A driver IC for photovoltaic module-integrated DC/DC converters

Author

Doorn, T.S. ; Bergveld, H.J. ; Büthker, D. ; Castello, C. ; de Jong, A. ; van Otten, R. ; de Waal, K. ; van Ansem, T. ; Dijkstra, M. ; Keekstra, I. ; Sneep, J.

Author_Institution

Central R&D, NXP Semicond., Eindhoven, Netherlands

fYear

2012

fDate

3-7 June 2012

Firstpage

57

Lastpage

60

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) installations suffer from a disproportional decrease in output power in case irradiance differences are present in the system. The Delta converter improves the output power in such cases by routing current differences around the shaded substring or module. This paper presents a driver IC for the Delta converter that simultaneously reduces its cost and improves its reliability. The driver IC integrates the complete control loop, power supplies, protections and references. The driver IC demonstrated trouble-free operation for 3 months under real-life conditions in a PV installation with different shading patterns. Depending on the shading pattern the Delta converter energy gain was 8%-18%.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; driver circuits; integrated circuit reliability; PV installations; control loop; delta converter energy; driver IC; photovoltaic module-integrated DC-DC converters; power supplies; reliability; routing current; shaded substring; trouble-free operation; DC-DC power converters; Integrated circuits; Photovoltaic systems; Power supplies; Reliability; Voltage control; DC/DC conversion; Delta converter; PV; Photovoltaic; power optimizer; solar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD), 2012 24th International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Bruges

ISSN

1943-653X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1594-5

Electronic_ISBN

1943-653X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISPSD.2012.6229022

Filename

6229022