A Current-fed Three-port Bi-directional DC-DC

Converter
H. Krishnaswami*, N. Mohan*
University of Minnesota*
Dept of ECE, 200 Union Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455 U.S.A.
[kris0136, mohan]@umn.edu

Abstract - Multi-port DC-DC converters have attracted special
interest in applications where multiple energy sources are used.
In this paper, a current-fed bi-directional three-port converter is
proposed. Steady state and dynamic analysis of the converter is
presented along with simulation results. The converter has the
advantages of reduced current ripple at the input due to the
presence of input inductor, high voltage step up ratios and no
bulk input capacitors. One of the applications of such a converter
is in fuel-cell hybrid systems with energy storage for use in
telecommunication sub-stations.
full bridges whose inputs are connected to dc voltage ports
through series inductors. The outputs are connected to three
separate transformers whose secondary are configured in
delta, with high frequency capacitors in parallel to each
transformer secondary. Input port currents are dc due to the
presence of inductor at the input side as shown in Fig. 1. The
following section presents the steady state and dynamic
analysis of the converter.

I. INTRODUCTION
Future power conversion systems need to be interfaced with
alternative energy sources such as fuel cells, photovoltaics,
along with energy storage devices such as batteries,
supercapacitors. Multi-port dc-dc converter addresses the
need for such a system. It is a single converter combining
several sources with centralized control of power flow. It
eliminates several power conversion stages used in
conventional systems and hence reducing the cost and size of
the system. Various topologies of such a converter have been Figure 1: Current-fed bi-directional three-port dc-dc converter
suggested in literature [1-5]. Michon et al [1] have introduced
a voltage-fed three-port converter using a single three winding II. ANALYSIS
transformer. The circuit uses an extension of the bi-directional
The equivalent circuit for analysis can be reduced to three
dual active bridge converter [2]. The converter has the
phase-shifted square-wave current sources derived from input
advantages of reduced size, fast response but high input
dc current, supplying to capacitors connected in delta, with
current ripple and hence the need for input side filter
transformers as isolation. The equivalent circuit is shown in
capacitors. H. Tao et al [3] have introduced a family of multi-
Fig. 2. The phase shifts ij12 and ij13 are defined as in Fig. 1.
port converters using a combination of DC link and magnetic
Since the capacitors are connected in delta, the sum of the
coupling. A control strategy for centralized power flow
voltages across all the secondaries is zero.
control has also been proposed in [3]. Two other circuits
The star equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2 can be used to
without bi-directional power flow capability have also been
calculate the power flow between ports [1].
proposed such as the multiple-input buck-boost converter [4]
and the multi-input dc-dc converter based on the multiwinding n1n3 I1I 3 § I · n1n2 I 2 I1 § I ·
P13 I13 ¨1  13 ¸ P21 I21 ¨1  21 ¸
transformer [5]. The need for bi-directional power flow arises ZC1' © S ¹ ZC2' © S ¹
from the usage of battery as energy storage. The battery can n2 n3 I 2 I 3 § I ·
P32 I32 ¨1  32 ¸ (1)
be charged from one of the sources or from the load as in ZC3' © S ¹
regenerative braking. In this paper a current-fed three-port
dc-dc converter is proposed which has bi-directional power Under dc steady state since the average of the voltage
flow capability, isolation and reduced input current ripple. across the series inductor is zero, the average voltage that
The converter extends the concept of inverse dual converters appears at the input of the active bridges can be equated to the
[6] to a three port case. port voltage. From (1) the power drawn from the input ports
The current-fed three-port bi-directional dc-dc converter is and the power delivered to the load (2) can be calculated. The
shown in Fig. 1. It is a dual of the voltage-fed converter output voltage and the source side port currents are derived
proposed in [1]. The converter circuit consists of three active using (1) and (2). The resulting equations (3-5) are a function

978-1-4244-1628-8/07/$25.00 ©2007 IEEE 523

of known variables such as the input source voltages, phase shifts can be varied to supply the load power and the
capacitor values and turns ratio of the transformers. battery side full bridge can be switched off or allowed to free-
n1 : 1 n1 : 1 wheel the reflected current. The load voltage in (2) can
I1 theoretically reach infinity when phase shift ij12 tends towards
I1 C 1'
C1 zero, but parasitic resistances limit its magnitude. The turns
ratio of the three high frequency transformers can also be used
to vary the voltage step-up ratios.
n2 : 1 n2 : 1
I2 I2
C2 C 2'

n3 : 1 n3 : 1

I3 I3
C3 C 3'

Figure 2: Equivalent circuit for analysis (a) Delta equivalent and (b) Star
equivalent

n1n3 I 3 I1 § I · nnI I § I ·
Po Vo I o I13 ¨1  13 ¸  2 3 2' 3 I23 ¨1  23 ¸ (2)
ZC1' © S ¹ Z C3 © S ¹
ª º
'
C n1n2 « V1« § I · V2 § I · »
2 23 13 »
V3 I23 ¨ 1  ¸  I13 ¨ 1  ¸ (3)
§ I · « C' © S ¹ C1' © S ¹»
I12 ¨1  12 ¸ « 3 »
© S ¹ ¬ n2 n3 n1n3 ¼
n1n3V3 § I13 ·
V1  I13 ¨1  ¸
Z RC1'
© S ¹
I2 (4)
n1n2 § I ·
I 1  12 ¸
' 12 ¨
Z C2 © S ¹
n2 n3V3 § I ·
V2  I 1  23 ¸
' 23 ¨
Z RC3 © S ¹
I1 (5)
n1n2 § I12 ·
I ¨1  ¸
ZC2' 12 © S ¹
where C1' , C2' , C3' are star equivalent of C1 , C2 , C3

The load voltage V3 (3) is independent of the load

resistance R, and hence theoretically the output voltage Figure 3: Power plot in p.u. under varying ij12 for two loads 1 p.u. and 0.4 p.u.
remains constant for load variations. In the practical circuit, (a) Power output (b) Source 1 power output (c) Source 2 power output
the parasitic resistances and the mosfet rds(on) will contribute to
a drop in voltage as load increases. The above analysis is done in dc steady state. To derive the
A plot of the output power delivered in per unit for averaged model, the average voltage over one switching cycle
variations in ij12 under constant ij13 is shown in Fig. 3. The at the input of the active bridges can be calculated. At low
operating point of 1 p.u. output voltage under full load is bandwidths, the dynamics of the voltage across the high
shown. When the load decreases to 0.4 p.u. the power from frequency capacitors can be ignored and the resulting
source 2 remains almost constant and the power from source 1 averaged model has only the port currents and output voltage
goes negative. This happens at the same phase shifts as in full as state variables. The averaged dynamic model given in (6) is
load. Thus when source 1 is chosen as battery port and source derived in Appendix.
2 as fuel cell port, the power from fuel cell under low loads
can be used to charge the battery. The high frequency x Ax  Bu (6)
T T
capacitors and turns ratio are appropriately chosen to make x ª¬ i1 i2 i3 vo º¼ ; u >V1 V2 @
use of the above characteristic. A small signal model is derived for perturbations in the
The battery charging current is dc due to the input side load and phase shifts around the operating point. The resulting
inductor. When the battery no longer needs charging, the

524
small signal model is given in the Appendix. This model is simulation for a small perturbation in the load is shown in Fig.
used in controller design in closed loop operation. 6 to verify the small signal model (7). Closed loop simulation
to control fuel cell power and output voltage for the same
perturbation in load is shown in Fig. 7. The control method
III. SIMULATION RESULTS
suggested in [3] is used here with two PI control loops
Source 1 is chosen as the battery port with voltage input as designed from small signal model (7).
40V and Source 2 as the fuel cell port with voltage input as
50V. The turns ratio and high frequency capacitor values were
chosen using (1-5) for a load of 500W at voltage 200V. The
control variables are the phase shifts ij12 and ij13. The switched
circuit model is simulated in Saber. Fig. 4 shows the typical
square wave current waveforms and their phase shifts along
with the voltages across the secondaries of the transformers.
Fig. 6 shows the simulation results at reduced load when the
battery port is charging. The power drawn from fuel cell port
2 and the power delivered to the battery port 1 and the load
are shown with their average values. Note the change in the
direction of the battery port power. It is also to be observed
that the battery charging current is dc.

Figure 6: Response of Port 2 power and Load voltage for a step decrease in
load by 10%.

Figure 4: Transformer secondary voltages and square wave current sources I1,
I2 and I3 at 1 p.u. load

Figure 7: Response of Port 2 power and Load voltage for a step decrease in
load by 10% under closed loop

A low power and low output voltage hardware prototype of

Figure 5: Port power at reduced load of 0.4 p.u.
The dynamic equations (6) are modeled in Simulink. The
control objectives for the three-port converter are constant
output voltage and constant port 2 power (fuel cell)
irrespective of load and port voltage variations. Open loop
the three port converter was constructed to verify the
functioning of the converter in open loop. Ideal voltage
sources have been connected to port 1 and port 2. All the
switches are realized as unidirectional current switches except
battery side converter which has four quadrant switches. Fig.
8 shows the square wave current drawn from the battery side

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and the voltage across the transformer with half the rated ª R1 n1n2 ' nn º
« L  I12  1 3 ' I13' 0 »
input voltages. Fig. 9 shows the rectified voltage at the output 1 L1ZC2' L1ZC1 ª1 º
« » 0»
of the converter which when filtered gives the average output « n1n2 ' R nn » «L
voltage of 55V. « I
' 12
 2  2 3 ' I23' 0 » « 1 »
« L2ZC2 L2 L2ZC3 »B « 1»
A «0 » (7)
« n1n3 ' n2 n3 ' R3 1 » « L2 »
« I
' 13
I23   »
« L3ZC1 L3ZC3' L3 L3 » «0 0 »
« « »
1 1 » «¬0 0 »¼
« 0 0  »
¬« C4 RC4 ¼»
§ I12 · § I13 · § I23 ·
I12' I12 ¨1  ¸; I13' I13 ¨1  ¸; I23' I23 ¨ 1  ¸
© S ¹ © S ¹ © S ¹

The small signal perturbations are defined as,

x X  x I12 I12 n  I12 I13 I12 n  I13 i3 i3  i3
Ignoring the second order terms the small signal model can
be derived as,
Figure 8: Square wave current (5A/div) drawn from port 1 and voltage across x Ax  f1I  f 2i3 (8)
the secondary of port 1 transformer.
ª n1n3 nn º
«- L ZC ' X 3 K13 - 1 2 ' X 2 K12 »
1 1 L1ZC2
« »
« n2 n3 n2 n3 nn »
«- '
X 3 K 23 '
X 3 K 23  1 2 ' X 1K12 »
f1 L
« 2 3 Z C L 2Z C 3 L 2ZC2 » (9)
« n1n3 nn nn »
« '
X 1K13  2 3 ' X 2 K 23 - 2 3 ' X 2 K 23 »
« L3ZC1 L3ZC3 L3ZC3 »
« 0 0 »
¬ ¼
ª0 º
«0 »
« »;K § 2 I13 n · § 2 I23 n · § 2 I12 n ·
f2 1 ¸ ; K 23 ¨1  ¸ ; K12 ¨1 
«0 » 13 ¨© S ¹ © S ¹ © S ¹
¸
« »
¬1 C4 ¼

Figure 9: Rectified voltage at port 3 (Load) and voltage across the secondary
of port 1 transformer (bold lines).
IV. CONCLUSION
A current-fed bi-directional three-port converter is
proposed in this paper. Analysis of the converter shows that
the output voltage is independent of the load. The converter
has the advantages of low ripple at the port currents and easy
charging of the battery under light load conditions. Simulation
of the converter under steady state and dynamic operation are
presented. Low power hardware results are also presented.
High power operation under closed loop is part of further
research in this project.
APPENDIX
The A and B matrices in (6) are given by,
REFERENCES
[1] M. Michon, J.L. Duarte, M. Hendrix and M. Godoy Simoes, “A three-port
bi-directional converter for hybrid fuel cell systems,” Proc IEEE Power
Electronic Specialists Conference (PESC), Aachen, Germany, June 2004,
pp. 4736-4742.
[2] M.H. Kheraluwala, R.W. Gascoigne, D.M Divan and Eric D. Baumann,
“Performance Characterization of a High-Power Dual Active Bridge dc-
to-dc Converter,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 28,
No. 6, November 1992, pp. 1294-1300.
[3] H. Tao, A. Kotsopoulos, J.L. Duarte and M.A.M. Hendrix, “Family of
multiport bidirectional DC-DC converters,” IEE Proc.-Electr. Power
Appl., Vol. 153, No. 3, May 2006.
[4] Bryan G. Dobbs and Patrick L. Chapman, “A Multiple-Input DC-DC
Converter Topology,” IEEE Power Electronics Letters Vol. 1, No. 1,
March 2003, pp. 6-9.
[5] Yaow-Ming Chen, Yuan-Chuan and Feng-Yu Wu, “Multi-Input DC/DC
Converter Based on the Multiwinding Transformer for Renewable Energy
Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 38, No.
4, July/August 2002, pp. 1096-1104.
[6] M. Ehsani, Iqbal Husain and M. Oruc Bilgic, “Inverse Dual Converter
(IDC) for High-Power DC-DC Applications,” IEEE Transactions on
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