State of-The-Art Multi-Input DC-DC Converter Topologies and their Control Techniques: A Review

Abstract

Environmental awareness and technological advancement have made renewable energy sources such as fuel cell,
solar photovoltaic (PV), wind energy an emerging research area. Power electronics converters are used as interface between
the renewable energy sources and the load unit, aimed at matching these sources with the load demand and improving the
steady-state and dynamic characteristics. Traditional method of using multiple single-input single-output dc-dc converter to
integrate several renewable energy sources, comes with challenges in controller design, poor efficiency, low power density
and increase in cost. To address these limitations, the use of an integrated multi-port converter is a preferable solution.
Recently, several multi-port dc-dc converter topologies have been reported each having its peculiarity in terms of number of
component count, relationships between input and output, voltage conversion ratio, control algorithm and efficiency. This
article reviewed multi-port dc-dc converters presented by different research groups from the point of view of topology, input
and output relation and structure. Furthermore, control algorithms proposed to solve various control problems are also
reviewed.