Design, Implementation and Reliability Assessment of a Fault-Tolerant Three-Port Converter

This article proposes a novel three-port converter with a fault-tolerant (FT) capability to reconfigure automatically under different switching fault conditions, i.e., open circuit fault (OCF) and short circuit fault (SCF) of the power transistors, and to continue achieving different control objectives such as effective battery charging, maximum power point tracking (MPPT), and output voltage regulation. The proposed fault-tolerant design with a one-level redundancy structure enhances the reliability of traditional three-port converters (TPCs). Experimental results of a laboratory prototype has proven the effectiveness of the proposed converter.