Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 30, No. 7, pp.

1145-1152 (2007) 1145

A VERSATILE THREE-PHASE DC-DC CONVERTER CIRCUIT

FOR FUEL CELL APPLICATIONS

Jih-Sheng Lai*, Seung-Ryul Moon, Raeyoung Kim, Feng-Yuan Lin, Yu-Hsuan Liu, and
Ming-Hsien Lin

ABSTRACT
Multiphase dc-dc converters allow current sharing among phases and high-fre-
quency ripple cancellation and are very desirable for low-voltage high-power fuel
cell applications. In this paper, a versatile three-phase dc-dc converter circuit as a
building block is proposed for different output voltage levels including non-isolated
48 V for telecom and isolated 400 V for subsequent stage dc-ac inverter applications.
For either type of application, the proposed three-phase converter circuit is controlled
by the same complementary gating control that allows synchronous rectification for
the non-isolated version and zerovoltage soft switching for the isolated version. Two
sets of 5-kW converters have been built and tested with a fuel cell simulator. Experi-
mental results are given to show the superiority of the efficiency performance in two
different applications.

Key Words: three phase dc-dc converters, fuel cells.

I. INTRODUCTION
For stationary applications, fuel cells were mostly
found with low voltages such as 20 to 60 V and high
powers such as 3 to 10 kW. The load may be 48-V
dc for telecom applications or 110/220-V ac for house-
hold applications. For 48-V dc output, isolation is
normally unnecessary, but for 110/220-V ac output,
an isolated dc-dc converter is needed to serve as the
first-stage voltage boost and galvanic isolation. For
a typical 5 kW stationary fuel cell power plant, the
dc-dc converter input inevitably sees more than 100
A for fuel cells with voltage level lower than 50 V.
Such a high-current dc-dc converter requires multiple
phases to achieve high efficiencies (Liu et al., 2005,
Liu et al., 2006, Oliveira et al., 2003, Moon et al.,
2007, Prasad et al., 1992, and De Doncker et al., 1991).
Although the 3-phase 6-leg (V6) dc-dc converter in
*Corresponding author. (Tel:(540)2314741; Fax: (540)2313362;
Email: jslai@vt.edu)
J. S. Lai, S. R. Moon, and R. Kim are with the Future Energy
Electronics Center (FEEC), Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, Virginina 24061-0111, USA.
F. Y. Lin, Y. H. Liu, and M. H. Lin are with the Tatung System
Technologies, 22, Chungshan N. Rd., 3rd Sec., Taipei 104, Taiwan,
R.O.C.
(Liu et al., 2005, and Liu et al., 2006) has demon-
strated a desired high efficiency for fuel cell voltage
less than 25 V or current higher than 200 A, the
threephase three-leg (V3) dc-dc converter circuit in
is more versatile when it comes to different applica-
tions that involve both isolated and non-isolated dc-
dc power conversions. The V3 converter circuit can
be used for non-isolated applications, while V6 con-
verter is only limited to isolated applications.
Intuitively an isolated dc-dc converter can be
universally used for versatile applications. Fig. 1
shows block diagrams of stationary fuel cell power
plant using an isolated dc-dc converter for 48-V dc
output and 110/220-V ac output conditions. The iso-
lated dc-dc converter consists of a bridgetype con-
verter that converts dc to low-voltage high-frequency
ac, a high-frequency transformer that converts low-
voltage high-frequency ac to high-voltage high-fre-
quency ac, and an ac-dc rectifier plus a filter circuit
to smooth the dc output. For 48-V dc load, the out-
put side can be isolated from fuel cell ground or ty-
ing either positive or negative to the ground. For 110/
220V ac load, a high voltage conversion ratio is re-
quired to boost the output voltage up to 400 V for the
dc-ac inverter to produce 220 V ac output.
The main problem with isolated design is the
1146 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 30, No. 7 (2007)
48V DC
AC-DC
Fuel Bridge Rectifier
Cell Vin Converter + Vdc
Filter
(a)
AC
AC-DC DC-AC
Fuel V Bridge Rectifier Inverter 110V220V
Cell in Converter + + 110V
Filter Fiter
(b)
Fig. 1 Stationary fuel cell power plant using an isolated dc-dc
converter for (a) 48-V dc output and (b) 110/220V ac output.
cost and loss associated with the high-frequency high-
power transformer. For high voltage conversion ratio,
the transformer is unavoidable, but for 48-V dc
output, the voltage level is nearly the same as that of
the fuel cell voltage, it is possible to adopt non-iso-
lated version to avoid the use of expensive and lossy
transformer and to avoid the output rectifier stage,
which requires ultra fast reverse recovery diodes to
be used, and the conduction loss with these diodes is
quite significant. Although the diode conduction loss
may be reduced by synchronous rectification, the
added device cost, and control and complexity make
it unattractive.
To adapt to both isolated and non-isolated high-
power dc-dc applications, the proposed idea is to have
a general-purpose multiple phase-leg circuit, which
can be used as an interleaved buck, boost, or buck-
boost converter for non-isolated dc-dc and multiphase
isolated dc-dc with zero-voltage soft switching. The
gating control for upper and lower switches is comple-
mentary to achieve synchronous rectification for the
non-isolated version and soft-switching for the iso-
lated version. A three-phase converter circuit has
been designed, and two sets of 5-kW converter have
been built based on the same circuit for both non-
isolated and isolated versions. Operational wave-
forms and efficiencies of two converters have been
tested with a fuel cell simulator to show how the pro-
posed circuit can used in different applications.
II. THREE-PHASE NON-ISOLATED DC-DC
Figures 2(a) and 2(b) indicate that the buck and
boost converters can be implemented with one switch
and one diode. For low-voltage applications, the di-
ode is normally replaced or paralleled with a power
MOSFET, which switches complementarily to reduce
the conduction loss through reverse channel conduction,
or so-called “synchronous rectification.” Thus the
half-bridge circuit in Fig. 2(c) becomes a general-purpose
a a a
Vdc Vdc
(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2 Phase-leg circuit configurations: (a) buck switch, (b) boost
switch, and (c) general-purposed half-bridge circuit.
a a
Vdc b Vdc b
c c
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Three-phase bridge circuit configurations: (a) standard
three-phase converter circuit, (b) three-phase converter
with added Schottky diodes to increase buck mode
efficiency.
switch that can perform buck and boost functions while
operating in synchronous rectification mode.
The half-bridge circuit can be expanded to a full
bridge or multiphase converter circuit. Fig. 3(a)
shows a standard threephase converter circuit as a
building block that consists of three half-bridge
circuits. Each half-bridge circuit is controlled to sepa-
rate 120° apart, and the three-phase currents are in-
terleaved to reduce the overall current ripple. If this
threephase converter circuit is used only for the buck
mode operation, the bottom switched can be enhanced
with Schottky diodes to reduce the switching loss.
Similarly, if the upper switches are paralleled with
Schottky diodes, then the efficiency can be improved
in boost mode operation. Fig. 3(b) shows the Schottky
diode enhanced circuit for buck mode operation.
It is well-known that the fuel cell output volt-
age varies with the load current. The studied case
has a voltage range from 37 V to 57 V, and the re-
quirement for telecom application is to have either
+48 V or –48 V output assuming the negative side of
fuel cell is grounded. To configure for –48 V output,
the proposed three-phase converter circuit can be ar-
ranged as a conventional buck-boost converter with
interleaved operation, as shown in Fig. 4. The upper
MOSFETs serve as the active switch, and the lower
MOSFETs serve as the freewheeling diode and
synchronouse rectification. The output and input
share the same ground. The switch voltage stress is
the sum of input and output voltages.
 J. S. Lai et al.: A Versatile Three-Phase DC-DC Converter Circuit for Fuel Cell Applications 1147

L iL
S1 S3 S5
V 1:n D1 D3 D5
Fuel fc A a
cell iA ia

Inverter
input Cf b
Vfc B Co Vdc
37-57V
C c
S4 S6 S2 D4 D6 D2

Vo –48V

Fig. 6 V3 converter: three half-bridge, Y-Y transformer isolated

converter
Fig. 4 Configuration of a three-phase interleaved buck-boost con-
verter
360°
180° D
S1
S11 S13 S15 S21 S23 S25
S4
S3 120°
S6
S5 240°
S2
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fuel S14 S16 S12 S24 S26 S22
Cell +48V Vo Fig. 7 Asymmetrical duty cycle control signal for V3
Vfc
37-57V

Fig. 5 Circuit configuration of a three-phase two-stage boost-cas- is difficulty to maintain smooth transition from one
caded with buck converter for positive output mode to the other mode.

III. THREE-PHASE ISOLATED DC-DC WITH

To obtain +48 V output using the proposed
generalpurposed three-phase converter circuit, we can
cascade two converter building blocks together with
either a buck cascaded with boost or a boost cascaded
with buck (Chen et al., 2001). Fig. 5 shows a three-
phase boost cascaded with buck type converter circuit.
The first stage is a three-phase interleaved boost
converter, and the second stage is a three-phase in-
terleaved buck converter.
Although the above circuit can have boost and
buck converters operate independently by regulating
their respective output voltages or currents, it is pos-
sible to increase the efficiency by running the con-
verter with only one stage while keeping the other
stage switches in fully on or off conditions.
1. When V fc < 48 V, only the boost stage operates to
regulate the output voltage. The second stage up-
per switches S 21, S 23 , S 25 are fully turned on, and
lower switches S 24, S26 , S22 are fully turned off.
2. When V fc < 48 V, only the buck stage operates.
The first stage upper switches S11, S13, S15 are fully
turned on, and lower switches S14, S16, S12 are fully
turned off.
The only drawback to such a single-stage operation
ASYMMETRICAL DUTY OPERATION
Figure 6 shows the schematic circuit diagram
of an isolated dc-dc converter using the proposed
three-phase converter building block, three transform-
ers connected in Y-Y configuration, a three-phase
bridge rectifier, and a set of LC filter. The entire
three-phase isolated dc-dc converter is called “V3”
converter hereafter.
With traditional pulse width modulation (PWM)
using symmetrical duty cycle, the converter operates
in hard switching. With the proposed building block
and asymmetrical control, as shown in Fig. 7, upper
and lower switches turning on and off complementarily,
the converter operates much like the phase-shift modu-
lation in a full-bridge dc-dc converter. When a switch
is turned off, energy in transformer leakage induc-
tance charges and discharges appropriate power switch
output capacitance. Once the respective capacitors
are fully charged and discharged, remaining current
starts to flow in the anti-paralleled diode. At this time,
opposite side device can be turned on with zero-volt-
age across the device. Three phase leg control sig-
nals are separated apart with 120º phase shift among
them.
This control technique allows soft switching
1148 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 30, No. 7 (2007)
Fig. 8 Conversion ratio and operating mode for V3
without adding extra resonant components or semi-
conductor devices, and it is attractive for high-power
applications because of potential efficiency improvement
without cost penalty.
A high transformer turns ratio is required to pro-
vide a high conversion ratio. For example, 1:8 turn
ratio is needed for 50 V input and 400 V output in
ideal case. The V3 converter, as shown in Fig. 6, is
configured in Y-Y connection to avoid circulating
current in the primary side if imbalance occurs.
The V3 converter has three operating regions
and two operating modes. The voltage conversion
ratio is shown in Fig. 8. Three operating regions can
be identified based on duty cycle: 0 < D < 1/3, 1/3 <
D < 2/3 and 2/3 < D < 1.
The regions of 0 < D < 1/3 and 2/3 < D < 1 are
considered anti-symmetrical mode and have the same
voltage regulating range. The operating mode is
called “regulated mode” with which the duty cycle
controls output voltage. When the duty cycle in-
creases from 0 to 1/3, the output voltage increases
linearly from 0 to 1. On the other side, when the duty
cycle increases from 2/3 to 1, output decreases lin-
early from 1 to 0. In this mode, there is a time during
a switching period when all the upper or lower
switches are on, which creates freewheeling period,
and the voltage across all the primary transformer
terminals are zero. Thus, after the rectification, out-
put waveform is a square waveform, and the output
is the average of square waveform.
Second operating mode is identified where con-
version ratio remains the same regardless of duty
cycle. It can be called a dc-dc transformer mode,
since the output voltage is proportional to the input
voltage. In this mode, at least one primary trans-
former terminal transfers input voltage to the output
side throughout a switching period. When the sec-
ondary transformer voltages are rectified, and the
ideal voltage transferred to the output during this dc-
dc transformer mode is V dc = n . V dfc and is not
controllable. The average output voltage during the
regulated mode is controlled by the duty cycle and
Fig. 9 Hardware circuit architecture
Auxiliary power
Gate drive PWM
FIFO
Fig. 10 Photograph of the three-phase converter building block
thus can be expressed as Vdc = 3 . D . n . Vfc, where n
is the transformer turns ratio, and D is the duty cycle
ranging from 0 to 1/3.
IV. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE
GENERAL-PURPOSE THREE-PHASE
CONVERTER BUILDING BLOCK
The three-phase converter building block that
can be used for either non-isolated or isolated dc-dc
converters has been designed and implemented in
hardware prototypes. Fig. 9 shows the hardware
circuit architecture. The first stage is a PWM con-
troller that compares the command and feedback to
produce the Phase-A PWM outputs. Phase-B and Phase-
C gate signals are obtained with first-in-first-out (FIFO)
circular buffers. Each FIFO produces 120° phase shift.
There is a buffer between PWM output and the gate
driver, which is not shown to simplify the explanation.
Figure 10 shows the photograph of the com-
pleted threephase converter building block. A flyback
converter that takes 20 to 60-V input and produces
multiple isolated 15-V outputs is designed to provide
auxiliary powers. A laminated bus bar is designed to
reduce the parasitic inductance. Major components
used in this prototype are listed as follows:
Figure 11 shows recorded waveforms generated
by the PWM controller and FIFO at 50 kHz switch-
ing frequency. With a period (360°) of 20 ms, the
FIFO phase-shifter produces 6.66 ms (or 120°) phase
shift between phases.
The measurement indicates the maximum phase
shift error between phases is ±0.02 µs. With 20 µs
 J. S. Lai et al.: A Versatile Three-Phase DC-DC Converter Circuit for Fuel Cell Applications 1149

PWM Source Waveform

Itotal = 76A IL =25A

120° Phase-shifted Waveform

240° Phase-shifted Waveform

t (10 µs/div)
Measure P1 mean(C1) P2 duty(C1) P3 duty(C1) P5 mean (F3)
value 202 mV 9.57% 9.57% 75.81 A

Fig. 13 Experimental inductor currents at 90% duty cycle under

Fig. 11 Experimental waveforms for designed signal generator buck mode operation. Trace 1 shows the lower switch gate
drive signal. Traces 2, 3, and 4 are individual inductor
using FIFO circuit
currents. I total is obtained from Math.

Inductors 40
20
Magnitude (dB)
0
-20
Boost stage
-40 G.M.: 29.4 dB
-60 Freq: 1.39e+004 Hz
Stable loop
Control -80
settings 315
Phase (deg)

270
Buck stage 225
180
Fig. 12 Photograph of a two-stage boost buck converter using the 135
proposed converter building block 90 P.M.: 76.5 deg
Freq: 884 Hz
45
101 102 103 104 105
Frequency (Hz)
being one switching cycle, this error represents 0.1%,
Fig. 14 Frequency response of the boost stage control loop
which corresponds to the ratio of the FIFO clock pe-
riod and the switching period.
A. The individual phase current has a peak to peak
V. APPLICATION TO A NON-ISOLATED current ripple of 5A, but the total current ripple is
BOOST-BUCK CONVERTER much reduced because of current interleaving.

1. Hardware Prototype 2. Controller Design

The circuit diagram shown in Fig. 5 has been
implemented using the proposed three-phase con-
verter building block for a 5-kW boost-buck converter
with 37 – 57 V fuel cell input and 48-V nominal
output. Fig. 12 shows the photograph of the entire
assembly. The only added components are input and
output inductors and control setting interface board.
In this test setup, both input and output inductors are
29 µH, which allows each phase current to have 10%
ripple at the full load.
Figure 13 shows experimental results of the
three inductor currents running at 90% duty cycle
under buck mode condition. Due to a high core
tolerance, the inductor currents are not quite balanced.
With average a little more than 25-A in each phase
inductor current, I L, the total current I total is about 76
With two-stage power conversion, the control
stability and interaction are major concerns. In or-
der to avoid mid dc bus voltage overshoot during load
transient, a voltage loop control is needed for the boost
converter, which has a transfer function shown in (1).
– 0.6575(s – 2.567 × 10 5)(s + 2128) (1)
G vd =
s 2 + 3006s + 4.059 × 10 6
By selecting a crossover frequency slightly below 1
kHz, a proportional-integral (PI) controller can be de-
signed as follows.
35882(s + 1700)
C(s) = (2)
s(s + 6.1 × 10 4)
Frequency domain plot of the entire loop gain is
1150 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 30, No. 7 (2007)

40 99.0%
20
Magnitude (dB)

98.5%
0 98.0%
-20

Efficiency
97.5%
-40 G.M.: 30.6 dB 97.0%
-60 Freq: 2.2e+004 Hz 96.5%
-80 Stable loop
96.0%
-45 95.5%
Phase (deg)

-90 95.0%
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
-135
Power (W)
-180 P.M.: 78.4 deg
Freq: 1.74e+003 Hz Fig. 17 Buck converter efficiency test results
-225 1
10 102 103 104 105
Frequency (Hz)
96%
Fig. 15 Frequency response of the buck stage control loop Vin = 57V
94%
Vin = 48V

Efficiency
92%
Vin = 37V
90%

88%
Vds (50 V/div) Vgs (10 V/div)
86%
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Power (W)

ILoad = 21A ILoad = 33A Vdc= 59V Fig. 18 Overall system efficiency with different input voltages and
both boost and buck converters operating in closed-loop
condition
t (10 µs/div)

Fig. 16 Dynamic response of the mid dc bus voltage under load
step
shown in Fig. 14. The resulting loop gain bandwidth
is 884 Hz, and the phase margin is 76.5°.
Voltage loop control is also needed for the buck
converter because the output voltage needs to main-
tain constant at 48 V. The buck converter transfer
function is shown in (3).
3.1 × 10 5(s + 1333)
G vd =
s2 + 5187s + 6.897 × 10 6
To avoid interaction between two stages, a crossover
frequency of higher than 1 kHz is selected for the buck
converter. The designed PI controller is shown in (4).
43342(s + 3800)
C(s) =
s(s + 6.1 × 10 4)
Frequency domain plot of the entire loop gain is shown
in Fig. 15. The resulting loop gain bandwidth is 1.74
kHz, and the phase margin is 78.4°. Note that a volt-
age sensor was included in the both boost and buck
converters. The scaling factor and the cut-off frequency
of the voltage sensor are 0.05 and 50 kHz, respectively.
Figure 16 shows voltage and current waveforms
under dynamic load step test. Test results verify that
the control loops are stable, and the mid dc bus voltage
Vdc is well regulated when the load current ILoad is in-
creased from 21 A to 33 A condition. The device volt-
age vds and gate-source voltage vgs indicate a small and
gradual duty cycle increase after the load current step.
3. Efficiency Measurement Results
For efficiency measurement, all the instruments
are high precision with 0.02% accuracy. The current
sensor is a high precision current viewing resistor with
(3) 0.2% accuracy. Fig. 17 shows the buck converter ef-
ficiency test results. The peak efficiency occurs in
between 3 kW and 4 kW. High efficiency of 98%
power conversion can be achieved if only one con-
verter is used.
The buck converter duty cycle is almost con-
stant throughout the entire fuel cell voltage range because
(4) the boost converter runs in closed-loop condition that
regulates the mid dc bus voltage to a constant of 60V.
Thus the buck converter can have very high efficiency
in a wide load range. The boost converter, however,
needs to deal with different input voltages, and its
efficiency will depend on the input voltage condition.
If the seamless transition is needed, then both boost
and buck converters need to operate in closed-loop
condition, and the total system efficiency will be lower.
Fig. 18 shows the overall system efficiency with
 J. S. Lai et al.: A Versatile Three-Phase DC-DC Converter Circuit for Fuel Cell Applications 1151

vds1 vgs1
Rectifier 20 V/div 5 V/div
stage
vds4 vgs4
20 V/div 5 V/div
Transformer 5 µs/div
stage Zoome-in
Upper Device
ZVS
Zoom-in
Three-phase
converter Lower Device
building block ZVS
200 ns/div

Fig. 21 ZVS for V3 at high duty cycle and heavy load condition
V fc = 50 V, V dc = 400V, 50% duty cycle, 3 kW load
Fig. 19 Photograph of the V3 converter using the three-phase con-
verter building block
vgs1
5 V/div

vds1 vgs1
vgs4
20 V/div 5 V/div
5 V/div
iA
vds4 vgs4
5 V/div 10 A/div
20 V/div
5 µs/div iB
Zoome-in 10 A/div
iC
Upper Device
ZVS 10 A/div
Zoom-in t: 5 µs/div
Lower Device
ZVS Fig. 22 Gate drive signals and output phase currents of V3 con-
200 ns/div verter

Fig. 20 ZVS for V3 at low duty cycle and light load condition V fd
= 50 V, V dc = 300V, 25% duty cycle, 1 kW load 98%
97%
96%
95%
Efficiency

different input voltages and both boost and buck con- 94%
verters operating in closed-loop condition. The peak 93%
92%
efficiency drops to about 95.5%. The efficiency is
91%
generally higher with higher input voltage. 90%
89%
VI. APPLICATION TO THE V3 ISOLATED 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000
DC-DC CONVERTER Power (W)

Fig. 23 V3 converter efficiency measurement results

The isolated V3 converter shown in Fig. 6 has
been implemented to have 37 – 57 V input and 400 V
output at 5-kW output power. Fig. 19 shows the pho-
tographs of the prototypes of V3 converter under test.
Notice that the threephase converter building block
remains the same except that additional transformers
and rectifier stages are added to obtain high voltage
conversion ratio.
Figs. 20 and 21 show experimental waveforms
for 25% and 50% duty cycles, respectively. The
asymmetrical three-phase bridge converter operation
is very similar to a full-bridge converter phase-shift
operation, which has upper and lower devices switch-
ing complementarily and allows the device to be
turned on at zero voltages. The zoom-in gate-source
and drain-source voltages of both figures all indicate
that devices are switched at zero-voltage conditions.
Figure 22 shows the gate drive voltages and out-
put phase current waveforms for the V3 converter.
The top two traces indicate that the upper and lower
gate drive voltages of phase-A, v gs1 and v gs4 are
complementary, but not exactly with the same duty
cycle. Three phase currents i A , i B , and i C are 120°
apart. In every cycle, the phase current should have
two zero current regions with 60° periods where small
circulating current is observed possibly due to com-
ponent mismatch.
Figure 23 shows the efficiency measurement
1152 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, Vol. 30, No. 7 (2007)
results of the V3 converter. Again, in the test setup,
all meters and current sensors have been selected to
be 0.02% precision or better. The results indicate that
the V3 converter maintains efficiency between 95 and
97% from 1 kW to 5 kW and peaks at 96.8% at 2 kW.
VII. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a three-phase dc-dc converter
building block has been proposed for both non-iso-
lated and isolated dc-dc converters for low-voltage
high-power fuel cell applications. The building block
looks the same as a conventional dc-ac inverter bridge
but is constructed with low-voltage power MOSFETs,
which have low conduction loss and fast switching
speed. More importantly, the complementarily
switched MOSFET allows reverse current conduct-
ing to reduce the conduction loss caused by the fixed
diode voltage drop, i.e., synchronous rectification. As
a result, the efficiency of the converters based on the
proposed three-phase converter building block is su-
perior for high-power applications. Key features of
the proposed versatile three-phase dc-dc converter
building block are:
1. Standard six-switch inverter circuit using low-volt-
age low on-drop power MOSFETs as the power
devices, suitable for low-voltage high-power ap-
plications
2. Multiple phase-legs interleaved operation for
highfrequency ripple reduction
3. Complementary switching for synchronous recti-
fication in non-isolated dc-dc converters and for
soft switching in isolated dc-dc converters
The proposed three-phase converter building
block has been applied in two fuel cell power con-
version cases. The first case is a non-isolated dc-dc
converter that requires 48-V dc output for telecom
applications, and the second case is an isolated dcdc
converter that requires 400-V dc output as the front-
stage for the subsequent-stage dc-ac inverter that can
produce 110/220-V ac for residential applications.
Both converters have been tested extensively with su-
perior efficiencies that are most desired in energy
applications. The single-stage nonisolated dc-dc con-
verter exceeds 98% efficiency, the doublestate non-
isolated dc-dc converter has the peak efficiency
between 94% and 96% depending on the fuel cell
voltage, and the isolated dc-dc converter efficiency
peaks at 96.8%. Stable control loop designs are also
shown for a two-stage power conversion. It can be
concluded that the proposed versatile three-phase
converter building block is very well suited in low-
voltage high-power fuel cell applications.
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dependently Controlled Switches,” Proceedings
of PESC, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 736-741.
Manuscript Received: Mov. 19, 2007
and Accepted: Mov. 19, 2007