Quad-port magnetic integrated coupled inductor based magnetic network energy routers with high power density

The magnetic network energy router (MNER) is promising for applications integrating multiple renewable sources, storages, and loads with the advantages of low component requirement, high efficiency, and high controllability. Power density is essential for MNERs, which is mainly restricted due to the use of multiple magnetic components, including the high-frequency transformer (HF-TF) and branch inductor (BI). This article proposes a quad-port magnetic integrated coupled inductor (MICI) based MNER with high power density. In the proposed quad-port MICI-MNER, the HF-TF and four BIs are magnetically integrated with a customized magnetic core, and the MNER's ports are partially magnetically coupled with each other to achieve the required power transfer. The detailed modeling and design for the proposed quad-port MICI are further developed. The proposed quad-port MICI can achieve high power density and reduce the size of the quad-port MNER. Simulation studies with the professional tools PLECS and Ansys/Electronics are conducted and a down-scale quad-port MICI-MNER prototype is built in the laboratory. The results both confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed quad-port MICI-MNER.