Coupled inductors design of the bidirectional non‐inverting buck–boost converter for high‐voltage applications

This work analyses the effects on the efficiency of the winding‐to‐winding capacitance of the coupled‐inductor of the bidirectional non‐inverting buck–boost converter in high‐voltage applications. This converter presents many advantages that make it suitable for low‐voltage hard‐switching photovoltaic and fuel cell hybrid systems. However, experimental results obtained using the previously reported procedure to implement the coupled inductors show low‐efficiency in high‐voltage applications. A different implementation procedure of the coupled inductors, with lower winding‐to‐winding capacitance, is proposed. High‐efficiency experimental results from a 400 V 1.6 kW prototype have been achieved over a wide operating voltage range, thanks to the use of SiC devices and the modified coupled inductors, confirming in this way its good potential as a building block also in high‐voltage wide‐gain‐range applications.