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1. A High Gain DC-DC Topology Based on Two-Winding Coupled Inductors Featuring Continuous Input Current

   https://doi.org/10.1109/ECCE44975.2020.9235400  

   Mahmoudi, Mohsen; Ajami, Ali; Babaei, Ebrahim; Abdolmaleki, Nima; Wang, Caisheng (October 2020, 2020 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE))

   null (Ed.)

   A high-voltage-gain dc-dc converter topology is proposed for renewable energy applications. The proposed coupled-inductor-based high-gain dc-dc converter features reduced input current ripple. The semiconductor elements voltage spikes due to the leakage inductance are prevented through the use of a clamping circuit. The Clamping circuit helps recover the leakage inductance stored energy, which causes voltage spikes on the switch. This results in the selection of elements with lower voltage ratings. Power switches with lower voltage ratings lead to lower conduction losses and improved system efficiency. The DC component of the inductor magnetizing current is zero. Consequently, no energy is stored in the inductor core, and the losses are further reduced. 

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2. Design Criteria of Non-Isolated Bidirectional DC-DC Converters: A Review

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TIA.2025.3579450  

   Sarani, Sobhan; Liang, Xiaodong (November 2025, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications)

   Battery energy storage systems are widely used for renewable power generation and electric transportation systems. Bidirectional DC-DC converters (BDCs) are key components in such systems, enabling bidirectional power flow in battery charging and discharging modes. BDCs can be categorized into isolated and non-isolated. Non-isolated BDCs have lower volume, weight, and power losses, suitable for compact structures without needing galvanic isolation. In this paper, a comprehensive literature review is conducted for non-isolated BDCs, covering soft switching, current ripple reduction, high voltage gain and resiliency techniques. Soft switching aims to reduce switching losses and improve efficiency, including auxiliary circuits and non-auxiliary methods, such as interleaved structures, phase-shift modulation, and synchronous rectification. Current ripple reduction focuses on capacitive loop configurations, interleaved structures, and coupled inductor-based methods. Batteries are low-voltage power sources, BDCs can increase the output voltage to a level required by the applications through an appropriate voltage gain, and high voltage gain techniques include capacitor-based, magnetic-based, and combined networks, and mixed structures. Resiliency is explored to ensure reliable operations under adverse conditions. This review provides valuable insights into developing more efficient, reliable, and high-performance BDCs, addressing the evolving demands of modern energy systems. Future research directions in non-isolated BDCs are recommended in this paper. 

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3. A Control Scheme for a DC Extreme Fast Charger with RMS Current Minimization

   https://doi.org/10.1109/PEDG51384.2021.9494232  

   Jean-Pierre, Garry; Beheshtaein, Siavash; Altin, Necmi; Nasiri, Adel (June 2021, 2021 IEEE 12th Annual International Symposium on Power Electronics for Distributed Generation Systems)

   In this study, a power converter topology and control schemes for the power converter stages are proposed for a DC extreme fast charger. The proposed system is composed of a cascaded H-bridge (CHB) converter as the active front end (AFE), and an input series output parallel (ISOP), which includes three parallel connected dual active bridge (DAB) cells. A modified Lyapunov Function (LF) based control strategy is applied to obtain high current control response for the AFE. An additional controller to remove the voltage unbalances among the H-bridges is also presented. Additionally, the triple phase-shift (TPS) control method is applied for the ISOP DAB converter. A Lagrange Multiplier (LM) based optimization study is performed to minimize the RMS current of the transformer. The performance of the proposed converter topology and control strategies is validated with MATLAB/Simulink simulations. 

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4. Highly Efficient Rectifier and DC-DC Converter Designed in 180 nm CMOS Process for Ultra-Low Frequency Energy Harvesting Applications

   https://doi.org/10.1109/DCAS51144.2020.9330671  

   Gunti, Avinash; Biswas, Dipon K.; Mahbub, Ifana; Adhikari, Pashupati R.; Reid, Russell C. (November 2020, 2020 IEEE 14th Dallas Circuits and Systems Conference (DCAS))

   null (Ed.)

   This paper presents the integration of an AC-DC rectifier and a DC-DC boost converter circuit designed in 180 nm CMOS process for ultra-low frequency (<; 10 Hz) energy harvesting applications. The proposed rectifier is a very low voltage CMOS rectifier circuit that rectifies the low-frequency signal of 100-250 mV amplitude and 1-10 Hz frequency into DC voltage. In this work, the energy is harvested from the REWOD (reverse electrowetting-on-dielectric) generator, which is a reverse electrowetting technique that converts mechanical vibrations to electrical energy. The objective is to develop a REWOD-based self-powered motion (such as walking, running, jogging, etc.) tracking sensors that can be worn, thus harvesting energy from regular activities. To this end, the proposed circuits are designed in such a way that the output from the REWOD is rectified and regulated using a DC-DC converter which is a 5-stage cross-coupled switching circuit. Simulation results show a voltage range of 1.1 V-2.1 V, i.e., 850-1200% voltage conversion efficiency (VCE) and 30% power conversion efficiency (PCE) for low input signal in the range 100-250 mV in the low-frequency range. This performance verifies the integration of the rectifier and DC-DC boost converter which makes it highly suitable for various motion-based energy harvesting applications. 

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5. A ±0.5-mV-Minimum-Input DC-DC Converter With Stepwise Adiabatic Gate-Drive and Efficient Timing Control for Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting

   https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2022.3219402  

   Carlson, Eric J.; Smith, Joshua R. (February 2023, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers)

   This paper presents a step-up DC-DC converter that uses a stepwise gate-drive technique to reduce the power FET gate-drive energy by 82%, allowing positive efficiency down to an input voltage of ±0.5 mV—the lowest input voltage ever achieved for a DC-DC converter as far as we know. Below ±0.5 mV the converter automatically hibernates, reducing quiescent power consumption to just 255 pW. The converter has an efficiency of 63% at ±1 mV and 84% at ±6 mV. The input impedance is programmable from 1 Ω to 600 Ω to achieve maximum power extraction. A novel delay line circuit controls the stepwise gatedrive timing, programmable input impedance, and hibernation behavior. Bipolar input voltage is supported by using a flyback converter topology with two secondary windings. A generated power good signal enables the load when the output voltage has charged above 2.7 V and disables when the output voltage has discharged below 2.5 V. The DC-DC converter was used in a thermoelectric energy harvesting system that effectively harvests energy from small indoor temperature fluctuations of less than 1°C. Also, an analytical model with unprecedented accuracy of the stepwise gate-drive energy is presented. 

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