Design and evaluation of hybrid switched capacitor converters for high voltage, high power density applications

This work investigates the use of hybrid switched capacitor converter (HSCC) topologies with wide bandgap devices to achieve high efficiency DC-DC power conversion with high gain, high voltage outputs. This class of converter may be useful for several applications that include a medium voltage bus, such as solar PV, electric aircraft, or even all-electric ship architectures. Three converter prototypes are considered and evaluated in hardware, including a basic (unipolar) HSCC and two bipolar HSCC variants. The converter operation is discussed, and the bipolar prototypes are demonstrated to achieve high-gain, high-voltage output. Finally, the latest bipolar switched capacitor prototype is demonstrated to boost 480 V to 10 kV (Gain > 20) with 97.9% efficiency at 4.96 kW output power.