Abstract
The paper analyzes and reports the performance of two isolated, bidirectional dc-dc converter topologies, namely, the dual active-bridge converter (DAB) and the interleaved boost with coupled inductors (IBCI). A modulation principle applicable to both the topologies is also proposed and reported. The considered topologies find natural application in smart dc power systems integrating renewables and energy storage systems, for which loss minimization is crucial. It is shown that the proposed modulation scheme, on the basis of simple converters modeling, allows to ease zero-voltage switching (ZVS) operation of the switching devices, giving significant efficiency improvements. The reported results show that ZVS operation is easier to achieve for the IBCI, which is associated to better overall efficiencies. Experimental results under equivalent modeling accuracies and comparable hardware platforms are reported considering prototypes rated for 1.5kW.