Bi-directional DC to DC converters for fuel cell systems

This paper first describes the need of a bi-directional DC to DC converter for a fuel cell system. Various combinations of current-fed and voltage-fed converters are explored for the application of different voltage levels. With a preliminary study, putting current-fed on low-voltage side and voltage fed on high voltage side indicated higher efficiency than the other way around. Two low-side circuit topologies were then selected for hardware implementation. One is the L-type half-bridge current-fed converter, and the other is full-bridge current-fed converter. The high-side circuit topology is fixed with a full-bridge voltage-fed converter. Two systems were built and tested to full power. The results indicate that the combination with the full-bridge converter on the low-voltage side is more efficient than the combination with the L-type half-bridge converter on the low-voltage side for both charging and discharging modes