An interleaved buck converter with reduced reverse-recovery problems

An interleaved buck converter with low conduction losses and reduced diode reverse-recovery problems is proposed in this paper. The circuit consists of two interleaved buck converters with one coupled inductor for each phase, operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM). Zero-current switching (ZCS) condition duting turn-on transitions and significant reduction of the losses associated with diode reverse recovery are accomplished through the coupled inductors. The two phases operate in out of phase mode. Thus, the input and output currents can be continuous with low ripple. Constant frequency operation with low switching losses and low output current ripple is very suitable for the realization of battery chargers in standalone PV applications. The operating principle of the proposed converter are presented in detail. Finally, an 400 W, 100 kHz experimental prototype was built to verify the theoretical analysis and feasibility of the proposed converter, with the efficiency up to 94.5 %.