An improved extendable ultra-high gain converter using LCDS-VLC network with reduced semiconductor voltage stress: An experimental validation with solar simulator

• This article presents an extendable ultra-high voltage gain, non-isolated DC-DC converter designed for sustainable energy sources like solar photovoltaic, fuel cell etc. • The proposed converter incorporates a combination of an extendable active inductor-capacitor-diode-switch (LCDS) network and a voltage-lifting capacitor (VLC) network to achieve enhanced voltage gain. • Another key advantage of the proposed converter is the significantly reduced voltage stress on its semiconductor devices compared to similar converters. • A 200 W, 380 V hardware prototype of the proposed converter is developed and tested using an IT6513C solar emulator. Experimental results demonstrate that the converter achieves a practical voltage gain of 18 at a duty cycle of 0.59 , with an efficiency of 94.85 % at its rated power. This article presents an ultra-high voltage gain, non-isolated DC-DC converter designed for sustainable energy sources like solar photovoltaic, fuel cell etc. The proposed converter incorporates a combination of an extendable active inductor-capacitor-diode-switch (LCDS) network and a voltage-lifting capacitor (VLC) network to achieve enhanced voltage gain. A key distinguishing feature of the proposed LCDS network is its extendable architecture, which makes the proposed converter flexible to meet specific voltage gain requirements. Another advantage of the proposed converter is the significantly reduced voltage stress on its semiconductor devices compared to similar converters due to the adopted circuit structure. Additionally, as all switches operate synchronously, the implementation of the control algorithm is simplified. To validate its performance, a 200 W, 380 V hardware prototype of the proposed converter is developed and tested using an IT6513C solar emulator. Experimental results demonstrate that the converter achieves a practical voltage gain of 18 at a duty cycle of 0.59, with an efficiency of 94.85 % at its rated power. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed converter is compared with similar converters to assess its suitability for practical applications.