Design of a Single-Switch DC-DC Converter for

PV-Battery Powered Pump System

Le An and Dylan Dah-Chuan Lu
School of Electrical and Information Engineering
The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Email: le.an@sydney.edu.au

Abstract-A single-switch non-isolated DC-DC converter for a

PV-battery powered pump system is proposed in this paper. The
converter is formed by combining a buck converter with a buck
boost converter. This integration also resulted in reduced repeated
power processing, hence improving the conversion efficiency. The
converter is able to perform maximum power point tracking, and
battery charging and to drive the pump, on the condition that the
pump can be operated without precise speed requirements. The
battery in the converter provides a more steady DC-link voltage
as compared to that of a conventional single-stage converter.
Experimental results of a 14W laboratory prototype converter
confirmed the performance of the proposed converter when used
in a PV-battery-pump system.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Due to the drastic increase of global energy demand and

rapid consumption of conventional fossil fuel resource, solar
energy has become one of the more popular renewable en
ergies. Among the various applications of photovoltaic tech
nology, a PV-battery powered pump system can be utilized
in many areas such as urban street watering and rural farm
irrigation [1], [2]. For these applications the motor does not
need to run at a precise speed. A rechargeable battery is usually
used in the system to balance the energy discrepancy between
generated energy of PV module and load demand during
different insolation conditions. To fulfill the requirement of
tracking the maximum power point (MPP) of a PV array,
charging/discharging the battery and controlling the loads,
conventional design uses cascaded converters approach [3].
The power dissipated in individual component of these cascade
converters, however, accumulates during energy transmitted
from one stage to another since the power is repeatedly
processed [4]. Moreover, a high number of power switches
usually indicates high converter cost and physical size.
To reduce the power loss due to repeated power processing,
[5] introduced a parallel connected MPPT system which allows
the input power to be transmitted directly to the battery and
load due to the shunt connection between MPPT function
circuit and main power circuit. This approach reduces the
power loss but two switches and associated MOSFET driving
and control circuits are needed. On the other hand, much
research has been done on combining the cascaded power
stages together to form a single-stage converter. The number
of active switches like MOSFETs is reduced by sharing a
single switch for different current paths [6]. This single-switch
converter (SSC) technology is well developed in AC-DC and

978-1-4799-0073-2/13/$31.00 2013

IEEE

inverter domains. The authors in [7] proposed a novel topology

based on a flyback converter for AC-DC conversion. A design
based on the integrated buck-flyback topology [8] was applied
to the power factor correction (PFC) AC-DC converter [9]. A
single-stage single-switch electronic ballast was introduced in
[10] for fluorescent lamps. The authors integrated a SEPIC
power factor corrector into a single-switch current-fed resonant
inverter to simplify the gate-drive circuit and improve the
power factor. In [11] it showed a single-stage double buck
boost based converter for driving LED lamps. Although these
SSCs are well suited for different applications, the voltage
stress problem on the DC-link capacitor, as a result of sharing
the same switch, has not been resolved [12].
In [13], the authors proposed a single-stage converter with a
fuzzy-logic controller applied to a PV-battery powered lighting
system. The converter is formed by combining a buck-boost
DC-DC converter with a class-D series resonant paralleled
loaded inverter. Even though this proves the perspective of
SSCs in the PV system, the voltage stress on the DC-link
capacitor remains a concern due to its uncontrolled voltage.
To solve the voltage stress problem, this paper proposes using
a battery not only to serve as a storage element but also to
provide a relatively constant DC-link voltage. Additionally,
another main drawback that limits the development of SSCs
and bounds their power level to low power range is the current
stress in the converter when one or more active switches
are simplified, so that current from multiple sources flows
into the same switch simultaneously as mentioned in [14].
This restriction, however, recedes gradually as the progress in
microelectronic manufactory technology continues to reduce
the MOSFET turn-on resistance. Therefore, the single-stage
single-switch converter design approach is reconsidered here
for the DC-DC PV application.
The proposed circuit and principle of operation is described
in Section II. A design example is given in Section III with
detailed analysis. Finally, experiment results are illustrated
in Section IV, followed by the conclusion for the proposed
converter system in Section V.
II.
A.

OPERATION PRINCIPLE

Circuit Description

The proposed single-stage single-switch converter, shown

in Fig. 1, is derived through integration of a buck converter
into a buck-boost converter which is connected in series. It

359

(al

Fig. 1. Proposed single-switch DC-DC converter based on buck and buck

boost converter.

consists of an input inductor L1 for charging the battery

and MPPT, a rechargeable battery VB to balance the input
and output power, a capacitor C1 to absorb the AC current
ripple of the battery, an output inductor L2 to realize reduced
repeated power processing and supply the load, which is a
DC pump in this application, a power switch S, four diodes
(D1 to D4) and an output capacitor C2. iBe denotes for the
total current flowing out of the battery and capacitor C1. The
battery charging or discharging current contributes to the DC
component of iBe whereas the AC component of iBe goes
into the capacitor C1. Switch S provides current paths for
both the battery charging/discharging current and the current
from the PV source during the ON period. Diodes D1 and D3
provide current paths of negative iBe for different operation
periods while diode D2 serves as a path for positive iBe.
Diode D4 links the energy to the load from inductor L2.
B.

(bl

(c)

Circuit Operation

To simplify the analysis of the operation, It IS assumed

that both the PV module and battery are constant DC voltage
sources. The capacitance of C2 is large enough so that the
output voltage ripple is negligible and the output can be treated
as a constant DC voltage source as well. All the semiconductor
devices are assumed to be ideal. The input buck inductor
L1 works in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM), whereas
the output buck-boost inductor L2 operates in continuous
conduction mode (CCM). The detail design is illustrated in
Section III.
To explain the working principle of the converter, the circuit
operation stages and current flowing paths in one switching
period are shown in Fig. 2, whereas Fig. 3 gives the key
waveforms for two switching cycles. During the steady state,
the converter shows four distinctive operation modes.
Mode 1 (To-Td: When switch S is closed, the operation
stage is illustrated in Fig. 2 (a). During this stage, diodes
D1, D3 and D4 are reversed biased and diode D2 is forward
biased. The input inductor L1 is charged up by PV source v'n
with a slope of

diLl
dt

(1)

Current iBe is positive and flows to inductor L2 through S

PV

(d)
Fig. 2. Four operation stages of the proposed SSC during one switching
period: (al Mode 1 (To-TIl. (bl Mode 2 (TI-T2l. (c) Mode 3 (T2-T3). (d)
Mode 4 (T3-T4).

and D2. The inductor L2 is charged up with a slope of

diL2
dt

VB
L2

(2)

In this mode, direct power transfer is automatically

achieved. The current waveform of -iL2 in Fig. 3 illustrates
that the amount of inductor current iL2 equals the summation
of inductor current -iLl and iBC<
(3)
The current from the PV source directly flows into output
stage inductor L2 through L1 without passing the battery and
capacitor C1. That indicates the input power flows to the
output stage without being processed by the input stage.
Mode 2 (TrT2): This mode happens when the inductor
current iLl is larger than iL2 during the switch S is closed as

360

TABLE I
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CONVERTER SYSTEM

Input
Source
Voltage at MPP
Current MPP

Output
PY Array
17.3V
O.8IA

Load
Voltage
Current
Power

DC Water Pump
I2-17V
O.S8-0.82A
7-14W

iL1,peak is larger than iL2,peak. For other designs this mode

may not necessarily occur.
Mode 3 (T2-T3): Mode 3 starts when switch S is turned off.
The operation stage is illustrated in Fig. 2 (c). Diode D2 and
D3 are reversed biased and inductor L1 discharges its stored
energy to battery and capacitor C1 through diode D1. Inductor
L2 begins to release its stored energy in previous stages to the
output capacitor C2 and the pump load through diode D4. The
downslope of inductor current 'iLl is
diLl
dt

- VB
L1

(7)

whereas the downslope ofiL2 is

diL2
dt

- Va
L2

(8)

Mode 4 (T3-T4): During this period, switch S is off and the

input inductor L1 is reset. The operation stage is illustrated in
Fig. 2 (d). Inductor L2 continues to discharge the rest of the
energy to the output capacitor C2 and the pump load through
diode D4 until the next switching period. The discharging
slope of L2 is the same as (8).

III.

Fig. 3. Key waveforms of the proposed SSC during two switching periods.

in Fig. 2 (b). The extra energy from PV source Yin charges

the battery and the capacitor C1 and henceiBc is reversed.
Diode D3 starts to provide the path for the negativeiBc at
this stage while Diode D2 is reversed biased. The condition
for this stage to occur is

'iL1,peak

>

'iL2,peak

(4)

Currents of the two inductors reach the peak at point T2 when

switch is just turned off, as shown in (5) and (6). h2 is the
average inductor current of L2. During the first two modes of
operation, the load is supplied by the discharging current of
the output capacitor C2

.
l'L1,peak

(Yin
=

VB) DTs
L1

DESIGN EXAMPLE

The input and output specifications of the converter are

listed in Table I. Since the maximum output power of the pro
posed topology is limited by the design of individual devices in
the converter, the magnetic material and semiconductor ratings
are chosen to meet the requirements of the specific application
in Table I. A switching frequency of 100kHz is used here to
balance the conduction loss, switching loss and the limit of
hardware.
A.

Design of MPPT control

For the sake of testing the viability of the topology,

constant voltage control method is chosen to maintain the
input operation point at or near the maximum power point.
The control logic is illustrated in Fig. 4. The input voltage
is sensed by a voltage divider and fed forward to the error
amplifier. The error output Ve is then compared with the
voltage ramp to produce the PWM signal for the gate drive
circuit.

(5)
B.

(6)
In this design, inductance L1 is much smaller than L2 and
it results in a larger slope in (1) as compared to (2). Hence

Design of inductors

Since the battery is paralleled with the intermediate ca

pacitor C1 to alleviate the DC-link voltage stress problem,
the key parameter design for this DC-DC converter are the
inductance values. Inductance determines the operation mode

361

......
0.9

.....

CCM
=

151/

Yin

171/

l.:n

201/

......
......

Fig. 4.

10

Block diagram of MPPT control scheme for the proposed converter.

'iL1,peakTS
2Ts

>

IL1.max

25

20

30

(a)

of the converter, i.e. whether or not the inductor current is

running in CCM or DCM. For this application, inductance L1
is chosen such that the input stage operates in DCM whereas
the value of L2 should guarantee that the output inductor
current is in CCM.
For the front buck stage, the inductor current iLl should
be limited to the DCM-BCM boundary when the maximum
power happens. This condition is given by

15

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0.9

,
,
0.8 '
,
,
,
0.7
,
,
,
0.6
,
D

CCM
Vn
,

0.5

12V

(9)

IL1,max is the average current of L1 for the maximum output

pOWer. iL1,peak can be obtained from (5). After the deduction
of the inequality, the maximum value of L1 is given by
(b)

(10)

Fig. 5.

Converter duty cycle characteristics with different output power: (a)

Duty cycle as a function of output power for inductor

Ll

assuming constant

battery voltage. (b) Duty cycle as a function of output power for inductor

For the output buck-boost stage, L2 should limit current

above the CCM-BCM boundary when the minimum output
power reaches. This condition is given by

iL2,peak (1- D)Ts

2Ts

<

Io,min

(11)

Ia,min is the average output current for the minimum output

power. 'iL2,peak can be obtained from (6) when current reaches
the CCM-DCM boundary. The minimum inductance of the
second inductor is

C. Duty cycle selection

Since it is desired to set inductor L1 working in DCM while
inductor L2 working in CCM, the duty cycle of MOSFET
S has to be within a range when shared by the two stages.
According to the DCM/CCM boundaries in Fig. 5, for a PV
input voltage of 17.3V and battery voltage of 12V, the normal
working power of 12W is within of the range of 4W-15W to
satisfy the design. The working duty cycle is designed to be
adjusted between 0.5 and 0.7.

(12)
The input and output stage converter characteristics with
dilferent output power levels are illustrated in Fig. 5. The
inductance L1 used in Fig. 5 (a) is 15uH and the inductance
L2 used in Fig. 5 (b) is 100uH. The boundaries between DCM
and CCM of the inductors as power increases are shown in
the figures as well.

L2

assuming constant output voltage.

IV.

EXPERIMENT EVALUATION

An experimental prototype converter for linking the PV

module, battery and the water pump is built to verify the
feasibility of the design. Sharp Solar Module NE-080TlJ with
a maximum power of 80W is used as an input source to
test the converter. Four 250W halogen lamps are used to
provide the insolation for the test to be performed indoor.
Note that the power rating of the PV panel has to be higher

362

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Fig. 7. Transient response of PY input voltage when the PY panel is shaded.

MPos;20Mrn

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Key waveforms of the experimental results with 17.3V input and

output power of 14W: (al Inductor current

iL2 and the voltage Vds.

iLl

and the gate signal

Inductor current

Vgs.

(bl

than that of the system as the halogen lamps only provide

a limited amount of photons. The energy storage element
used is DiaMec DMI2V-7.2A rechargeable lead-acid battery.
A DC40-2470 26W DC Brushless Submersible Water Pump
(650LlH) works as the load to the system. SG3524N is chosen
as the PWM regulator controller to implement MPPT. For
the converter semiconductor devices, MOSFET IRFP411O PBF
is chosen since its low turn-on resistance ( Rds
37mD)
can efficiently reduce the conduction loss of the MOSFET
in a single-stage converter. Schottky barrier diode MBR10100
is used for all diodes. An input capacitance with 100uF is
paralleled with the PV input to reduce the switching noise
generated from the MOSFET. A capacitance of 220uF is used
for C1 and the output capacitance C2 used is 22uF.
=

Fig. 6 shows the key voltage and current waveform captures.

It can be seen in Fig. 6 (a) that, the inductor current iLl
works in discontinuous region while iL2 in continuous region
in Fig. 6 (b). Channel 2 in Fig. 6 (a) shows the switching

To achieve the MPP, Vrej in Fig. 4 is adjusted to 2.98V

to regulate the input voltage at 17.3Y. For most insolation
conditions, the regulated voltage can provide a power near the
MPP. The output voltage of the water pump varies within a
range of 12V-17V as insolation condition changes. A transient
response of the converter when suddenly reducing the inso
lation level by shading half of the PV cell is demonstrated
in Fig. 7. The PV input voltage is regulated to its original
value after the shading. Fig. 8 gives the converter efficiency for
different load conditions and shows the influence of MOSFET
turn-on resistance RDS (on) on the efficiency of the converter.
The switching loss of the converter almost keeps constant
whereas the conduction loss of components gets larger when
the load is increased, which will become more significant
for large RDS (on)' The average efficiency for the normal
operating point of the converter when using IRFP411O PBF is
around 85%. For the converter using IRF540N, the efficiency
drops about 2% when the load is increased, due to the higher
conduction loss.

V. CONCLUSION
This paper presents a design of a single-stage single-switch
DC-DC converter for the PV-battery powered water pump
system with experimental verification. With reduced number
of active switches and controls, the main functions such as
MPPT and driving the motor within certain speed range can
still be realised without sacrificing the overall efficiency as
compared to conventional two-stage design. The voltage stress
problem of the DC-link capacitor in conventional single-stage
converters is eliminated when a battery is used. Reduced re
peated power processing is achieved automatically during the
operation. It is shown that SSCs are capable of implementing
practical PV based applications.

363

Industrial Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 287-

90--------==============
___ mFP4110PBF(Rns(m,)

89

...... rTIF540N(Rns(on1

88

296,2000.
[14] D. D. C. Lu, H.-c. Iu, and V. Pjevalica, "A single-stage ac/dc converter

:l.7mSl)

with high power factor, regulated bus voltage, and output voltage;' Power

44mD)

Electronics, IEEE Transactions on, vol. 23,no. I, pp. 218-228,2008.

87
86
i)'
ijj 85

m 84
83
82
81
5

10

peW)

15

20

Fig. 8. Comparison of converter efficiency for different load conditions when

RDS(on)

of the MOSFET is changed.

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