Minimum Energy Storage Converters based on a Coupled Magnetic Structure: Design Methodology

Abstract

This paper presents a design methodology for coupled inductor converters designed and operated under the principle of minimum energy storage. This minimum energy storage concept is applied to a coupled inductor converter along with a control strategy that aims to keep constant the sum of input voltages to the magnetic component for every instant of time. If the input voltage is kept constant, output voltage would be also constant for every instant of time and the energy storage in the converter would be minimized. The main advantage of this concept is that a very fast dynamic response can be achieved without operating at very high frequencies, thus maximizing efficiency in a wide load range. Instead of continuous voltage regulation, output voltage can be changed in discrete values, which could be a drawback in some applications. The proposed design methodology is applied in order to design a four-cell prototype and it is validated with an experimental prototype