A novel switched-capacitor based multilevel voltage boost inverter for EV interface

ABSTRACT

Lithium cells are connected in parallel and series to meet the current and voltage requirements in Electric vehicles (EV). Voltage and charge equaliser techniques are employed to protect the lithium cells. These equalisation circuits introduce the loss to the circuit, and the battery pack gets disconnected if any cell is faulty. Switched-capacitor converters have become an alternative to meet the voltage requirement. This article presents a voltage boost multilevel inverter configuration for electric vehicle applications. The proposed MLI features an inherent capacitor self-balancing capability and generates an output with a nine-level range. Algorithms for capacitor voltage balancing or additional sensor circuits are not required because of intrinsic self-balancing. For generating output levels, capacitors with a voltage source with an appropriate charging/discharging pattern are used. The proposed inverter doubles the output voltage for nine levels. A comparison of components, such as the number of semiconductors, diodes, gate driver circuits, and capacitors; system parameters such as voltage gain, blocking voltage, and TSV, is presented to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed MLI over recently developed topologies.

KEYWORDS:

• Multilevel inverter
• electric vehicle
• switched capacitor
• boosting gain
• self balancing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).