Sneak Circuit Analysis in n-Stage Resonant Switched Capacitor Converters

Based on graph theory, this paper proposed a general method to analyze sneak circuit paths in n-stage resonant switched capacitor (RSC) converters. Firstly, the w-stage step-up RSC converter was simplified into the directed graph. Then all of the possible paths in the converter could be obtained by calculating the connection matrix. Based on the operating principle of RSC converter, the useless paths had been gotten rid of, and the effective ones were left. Comparing the effective paths with the normal operating condition, sneak circuit paths could be found out. At last, the proposed sneak circuit analysis method has been verified in a 3-stage step-up RSC converter.