A study of fuel cell Z-source boost converter: Considerations on design and implementation

A parameter estimation of a fuel cell Z-source boost converter (FC-ZBC) based on the energy transfer in Z-components is proposed. The interrelation of ripple current in Z-inductor and the voltage droop in Z-capacitor dependent on the output power need is actually the major pillars of the system performance. In addition, the significant issue is the huge conduction current through the power switch in shoot-through state, which may deteriorate the power efficiency of FC-ZBC. In this paper, three kinds of conduction modes, DCM, BCM, and CCM in FC-ZBC are respectively examined to estimate appropriate Z-inductor and Z-capacitor well featuring the FC-ZBC performance. A design example with the estimated parameters shows quite well performance in experiment and meets the proposed design approach in practice.