Online Fault Diagnosis Method for High-Performance Converters Using Inductor Voltage Polar Signatures

Recently, the high-performance converter with wide range and high gain has been widely used in these cases such as PV power generation. On the other hand, there are more highly variable stresses on switch and diode in high-performance converter than the traditional DC-DC converters due to the wide range and high gain. Therefore, it is necessary to diagnose switch and diode faults in high-performance converter. In this paper, the switch and diode fault are analyzed and compared with traditional DC-DC converters. Then, an online diagnosis technique based on the inductor voltage polarity of the DC-DC converter is proposed. This technique only uses the inductor voltage polarity and the switch gate drive signal as signatures to diagnose short-circuit or open-circuit fault of the switch and diode. The technique is cost-effective and simple because it uses simple auxiliary windings to sense the inductor voltage polar and uses some logic circuit to generate indicators. The details of the technique are discussed through an example of the quadratic Boost converter. Experiments illustrate the correctness of the proposed technique and show its capability for switch and diode fault diagnosis.