The DC Inductor Current Ripple Reduction Method for a Two-Stage Power Conversion System

Abstract

This paper proposes a method for minimizing the inductor current ripple of a DC–DC converter in a two-stage power conversion system consisting of a grid-connected PWM converter and an interleaved multiphase three-level DC–DC converter. To reduce the output voltage ripple, the three-level DC–DC converter is configured in parallel and operated interleaved. However, a circulating current generated by the interleaved operation increases the inductor current ripple of each DC–DC converter and causes system loss and inductor saturation. In this paper, the inductor and output current ripple of the interleaved three-phase three-level DC–DC converter is mathematically analyzed and the effect of the DC–DC converter’s duty ratio and output voltage on each current ripple is described. Based on this analysis, a method is proposed for controlling the optimal DC link voltage through the PWM converter, so that the DC–DC converter is controlled with the duty ratio that minimizes the inductor current ripple. The simulation and experimental results under various operating conditions are presented to verify the feasibility of the proposed control method.