The interest toward the application of fuel cells is increasing in the last years mainly due to the possibility of highly efficient decentralized clean energy generation. The output voltage of fuel-cell stacks is generally below 50 V. Consequently, low-power applications with high output voltage require a high gain for proper operation. A zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) dc–dc converter with high voltage gain is proposed for fuel cell as a front-end converter. It consists of a ZVS boost converter stage and a ZVS half-bridge converter stage and two stages are merged into a single stage. The ZVS boost converter stage provides a continuous input current and ZVS operation of the power switches. The ZVS half-bridge converter stage provides a high voltage gain. The principle of operation and system analysis are presented. Theoretical analysis and simulation result of the proposed converter were verified.
