Design and Performance Evaluation of a Step-Up DC–DC Converter with Dual Loop Controllers for Two Stages Grid Connected PV Inverter

In this work, a non-isolated DC–DC converter is presented that combines a voltage doubler circuit and switch inductor cell with the single ended primary inductor converter to achieve a high voltage gain at a low duty cycle and with reduced component count. The converter utilizes a single switch that makes its control very simple. The voltage stress across the semiconductor components is less than the output voltage, which makes it possible to use the diodes with reduced voltage rating and a switch with low turn-on resistance. In particular, performance principle of the proposed converter along with the steady state analysis such as voltage gain, voltage stress on semiconductor components, and design of inductors and capacitors, etc., are carried out and discussed in detail. Moreover, to regulate a constant voltage at a DC-link capacitor, back propagation algorithm-based adaptive control schemes are designed. These adaptive schemes enhance the system performance by dynamically updating the control law parameters in case of PV intermittency. Furthermore, a proportional resonant controller based on Naslin polynomial method is designed for the current control loop. The method describes a systematic procedure to calculate proportional gain, resonant gain, and all the coefficients for the resonant path. Finally, the proposed system is simulated in MATLAB and Simulink software to validate the analytical and theoretical concepts along with the efficacy of the proposed model.

A Double-Boost Converter Based on Coupled Inductance and Magnetic Integration

High-voltage gain converter has a high-frequency use in some industrial fields, for instance, the fuel cell system, the photovoltaic system, electric vehicles, and the high-intensity discharge lamp. In order to solve the problem of the low-voltage gain of traditional boost converter, the double-boost converter with coupled inductance and doubled voltage is proposed, which connects the traditional boost converter in parallel. The voltage gain of the converter is further improved by introducing the voltage-doubled unit of the coupled inductance. Moreover, the clamp capacitor can absorb the leakage inductance in the circuit and reduce the voltage stress of the switch. In addition, two coupled inductors are magnetically collected; then, the loss of the core is analyzed under the same gain. The detailed analysis of the proposed converter and a comparison considering other topologies previously published in the literature are also presented in this article. In order to verify the proposed converter performance, a prototype has been built for a power of 200 W, input and output voltages of 12 and 84 V, respectively, and a switching frequency of 50 kHz. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis proving the satisfactory converter performance, whose peak efficiency is 95.5%.

Highly Configurable 100 Channel Recording and Stimulating Integrated Circuit for Biomedical Experiments

This paper presents the design results of a 100-channel integrated circuit dedicated to various biomedical experiments requiring both electrical stimulation and recording ability. The main design motivation was to develop an architecture that would comprise not only the recording and stimulation, but would also block allowing to meet different experimental requirements. Therefore, both the controllability and programmability were prime concerns, as well as the main chip parameters uniformity. The recording stage allows one to set their parameters independently from channel to channel, i.e., the frequency bandwidth can be controlled in the (0.3 Hz–1 kHz)–(20 Hz–3 kHz) (slow signal path) or (0.3 Hz–1 kHz)–4.7 kHz (fast signal path) range, while the voltage gain can be set individually either to 43.5 dB or 52 dB. Importantly, thanks to in-pixel circuitry, main system parameters may be controlled individually allowing to mitigate the circuitry components spread, i.e., lower corner frequency can be tuned in the 54 dB range with approximately 5% precision, and the upper corner frequency spread is only 4.2%, while the voltage gain spread is only 0.62%. The current stimulator may also be controlled in the broad range (69 dB) with its current setting precision being no worse than 2.6%. The recording channels’ input-referred noise is equal to 8.5 µVRMS in the 10 Hz–4.7 kHz bandwidth. The single-pixel occupies 0.16 mm2 and consumes 12 µW (recording part) and 22 µW (stimulation blocks).

Design of New High Step-Up DC-DC Converter Topology for Solar PV Applications

A new topology for high step-up nonisolated DC-DC converter for solar PV applications is presented in this paper. The proposed high-voltage gain converter topology has many advantages like low-voltage stress on the switches, high gain with low duty ratio, and a continuous input current. The analytical waveforms of the proposed converter are presented in continuous and discontinuous modes of operation. Voltage stress analysis is conducted. The voltage gain and efficiency of the converter in presence of parasitic elements are also derived. Performance comparison of the proposed high-gain converter topology with the recently reported high-gain converter topologies is presented. Validation of theoretical analysis is done through the test results obtained from the simulation of the proposed converter. For the maximum duty ratio of 80%, the output voltage of 670 V is observed, and the voltage gain obtained is 14. Comparison of theoretical and simulation results is presented which validates the performance of the proposed converter.