An Investigation of Capacitors for Flying Capacitor Converters

Abstract

Multi-level converters can essentially reduce harmonics even when their switching frequency is low. Among the various topologies of the multi-level converters, flying capacitor converters are considered to be promising converters for realizing high power density. However, the main circuit of the flying capacitor converters has many capacitors. Therefore, in this study, the volume of the capacitors in the flying capacitor converters is determined by taking into consideration the allowable ripple voltage and temperature rise in the capacitor.