A high efficiency step-up DC-DC converter for thermoelectric generator with wide input voltage range

Abstract

The thermoelectric generator (TEG) system is a dc power source based on Seebeck effect of TEG modules, which utilize the temperature difference between the hot side and the cold side to generate electric power. The output voltage of the TEG system is highly dependent on the temperature difference between the two sides of the thermoelectric modules and varies with a wide range. In this paper, a step-up DC-DC converter with wide input voltage range, low input current ripple for TEG application is developed. A two-stage cascade Boost converter topology is used to fulfill the requirement of wide input voltage range, which consists of input stage and output stage. A new control strategy is proposed to achieve lower input current ripple and improve the conversion efficiency by coordinating the operations of input stage and output stage. Experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.