Review and Outlook of Isolated Capacitive Coupling Based Converters

Isolation is a crucial requirement in various power electronics applications, including data center power supplies, telecom supplies, and electric vehicle chargers or dc microgrids. Conventionally, this isolation has been achieved through magnetic transformers, which, while effective, come with drawbacks such as increased volume, weight, and losses, ultimately reducing the power density. In response to these challenges, capacitive-based isolated converters have emerged as promising alternative solutions. These converters take advantage of the higher energy density of capacitors to improve both efficiency and power density. This paper provides a comprehensive review and outlook on capacitive-based isolated converters, highlighting their advantages over traditional transformer-based approaches. Various novel topologies are explored, including resonant and switched-capacitor converters, which eliminate the need for bulky magnetic elements, thus offering potential reductions in size, weight, and losses. Additionally, the fundamental operational principles and design considerations of these converters are discussed in the literature. This review aim to help improve and spread the use of new isolation methods in power electronics.