Development of a High Gain DC-DC Converter with Switched Inductor-Capacitor Architecture for PV Systems

DC-DC converters are vital for PV applications by adjusting the DC output to suitable voltage levels, yet existing converter topologies often result in significant ripple and increased costs due to larger, numerous passive components. A comparative study on three DC-DC converter architectures were conducted namely, Switched Inductor (SI), Switched Capacitor (SC) and Switched Inductor Capacitor (SIC). For one such topology of each architecture, components and duty cycles were selected based on the design equations for the required source and load parameters. SI produced the output at a lower duty cycle while having the highest current and voltage ripples. In contrast, the SC topology results in reduced ripple at the expense of a higher duty cycle. The SIC topology was found to provide the best performance with the least amount of ripple among the three, with reduced duty cycle when compared to SC. Another such SIC topology was chosen, designed, and simulated to have more reduction in ripple factor. Comparing this topology to the prior SIC topology, the ripple ratios and duty cycle were considerably reduced. As a result, this topology is chosen for modification with the goal of utilizing Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to decrease the number and size of passive components and further minimize ripples.