Non-isolated Multiport DC/DC Converters: Applications, Challenges, and Solutions

This paper presents an overview of different aspects of non-isolated Multiport Converters (MPCs). A systematic converter circuit derivation tool based on power flow graphs is presented. It assists power electronic engineers and researchers in creating and identifying multiport converter topologies that are more reliable and less complex. Then, major challenges with MPCs and some solutions are presented. These challenges are power-sharing and cross-regulation issues, limited or range-reduced operation modes, heavy computational burden and sensor requirement, and multi-parametric optimization and compromises. Reliability of MPCs and how component stress translates into failure calculations are discussed, followed by the Fault Tolerance (FT) feature to increase the reliability of MPCs.