IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO.

2, FEBRUARY 2014 759

Efciency Optimization Through Current-Sharing
for Paralleled DCDC Boost Converters With
Parameter Estimation
Hugues Renaudineau, Azeddine Houari, Ahmed Shahin, Jean-Philippe Martin, Serge Pierfederici,
Farid Meibody-Tabar, and Bernard Gerardin
AbstractIn this paper, a new current sharing technique on a
general case of N paralleled DCDCboost converters is presented.
The proposed optimization is based on the knowledge of individual
boost parameters. Every loss through the structure are modeled by
equivalent resistors. Using an accurate online estimation of those
resistors, the losses through each individual converter can be de-
termined. Then, a newcurrent sharing scheme is dened aiming to
maximize the global efciency of the overall structure. To verify the
proposed method, simulations and experiments have been realized
on a three-parallel boost converters structure.
Index TermsBoost converters, current-sharing, parallel con-
verters, parameter estimation.
I. INTRODUCTION
P
ARALLELING dcdc converters is widely used since
it leads to many desirable features [1]. First, paralleling
dcdc converters allows a reduction of the size of components,
especially inductive ones. It also reduces stress among individ-
ual converters by segmenting the total power, leading to a better
global efciency. Furthermore, this leads to an enhanced relia-
bility, and allows possible recongurations when one or more of
the paralleled modules present malfunctioning. In nonisolated
applications, the boost converter is one of the most used since
it is well known and allows good efciency. In this paper, an N
parallel boost converters structure with one output capacitor is
considered, as shown in Fig. 1.
A good reliability of energy conversion is always needed. By
diagnosing the fault in its early stages, the reliability of the power
conversion systemcan be increased signicantly [2]. To achieve
this, it is very interesting to develop an efcient online parameter
estimation. Many parameter estimation techniques have already
Manuscript received July 10, 2012; revised September 20, 2012, December
21, 2012, and February 15, 2013; accepted March 18, 2013. Date of current
version August 20, 2013. Recommended for publication by Associate Editor
D. Vinnikov.
H. Renaudineau, A. Houari, J.-P. Martin, S. Pierfederici, and F. Meibody-
Tabar are with the Universit e de Lorraine Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy 54516, France
(e-mail: hugues.renaudineau@univ-lorraine.fr; azeddine.houari@ensem.
inpl-nancy.fr; jean-philippe.martin@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr; serge.pierfederici@
ensem.inpl-nancy.fr; farid.meibody-tabar@ensem.inpl-nancy.fr).
A. Shahin is with the El-Mansoura University, El-Mansoura 35516, Egypt
(e-mail: AHMED.SHAHIN@ENSEM.INPL-NANCY.FR).
B. Gerardin is with ATECH society, Ennery 57365, France (e-mail:
bernard.gerardin@atech-ing.com).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPEL.2013.2256369
Fig. 1. N parallel boost converters structure with one output capacitor.
been proposed for dcdc boost converters. For example, in [3]
and [4] a method to estimate inductance, capacitor, capacitor
serial resistance, and load is presented. One of the main disad-
vantages of the proposed technique, as for those proposed in [5]
and [6], is that it requires a sampling frequency much higher
than switching frequency. For the present application, the sam-
pling frequency is kept equal to the switching frequency. For
this reason, Shahin et al. work [7] is of great interest. In this
paper, the authors proposed a method to model and estimate
losses of the boost converter through two equivalent resistors.
Note that even if loss modeling is only represented through re-
sistors, those parameters include every loss of the converter such
as capacitive or inductive ones.
Current sharing is an important functionality for parallel
power converters to ensure reliable and efcient operation [8].
A good review of current-sharing techniques has been proposed
by Chen et al. in [9] on different interconnection schemes. A
rst method for controlling parallel boost converters is to dene
one converter as the master which imposes output voltage while
others are slave and only current regulated. Masterslave con-
trol have been used in [1] and [10]. Unfortunately, this control
strategy is not suitable for a good reliability of the global sys-
tem since it might suffer from fault tolerance against the failure
of the master converter [1]. Another method found in the lit-
erature is to use current sharing to manage the output voltage
error as done in [11] by using synergetic control. In [12], current
0885-8993 2013 IEEE
760 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
sharing is directly integrated in a nonlinear controller design on
the case of a double-input H-bridge-based buckboostbuckboost
converter. A last method which can be underlined is presented
in [13] where the sharing scheme is used to cancel circulating
current between parallel inverters.
However, in most of the applications, current reference is
equally divided between the parallel elements as done in [14]
[17]. Equal power repartition has for example been used in [18],
where the control is realized with a classical PID. Many studies
propose an equal repartition among many different structures,
as for example in [19] on paralleled dual active bridge dcdc
converters. This is also the case for classical control techniques
of paralleled inverters as done in [20] and [21]. Equal repartition
is also used while thinking in voltage mode controlled structures
with no current sensors as done in [22] and [23] on multiphase
buck converter structures.
In this paper, a new current-sharing method based on the
knowledge of estimated loss parameters is proposed. As previ-
ously mentioned, compared with the sharing techniques found
in the literature, the proposed method presents real advantages.
In most of the literature, the current repartition is only designed
in order to allow the system to work. However, as it will be un-
derline in this paper, the repartition can inuence on the global
structure efciency. Classically, this is not taken into account. In
this aim, the new sharing scheme proposed in this paper allows
us to maximize the global efciency of the overall structure.
II. STRUCTURE MODELING AND ESTIMATION
A. Model of the Structure
The system consists in N parallel boost converters with one
output capacitor as shown in Fig. 1. The considered modeling
equations (1a) and (1b) are a direct application of Shahin et al.
work [7]. In this paper, it is proposed to model losses through
a boost converter by adding N serial and one parallel resistors
in the conventional ideal model. For the considered application,
each individual boost converter model has a serial resistance
r
s
k
, while a unique parallel resistor R
p
includes all the rest
of the losses for the whole structure. This difference with the
method proposed in [7] comes from the nature of the structure
with only one output capacitor and one output current sensor.
The next section details the method to obtain an accurate online
estimation of the resistor values

L
k
di
k
dt
= V
in
r
s
k
i
k
(1 d
k
) V
o
(1a)
C
o
dV
o
dt
=
N

k=1
(1 d
k
) i
k
i
Load

V
o
R
p
(1b)
where d
k
represents the duty cycle corresponding to the PWM
output signal u
k
.
Even if the adopted loss modeling is only represented through
resistors, it is useful to underline that not only ohmic losses are
taken into account. In fact, every loss through the converter
is taken into account with those of equivalent resistors, such
as core hysteresis and eddy current losses, conduction ohmic
losses, and switching losses of semiconductors [7]. Particularly,
the parallel resistor R
p
does not only represent the capacitor
C
o
losses through its ESR. Indeed, it is well known the even
under zero power, boost converters still present losses, which
will be taken into account through parameter R
p
while serial
resistor is not able to model this behavior. Finally, parameters
r
s
k
and R
p
represent the overall losses through the structure.
This will be veried in the experimental part by checking that
calculated losses correspond to measurement. For a more detail
description of this loss modeling technique, the reader is invited
to read reference [7], where analytical study is presented, as
well has load dependence behavior of such a modeling in the
case of a single-boost converter.
It has to be noticed that the estimation of losses through the
converters can also been used for others purpose. As an exam-
ple, it can be used for verifying the ageing of the individual
converters by checking on the variations of the estimated equiv-
alent resistors. This aspect cannot be developed in this paper
since it is not its goal, but reader is again invited to read [7] for
more details on the estimation.
B. Parameters Online Estimation
Before designing control laws and current-sharing technique,
the system parameters need to be estimated. This has to be real-
ized by considering online sampled signals, namely, V
in
, i
k
, V
o
and i
Load
. As proposed in [7], it is possible to estimate the
equivalent loss resistors following (2) and (4).
Considering that the input power follows its reference P
in
=
P
ref
in
t, serial resistors will be estimated through (2). This con-
dition will be ensured with the current regulation presented in
Section III
d r
s
k
dt
=
s
k

_

P
out
k
P
out
k
_

_
V
in
P
in
k
_
2
. (2)
Wherepower P
out
k
and estimated power

P
out
k
follow(3), and

s
k
convergence coefcients corresponding to serial resistor r
s
k

P
out
k
= (1 d
k
) V
o
i
k

P
out
k
= P
in
k
r
s
k
_
P
in
k
V
in
_
2
.
(3)
Then, considering the output voltage perfectly regulated
(V
o
= V
ref
o
t), the parallel resistor will be estimated through
(4). This condition will be ensured through the energy regulation
presented in the following section
d

R
p
dt
=
p

_

i
d
i
d
_

R
2
p
V
o
. (4)
Where current i
d
=

k
(1 d
k
) i
k
, estimated current

i
d
=
i
Load
+
V
o

R
p
, and
p
convergence coefcient for parallel resistor
R
p
.
C. Stability of the Estimation
Exponential stability can be proved easily with the classical
Lyapunov approach [7]. The stability and dynamics of the pro-
posed estimations are determined by coefcients
s
k
and
p
.
In order to demonstrate their stability, the Lyapunov candidate
RENAUDINEAU et al.: EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION THROUGH CURRENT-SHARING FOR PARALLELED DCDC BOOST CONVERTERS 761
Fig. 2. Control strategy. Measurements are in green.
functions following (5) are dened as

V ( r
s
k
) =
1
2
_

P
out
k
P
out
k
_
2
V
_

R
p
_
=
1
2
_

i
d
i
d
_
2
.
(5)
For a positive input power, their derivative can be expressed
through (6)

V ( r
s
k
) =
_

P
out
k
P
out
k
_ d
_

P
out
k
P
out
k
_
d r
s
k
d r
s
k
dt

V
_

R
p
_
=
_

i
d
i
d
_ d
_

i
d
i
d
_
d

R
p
d

R
p
dt
(6)
The derivatives of Lyapunov functions (6) can be simplied
in view of (2) and (4), leading to (7)

V ( r
s
k
) =
s
k
_

P
out
k
P
out
k
_
2
2
s
k
V ( r
s
k
)

s
k
,
p
> 0

V
_

R
p
_
=
p
_

i
d
i
d
_
2
2
p
V
_

R
p
_
.
(7)
Then, by choosing those two parameters positive, it is demon-
strated that the estimation errors exponentially converge to 0.
III. CONTROL DESIGN
To ensure the control of the structure, it has been decided
to design a two-loop control scheme. A rst controller enables
voltage regulation through energy control. It is based on at-
ness control method. A second-loop controller, based on sliding
method, ensure the current regulation for each individual con-
verter. The proposed control strategy ensures asymptotic stabil-
ity, robustness against parameter variations, and high dynamics
regulation. A block schematic of the entire control is given in
Fig. 2.
A. Energy Control Loop Based on Flatness
Flatness was rstly dened by Fliess et al. [24] using the
formalism of differential algebra. It has been decided to indi-
rectly control the output voltage V
o
by regulating the energy E
(8) stored in the capacitor C
o
. As detailed in [25] and [7], it is
possible to demonstrate that E is a at output for the considered
system in view of (1a) and (1b)
E =
1
2
C
o
V
2
o
. (8)
To obtain a relationship between the input current references
i
ref
k
and the at output system E, the derivative

E is considered
as

E = P
out
P
Load

V
2
o
R
p
. (9)
To ensure reference tracking, a second-order control law as
(10) is proposed to cancel the static error
_

E
ref

E
_
+2
E

n
E
(E
ref
E)+
2
n
E
_
(E
ref
E) dt = 0.
(10)
The power P
out
is given as follows:
P
out
= P
in

N

k=1
r
s
k
_

k
P
in
V
in
_
2
. (11)
The parameters
k
are power repartition coefcients. In the
next section, a new current-sharing scheme aiming to maximize
the overall efciency will be detailed as a function of the pa-
rameters
k
. However, in order to transfer the needed power
through the structure, repartition coefcients must follow:
N

k=1

k
= 1
N
= 1
N1

k=1

k
. (12)
Finally, current references are deduced from (13). Parameter
P
ref
in
of this equation will be dened in Section IV
i
ref
k
=
k
P
ref
in
V
in
. (13)
B. Current Loops Designa Sliding Approach
To ensure current regulation, it has been decided to design a
sliding-based controller as used in [26]. Sliding based control
allows robust regulation and has been detailed in [27]. It has al-
ready been applied on the case of paralleled boosts in [28] where
robustness against inductor variations is underlined and guaran-
teed. For each individual boost converter, the sliding surface S
k
is dened as follows:
S
k
=
_
i
k
i
ref
k
_
+ K
i
k
_
_
i
k
i
ref
k
_
dt. (14)
The current i
k
will follow its reference i
ref
k
if the derivative
of the surface S
k
verify

S
k
=
i
k
S
k
. (15)
Equations (14) and (15) can be expressed as

k
+ (K
i
k
+
i
k
)
k
+ K
i
k

i
k
_

k
dt = 0 (16)
where K
i
k
and
i
k
are the current regulation parameters and

k
=
_
i
k
i
ref
k
_
. Comparing (16) with a second-order law, it is
762 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
TABLE I
REGULATION PARAMETERS
possible to express current regulation pulsation
I
as

2
I
k
= K
i
k

i
k
. (17)
By combining (1) and (15), it is possible to determine the
equivalent duty cycle d
k
e q
allowing a good reference tracking
d
k
e q
= 1 +
1
V
o
_
r
s
k
i
k
V
in
+L
k
_

i
k
S
k
+
di
ref
k
dt
K
i
k
_
i
k
i
ref
k
_
_
_
. (18)
C. Regulation Parameters
For simulations and experimental validation, the switching
frequency is set to f
s
= 20 kHz. Table I shows parameters of
the controllers. Parameters
i
k
are chosen in order to verify
(19) which is necessary to ensure the validity of the used mean
model. In a two-loop control scheme, dynamics of the regulation
must be separated, then
n
E
is chosen in order to satisfy
_

s
= 2f
s

i
k
(19a)

i
k

n
E
.
(19b)
IV. REFERENCE POWER REPARTITION METHOD
By combining (9) and (11), the energy regulation gives the
expression (20) of the total input power reference P
ref
in
as a
function of repartition parameters
k
, with P
ref
out
calculated from
(9) as shown in Fig. 2
P
ref
in
=
V
2
in

_
V
4
in
4 P
ref
out
_

N
k=1

2
k
r
s
k
_
2
_

N
k=1

2
k
r
s
k
_ . (20)
Then, a new method to split the power between the parallel
boost converters is presented. The proposed repartition aims
to maximize the global efciency of the structure. Indeed, it
is possible to demonstrate that there is a unique point which
minimizes the total input power reference P
ref
in
. This can be
seen in Fig. 3, where total input power is presented as a function
of power repartition parameters on the case of three-parallel
boost converters with the same parameters as used in Section V.
Only two coefcients appear in this gure, while it is about a
three-parallel boost converter structure; the third one is indeed
directly imposed from (12).
As an example, in this case the minimum value differ from
equal repartition possibility. Then, the interest of the proposed
method appears easily compared to the most used current-
sharing technique. Therefore, it is needed to determine the repar-
Fig. 3. Input power function of power repartition coefcients for an imposed
load of 620 W.
tition parameters
k
, so that the input power reference P
ref
in
is
minimum for a given load reference P
ref
out
. In view of (12), P
ref
in
is a function of N 1 parameters. Minimizing this reference
power leads to solve
_
P
ref
in

k
= 0, k = {1, N 1} . (21)
The optimal values of parameters
k
minimizing the input
reference power can be expressed as (22), presenting the advan-
tage to be quite simple and so easily implementable. Under low
power, parameters r
s
k
can not be precisely dened (they tend to
innite for zero current). In this case, it is chosen to stop N 1
converters and uses only one

opt
k
=

N
j = 1
j = k
r
s
j

N
i=1

N
j = 1
j = i
r
s
j
. (22)
Then, knowing parameters
k
, the input power reference
is calculated from (20) so that it is possible to nd current
references for each individual converter as (13). If the paral-
lel converters have strictly the same parameters, the proposed
repartition leads to equal current references
k
=
1
N
. The main
interest in the proposed method appears when one converter or
more present a lower efciency compared to the others (result-
ing in differences on the estimated parameters r
s
k
). In this case,
the proposed repartition leads to a lower current reference for
the less efcient converter, leading to a benet on the global
efciency.
Finally, before presenting simulation and experimental val-
idation lets underline requirements for practical application of
the proposed method. First, while measuring some precautions
must be taken into account but such requirements are among the
classical thematic of digital control, and the proposed technique
does not require more accurate measurement than classically
used for controlling similar power conversion structures. Sec-
ond, in term of computational resources, it is obvious that this
current-sharing strategy requires more than a simple equal shar-
ing. However, additional calculations are quite simple and the
additional required computation time is not important. Then, in
most of the cases, implementing the proposed technique will
RENAUDINEAU et al.: EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION THROUGH CURRENT-SHARING FOR PARALLELED DCDC BOOST CONVERTERS 763
TABLE II
EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS
not require to be changed the digital controller for an improved
one.
V. SIMULATION RESULTS
Simulation on three-parallel boost converters have been real-
ized to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. First,
the current repartition is set to
k
=
1
3
. At time t = 0.5 s, the
proposed power repartition is enabled. Parameters taken for
simulation are the same as those listed in Table II for experi-
mental verication. Serial and parallel resistors of the simulated
model are chosen constant for an easier computation. To vali-
date our purpose, the simulated paralleled boost converters on
which the proposed control is applied present different efcien-
cies for each individual converter. This is simulated by imposing
r
s
1
= 0.39 , r
s
2
= 0.39 , and r
s
3
= 1.40 traducing more
losses through the third individual converter. This difference be-
tween serial resistors is only one modeling of a poorer behavior
of the third converter. On a real boost converter, many reasons
can lead to such results, as many different losses are taken into
account through this resistor (see Section II-A and reference [7]
for more details).
First, it is ensured that the estimated resistors converge to
their simulated values. Then, from(22), it is possible to calculate
optimal repartition coefcients as

opt
1
= 0.439

opt
2
= 0.439

opt
3
= 0.122.
(23)
This results on different current references for each converter.
Fig. 4 shows current on the previously described control scheme.
Fig. 5 shows the efciency of the structure. In this gure, the ef-
ciency of the proposed current-sharing scheme can be observed.
Indeed, when total power is equally divide through elements
(t < 0.5 s), efciency is about 2.4% less than the efciency
with the proposed method. Note that the difference with respect
to experimental result comes from the hypothesis that estimated
resistors are constant. In practice, those resistors change with
respect to the power as well described in [7]. This is also the
reason why their is no long transitory in simulation, as explained
in the experimental part.
In view of these results, another advantage of the proposed
current sharing can be underlined. As shown in Fig. 4, the pro-
posed repartition leads to a lower current in the less efcient
converter. Then, this converter will suffer lower stress than bet-
Fig. 4. Simulated average input currents i
k
.
Fig. 5. Efciency of the structureSimulation result.
ter converters. Finally, it can be assumed that the proposed
current-sharing scheme leads to make uniform ageing of the
paralleled modules. Only ageing tests can corroborate this as-
sertion but this aspect will not be treated in this paper. This
property should have an effect on the structure health improv-
ing its long-term reliability and facilitating its maintenance. For
example, a three-parallel boost converter structure can be easily
realized using integrated circuits planned for inverters. In this
case, the ageing uniformity resulting fromthe proposed current-
sharing scheme, will ensure a replacement of the used module
when all the semiconductors are decient. On the other hand,
for classical methods, the replacement can be needed for only
one of the converters presenting malfunctioning.
VI. EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION
To verify the validity of the proposed method, experiments
are performed on a three-parallel boost converters structure.
Parameters of the tested structure are listed on Table II and
the experimental hardware step-up is shown in Fig. 6. Control
and estimation are realized with MATLAB-Simulink software
and implemented; thanks to the dSpace 1103 device. Sampling
is synchronized with the PWM signal; therefore, measurement
gives the mean values of the voltages and currents. In order
to validate the proposed method, one of the parallel boost is
articially aged by introducing a 1 resistor in series.
764 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
Fig. 6. Experimental test bench.
Fig. 7. Convergence of estimated parameters r
s
k
Experimental result.
Fig. 8. Convergence of estimated parameter R
p
Experimental result.
A. Control and Losses Estimation Validations
First, the validity of losses estimation is veried. Figs. 7 and
8 attest the convergence of estimated resistors. As expected, one
of the serial resistor in about 1 higher than other, allowing to
verify the interest and validity of the proposed power repartition.
The correctness of those estimated parameters is also veried
as measured losses are equal to estimated ones.
Fig. 9. Verication of the energy regulationResult on the output voltage
V
o
Starting.
Fig. 10. Verication of the currents regulationMean values of the currents
for a load step.
Fig. 9 shows voltage response when the regulation starts.
At this time, output voltage varies from V
o
= V
in
= 48 V to
V
o
= 100 V as expected. Fig. 10 shows the validity of current
regulations for a step of load from R
Load
= 30 to R
Load
=
15 with equal power sharing between the three converters. In
this gure, only mean values of the currents are shown.
B. Current-Sharing Verication
In this section, the behavior of the proposed current-sharing
scheme is veried and compared with equal repartition. Those
results have been obtained with a constant resistive load
R
Load
= 15.15 . As previously done by simulation, the next
results have been obtained when power repartition passes from
equal (
k
=
1
3
) to the new optimal denition introduced in this
paper. Fig. 11 shows the evolution of the structure efciency,
and Fig. 12 the corresponding sampled currents i
k
. Repartition
parameters obtained with our method converge to the following
values:

opt
1
= 0.438

opt
2
= 0.440

opt
3
= 0.122.
(24)
RENAUDINEAU et al.: EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION THROUGH CURRENT-SHARING FOR PARALLELED DCDC BOOST CONVERTERS 765
Fig. 11. Efciency of the structureExperimental result.
Fig. 12. Sampled currents i
k
repartitionExperimental result.
Fig. 11 shows the validity of the proposed current-sharing
scheme in term of efciency, compared with the classical equal
sharing technique. In this gure, the system starts with equal
sharing between the converters, and when the proposed tech-
nique is enabled, values are those of (24). After, the proposed
repartition is enabled, the efciency converges to a higher value.
The transitory which can be seen in this gure comes to the fact
that estimated resistor values change with the functioning point,
then changing the repartition which itself changes the function-
ing point, and so forth, leading to a quite long transitory. This
long transitory is only present in the tested case, where reparti-
tion passes from equal to the proposed one to underline its ben-
et. In real application, this transitory will not exist while only
one of the two repartition scheme will be applied (the proposed
one). This transitory is also visible in Fig. 12, where currents
took time to denitely stabilize when the proposed approach is
applied. In this case, when all values have converged with the
proposed repartition, the new value of estimated resistors are
r
s1
= 0.356 , r
s2
= 0.354 and r
s1
= 1.459 , leading to
repartition parameters following (25). This difference explains
the transitory, and is also the cause of the difference with the
results shown in simulation where equivalent loss resistors have
been chosen constant with values equal to the one estimated
TABLE III
EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS
Fig. 13. Efciency load dependenceAdvantage of the proposed method.
with equal sharing

opt
1
= 0.443

opt
2
= 0.447

opt
3
= 0.108.
(25)
For the tested case, the global efciency of the structure in-
creases from = 78.7%to = 81.4%when the proposed strat-
egy is applied. Then, compared to equal sharing, which is the
most used power repartition scheme, the method detailed in this
paper allows a global efciency higher than 2.7%.
As mentioned viewing simulation results, the proposed tech-
nique should lead to make uniform ageing between parallel
elements. This can be visible in Fig. 12, where the current in the
converter presenting the more losses is the lower.
C. Load Dependence Experiment
In this part, the behavior of loss parameters and efciency
are experiment with respect to the load power. As explained
previously, estimated loss resistors change with respect to the
load. Then, advantage of the proposed method will depend on
the load power. Four level of power have been tested and are
listed in Table III.
The efciency of the converter with equal sharing and with the
proposed method are shown in Fig. 13. First, this result conrm
the attractivity of the proposed repartition scheme since it leads
to a gain in efciency on the entire load range from1.65%under
low power to 4.5% gain under higher power. It is also possible
to underline that the gain increases when power increases, and
that the maximum of efciency of the structure is higher with
the proposed method. Then, compared with the classical equal
sharing technique, the proposed method shows great advantage
on the structure efciency.
766 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 29, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2014
VII. CONCLUSION
Anewcurrent-sharing technique on parallel dcdc boost con-
verters has been presented in this paper. Through online es-
timation, individual converter losses are deduced and power
repartition coefcients are redened in order to maximize the
efciency of the overall structure. Output voltage and individual
input currents are regulated through a two-loop control design
based on atness theory and sliding mode controllers.
Compared with the most used current-sharing technique con-
sisting in equal repartition, the proposed method shows its inter-
est when one or more converter in parallel present malfunction-
ing. In these conditions, the presented method allows a gain in
efciency up to 4.5% in the tested cases, depending on the load
power. Another benet of the proposed repartition is the fact
that it leads to uniform ageing between the paralleled elements.
This should have an effect on the structure health improving its
long-termreliability and facilitating its maintenance. Long-term
experimentations are required to attest this last assumption and
will be part of future works.
The presented current sharing has been discussed, veried,
and tested both by simulation and experiment. The validation
has been realized on the case of a three-parallel boost converter
structure, but the concept can easily be scaled to any number of
phases. Indeed, theoretical study has been led on the general case
of N converters in parallel. Practically, each phase will need its
own current regulation, its own serial resistor estimation, and
the repartition coefcients calculation will require only a few
more time as the number of converter increase.
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Hugues Renaudineau received the M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Ecole Nationale
Sup erieure d

Electricit, Nancy, France, in 2009. He

is currently working toward the the Ph.D. degree with
the Groupe de Recherche en Electrotechnique et Elec-
tronique de Nancy (GREEN), University of Lorraine,
Nancy, in partnership with ATECH society.
His main research interests are modeling, control,
and diagnosis on photovoltaic power systems.
RENAUDINEAU et al.: EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION THROUGH CURRENT-SHARING FOR PARALLELED DCDC BOOST CONVERTERS 767
Azeddine Houari received the Engineers degree in
2008 from Bejaia University, Bejaia, Algeria, and the
M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the Institut National
Polytechnique de Lorraine, Vandoeuvre les Nancy,
France, in 2009 and 2012, respectively.
He is currently a Doctor with the Groupe de
Recherche en Electrotechnique et Electronique de
Nancy (GREEN), University of Lorraine, Nancy . His
current research interests include control of electri-
cal hybrid systems, renewable energies, and stability
study in microgrid applications.
Ahmed Shahin received the B.Sc. (rst class Hons.)
and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Department of Electrical Engineering, the Faculty of
Engineering, El-Mansoura University, El-Mansoura,
Egypt, in 2000 and 2004, respectively and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering fromEcole Nationale
Sup erieure d

Electricit, Institut National Polytech-

nique de Lorraine, Nancy-University, Nancy, France,
in 2011.
Since 2012, he has been engaged as a Doctor at
Mansoura University, Egypt. His research interests
are modeling, digital control, power electronics, dcdc converters and active
lter, and fuel cell applications.
Jean-Philippe Martin received the Graduation de-
gree from the University of Nancy, Nancy, France,
and the Ph.D. degree fromInstitut National Polytech-
nique de Lorraine (INPL), University of Lorraine,
Nancy, in 2003.
Since 2004, he has been an Assistant Professor
at INPL. His research activities in GREEN Labora-
tory include the stability study of distributed power
system, electrical machine controls, static converter
architectures, and their interactions with new electri-
cal devices (fuel cell and photovoltaic system).
Serge Pierfederici received the Engineers de-
gree in electrical engineering from Ecole Nationale
Sup erieure d

Electricit e Nancy, France, in 1994, and

the Ph.D. degree fromInstitut National Polytechnique
de Lorraine (INPL), University of Lorraine, Nancy,
France, in 1998.
Since 2009, he has been a Professor at INPL.
His research activities deals with the stability study
of distributed power system and the control of multi
sources, and multiload systems.
FaridMeibody-Tabar received the Enginees degree
from Ecole Nationale dElectricit e et de M ecanique
(ENSEM), Nancy, France in 1982, the Ph.D. degree
and the Habilitation ` a diriger des recherches degree
in 1986 and 2000, both from the Institut National
Polytechnique de Lorraine, (INPL), University of
Lorraine, Nancy.
Since 2000, he has been a Professor at the Uni-
versity of Lorraine (ex. INPL). His research activi-
ties in GREEN laboratory (Groupe de Recherche en
Electrotechnique et Electronique de Nancy) deal with
electric machines, their supply, and their control and diagnosis.
Bernard Gerardin is the General Manager of ATECH society, Ennery, France,
since 2002 . He works on industrial applications dealing with electric devices,
automatism, and industrial computing. His main research interests include di-
agnosis on photovoltaic power systems.