A fuel cell-supercapacitor power supply for portable applications

Due to the increasing number and complexity of the available functions, modern handheld devices require higher and higher current slew rates. Customers' requirements lead to a growing interest in longer-lasting power, fast transient response power supply systems and minimization of system weight, volume and cost. Fuel cell based hybrid systems are designed to meet all requirements. In this paper, a fuel cell-supercapacitor hybrid power supply for portable applications is proposed. The power management subsystem is designed and simulation results are shown to test the efficiency of the control algorithm. ©2008 IEEE