1. Fig. 4(a, b) shows the case D<0.5 while Fig. 4(c, d)
(a) (b) shows the case D>0.5. The direction of inductor current is
different in two cases as shown in Fig. 3. Assume the voltage
across the capacitor C1 is VC1, the current through L1 is IL1, the
current through L2 is IL2. The voltage across C2 is Vo.
According to the inductor voltage-second balance equation on
L1, one has
VC1 D + (V2 Vg ) (1 D) = 0 (1)

(c) (d) According to the voltage-second balance equation on L2,

one has
Vg D + (Vo VC1 ) (1 D ) = 0
(1)
From (1) and (2), one has
VC1 = Vg
(3)
Vg (1 2 D)
Vo =
(e) (f) 1 D (4)
From equation (4), one can notice that for D<0.5, Vo>0
and for D>0.5, Vo<0. For D<0.66 one can get a step-down
characteristic. For D>0.66 one can get a step-up characteristic.
Therefore when D<0.5 it has the positive output buck
characteristic, when D>0.5 it has the negative output buck-
boost characteristic.
V 1 2 D
(g) (h) M ( D) = o = (5)
Vg 1 D
Fig. 2 Z-source and quasi-Z-source dc-dc converter family.
Equation (5) demonstrates the voltage gain of the circuit.
Fig.2a-Fig.2d are the derived dc-dc converters based on
And this was also shown as the dotted line in Fig. 5. Fig. 5 also
the Z-source structure, Fig.2e-Fig.2h are the derived dc-dc
shows the voltage gain curves of other topologies shown in Fig.
converters based on quasi-Z-source structure. When duty cycle
2. Topology c, d, g, h have the same voltage gain curve as
changes from (0~0.5) Topology a, b, e, f have the boost
shown in dotted line. By using the same idea shown above, one
characteristics and positive voltage output, when duty cycle
can get the voltage gain equation of topology a, b, e, f.
changes from (0.5~1) they have buck-boost characteristics and
V 1 D
negative output. When duty cycle changes from (0~0.5) M ( D) = o =
topology c, d, g, h have the buck characteristics and positive Vg 1 2 D
output, when duty cycle changes from (0.5~1) they have buck-
boost characteristics and negative voltage output. If MOSFET This equation was shown as solid line in Fig. 5.
and its anti-parallel diode were used as the switches, topology
c, d, g, h can realize four-quadrant operation. If MOSFET and
a four-quadrant switch were used, topology a, b, e, f can also
achieve four-quadrant operation. Fig.3 shows some four
quadrant switches. If either switch of topology c, d, g, h is
replaced with a diode, bipolar output characteristics can be
achieved too.

(a) (b) (c) (a)

Fig. 3 Some four quadrant switches

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 1098

 Fig. 6 shows the Key wave forms of the proposed
converter. Fig. 6(a) shows the case when D<0.5 while Fig. 6(b)
show the case D>0.5. S1, S2 are the control signal of switch.
Is1, Is2 are the current wave form through the switch.

(b)

(c)

(a)

(d)
Fig. 4 Topological stages for the converter of Fig. 2(c). (a,b) D<0.5 (c,d) D>0.5

5
4
3
a,b,e,f
2
1
0
1
2
3 c,d,g,h
4
5
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
(b)
Duty cycle d Fig. 6 Key waveforms of the proposed converter. (a) D<0.5, (b) D>0.5
Fig. 5 Voltage gain curve for proposed family

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 1099

 III. FOUR-QUADRANT OPERATION OF THE PROPOSED
CONVERTER Vds(20V/div) Vgs(10V/div)

The proposed converter has both capability of providing

bi-polar output voltage and a bi-directional character. By using
an active-device (MOSFET) with its anti-parallel diode
topology c, d, g, h is able to achieve four quadrant operation. Io (0.5A/div)
Fig.7 shows the four quadrant operation of topology shown in
Fig. 2(c) as an example. In the plane Vo-Io, First and second
quadrant Vo is positive while D<0.5. Third and fourth quadrant Iin (0.5A/div)
Vo is negative while D>0.5. E can be considered as the motor
or other renewable source with internal resistance R. In the
first and third quadrant the energy was transferred from the
(a)
input voltage source Vg to load, while in the second and fourth
quadrant the energy was transferred from load to the input
voltage source Vg.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT Vin (10V/div)
Vo (10V/div)

The proposed converter bi-polar characteristic and four

quadrant operation with only an active switch and a diode was Io (0.5A/div)
confirmed by a Vg=24V, 40W converter at the fs=50KHz
switching frequency. Fig. 8 shows the circuit. E is able to
operate at positive and negative voltage. Fig.9 shows the Iin (0.5A/div)
waveforms of quadrant 1 while D<0.5. Vgs and Vds are the
switching waveforms of S2, Vin and Vo are the input and output
voltage while Iin and Io are the input and output voltage, which
(b)
are all positive. Fig. 10 shows the waveforms of quadrant 4 Fig. 9 Experiment waveforms of the proposed converter (c) D<0.5
while D>0.5. Vgs and Vds are the switching waveforms of S2,
Vin and Vo are the input and output voltage while Iin and Io are Vgs(10V/div)
Vds(50V/div)
the input and output current. Vo is negative output as shown in
Fig. 10(b).
V. CONCLUSION
Io (0.5A/div)
A family of Z-source and quasi-Z-source dc-dc converter
has been proposed in this paper. This family has bi-polar
output voltage characteristic and four-quadrant operation
characteristic with minimized number of switching devices,
inductor and capacitor. It meets the needs of DC drives and Iin (0.5A/div)

other renewable energy sources. With one polar input voltage

source this converter can output reversible load voltage only by (a)
controlling duty cycle, which makes the converter simpler and
more economical than other converters.
Vin (10V/div)

Vo (10V/div)

Io (0.5A/div)

Iin (0.5A/div)

Fig. 8 Quadrant 1 and 4 operation verification experiment circuit with a diode (b)
and an Active switch Fig. 10 Experiment waveforms of the proposed converter (c) D>0.5

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 1100

 Fig. 7 Four quadrant operation of proposed converter

REFERENCES
[1] N. Mohan, T. M. Underland, and W. P. Robbins, Power Electronics
Converter, Applications, And Design: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,
2003.
[2] M. H. Rashid, Power electronics Handbook. Englewood Cliffs,NJ:
Prentice Hall, 1993.
[3] F. Z. Peng, "Z-source inverter," in Industry Applications
Conference, 2002. 37th IAS Annual Meeting. Conference Record of
the, 2002, pp. 775-781 vol.2.
[4] F. Z. Peng, "Z-source networks for power conversion," in Applied
Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, 2008. APEC 2008.
Twenty-Third Annual IEEE, 2008, pp. 1258-1265.
[5] J. Anderson and F. Z. Peng, "A Class of Quasi-Z-Source Inverters,"
in Industry Applications Society Annual Meeting, 2008. IAS '08.
IEEE, 2008, pp. 1-7.
[6] J. Anderson and F. Z. Peng, "Four quasi-Z-Source inverters," in
Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2008. PESC 2008. IEEE,
2008, pp. 2743-2749.
[7] Y. Berkovich, B. Axelrod, S. Tapuchi, and A. A. I. A. Ioinovici, "A
Family Of Four-Quadrant, PWM DC-DC Converters," in Power
Electronics Specialists Conference, 2007. PESC 2007. IEEE, 2007,
pp. 1878-1883.
[8] J. Wang, W. G. Dunford, and K. Mauch, "Some novel four-
quadrant DC-DC converters," in Power Electronics Specialists
Conference, 1998. PESC 98 Record. 29th Annual IEEE, 1998, pp.
1775-1782 vol.2.

978-1-422-2812-0/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE 1101