Analysis of Buck-Boost Converters for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

For the power converters of fuel cell electric vehicles, there is a great need for less component stress, smaller component size and higher efficiency. The paper presents a typical configuration of FCEV powertrains, and proposes a novel buck-boost cascaded topology for high power applications. It offers better performance compared with the single-switch buck-boost converters, such as buck-boost, CUK, Zeta, SEPIC circuit. Also, the operating principles and the parameters of the buck-boost cascaded converter are analyzed. The simulation results show that the converter has excellent electrical characteristics, and is suitable for FCEV applications.