Reconfigurable Nonisolated DC–DC Converter With Fault-Tolerant Capability
John Long Soon, Dylan Dah‐Chuan Lu, Jimmy Chih‐Hsien Peng, Weidong Xiao
Abstract
Malfunction of power semiconductor switches is the dominant cause of failure in power electronic converters. This article proposes a novel dual-switch dc-dc topology for high-reliability applications. The proposed converter is fault tolerant and supports operation under both step-down and step-up modes. The proposed topology can be reconfigured automatically under various switch-fault conditions in order to maintain normal operation. This is enabled by an affine-parametrization-based control design, which minimizes the transient impact of the faults. The reliability performance of the proposed converter is evaluated theoretically using a Markov model, demonstrating its superiority over conventional topologies. Finally, a laboratory prototype is developed and tested to verify the proposed design and control performance under switch faults.