A Novel Carrier Based Precharging Technique for Single-Phase Odd-Level Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters (FCMCs)

Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converter (FCMC) needs all its flying-capacitors charged to the appropriate voltage levels during stat-up. This paper presents a novel carrier based precharging technique for single-phase odd-level FCMCs. A new set of modified phase-shifted carrier signals are derived for precharging. These carrier signals when compared to zero modulation signal, ensure the synthesisation of sufficient number of zero output voltage switching modes (zero-modes) of the converter. The proposed precharging technique is detailed using a five-level FCMC and then generalized to higher odd-level FCMCs. State-space averaging models are derived to validate the proposed technique mathematically. Extensive simulation and experimental results are provided to validate the functionality of the proposed technique.