A 10- to 30-kHz Adjustable Frequency Resonant Full-Bridge Multicell Power Converter

The design and construction of a full-bridge flying capacitor multicell inverter (FCMI) composed of two legs is disclosed. Each leg consists of three switching cells. In order to control the power converter, a square wave signal switching technique has been used; the converter output frequency has increased at three times the switching frequency. Moreover, the system can be tuned by a variable inductor coupled with a high-voltage transformer allowing the FCMI to work under a resonance condition from 10- to 30-kHz frequency range. The goal of this converter is to generate a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) at atmospheric pressure applied in environmental remediation and biological interaction studies. The proposed inverter has been tested with two different DBD reactors, one of them intended for the degradation of organic compound metacresol dissolved in water.