Impact of Conduction Mode and Phase-Shedding Strategy on Transistor Lifetime in Building-Integrated Photovoltaics Module-Level Converters

In this paper, the impact of control on lifetime and efficiency will be investigated for the case of an interleaved boost converter. Firstly, the influence of the conduction mode on losses and start-up current will be discussed. Secondly, two possible phase shedding strategies will be discussed and compared to the case where all phases are continuously on. A new temperature based phase shedding scheme is introduced for applications where high temperatures occur, such as in BIPV applications. Six different combinations of conduction mode and phase shedding strategy are combined in a simulation framework. The cases are evaluated on efficiency and lifetime using one-year experimental data of a BIPV test building.