Evaluation of a flyback regenerative voltage equalisation circuit for series-connected supercapacitor stacks

This paper investigates the various aspects of designing and exploiting a flyback type of regenerative voltage equalizer circuit for supercapacitor stacks consisting of multiple cells. The impact of circuit parameters (magnetising inductance, peak current), operating modes (constant switching frequency or constant peak current) and duration of equalising are investigated in detail on a predefined four supercapacitor cells stack from the point of view of energy efficiency and effectiveness of equalising. Finally, the performance of the active-regenerative equalising circuit is compared to the performance of an active-dissipative circuit, concluding that it offers better efficiency, performs a more effective voltage equalising and, due to using a single active device, may even be more economical to build.