Zeta/Flyback Hybrid Converter for Solar Power Applications

This paper presents a zeta/flyback hybrid converter with a PV array as its power source for an LED street light or digital signage application. When the PV array is used in a LED lighting system, it needs a battery charger and discharger. In order to increase the areas of application for different PV arrays, a zeta converter has been adopted as the battery charger. In addition, since a flyback converter has a simpler circuit, it is used as the battery discharger. Due to the leakage inductor of the transformer in the flyback converter, an active clamp circuit is used to recover the energy stored in leakage inductance. Zeta and flyback converters use switch integration techniques to form the proposed zeta/flyback hybrid converter. With this approach, the proposed system has less components, a lighter weight, a smaller size, and higher conversion efficiency. Finally, a prototype of the proposed hybrid converter with an output voltage of 12 V and output power of 50 W has been implemented to verify its feasibility. It is suitable for LED lighting system applications.