Dual-input DC-DC power converter for solar battery charger

In this paper, a new solar battery charger is proposed. The solar battery charger is composed of two solar modules and a dual-input DC-DC power converter. The two solar modules are connected to the dual input ports of dual-input DC-DC power converter, and the output of dual-input DC-DC power converter is connected to a battery set. The operation of dual-input DC-DC power converter is divided into two modes. One is the switched series/parallel operation of solar modules, and the other is the parallel operation of solar modules. The salient feature of the proposed solar battery charger is that the voltage change in every switching operation is reduced. Hence the passive elements of dual-input DC-DC power converter can be reduced. To verify the performance of the proposed solar battery charger, a prototype is developed and tested. The experimental results show that the proposed solar battery charger has the expected performance.