Common grounded wide voltage‐gain range DC–DC converter for fuel cell vehicles

Abstract

In order to meet the requirements of the fuel cell stack power interface converter applied in the fuel cell vehicles, a common ground wide voltage‐gain range DC–DC converter is proposed. On the input voltage side, an interleaved structure is adopted in this converter to reduce the input current ripple. On the output voltage side, two series capacitors are combined with a diode–capacitor structure to improve the voltage gain and reduce the voltage stress of power semiconductors and capacitors. As a result, the efficiency and reliability of the proposed converter can be improved. The operating principle, steady‐state characteristic, parameter design, efficiency calculation, and comparison with other converters are analysed. A 1.6 kW prototype of the proposed converter with the 400 V output voltage has been developed to validate the analytical results. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that the proposed converter can meet the requirements of a fuel cell stack power interface converter and is suitable for use as a fuel cell stack power interface converter applied in fuel cell vehicles.