An Isolated Single Switch PV Integrated DC?DC Converter

Isolated converters are desirable in the DC-DC power conversion applications where isolation or a large voltage step-up gain is needed. Traditional isolated DC-DC converters either utilize many switches to achieve high efficiency or use few switches which result in low efficiency. The high switching frequencies in power converters further increases the switching losses, and electromagnetic interferences. These losses can be overcome by employing soft switching techniques. In this paper a new single-switch isolated DC-DC converter is introduced for voltage regulation in solar photovoltaic (PV) system. The presented converter is able to offer low cost and high power density in step-up applications. The modified DC-DC converter has the advantage of using less number of switches than other existing isolated DC-DC converters. Low rated lossless snubber used in the modified topology can reduce the transformer volume due to low magnetizing current. Efficiency of the PV panel can be improved by employing MPPT alogorithm. Simulation studies are carried out in MATLAB to verify the theoretical analysis and show that the modified converter is effective for PV systems. Experimental results further validate the simulation studies.