Multicell Reconfigurable Multi-Input Multi-Output Energy Router Architecture

This article presents a multicell reconfigurable multi-input multi-output (MR-MIMO) power conversion architecture for multiport applications such as multisource energy router, battery balancer, and photovoltaic optimizer. The MR-MIMO architecture couples a large number of modular dc–ac cells with a single magnetic core which processes multiway bidirectional power flow. The system voltage and current ratings can be linearly extended and reconfigured by connecting the dc–ac cells in series or parallel. The MR-MIMO architecture decouples the voltage rating and current rating of the basic cells, and offers much lower device stress than traditional wide-operation range multiport dc–dc converters. The key contributions of this article include: 1) a multicell reconfigurable 12-winding MIMO converter with high performance across a wide range; 2) a hybrid time-sharing and phase-shift control strategy; and 3) a systematic method of designing multiwinding PCB transformers. The MR-MIMO architecture allows one power converter being used for multiple purposes through software reconfiguration. The work presented in this article proved that it is possible to gain significantly design flexibility in a multicell reconfigurable architecture without sacrificing the efficiency or power density. A 500-W 4-port energy router with 12 modular cells and a 12-winding transformer has been built and tested to verify the effectiveness of the proposed MR-MIMO architecture. The energy router maintains over 95% efficiency across a wide range of input and output voltage options.