Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has emerged as a promising paradigm for the intelligent control of power electronic converters. It offers adaptability, model-free operation, and real-time decision making in complex, nonlinear, and dynamic environments. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-the-art in DRL-based control strategies for various power converter applications. It includes voltage regulation in DC-DC converters connected to DC microgrids, speed control of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM), voltage regulation and frequency modulation in dual active bridge (DAB) converters, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in solar pv systems, and grid-connected inverter control in both grid-following and grid-forming modes. The paper systematically categorizes the recent literature based on converter topology, control objectives, DRL algorithms used, and implementation frameworks, highlighting the strengths and limitations of each approach. Special attention is given to the design of reward functions and action-state representations. Furthermore, the review identifies key challenges including stability assurance, sample inefficiency, hardware deployment constraints, and lack of standardized benchmarking environments. Finally, research gaps and future directions are outlined, emphasizing the need for physics-informed learning, safe exploration strategies, and hybrid model-based approaches to bridge the gap between academic advances and real-world deployment in power electronic systems.

Recently, multilevel inverters (MLIs) have been extensively used in different renewable energy systems due to various reasons, including enhanced efficiency, improved power handling capability, improved output quality, etc. However, as the number of switching devices increases to achieve multilevel voltage output, ensuring the reliability of these converters present a growing challenge. Hence, this paper proposes a novel fault-tolerant multilevel inverter that offers resilience against various switch faults and can operate in both symmetric and asymmetric voltage modes. The proposed topology can achieve fault tolerance by incorporating a redundant unit consisting of switches and triacs to maintain rated power. Additionally, a new parameter is introduced to evaluate the fault-tolerant capabilities of converter topologies, providing deeper insights into their reliability. Experimental validation of the proposed converter is conducted on a 500 W prototype to validate the robustness of the presented MLI under diverse fault conditions. Further, comparative analysis has been demonstrated to underscore the advantages of the proposed topology, highlighting its superior performance across multiple metrics such as fault-tolerant efficacy, reliability, and efficiency. Furthermore, the generalized structure of the proposed fault-tolerant MLI is presented to emphasize its versatility and scalability.

High-performance applications extensively use permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives because of their high torque density and efficiency. However, conventional PI controllers employed in the outer speed control loop of direct torque control with space vector modulation (DTC-SVM) are limited by parameter sensitivity, poor adaptability under dynamic conditions, and the need for extensive manual tuning. To overcome these challenges, a Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) agent is introduced, incorporating a customised reward function to ensure precise torque reference generation. The TD3 agent is trained in MATLAB/Simulink using random speed and load profiles and deployed on a TMS320F28379D digital signal processor. Real-Time validation is carried out using an OPAL-RT 4512 simulator under a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) framework. The inner-loop DTC operates at 20 kHz for torque and flux control, while the TD3 agent regulates speed at 2 kHz. Experimental results on 4.5 kW and 7.5 kW PMSMs show a 50% reduction in settling time, elimination of overshoot, and stable current responses without requiring controller retuning. The proposed method demonstrates robust and adaptive performance, confirming its effectiveness for embedded motor drive applications.

Recent advancements in dc microgrids demand high-gain dc-dc converters for efficient energy conversion. In this regard, this article proposes a family of five new quadratic boost converters based on the extended capacitor-diode network. All the proposed converters have the ability to produce wide-range voltage gain with continuous source current features, which makes them an interesting choice for microgrid applications. This work conducts a detailed operational, steady-state, and control analysis of the proposed converters. Further, the comparison studies with existing converters highlight the superiority of proposed converters in terms of the high voltage gain, low electric stress, and high switch utilizing factor. Furthermore, 500 W, 400 V, and 50 kHz laboratory prototypes are fabricated to evaluate the practical feasibility, and corresponding experimental results are presented. For the given design, the converter proposed converter (PC) I exhibited a better efficiency of 94.3%, followed by the efficiencies of PC II, PC III, PC V, and PC IV are 93.9%, 94%, 92.5%, and 93.1%, respectively.

In high-gain quadratic DC-DC converters, input components often face significant current stress, while output components endure higher voltage stress. To address these challenges, this article introduces a novel ultra-high gain quadratic boost (UHGQB) converter. By implementing an input current-sharing configuration for inductors, the current stress on the input inductor is minimized. Additionally, a switched capacitor cell is utilized to minimize voltage stress on the output diode. This article presents the detailed operation and steady-state analysis of the UHGQB converter. Further, a comparison with the latest converters shows that the UHGQB outperforms others in terms of various performance metrics. A 400 V, 0.5 kW, and 50 kHz laboratory prototype of the UHGQB converter is tested experimentally to validate the theoretical findings. The efficiency analysis confirmed a peak efficiency of 95.5% at rated power. Furthermore, an extended UHGQB converter is derived for cubic voltage gain and verified experimentally. The features like a wide range voltage gain, low inductor currents, low voltage stress, and higher efficiency make the proposed UHGQB converter an excellent choice for photovoltaic systems.

Recently, onboard chargers with bidirectional power features have played a key role in minimizing energy imbalance at the grid for improved power system stability. This article proposes a new family of buck-boost bidirectional dc–dc converters inspired from the synchronously operated cascaded Ćuk converter topology. A comprehensive investigation of the operating theory and steady-state parameters of the proposed family of bidirectional converters highlights the features of wide voltage gain in both forward and backward modes. Furthermore, the continuous nature of currents at the input and output sides of the proposed converters enhances the battery’s lifetime and reduces the size of the dc-link capacitor. Here, the proposed converters exhibit the same quadratic voltage gain with a common ground, but the voltage and current stress on the switches vary, providing flexibility to choose the suitable option for the charge applications of diverse EVs. A 300 W laboratory prototype of the proposed onboard EV charger is made, and real-time experimentations are performed to verify the theoretical findings and the nature of dynamic reference tracking. The proposed converters demonstrate promising performance, exhibiting a higher effective index, lower normalized voltage stress, lower current ripple, and impressive peak efficiencies.

A p-type modified quadratic gain buck-boost (PMQBB) converter is proposed in this paper. PMQBB converter topology evolution is based on the integration of a modified quadratic boost configuration with the p-type converter structure. Both of the inductors are in continuous conduction mode (CCM). The proposed PMQBB converter’s key features include a reduced component count, lower order, high voltage gain, and continuous input current. The proposed PMQBB converter exhibits a buck capability at a duty ratio D ≤ 0.2929. This paper provides a comprehensive description of the PMQBB converter, including its steady-state analysis, operating modes, and analysis of semiconductor voltage and current stress. To emphasize the PMQBB converter, a detailed comparative study is presented. A 40/400 V, 300 W hardware prototype is tested to authenticate the converter's performance. The experimental outcomes validate the superior performance and efficiency of the PMQBB converter, highlighting its suitability for high-gain applications.

Multilevel inverters with fault-tolerance capabilities are critical for powering modern emergency loads, where reliability is the crucial parameter. For enhanced reliability, this paper introduces a single-phase five-level fault-tolerant multilevel inverter to ensure continuous operation even after the occurrence of the faults, while maintaining rated power output. The proposed converter achieves this feature by adopting redundant switches and triacs, which improves the fault-tolerant capability. This paper presents the detailed operating principle of the proposed converter, and its effectiveness is validated through the MATLAB/SIMULINK platform. Further, a 500 W prototype is developed and tested under normal and fault conditions. The experimental results confirmed that the proposed converter can be reconfigured to operate at rated power during faulty conditions. Furthermore, an extensive analysis of reliability, efficiency, and other performance metrics is presented to evaluate the superiority of the proposed converter. The advantages of the proposed converter make it an excellent choice for critical applications.

This paper presents a boost-integrated T-type multilevel inverter (MLI) to address the issue of neutral point voltage unbalancing. The proposed converter is designed by modifying the neutral point connection of the T-type boost inverter to the positive DC supply, resulting in asymmetric voltage levels at each pole. Due to the varying nature of one pole voltage, conventional space vector modulation is not feasible. Hence, a novel asymmetric space vector modulation (ASVM) is proposed by utilizing the asymmetric voltage levels while integrating the feature of DC-bus clamping. To validate the proposed approach, a 1 kW prototype is developed, and the control techniques are tested across diverse duty cycles and modulation indices to achieve the desired output voltage, emphasising the importance of selecting the optimal operating point. Experimental results and efficiency analysis demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed PWM technique in utilising asymmetric voltage levels, achieving lower THD and reduced switching losses at the output.

The reliability of power electronic converters in a photovoltaic system has become major concern to extend its power transfer capability. In this regard, this work conducts a mission-profile-based reliability assessment of a 6-kW, two-stage, grid-integrated photovoltaic system installed in the United Arab Emirates. This study considers the failure of power switches in the dc-dc (boost) converter and dc-ac inverter, and the failure of the dc-link capacitor. This investigation uncovered that the dc-link capacitor exhibits the highest susceptibility to failure within the system, with the switches of the dc-dc converter and PV inverter following closely behind. Overall, the PV system has a B10 lifetime of 09 years in UAE. However, the overall lifetime of the system can be improved further by applying various control strategies to manage the thermal load of the power devices.

This work presents an ultra-high gain quadratic boost (UHGQB) converter for photovoltaic applications with a detailed operational and steady-state analysis. Further, the comparative analysis of the UHGQB converter with existing converters suggests that the UHGQB converter performs better in terms of total component count, TVS, TCS, SDP rating, volume of inductors and capacitors, and efficiency. In addition, MATLAB-based simulations are conducted for a 650 V, 1 kW, and 50 kHz system. The open and closed loop simulation results validated the satisfactory steady-state and dynamic performance of the UHGQB converter. Furthermore, the efficiency analysis was carried out and the UHGQB converter was found to have the highest efficiency of 95.2 %. Therefore, the proposed UHGQB converter can be adopted for photovoltaic systems as well as other high-voltage applications.

Photovoltaic (PV) microinverters have been a trending research area due to their modularity, plug-and-play capability, and ability to maximize power extraction from individual PV modules. This article introduces a new non-isolated, single-stage, single-phase high-gain microinverter for PV applications. The proposed microinverter, with its high gain capability, can interface a 35 V DC source with a 230 V AC grid. The topology comprises five switches, with one switch always operating at high frequency and the others operating at high frequency either during a positive half cycle or during a negative half cycle of the output voltage. The proposed microinverter is designed to achieve high voltage gain while operating in continuous conduction mode, and the topology also features dual grounding, resulting in negligible leakage current. The performance of the proposed high-gain microinverter is verified at a 300 W power rating using the MATLAB/Simulink platform.

Abstract—Renewable sources are replacing diesel aerators for sustainable aquaculture. The power electronic converters are inevitable and should be highly reliable to minimize crop loss in aquaculture. Recently, application-specific reliability case studies have gained more attention in the research fraternity. In this regard, new mission-profile-based reliability studies are conducted on the power converters of the grid-integrated PV-Battery systems for the sustainable aquaculture aerator application. In addition, a new energy management scheme is also proposed based on the state-of-charge of the battery for the DC link and AC link configured grid-integrated PV-battery system to ensure continuous power to the aerator load for the given environmental and operating conditions. Furthermore, a critical reliability analysis is performed for both DC and AC link configurations considering the failure of the power device, power diode, and capacitor of each converter in the system. The reliability analysis is extended to the converter and system level; the comparison is made in terms of the lifetime of the whole system in both configurations. This study revealed that the AC link configuration had ensured 24 years more than the DC-link configuration for 10% population failure (B10 life) for the given load, mission profile, and energy management system.

This work has adopted the concept of asymmetric inductor magnetization to develop a new quadratic converter with the advantages, such as a wide range quadratic voltage gain and low source current ripple. In addition, the proposed high quadratic converter has achieved reduced voltage stress due to the presence of switched-capacitor cell at the output side. Initially, the operation of the converter and steady-state analysis, including efficiency calculations, are explained. In addition, the design and selection of converter components are presented along with a small-signal analysis. Furthermore, a comprehensive comparison with recent high quadratic gain converters is presented. The comparison is made with regard to the total component count, voltage conversion ratio, effectiveness index, electric stress, current ripple, switching device power rating, and input current ripple factor. Furthermore, the 150 W laboratory prototype is used to verify the performance of the proposed converter in terms of operation, dynamic response, and efficiency, and the corresponding experimental findings are reported. The wide range voltage gain, low current ripple, and low electric stress features of the proposed converter highlight its superiority in fuel cell electric vehicle applications.

The fuel cell electric vehicles require a dc-dc converter as a power interface to match the fuel cell voltage to the dc bus. By considering the soft characteristics of the fuel cell source, this work introduces a non-isolated high quadratic step-up (HQSU) converter with a wide-range voltage gain and continuous source current. The proposed converter comprises two synchronously operated active switches and two inductors; it adopts a switched capacitor cell to improve the voltage gain and reduce the voltage stress of the output side components. Further, this work discusses the HQSU converter in terms of operation, steady-state analysis, design considerations, and non-ideal and dynamic analysis. In addition, the comprehensive comparison with recent quadratic converters suggests that the proposed HQSU converter has the advantages of higher voltage gain, high effectiveness index, low total voltage stress, and lower SDP rating, along with common ground and non-inverted output. Furthermore, a 200 W laboratory prototype is fabricated to validate the theoretical findings. The experimental results confirm the good steady-state and dynamic behavior of the proposed HQSU converter, which achieved an efficiency of 94.2% at rated power.

Generating higher voltage levels with fewer power electronic components and fault tolerance is a challenging issue for multilevel inverters (MLIs). In this article, a new generalized fault tolerant MLI (FTMLI) with reduced semiconductor switches is presented. The proposed FTMLI topology contains more redundant switching states; thus, the topology can tolerate faults in both switches and/or sources. This article also introduces the new level shifted carrier pulsewidth modulation technique in effective utilization of abnormal voltage level combinations (or skipped voltage level) for running emergency loads. The proposed topology’s operation is discussed along with the faulttolerant capability for both the symmetric and asymmetric modes. Experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness of the FTMLI topology using the associated control strategy. A comparative analysis between the proposed topology and other MLI topologies is also provided to highlight the proposed topology’s merits.

This paper introduces the concept of inductors asymmetric input voltage to derive a new high voltage gain converter.The proposed converter has continuous input, positive output, and high-power density features suitable for renewable energy applications.The operating principle, steady-state performance, practical voltage gain, small-signal analysis, and efficiency of the converter are presented in this work.A comprehensive comparison is made with the high voltage gain converters available in literature in terms of component count, voltage gain, effectiveness index, voltage and current stress on the power devices, per unit switching device rating, and other features like output polarity and availability of common ground.The proposed topology possesses a higher effectiveness index and lower switching device power rating (SDP), resulting in a good form factor.To validate the performance of the proposed converter, the experiments are conducted on the 150 W laboratory prototype, and corresponding results are presented in this work.

This article proposes a new continuous input quadratic buck-boost converter. The proposed converter consists two simultaneously operated active switches with two diodes and fourth-order energy storing elements. This article explains the converter operation with time-domain key waveforms, voltage conversion ratio, electric stress of the power switching devices, designing circuit parameters and boundary conditions, the non-ideal voltage gain. Further, the comparison is made with other buck-boost converters with regard to voltage gain and effectiveness index. MATLAB-based simulations are conducted for step-up (boost) and step-down (buck) modes of operation of the new converter to validate the performance. The advantages like continuous input, wide range voltage gain and higher power density make the new converter is suitable for renewable power generation.

In this paper, two cascaded buck-boost nature converters are developed; one converter is capable of producing high step-up gain, and the other converter addresses high step-down gain. In proposed converters, for a given voltage gain, two distinct duty ratios are possible due to their ability in handling complementary switching schemes. This feature is effective for voltage-sensitive applications like LED systems. The operation principle, steady-state analysis, and the design of the passive components for each switching scheme are presented for the proposed converters. Comparative analysis with competitive converters profound the merits of the proposed converters in terms of voltage gain and the continuous nature of the output. Experiments are conducted on both proposed converters for simultaneous and complementary switching schemes, and they validate the theoretical steady-state performance.

Lighting has become the predominant factor towards the productivity of workforces and this has led the way to increase the deployment of energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs). In this paper, a multi-configurable transformer-less DC-DC series loaded resonant converter (SLRC) based LED driver is proposed to afford input voltage at wide range for lighting applications. The converter proposed has switched inductors for boosting the input voltage and SLRC. This multi-configured resonant converter is operated as boost capable full-bridge SLRC (BFBSLRC), boost capable half-bridge SLRC (BHBSLRC), full-bridge SLRC (FBSLRC), and half-bridge SLRC (HBSLRC) topologies. The advantage of the proposed converter is its soft-switching ability across all the switches for a wide-input voltage range to produce constant output voltage using the reconfigurable converter. The analysis of the proposed converter is presented and its performance is validated using MATLAB simulation for a wide-input voltage range of 10V to 240V.

In this article, a comprehensive review of quadratic buck-boost converters has been presented. Due to the wide conversion ratio, these converters are suitable for intermittent renewable sources like PV systems for power generation. This article aims to compare the quadratic buck-boost converters in terms of structural difference, the total electric stress experienced by power semiconductor devices, efficiency, and few other features. Further, the reliability of these converters is estimated with the help of the Markov chain model, and converters are compared with a mean time to failure period. Finally, the merits and demerits of each converter are explained.

In this article, a component selection approach method is introduced to devise the new dc–dc converter topologies. This method is applied to the popular series-shunt structure to derive a family of fourth-order quadratic dc–dc buck-boost type converters consisting of two synchronously operating active switches and two diodes for a wide conversion ratio. Even though four proposed converters have the buck-boost ability, two of them can produce high step-up gain, which can be used in renewable energy and electric vehicle applications; the other two converters give high step-down voltage gain, which can be useful in applications such as portable electronic devices and integrated circuits. The proposed converters have low electric stress on power semiconductor devices for reduced power losses and increased efficiency. The operating principle, design, and the steady-state performance of proposed converters are presented along with their small-signal analysis. Furthermore, the proposed converters are compared with other buck-boost type converters in terms of voltage gain, electric stress on power semiconductor devices, the availability of continuous input, continuous output, common ground, and output polarity. Finally, experiments are conducted on a 100-W laboratory prototype to validate the performance of the proposed converters.

DC-DC non-isolated high gain converters are popular in various power conversion applications; in PV systems, these converters are operated as impedance matching system and used for regulating the output voltage to desired values. In this paper, a comprehensive comparison of performance indices of the converter such as components current-voltage stress, source-current, and load-voltage ripples of double gain (M=21-D) boost converter are analyzed.

High gain dc-dc converters are widely employed in applications like electric vehicles and renewable energy systems; among them, cost-effective voltage multiplier cell (VMC) based converters are popular. This paper aims to compare the VMC based converters having the gain more than classical boost type converter in terms of various performance indices namely -output voltage ripples, input current ripples, cost, and voltage, current stress of all components, and efficiency of the converter. Further, the Markov model approach is adopted to evaluate the reliability of high gain converters and the converters are compared in terms of mean time to failure. Finally, the merits and demerits of the converters are also discussed.

In this article, a high step up single input- multi output (SIMO) dc-dc converter fed multilevel inverter (MLI) with fewer components for PV systems is presented. The SIMO converter provides two different output voltages required for the 7-level MLI with lesser number of components and enables improved energy extraction from the PV system. The presented MLI structure produces the 7-level waveform at the output using six switches and two diodes which are less compared to traditional and recently proposed MLI topologies. A detailed analysis of both the DC-DC converter and proposed MLI topology is included in this paper. A comparison between the proposed MLI topology and other topologies is presented to show the merits of the proposed system. Simulation studies are carried out in the matlab/Simulink software and appropriate results are presented.