Flying capacitors reduction in an improved double flying capacitor multicell converter controlled by a modified modulation method

This paper proposes an improved configuration of double flying capacitor multicell (DFCM) converter. The main advantages of the proposed converter, compared to the conventional DFCM converter, are the doubling of the number of output voltage levels and improvement of the output voltage frequency spectrum. This progress is achieved by adding only two low-power switches and one dc voltage source, whose voltage rating is a small fraction of the main dc-link voltage rating, to the conventional configuration of the DFCM converter. However, the number and voltage rating of high-frequency switches and capacitors and the number of high-frequency switchings during a full cycle are kept constant. The doubling of the number of output voltage levels in the proposed converter makes it possible to decrease the number of cells, the number of flying capacitors, as well as their voltage rating and the amount of stored energy in flying capacitors. Moreover, a modulation method based on phase-shifted carrier pulsewidth modulation is proposed to control the new converter. Simulation and measured experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed configuration and its control strategy.