Bidirectional dc-to-dc converter employing dual inductor for current ripple reduction

This paper propose a bidirectional dc-to-dc converter employing dual inductor for current ripple reduction. Conventional bidirectional dc-to-dc converter uses a single inductor for two different modes; boost and buck; therefore it is difficult to satisfy the optimized inductance value for each mode. To improve this problem, the proposed converter adds two switches, a diode, and one inductor. By proper switching of the additional switch, the proposed converter operates with a inductor in boost mode, but it works with dual inductor in buck mode. Hence in both modes the proposed bidirectional converter can be operated with optimized inductance values. Most of all the optimized inductance in buck mode can reduce the current ripple and its effective value(rms), which are directly related to the temperature increase resulted in short lifetime of battery. To verify the validity of the proposed approach, we first analyzes the operation of the proposed converter theoretically, and implement computer-aided simulations and experiments using a prototype. Copyright © The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers