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A Nonisolated Step-Up DC-AC Converter With Reduced Leakage Current For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems
A Nonisolated Step-Up DC-AC Converter With Reduced Leakage Current For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Date of publication xxxx 00, 0000, date of current version February 14, 2020.
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province of China (1408085ME80), the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Education
Committee (KJ2012A048), the National Natural Science Foundation (51577002).
ABSTRACT In this paper, a nonisolated step-up single-phase dc-ac converter is proposed for distributed low
voltage photovoltaic (PV) systems. The proposed converter has a common ground between the dc
photovoltaic input and ac output voltage, which can reduce the leakage current to a very low level and thus
improve the reliability and power generation efficiency. By analyzing and comparing the two modulation
methods, a unified half cycle modulation is selected for the design of the proposed converter, in which only
two switches are operated at high frequency in a line cycle. Therefore, the conduction and switching loss can
be reduced greatly. In addition, due to the unified half cycle modulation for the active switches of the
proposed inverter, the dc-link capacitor does not need to have a decoupling function. The capacitor can then
be optimized to a small value for improving the reliability and power density. A theoretical analysis of the
proposed converter is described, and an experimental prototype is implemented to verify the performance of
the presented converter topology.
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
H5 and H6 topologies, extra switches or diodes are embedded In view of the characteristics of the proposed step-up dc-ac
in the dc or ac side of the full bridge inverter, which can converter, a unified unipolar SPWM and a double-frequency
eliminate the leakage current by separating PV array away SPWM methods are adopted to provide the control signals for
from the grid. In the HERIC inverter, a freewheeling branch all the active devices. The detailed analysis is introduced as
is added between the bridge arm and the filter inductors for follows.
eliminating the leakage current. However, they are buck type
1). UNIPOLAR SPWM
inverters and their output peak ac voltage does not exceed the
input dc voltage. Therefore, for applications in which the The waveform of the unipolar SPWM of the proposed
output peak ac voltage needs to be higher than the input dc inverter is displayed in Fig. 3. The gate drive signals for the
voltage, an additional boost dc-dc converter is often required power switches are generated by comparing a reference
at the front end [13]. Single-stage Z-source inverters in waves (ur) of a line frequency to a carrier waveform (uc) at a
[14]-[16] can realize higher AC output voltage than the DC high frequency.
input voltage by using an impedance network, but they cannot
solve the problem of leakage current to ground.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of the
aforementioned classic circuits, some new
common-ground-type step-up PV inverters are proposed in
recent literature works [17]-[22]. These topologies eliminate
leakage current by connecting the negative terminal of the PV
directly to the neutral point of the grid. However, they used
more switches, which can result in higher conduction losses
and a larger size.
Following this trend, this paper proposes nonisolated dc-ac FIGURE 3. Unipolar SPWM for the proposed topology.
step-up converter with reduced leakage current for
grid-connected PV system, as shown in Fig. 2. The proposed
converter connects the PV negative terminal to the neutral We can observe that switch S1 is always operated at the
line of the utility grid directly, effectively suppressing the high frequency. Switches S2 and S4 are also operated at the
leakage current. The unipolar sinusoidal pulse width high frequency, but only for a half of the line cycle,
modulation (SPWM) or double frequency SPWM can be respectively. Moreover, at the other half line cycle, switches
adopted to this converter. Moreover, the dc-link capacitor can S2 and S4 are turned off accordingly. Switch S3 is kept on for
be designed as small as possible so that thin film capacitor the positive half line cycle while switch S5 is on for the
can be used. negative half line cycle.
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
waves, respectively. S4, S5 are modulated by ur1, while S2 and The aforementioned two modulation strategies both have
S3 are modulated by ur2. their own advantages. The double-frequency SPWM can
provide a higher equivalent switching frequency so that the
size and weight of the filter inductor can be reduced. On the
other hand, there are only two switches operated at the high
frequency in a line cycle with the unipolar SPWM. Based on
this concept, MOSFETs can be chosen for switches S1, S2, and
S4, which are working in a high frequency. Whereas, IGBTs
can be chosen for switches S3 and S5, which are operated at
power frequency. Hence, the higher efficiency can be
achieved by this mixed switch technology [23]. In this paper,
FIGURE 4. Double-frequency SPWM for the proposed topology. the unipolar SPWM is chosen as an example for the
performance evaluation and experimental verification.
During the positive half grid cycle, the circuit rotates in the
B. THE OPERATED MODE ANALYSIS
sequence of “mode 1-mode 4-mode 1-mode 5” and the output
voltage uab varies between +UC1 and 0 with the twice of the To simplify the inverter analysis, the assumptions are shown
carrier frequency. During the negative half grid cycle, the as follows:
circuit rotates in the sequence of “mode 6-mode 9-mode (1) All semiconductor power devices are considered ideal.
6-mode 10” and the output voltage uab varies between -UC1 (2) The capacitor C1 is large enough to keep it’s voltage
and 0. Similarly, the switching sequence of double-frequency constant during one switching period.
SPWM scheme in one switching cycle is shown in Table 2. (3) The current of inductor Lin is operated in discontinuous
conduction mode (DCM).
For the unipolar SPWM method, there are three operating
TABLE 2. Switching sequence of double-frequency SPWM
modes during one switching period in a positive or negative
half cycle and the key waveforms of the proposed converter
in DCM are shown in Fig. 5. The corresponding equivalent
circuits are presented in Fig. 6.
FIGURE 5. The key waveform of the converter with the unipolar SPWM.
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
In the whole positive half cycle AC output, the switch Mode 7 (t5-t6) [ Fig. 6.(g)]: At time t5, switches S1 and S2 are
S3 maintains on and switches S2, S5 are always off. Switches turned off and diode D is turned on. The inductor Lin is
S1, S4 are operated in SPWM. The corresponding operating discharged and the current iLin is linearly decreased from the
modes are given as follow: maximum to zero. At the same time, the anti-paralleled diode
Mode 1 (t0-t1) [ Fig. 6.(a)]: Before this mode, the current iLin of switch S3 is freewheeling to provide a current flowing path
has dropped to zero at the input. At time t0, the switch S3 is for AC output current. In this mode, the equation of current
turned on and is on in the positive half cycle AC output. iLin can be established as follows:
Switches S1 and S4 are turned on , and the diode D are off. The U U C1
iLin (t )= in t t5 iLin (t5 ) (5)
inductor Lin is charged by the input voltage Uin and its current Lin
is linearly increased from zero to its maximum value.
Meanwhile, the capacitor C1 is discharged for the output and Mode 8 (t6-t7) [ Fig. 6.(h)]: At time t6, the current iLin
the inverter output voltage Uab of inverter is Uc1. The current decreases to zero, and diode D is turned off. The
iLin can be described as: anti-paralleled diode of switch S3 is still on to provide a
current flowing path for AC output current of the filter
U
iLin (t )= in t t0 (1) inductor L0. This mode ends at time t7. Then, modes 6, 7, and
Lin 8 are cyclically presented in the negative period of the
Mode 2 (t1-t2) [ Fig. 6.(b)]: At time t1, switches S1 and S4 sinusoidal modulation wave. In this stage, the current iLin is
are turned off and diode D is turned on. The inductor Lin is always zero.
discharged to the output, and the current iLin is linearly iLin (t)=0 (6)
decreased from the maximum to zero in this mode. At the
same time, the anti-paralleled diode of switch S5 is
C. VOLTAGE GAIN ANALYSIS
freewheeling to provide a current flowing path for the output
current of inductor L0. The expression of current iLin in this From the previous analysis, we can know that the inductor Lin
mode can be written: is charged by the input voltage Uin and the current iLin is
linearly increased from zero to its maximum. Then, the
U U C1 (2)
iLin (t )= in t t1 iLin (t1 ) inductor Lin is discharged to the output, and the current iLin is
Lin linearly decreased from the maximum to zero. From the flux
Mode 3 (t2-t3) [ Fig. 6.(c)]: At time t2, as the current iLin (volt-second) balance condition on Lin, the following relation
reduces to zero, diode D is turned off. The anti-paralleled is obtained:
diode of switch S5 is still on to provide a current flowing path U inton
U inton U C1 U in toff toff (7)
for output inductor L0 current. This mode ends at time t3. U C1 U in
Then, modes 1, 2, and 3 occurs cyclically until the negative
half cycle of AC output. According to the regular symmetry sampling rule, the
iLin (t )=0 conducting time of switch S1 can be expressed as (8).
(3)
In the whole negative half cycle AC output, the switch ton mT sin wt (8)
S5 maintains on and switches S3, S4 are always off. Switches
S1, S2 are operated in SPWM. The corresponding operating The average current iLin of the inductor in a modulation
modes are given as follow: wave period T is as follows:
Mode 6 (t4-t5) [ Fig. 6.(f)]: Before time t4, switch S5 is U in
turned on and the current iLin is zero. At time t4, switches S1 t toff i t on toff
Lin
ton
and S2 are turned on, the switch S5 maintains on. Whereas, iLin
on
(9)
switches S3, S4, and diode D are turned off. The inductor Lin is 2T 2T
charged by the input voltage Uin and its current is linearly
increased from zero to the maximum. Meanwhile, the To simplify the analysis, all the devices loss in the circuit
capacitor C1 is discharged to the output. In this mode, the are neglected, so that the input power is equal to the output
input current iLin can be obtained as follows: power Po. Therefore, when the converter is assumed working
U in a unity power factor, the input average current Iin can be
iLin (t )= in t t4 (4)
Lin expressed as :
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
Po U g
2 During the operation of the converter, the capacitor is
Iin (10)
Uin Uin R continuously charged or discharged with a different switching
state. The capacitor charge change Q can be written as (17),
Meanwhile, the output voltage Ug of the inverter can be in which IC1 and T represent the average current of the
approximately expressed as: capacitor C1 and the corresponding charging time or
t on discharging time respectively.
t onU C 1 TU g U g U C1 (11)
T
Q C1U C1 I C1 T (17)
For this proposed converter, The average current iLin and
the input average current Iin are equalized and the value of The design of the capacitor C1 depends mainly on the
sin(wt) is converted to effective value 2 2 to simplify the following factors including the maximum transferring power
analysis, thus the voltage gain G is derived as: Po, the output voltage ug, the operating frequency f, and the
maximum tolerant voltage ripple UC1. In practice, the
Ug 2m 2R
(12)
G 1 1
tradeoff is often considered. The estimated capacitors is
U in 4 Lin f obtained as:
Po (18)
Fig. 7 shows the three-dimensional relationships of voltage C1
gain G versus input inductor Lin and modulation ratio m when u g U C 1 f
f=20kHz, R 50 are given. It can be seen from Fig. 7, the As shown in Fig. 8, the relationship is between the dc-link
voltage gain G increases when the modulation ratio m voltage ripple UC1, the grid voltage ug, and the dc-link
increases or the value of Lin decreases. capacitor value C1 , in which Po=300W, f=20 kHz.
FIGURE 7. Diagram of voltage gain G, modulation ratio m and input FIGURE 8. The capacitor value C1 in relationship with voltage ripple
US1 _ max US 2 _ max US 3 _ max US 4 _ max US 5 _ max UC1 (13) B. THE DESIGN OF ENERGY STORAGE NIDUCTOR Lin
When the proposed converter is operated under critical mode
The average current of iC1 is zero in the steady state. Thus,
in steady state, the current iLin of the input inductor is exactly
the average current that flows through switches S2, S4, and S5
zero at the beginning or end of each switching cycle. So, the
is nearly equal to the RMS of the current of Ig. The current
following equation can be derived as:
stresses on the switches S1–S5 and the diode D are expressed
as follows: 1 (19)
I in iLin
2
iS 2 _ max iS 4 _ max iS 5 _ max ig _ max (14)
According to the operating principles and the formula (8),
the current ripple on the energy storage inductor Lin can be
iS1_ max iD _ max iLin _ max (15) derived as:
U t mTU in sin wt
iLin in on (20)
iS 3 _ max iLin _ max ig _ max (16) Lin Lin
Ignoring all the component losses in the circuit, then the
III. THE PARAMETER DESIGN OF PASSIVE COMPONENTS input power is equal to the output power. Thus, there is the
following formula:
A. THE SELECTION OF DC-LINK CAPACITOR C1
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
In practice, the value of |sin(wt)| changes in range of [0,1] . IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Therefore, if the value of inductor Lin is designed less than the
A prototype converter is built to verify the effectiveness of
value of Lc, the proposed converter will be operated in DCM.
the proposed topology. The special parameters are shown in
Therefore, the value of inductor Lin should be designed
Table 4.
according to the formula (23).
mU in 2 (23)
Lin Lc TABLE 4. Electrical specifications of the proposed converter
2 Po f
As a result, the energy storage inductor selection range
based on (23) can be derived as 0,mU 2P f .
2
in o
FIGURE 9. Experimental waveforms of the proposed converter (a) Driving waveforms of the switches S1, S2, S4. (b) Driving waveforms of the switches S3, S5
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
FIGURE 10. Experimental waveforms of the proposed converter (a) The voltage uab and the currents iLin. (b) Zoomed-in waveform of (a).
FIGURE 11. Experimental waveforms of the proposed converter (a) The capacitor voltage UC1, the input voltage Uin and the output voltage ug. (b) The output
voltage ug , the current ig , the common-mode voltage ucm and the common-mode current icm.
In terms of PV generation applications, the output voltage of the input PV array, eliminating the ground leakage current.
from PV panels often varies greatly due to different In addition, the input inductor current is designed in DCM,
environmental conditions. When the input voltage ranges which guarantees that the low frequency input current ripples
from 50 to 60 V, the measured efficiency curves versus the can meet the requirements. The operation principle and steady
different output power are shown in Fig. 12. We can observe analysis are introduced in detail and verified by the
that the proposed topology can achieve high efficiency in the experiments.
whole range of PV voltage variation.
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2986605, IEEE
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Xuefeng Hu et al.: A Nonisolated Step-up DC-AC Converter with Reduced Leakage Current for Grid-connected Photovolatic Systems
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