New soft switching ZVS and ZCS half-bridge inductive DC-DC converters for fuel cell applications

Abstract

This paper is going to develop two soft switching DC-DC converters based on the half-bridge inductive converter for the design of the power electronic interface for fuel cell applications. One operates in ZVS mode, another in ZCS mode. The ZVS converter can overcome the drawbacks of the original structure but is more complicated. The ZCS converter can't operate at the duty cycle less than 0.5 but is simpler and more suitable for fuel cell applications. Flexible choice of components, low losses, high efficiency and modular converter possibility are all interesting characteristics of theses converters. Operation principle and characteristics are presented. Experimental results on a 2 kW converter of each structure are going to validate the theory analysis