Data brief

For further information contact your local STMicroelectronics sales office.

August 2011

Doc ID 022089 Rev 1

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STEVAL-ISV009V1

300 W photovoltaic converter demonstration board

based on the SPV1020

Features

0.2% accuracy

protection

improved efficiency during low solar radiation

Description

The STEVAL-ISV009V1 demonstration board is

based on the SPV1020, which is a monolithic DC-

DC boost converter designed to maximize the

power generated by photovoltaic panels

independent of temperature and amount of solar

radiation.

The optimization of the power conversion is

obtained with embedded logic which performs the

MPPT (max power point tracking) algorithm on

the PV cells connected to the converter.

One or more converters can be housed in the

connection box of the PV panels, replacing the

bypass diodes and, thanks to the fact that the

maximum power point is locally computed, the

efficiency at system level is higher than that of

conventional topologies, where the MPP is

computed in the main centralized inverter.

For a cost effective application solution and

miniaturization needs, the SPV1020 embeds the

power MOSFETs for active switches and

synchronous rectification, minimizing the number

of external devices necessary. Furthermore, the

4-phase interleaved topology of the DC-DC

converter eliminates the need for electrolytic

capacitors, which would severely limit lifetime.

It works at a fixed frequency in PWM mode,

where the duty cycle is controlled by the

embedded logic running a “perturb & observe”

MPPT algorithm. The switching frequency,

internally generated and set by default at 100

kHz, is externally tunable, while the duty cycle can

range from 5% to 90% with a step of 0.2%.

Safety of the application is guaranteed by

stopping the drivers in case of output overvoltage

or overtemperature.

STEVAL-ISV009V1

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