An Input-Parallel-Output-Series Switched-Capacitor Three-level Boost Converter with a Three-Loop Control Strategy

Abstract

There has been increasing interest for industry applications, such as solar power generation, fuel cell systems, and dc microgrids, in step-up dc-dc converters with reduced number of components, low component stress, small input ripples and high step-up ratios. In this paper, an input-parallel-output-series three-level boost (IPOS-SC-TLB) converter is proposed. In addition to achieving the required performance, the input and output terminals can share the same ground and an automatic current balance function is also achieved in the IPOS-SC-TLB converter. Besides, a capacitor voltage imbalance mechanism was revealed and a three-loop control strategy composed of output voltage loop, input current loop and voltage-balance loop was proposed to address the voltage imbalance issue. Finally both simulation and experiment studies have been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the IPOS-SC-TLB converter and the three-loop control strategy.