Topology of a Three-Port Converter for High-Altitude Platforms

Abstract

Three-port converter (TPC) with non-regulated bus cannot meet the voltage stability demands of high-altitude platforms (HAPs) during daytime operations. In contrast, full-regulated bus TPC is complex in topology and inferior in power density, although it can maintain voltage stability across whole day operations. Therefore, semi-regulated bus TPCs are more suitable for this scenario, which can not only maintain voltage stability during daytime operations, but also have simple topology. However, conventional semi-regulated bus structure converts the power twice, leading to lower efficiency and power density. In order to overcome this problem, the paper proposes a novel semi-regulated bus TPC that can be used on high-altitude platforms. The topology only has one conversion between the ports. It regulates the bus voltage during the day and prevents the loss of diode during the night by directly discharging through the MOSFET and achieving high efficiency. The paper adopts GaN devices to elevate the working frequency to further improve the power density, and conduct a theoretical analysis for all working modes and provide key equations. The closed-loop transfer function of the system is deduced for stability analysis. The results show that the proposed topology has high efficiency and power density.INDEX TERMS Aerospace vehicles, Boost, High efficiency, Semi-regulated bus, Three-port converter.