A general method for analyzing resonant and soft-charging operation of switched-capacitor converters

Yutian Lei, Robert Carl Nikolai Pilawa-Podgurski

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Traditionally, switched-capacitor (SC) converters have suffered from high transient currents, which limit both the efficiency and power density of such converters. Soft-charging operation can be employed to eliminate the current transients and greatly improve the power density of SC converters. In this approach, a second-stage magnetic converter is cascaded with the SC stage to act as a controlled current load. Another approach is to use resonant SC converters with zero-current switching. This paper shows that resonant and soft-charging operations of SC converters are closely related, and a technique will be proposed, which achieves either operation by adding a single inductor to existing SC topologies. In addition, since most preexisting resonant or soft-charging SC converters were devised in an ad-hoc manner, this paper formulates an analytical method that can determine whether an existing conventional SC converter topology is compatible with the proposed approach. A number of common SC topologies are analyzed, including Dickson, series-parallel, ladder, Fibonacci, and doubler configurations. Through comparison to simulated results, as well as experimental work, the proposed method is validated and a family of high-performance SC converters is obtained.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6977971
Pages (from-to)5650-5664
Number of pages15
JournalIEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
Volume30
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 1 2015

Keywords

  • resonant
  • soft-charging
  • switched-capacitor converter
  • zero current switching

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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