Advances in Engineering Advances in Engineering features breaking research judged by Advances in Engineering advisory team to be of key importance in the Engineering field. Papers are selected from over 10,000 published each week from most peer reviewed journals.
Journal of Electronic Materials, January 2015.
Hyunbin Park, Minseob Sim, Shiho Kim.
School of Integrated Technology, and YICT, Yonsei University, 85 Songdo-Gwahak-Ro, 406-840, Incheon, Korea.
Abstract
We propose a way of achieving maximum power and power-transfer efficiency from thermoelectric generators by optimized selection of maximum-power-point-tracking (MPPT) circuits composed of a boost-cascaded-with-buck converter. We investigated the effect of switch resistance on the MPPT performance of thermoelectric generators. The on-resistances of the switches affect the decrease in the conversion gain and reduce the maximum output power obtainable. Although the incremental values of the switch resistances are small, the resulting difference in the maximum duty ratio between the input and output powers is significant. For an MPPT controller composed of a boost converter with a practical nonideal switch, we need to monitor the output power instead of the input power to track the maximum power point of the thermoelectric generator. We provide a design strategy for MPPT controllers by considering the compromise in which a decrease in switch resistance causes an increase in the parasitic capacitance of the switch.
Significant statements.
A design strategy for MPPT(Maximum Power Point Tracking) controllers by considering the trade-off relationship between the on-resistance and the parasitic capacitance is provided. Moreover, an equation representing the maximum output power at the MPP was derived, which can be used as a design criterion for choosing a power MOSFET. The recommended way to design and optimize control of the MPPT technique is as follows:
Choosing a power switch having on-resistance as small as possible, while considering the trade-off between the on-resistance and the parasitic capacitance of a switching device; Tracking the maximum power at the output port instead of input power, and Considering the design criterion to guarantee the minimum output power loss at the Maximum Power Point of a thermoelectric generator.
