Design of a 15kW High-Efficiency and High Power Density Bidirectional TCM Buck/Boost Converter

A non-isolated buck/boost converter features bidirectional power flow capability and a wide output voltage range. The zero-voltage switching (ZVS) can be achieved under triangular current mode (TCM) operation to achieve high power density and high efficiency. Most research has been conducted on TCM control strategies or low-power applications but rarely on the design of high-power TCM buck/boost converters. In this paper, a simplified inductor design methodology for the power conversion between a common dc bus and a wide-range variable dc voltage TCM buck/boost converter is proposed. A 15kW prototype is designed to regulate the voltage from 150V-1000V from a 1.1kV dc bus. The prototype demonstrates 16.36kW/L power density and 99.81% peak efficiency.