A high-efficiency modular switched-capacitor converter with continuously variable conversion ratio

The multilevel modular capacitor clamped converter (MMCCC) topology overcomes the difficulties of the multilevel switched capacitor (SC) based dc-to-dc converters in high conversion ratio applications. MMCCC is completely modular and has many other advantageous features. Like most other SC converters, MMCCC suffers from limited voltage regulation. The conversion ratio of an ideal MMCCC converter in step-up mode is an integer, and this integer conversion ratio depends on the number of active modules. The maximum conversion ratio in step-up configuration for a k-module MMCCC is (k+1). It has already been shown in literature that different integer CRs can be achieved by changing the number of active modules of an MMCCC. Achieving voltage regulation by lowering the operating frequency is another well known technique for switched capacitor converters. However, the output voltage ripple increases in inverse proportion of the frequency. In this paper, a new switching scheme is proposed for MMCCC to achieve continuously variable CRs. The proposed switching scheme requires introducing a small inductor in each module of the MMCCC without altering the modular structure of the converter. This additional inductor can be realized using the stray inductance distributed in the circuit or small external inductors. It has been shown that continuous CR variation with lower output ripple can be achieved without lowering the operating frequency of the converter. This proposed method introduces another degree of freedom in order to achieve variable CR using MMCCC. Simulation results and experimental results obtained from an MMCCC prototype have been used to validate the new control scheme.