A universal ZVS design for a family of quadratic boost converters

In some application scenarios of new energy, high voltage gain DC–DC converters are widely employed especially for photovoltaic systems, fuel cell systems, and electric vehicles. The two-stage cascade boost integrated with a coupled-inductor and diode-capacitor voltage multiplier cell has been widely researched due to the advantages of a quadratic voltage gain and low voltage stress for the semiconductor devices. In this paper, the universal ZVS design for a family of quadratic converter is given. The proposed method maintains an extremely high voltage conversion ratio and low voltage stress on the power devices. In addition, the problem of the voltage gain being influenced by the load due to a small excitation inductance selection is solved. Moreover, ZVS operation for all of the switches and ZCS operation for most of the diodes are achieved to lower switching loss and suppress voltage spikes. The active clamp circuit is applied to lower the voltage stress and to control the ZVS operation. The design and operation principles, along with steady state and efficiency analyses of a specific converter are discussed in detail. In addition, a detailed comparison is presented among some similar topologies. Finally, a 320 W prototype circuit is implemented in laboratory to verify the performance of the proposed converter.