A dual switched DC-DC converter with high gain for low-voltage fuel cell stack electric vehicles

A high-gain, boost-derived, non-isolated DC-DC converter employing dual switches is introduced to supply the 400 V DC link bus voltage required for fuel cell vehicles, featuring a minimal number of passive components and diodes. Additional features of a DC-DC converter employed in fuel cell electric vehicles include minimal input current ripple, attenuated inrush currents, lowered voltage stress, and minimized reverse recovery losses, all contributing to a reduction in the converter's size and weight. The proposed converter achieves the aforementioned characteristics that conventional converters cannot replicate. The voltage gain of this converter, varying from 20 to 8, is achieved with a low wide variation of input voltage between 20 V and 50 V. This article addresses the functionality, control methods, and characteristics of comparable converters. The suggested converter is validated through hardware, providing an output power of 400 W/400 V at a 1 A load across a low-wide fluctuation in input voltage (20 V to 50 V) at a switching frequency of 50 kHz.