High Efficient Interleaved Multi-channel dc/dc Converter Dedicated to Mobile Applications

In the transportation field, the empty weight of the vehicle has to be as light as possible in order to have the highest energetic efficiency. For onboard storage electrical systems, dc/dc converters are usually used to control the power flows in the vehicle. This paper will focus on two different dc/dc converter applications: high current / low voltage on the one hand and low current / high voltage on the other hand. For all power mobile applications, a standard dc/dc converter is not realizable due to mass and volume constraints. As the inductor is usually the biggest and heaviest component in the system, it is important to develop a new structure allowing the reduction of its size and weight. The chosen technology is based on interleaved channels operating in discontinuous mode, also using reverse conduction of power mosfet transistors. For both of the cases described above, a prototype has been built composed of 8 and 4 channels respectively. The first converter is used for power assistance (250 A / 18 V) using the MOS reverse conduction property. In this particular case, efficiency is up to 96.3 %. The second is developed for a mobile solar application (3.8 A / 270 V). Efficiencies are up to 98.4 %.