High Density High Power DC-DC Converter Architectures for Future Electric Transportation Applications

High power DC-DC converters are critical components for future ground and air transportation applications, which are rapidly becoming more electrified with the integration of DC storage elements and renewable energy sources. It is critical for such high power converters to achieve very high power density to meet the challenging power-to-weight ratio requirements of the target applications. In recent years, many researchers have reported their works on high power DC-DC converters for different applications towards making significant progress in this emerging area. However, a thorough review and comparison of the high power capable DC-DC converter architectures in the light of achieving very high power density for transportation application is yet to be reported. In this work, a comprehensive review of current state-of-the-art non-isolated high power dc-dc converter architectures is presented and their key merits towards achieving high power density are discussed. Based on this study, two potential power converter topologies are down selected and detailed design comparisons are carried out for a common set of electrical specifications. Design guidelines are provided for selection of components to achieve high power high density converters.