High-Gain Multiplier Cuk Converter for Photovoltaic Applications

In this work, a multiplier Cuk converter is developed to achieve high- gain short of extreme duty cycle. The high gain achieved from this converter can be employed in photovoltaic applications. This converter can also be used as an intermediate stage to step up the low voltage obtained from solar panel or fuel cells and can link the boosted voltage to the inverter for high power applications. This converter integrates Cuk converter with Cockcroft–Walton multiplier which helps to achieve high gain at low duty cycles. N-stages of multiplier Cuk converter require 1 switch, 2 inductors, 2N-1 diodes, and 2N capacitors. The advantages of proposed converter are: high gain without extreme duty cycles; transformer-less, so can be operated at higher frequencies without leakage losses; switch experiences less voltage stress; continuous input and output current which eliminates the requirement of filters at both the input and output sides; the capacitors in the N-stages are equally charged, so they can be DC-source input to the multilevel inverters; modularity can help to reduce time to market during manufacturing just by adding more stages without disturbing main circuit. The converter circuit is simulated in PSPICE software and hardware is also tested which helps to meet the features described for the proposed converter.