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A Single-Switch DC/DC Buck-Boost Converter Zith
Extended Output Voltage
V. Fernão Pires Daniel Foito
ESTSetúbal, Polytechnic ESTSetúbal, Polytechnic
Institute of Setúbal Institute of Setúbal
INESC-ID Lisboa Setúbal, Portugal
Setúbal, Portugal daniel.foito@estsetubal.ips.pt
vitor.pires@estsetubal.ips.pt
Abstract—DC-DC Buck-Boost power converters are
extensively used in several applications, from renewable energy
sources to most industrial equipment. Nevertheless, to achieve
proper integration of certain devices it is often necessary to
provide converters with extended output voltage. This paper
presents a new DC-DC power converter topology with Buck-
Boost operation and extended output voltage using a single power
semiconductor. Additionally, this converter operates with
reduced voltage stress in the power semiconductor. The
performance of this power converter will be proven trough
simulations and experimental tests.
Keywords - DC-DC converter; Buck-Boost; single switch;
extended output voltage
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the last two decades, great attention has been given to
DC-DC power converters. This converters type has been
widely used to minimize the impact of the integration of new
renewable and non-renewable energy sources into the power
grid or even in other applications such as electrical vehicles,
industrial equipment, battery chargers, lighting, consumer
electronic devices, etc. [1]-[5]. DC-DC power converters play
an important role in many applications, enabling to regulate
and stabilize the output voltage regardless of the input voltage
variation and output load conditions, up to certain limits.
Several topologies have been proposed to extend these limits
and, at the same time improve other properties, e.g., voltage
and current ripples, control robustness, power density,
efficiency, and costs [6]-[8]. Each DC-DC converter has
specific characteristics and should be selected based on the
application and its requirements, e.g., step-up or step-down
voltage gain, isolated or non-isolated, unidirectional or
bidirectional, voltage-fed or current-fed, hard or soft switched,
with or without minimum phase [9].
For applications where a high range of voltages is
required, classical topologies such as buck-boost (non-
isolated) or push pull (isolated) are not acceptable since they
present certain limitations, such as, extreme duty cycle ratio,
high frequency operation and low efficiency [10]. To achieve
extended voltage range and overcome these limitations several
newer topologies have been presented. Most of them use
diverse step-up voltage techniques based on multilevel [11],
interleaved [12], cascaded topologies [13], voltage-
multiplier/voltage-lift cells [14], switched inductors and
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Armando Cordeiro J. Fernando Silva
ADEEA, LCEC, DECC
ISEL, Instituto Politécnico IST, Universidade de Lisboa
de Lisboa INESC-ID Lisboa
Lisboa, Portugal Lisboa, Portugal
acordeiro@deea.isel.ipl.pt fernando.alves@tecnico.ulisboa.pt
switched capacitors cells [15] and coupled inductors [16].
Quadratic boost converters also provide another effective
approach to obtain high-step-up voltage gains [17].
Most previously mentioned topologies can provide an
effective solution to achieve a wide range of voltage
conversion and can be operated at high frequency with
reduced switching losses. However, their power circuits have
high component count and are complex. These topologies are
usually not suitable for low-power applications considering
the high component count and complex circuit increase the
cost and reduce the power density. Due to the demand of low-
cost solutions, several fixed-frequency, single-switch DC-DC
PWM converters have been proposed [17]-[20].
In this paper, a new single-switch Buck-Boost (SSBB)
non-isolated DC-DC topology is proposed. The proposed
topology can be used for several applications requiring
extended output voltage such as renewable energy applications
or other applications. In fact, in many of these applications,
conventional converters are sometimes inappropriate since the
specified range of input voltages as well the specified range of
output voltages require a large range of conversion ratios. The
proposed SSBB converter provides a wider voltage-gain range
while using a simple control circuit since it is only necessary
to drive a single-switch. Additionally, this converter operates
with reduced voltage stress in the power semiconductor.
II. BUCK-BOOST CONVERTER WITH EXTENDED OUTPUT
VOLTAGE
The classical single-switch DC/DC Buck-Boost converters
(Fig. 1) are used in applications where the input voltage may
be higher or lower than the output voltage.
D
S
Vi L C0 V0
Fig. 1. Classical DC-DC Buck-Boost converter

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Considering ideal Buck-Boost components (inductor, Considering the previous equations and considering that
capacitor, semiconductors, input voltage source Vi), the output the output voltage of the converter is the result of the sum of
voltage Vo of the converter (1) can vary from zero to infinity, the capacitor voltages, the relation between the output and
as the duty cycle G ranges from 0 to 1. input voltage will be given by:

G
Vo Vi (1) 2G  G 2
1 G Vo Vi (4)
1 G

In practice, components are non-ideal and the duty-cycle

cannot reach exactly 0 or 1, bounding the output voltage gain
Vo/Vi. Considering a non-ideal inductor, with its equivalent
loss resistance rL, a new expression that gives the relation
between the output and input voltage, may be expressed as
[21]:
The previous equation shows that the output voltage can
vary from zero to infinity, with a higher gain than the Buck-
Boost since (2G-G2)>G for G<1. This can also be seen in Fig. 3
where the static voltage gain for the classic Buck-Boost and
the new converter are presented as functions of the duty cycle.
10

1 – Conventional Buck-Boost

G 2 – Proposed Buck-Boost

Vo Vi 8

1  G   1 rL (2)
1  G Ro
6

Voltage Gain
where Ro is the equivalent resistance of the load. 4
2
This last equation shows that the voltage gain is limited, 1
being dependent on the output equivalent resistor rL/(1-G) that 2

rises when the duty-cycle approaches 1.

In order to extend the static voltage gain of this type of 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
converter a new power topology, the SSBB converter is Duty Cycle

proposed and shown in Fig. 2. Compared to the classic Buck-

Boost the SSBB requires an extra inductor, two diodes and Fig. 3. Voltage gains for the classical and new Buck-Boost converter
two output capacitors.
Considering now the non-ideality of the SSBB components
D1 I0 the output voltage gain will be limited. Considering again the
inductors L1 and L2 resistive losses, the new expression for the
S relation taking into consideration the output and input voltage
Vi L1 C01 VC01 will be given by:

V0
G § rL ·
rL1
G 1  G    G ¨1  2 ¸
D3 D2 C02 VC02 1  G  Ro
¨ R ¸
© o¹
Vo Vi (5)
L2
§ rL2 · § r r r ·
1  G  ¨¨1  ¸¸  1 ¨¨ L2  L1 L2 ¸
© Ro ¹ 1  G  © Ro Ro ¸
¹
Fig. 2. Proposed DC-DC Buck-Boost converter with wide voltage gain

Considering ideal components, the static voltage gain in
continuous conduction mode of the converter can be obtained
considering the average voltages across the two inductors over
a period are zero. The average voltages in the inductors are
given by:
where rL1 and rL2 are the resistances of inductors L1 and
L2.
As in the DC/DC Buck-Boost analysis, considering
resistive losses limits the gain of the power converter that is
made dependent on the ratio of the inductor resistor and load
resistor. However, even considering the resistive losses the
°G Vi  1  G  VCo1 0
­ SSBB extends the output voltage gain, as shown in Fig. 4
®
 
°̄G Vi  VCo 2  1  G  VCo 2 0 (3)
where is presented a comparison between classic and the
proposed converters (considering rL1 = rL2 = rL ).

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20
0.3. Fig. 6 shows the input, output capacitors and output
1 – Conventional: rL/Ro = 0.001
2 – Conventional: rL/Ro = 0.01
voltage. This result confirms that the output voltage of the
16 3 – Proposed: rL/Ro = 0.001 converter is the result of the sum of the capacitor voltages and
4 – Proposed: rL/Ro = 0.01
is about 32 V, which is close to the theoretical expectations.
12
3 This result also confirms the Buck mode. The voltages across
Voltage Gain

the power semiconductors are presented in Figs. 7 and 8. From

these results it can be verified that the maximum voltage
8 1
across the power semiconductors is less than the output
4 voltage plus the input voltage. This is another advantage of the
4 2 proposed SSBB converter, since it requires power
semiconductors with a blocking voltage lower than the
conventional Buck-boost topology. Currents in the inductors
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 are presented in Fig. 9, illustrating CCM operation. It is also
Duty Cycle
shown that the current across inductor L1 is higher than the
current in L2.
Fig. 4. Voltage gains for the classical and new SSBB topology considering
non-ideal components.
40 V/div 50 P s/div
The analysis in the continuous conduction mode (CCM) of
the SSBB converter reveals two operation modes, i.e., mode 1 Vo
when the power device is ON and mode 2 when the power
device is OFF. The equivalent circuits associated to each Vo

mode can be seen in Fig. 5.

Vc1

D1 Vc1
Vc2

Vc2
S Vi
Vi L1 C01 VC01

Vi
V0
Fig. 6. Simulation results of the input, output and capacitors voltages of
SSBB in Buck mode
D3 D2 C02 VC02
L2

40 V/div 50 P s/div
a)
D1 VT

S
Vi L1 C01 VC01 VT

V0

D3 D2 C02 VC02
L2

b) Fig. 7. Simulation results of the voltage across the switch in Buck mode

Fig. 5. Equivalent circuits of the new SSBB topology: a) mode 1 and

b) mode 2 40 V/div VD1 50 P s/div
VD3

III. SIMULATION RESULTS

The proposed DC-DC SSBB converter was implemented VD2

VD2
and tested through the Matlab/Simulink simulation tool. In the
tests the circuit values were: input voltage Vin = 48 V,
inductors L1 = 1 mH and L2 = 2 mH, capacitors Co1 = Co2 = VD3

100 PF, resistor load Ro = 100 : and switching frequency is

VD3

12 kHz.
Several tests in both modes (Buck and Boost) were made.
The results in Buck mode were obtained with a duty cycle of Fig. 8. Simulation results of the voltage across the diodes in Buck mode

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1 A/div 50 P s/div 50 V/div 50 P s/div

VD1
VD1

iL1
VD2
iL1 VD2

VD3
VD3
iL2

iL2

Fig. 9. Simulation results of the inductors currents in Buck mode Fig. 12. Simulation results of the voltage across the diodes in Boost mode

The results in Boost mode were obtained with a duty cycle

of G=0.6. Fig. 10 shows the input, output capacitors and output
voltage. The output voltage (100 V) is higher than the input
1 A/div iL1 50 P s/div
voltage confirming the Boost mode and theoretical
expectations. The voltage across the power semiconductors is
presented in Figs. 11 and 12 confirming that the voltage across
them is lower when compared to the output voltage plus the
input voltage. The currents across the inductors are presented
in Fig. 13. In this case, the CCM operation is also maintained.
iL1
iL2

50 V/div 50 P s/div
Vo

iL2

Vo
Vc1
Fig. 13. Simulation results of the inductors currents in Boost mode

Vc1
Vc2

Vc2
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Vi

Vi
To attest the validity of the simulation results achieved, it
was used a laboratory prototype of the proposed SSBB
Fig. 10. Simulation results of the input, output and capacitors voltages in converter. The prototype was built using the same parameters
Boost mode used for the simulation tests. To compare to the simulation
results, similar tests were made with the laboratory prototype.
Thus, a first test in Buck mode in which was used a duty cycle
50 V/div 50 P s/div of G=0.3 was made. In Fig. 14 it is presented the input, output
VT
capacitors and output voltages. This result confirms the Buck
mode that the output voltage of the converter is the result of
the sum of the capacitor voltages with a value of 32 V, in
accordance with the simulation result. Figs. 15 and 16 present
VT the voltages across the power semiconductors. The results
confirm the maximum voltages across the power
semiconductors being lower than the output voltage plus the
input voltage. In Fig. 17 the currents in the inductors are
showed, indicating the converter operation in the continuous
conduction mode.

Fig. 11. Simulation results of the voltage across the power device in Boost
mode

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Experimental tests in Boost mode were also performed,

using a duty cycle of 0.6. The voltage boost can be seen Fig.
18, where it is seen the input, output capacitor voltages and
output voltage. In boost mode, the output voltage is now
higher than the input voltage since a value near 100 V is
obtained. The voltages across the power semiconductors are
presented in Figs. 19 and 20. The waveforms confirm that the
switches hold-off voltages are lower than the semiconductors
voltages of the classic Buck-Boost also in boost mode. The
continuous conduction mode of operation is seen in the
inductor currents of Fig. 21.

Fig. 14. Experimental results of the input, output and capacitors voltages in
Buck mode

Fig. 18. Experimental results of the input, output and capacitors voltages in
Boost mode
Fig. 15. Experimental results of the voltage in the power device in Buck mode

Fig. 19. Experimental results of the voltage across the switch in Boost mode
Fig. 16. Experimental results of the voltage across the diodes in Buck mode

Fig. 20. Experimental results of the voltage across the diodes in Boost mode
Fig. 17. Experimental results of the input, output and inductors currents in
Buck mode

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Fig. 21. Experimental results of the input, output and inductors currents in
Boost mode
V. CONCLUSIONS
A new single-switch DC-DC Buck-Boost converter with
extended output voltage was described in this paper. The
topology maintains the simplicity of the circuit with low
number of power semiconductors (only one active switch is
needed) and passive elements. Moreover, the maximum hold-
off voltage required for the power semiconductors is lower
than the output voltage plus the input voltage. It was possible
to verify the operating principle of the new topology in CCM.
The effectiveness and the performance of the proposed
converter were verified through simulation tests. It was also
developed a laboratory prototype to confirm the results
obtained from the simulations tests. Through the simulation
and experimental results it was possible to confirm the buck
and boost operation, continuous conduction mode and hold-off
voltages lower than the semiconductors voltages of the classic
Buck-Boost.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The work presented in this article had the supported of
national funds through FCT under contracts
UID/CEC/50021/2013 and Pest-E/EEI/LA0021/2014.
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