Structure for double flying capacitor multicell converter; progressive double flying capacitor multicell converter

In this study, a novel developed structure of a converter based on double flying capacitor multi-cell named progressive double flying capacitor multicell (PDFCM) is proposed. The main advantage of this proposed structure compared with DFCM converter is generation of more output voltage levels while having the same number of devices. This novel converter´s structure is based on integration of two extended cells between the conventional cells in DFCM converter. PDFCM converter has various structural states which are named based on the number of units, consisting of two extended cells and one conventional cell. These structural states are changing by the increase of levels depending on the number of cells. Thus, the progressive increase of the number of produced levels of proposed converter is because of the increase in the number of the units. In fact, by appropriate selection of the proposed converter states, the number of levels in output voltage will be higher than those of conventional converters. This converter can be controlled either by open-loop, self-balancing or closed-loop methods. In addition, the switching method is based on space vector modulation. The simulation and experimental results confirm the validity and effectiveness of the presented converter.