Switched-capacitor inverter with high power density and enhanced regulation capability

Abstract

A DC-AC inverter containing no inductors or transformers is presented. The role of the magnetic devices is played by a switched-capacitor (SC) circuit, formed by two subcircuits. Each SC-subcircuit contains 15 basic cells, each one formed by one capacitor, two MOSFETs and two diodes. The sinusoidal output waveform is realized in a staircase, formed by 64 steps. To achieve each step, the inverter operates like a step-up DC-DC converter: by using a certain number of SC-cells, the input voltage is boosted to the voltage required by the step in consideration. Each step is implemented in a large number of switching cycles. In each cycle, the inverter goes through four phases; according to a designed switching sequence, some of the capacitors of the SC-cells involved in the respective step are in a charging process from line, while the others are in a discharging process to the load. The phases 2 and 4 have a regulation role only. A duty cycle control is used. A Fourier analysis evidences the clean AC output waveform. The inverter exhibits low weight, high power density, and enhanced regulation for large changes in line and load.