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Published in IET Power Electronics
Received on 31st October 2012
Revised on 21st April 2013
Accepted on 11th May 2013
doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2013.0015

ISSN 1755-4535

Multi-input voltage-summation converter based on

switched-capacitor
Ye Yuan-mao, Ka Wai Eric Cheng
Department of Electrical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This study is to propose a multi-input converter which is designed based on switched-capacitor instead of magnetic
components. The number of its inputs can be any figure. The output voltage level of the converter is the summation of its
multiple input levels which share with a common neutral. There is no need to have any level-shift or boost-strap for adjusting
the inputs. The number of active switches and capacitors required both are equal to the number of input sources. Only a pair
of complementary pulse signals is needed to control all of these switches. The converter is operated under high frequency.
Non-resonant version does not require resonant inductors and therefore they are of small size and simple structure. Small
resonant inductor is also added in the resonant version to realise soft-switching and improve the conversion efficiency. The
circuit analysis, design method and experimental verification are shown.

1 Introduction The switched-capacitor-based high step-up and step-down

converters are also reported in [8, 9]. Both of them consist of
With the continuous development of new energy technologies, different switched-capacitor cells to convert the input voltage
multi-input converters (MIC) cause a substantial attention for to very high voltage level or very low level. Luo and Ye [10]
researchers globally. MICs have a high regard for multiple presented the lifting circuit which is produced by combining
renewable energy sources used in smart grid systems, switched-capacitor and voltage lifting technique, and
especially for distributed generators. In the literatures [1–8], Ben-Yaakov [11] developed the loss analysis for switched-
some topologies of MICs have been presented to combine capacitor converters that is crucial for the design of switched-
different types of DC power inputs to obtain the regulated capacitor power converters. Moreover, switched-capacitor
DC output voltage. Specifically, a MIC topology based on technique has been also used for connecting multiple
Buck-boost configuration is proposed by Dobbs and piezoelectric transformer converters in [12], which solves the
Chapman in [1], which is actually just suitable for multiple problem that multiple piezoelectric-transformer-based DC–DC
current-source inputs. In [2], a general approach for converters cannot be connected in series because the input and
developing MIC is introduced by Liu and Chen and they also output of piezoelectric transformer are shared with the same
have proposed a multi-winding-transformer-based MIC for neutral. Moreover, it has also been applied to battery string
renewable energy applications in [3]. A newly designed ZVS equalisation system in [13] to implement the
MIC is introduced in [4]. The converters presented in [2, 4] zero-current-switching zero-voltage-gap for multiple battery
both are actually developed by connecting different cells. However, for the switched-capacitor technique used in
switched-mode power conversion cells (including Buck, multiple inputs application, there are few literatures related to
Boost, Buck-boost, Cuk, Zeta and SEPIC) in different this research.
structures and these converters are mainly designed for In order to use switched-capacitor technique to develop a
dual-input applications. However, the MICs applied in PV power conversion circuit for multiple inputs applications, a
system are also presented in [5, 6]. A common characteristic multi-input voltage summation converter based on
for all these MICs is that they employed one or more switched-capacitor is presented in this paper. The topology
magnetic components. is shown in Fig. 1a, which consists of multiple
Switched-capacitor-based DC–DC converters also have switched-capacitor cells. Each cell employs one active
aroused significant attention because of its simple structure, switch, one capacitor and two diodes. Taking into account
smaller size and lighter weight. Many switched-capacitor the switch Q0 and the output filter capacitor CO, the total
converters and their applications therefore have been reported number of active switches and capacitors required in the
in [7–13]. In literature [7], the double, half and inverse voltage proposed converter both are equal to the number of the
level converters based on resonant switched-capacitor are input sources. When the active switches are controlled by a
presented by Cheng. All these converters are designed based pair of complementary pulse signals with high frequency
on single input and the excellent work for zero-current and fixed duty ratio 0.5 as shown in Fig. 1b, the average
switching by using resonant technique is introduced in detail. voltage across each switched-capacitor can be seen as equal

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design of the present topologies is the extension of the
previous subtraction circuit and two-input circuits, the
topology is novel as well as generic and can be applied to
indefinite input levels. Moreover, their design concepts and
applications are special and are the key points of the present
research works.
This paper is organised as follows: Section 2 introduces
the operation principle and the voltage conversion feature of
the proposed converter. The optimisation method and the
resonant version of the proposed circuit are analysed in
Section 3. The experimental verification is given in Section
4. Finally, the paper is concluded in Section 5.

2 Circuit analysis for the proposed converter

2.1 Three-input version of the proposed converter

The three-input voltage summation version is shown in

Fig. 2a. According to the difference of the switching states,
there are two working states for the voltage conversion circuit.

Fig. 1 Topology and control strategy for the proposed multi-input

voltage summation converter
a Topology
b Control strategy

to the corresponding input voltage, that is VCi = Vi (i = 1,

2, …, n), provided that the value of the switched-capacitor
is large enough and the switching frequency is high
enough. With the large output filter capacitor CO, the output
voltage can be constant and is equal to the sum of the
multiple input voltages.
Same as other switched-capacitor circuits, the small
resonant inductor is also used to optimise performance of
the proposed converter, so that the switches can be turned
ON and OFF under soft-switching condition and the
converter can maintain high efficiency [7].
Compared with the MICs aforementioned, the proposed
converter employs only capacitors and switches for transfer
power and no magnetic components are employed in it. It
therefore can be designed in small size and even in an
integrated circuit. When the circuit needs to be upgraded
from the number of N inputs to N + i, only the number of i
switched-capacitor cells are required to be added to it. The
circuit is therefore easy to design and more suitable for
large number of inputs applications.
In previous work, although we have developed the
dual-input switched-capacitor converters which are capable
of converting the two input voltages in different levels in
[14], they are limited to dual-input applications. In [15], the
multi-port voltage subtracting circuit is presented but its
output level is the difference of one input level from all
other input levels and it is limited to this particular
application. The power actually flows into only one port,
and all other ports are configured for output terminals to
achieve this effect [15].
The converter proposed in this paper is totally different
from the previous works. It is mainly designed for multiple
inputs applications and the number of inputs is not limited.
Moreover, the power flows into all input terminals and then Fig. 2 Three-input version of the proposed MIC
out from only its output terminal. Its circuit configuration is
a Topology
still based on switched-capacitor techniques and b Charging state
complemented by zero-current resonance. Although the c Discharging state

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When the switch Q0 is turned ON whereas Q1 and Q2 being
OFF, D10, D11, D20 and D21 are forward biased, DO is reverse
biased. V1, D11, C1, D10 and Q0 form a closed loop, and V1
charges to C1 and the voltage across C1 is the same level as
V1. V2, D21, C2, D20 and Q0 form another closed loop, and
C2is charged by V2 and the voltage across C2 is therefore
the same level as V2. The state circuit is shown in Fig. 2b.
When Q1 and Q2 are turned ON whereas Q0 being OFF,
D10, D11, D20 and D21 are reverse biased and DO is forward
biased as shown in Fig. 2c. C1 and C2 are connected in
series with V0 and deliver the total voltage level to the
output capacitor CO, so the voltage across CO is the same as
the total voltage, that is, VCo = V0 + VC1 + VC2 the voltage
is also the output voltage of the converter.
When the two capacitors C1 and C2 both are larger enough
and the two working states operate alternatively in high
frequency, their voltage ripples during the two states can be
neglected and their average voltages are constant and the
same as V1 and V2, respectively. The relationship of the
output and inputs for the converter can be therefore
expressed as the following equation
⎧
⎨ VC1 = V1
V = V2 (1)
⎩ C2
VO = V0 + V1 + V2

The conclusions can be easily verified by Fig. 3 which is

the simulation waveform of the three-input voltage
summation converter. The input voltages V0, V1 and V2 are
equal to 12, 15 and 24 V, respectively. The capacitances of
Fig. 4 State circuits for the proposed voltage summation converter
C1 and C2 both are 10 μF, and CO is 22 μF. The load RL is
a Charging state
50 Ω pure resistor and the switching frequency is 150 kHz. b Discharging state
It can be seen that the voltage across capacitor C1 is about
15 V which is the same as the input voltage V1. The
capacitor voltage VC2 is the same as the input voltage V2, the input source Vi (i = 1, 2, …, n), as shown in Fig. 4a.
both are 24 V. Moreover, the output voltage is about 50 V The voltage across the switched-capacitor Ci is finally the
which is just slightly lower than the sum of the three input same as the input voltage Vi. When the switch Q0 is turned
voltages, 51 V. OFF whereas other switches are turned ON, all
switched-capacitors are connected in series with the input
2.2 General version of the proposed converter source V0 and discharge to the output filter capacitor and
load as shown in Fig. 4b. The output voltage is therefore
Similarly, for the general circuit configuration of the proposed the sum of their voltage levels.
multi-input voltage-summation converter as shown in Fig. 1a, Based on the same assumption that the values of all
there are also two working states according to different capacitors are large enough and the two working states
switching conditions. When the switch Q0 is turned ON operate alternatively in high frequency and idealised
whereas other switches being OFF, all diodes are forward devices without voltage drop, the relationship of output
biased except DO, the switched-capacitor Ci is charged by voltage and input voltages for the multi-input voltage
summation converter can be easily derived and is given in
the following equation
⎧
⎨ VCi = Vi

n (2)
⎩ VO = V0 + Vi i = 1, 2, 3, . . . , n
i=1

3 Optimisation of the proposed converter by

using resonant technology
3.1 Resonant technology and circuit analysis

Same as other non-resonant switched-capacitor converters,

the proposed converter also have the same disadvantage:
switching current transient is very high and oscillatory
Fig. 3 Simulation waveforms for the three-input voltage because the devices are operated at hard-switching; the
summation converter induced electromagnetic interference is also large and the

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efficiency is difficult to be improved. Therefore the
non-resonant version introduced in previous sections is
mainly to describe the novel idea and circuit topologies and
it just can be used for low power applications. For high
power applications, soft-switching technology must be
achieved in this converter. Resonant technology is widely
used to achieve soft-switching in switched-capacitor
converters. It completes its resonant feature by adding a
small inductor connected in series with switched-capacitor
to form a resonant branch. When the switching frequency
of the converter is lower than the resonant frequency, the
resonant branch current changes in sinusoidal manner
during each switching state and all switches are turned ON
and OFF under zero-current. The current spike is therefore
eliminated and efficiency is improved [7]. Hence, this
soft-switching technology is also continually used to
optimise the proposed converter.
Fig. 5 shows the topology of three-input voltage
summation resonant converter. Compared with the
non-resonant version, just only two small resonant inductors
L1 and L2 are added to connect in series with C1 and C2,
respectively. The operational strategy of switches is the
same as that in non-resonant version. Q1 and Q2 are turned
ON in the same half switching cycle and Q0 is turned ON
in another half cycle. However, the resonant version works
in four different states during each switching cycle as
shown in Fig. 6 which is the idealised waveform of
Fig. 6 Idealised waveform for the three-input resonant converter
three-input resonant voltage summation converter.
This flowing analysis is based on the assumptions that:
The state circuit is shown in Fig. 7a. The expressions of the
1. Switching frequency is lower than all of resonant voltages across C1 and C2 and resonant current are given by
frequencies, to achieve the usual zero-current switching
conditions for resonant switched-capacitor [7]. 
VC1 = V1 − DVC1 cos v1 (t − t0 )
2. All components are ideal, that is there is no voltage drop (3)
iL1 = IL1 sin v1 (t − t0 )
and on-resistance for any device.
3. The output filter capacitor is large enough and there is no
ripple for output voltage, that is the output terminal can be 
VC2 = V2 − DVC2 cos v2 (t − t0 )
seen as a constant voltage source VO. (4)
iL2 = IL2 sin v2 (t − t0 )

( i) Charging of Ci (state I: t0 − t1): When Q0 is turned ON

whereas Q1 and Q2 being OFF, V1, D11, L1, C1, D10 and Q0 where V1 and V2 are the input voltages; DVC1 and DVC2 are
form a resonant closed loop, C1 begin to be charged and the oscillation amplitudes of capacitor voltages
the loop current increases from zero. If the stray resistance VC1 and VC2 , respectively; IL1 and IL2 are the amplitudes of
of the loop circuit the resonant currents iL1 and iL2 , respectively. ω1 and ω2 are
is ignored, the resonant frequency is
equal to 1/2p L1 C1 and the resonant current will vary in a resonant
 angular frequencies,
  and are equal to
sinusoidal manner. At the same time, another resonant loop 1/ L1 C1 and 1/ L2 C2 , respectively.
which is formed by V2, D21, L2, C2, D20 and Q0 works (ii) Isolated island state 1(state II: t1–t2): When the
in

the same manner and its resonant frequency is 1/2p L2 C2 . resonant currents of the two resonant loops both change
back to zero again after half a period of resonant frequency.
The resonance stops because D11, D10, D21 and D20 are
reverse biased. The state circuit is shown in Fig. 7b.
Resonant currents will remain zero and the voltage across
C1 and C2 will maintain their maximum values as the
following equation


VC1 = V1 + DVC1
(5)
VC2 = V2 + DVC2

(iii) Discharging of Ci (state III: t2–t3): Afterwards, Q1, Q2

are turned ON and Q0 is turned OFF, all diodes except DO
are reverse biased, Q1, C1, L1, Q2, C2, L2, DO and CO form
the common resonant closedloop as shown in Fig. 7c. The

resonant frequency is 1/2p Leq Ceq , and Leq and Ceq are
Fig. 5 Three-input resonant version of the proposed converter the equivalent capacitance and inductance of the resonant

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Capacitors C1 and C2 are connected in series with V0 and
begin to discharge to CO. When the output filter capacitor
CO is large enough, the output voltage VO will maintain a
constant, that is, VO = V0 + VC1 + VC2 . The resonant
loop current changes in a new sine wave manner and the
voltages across C1, C2 are given as

VC1 = V1 + DVC1 cos v0 t − t2

(7)
VC2 = V2 + DVC2 cos v0 t − t2

iL1 = iL2 = −IL12 sin v0 (t − t2 ) (8)

where IL12 is the amplitude of the discharging current. v0 is

the
new resonant angular frequency, and it is equal to
1/ Leq Ceq .
(iv) Isolated island state 2 (state IV: t3–t4): After half a
period of the new resonant frequency, the discharging
current changes back to zero. The circuit becomes an
isolated island state again because all diodes including DO
are reverse biased. The state circuit is shown in Fig. 7d.
The state parameters will remain unchanged until the next
switching cycle. Compared with state II, the difference is
the voltages across C1 and C2 will be unchanged in their
minimum values as the following equation

VC1 = V1 − DVC1
(9)
VC2 = V2 − DVC2

When the parameters of the two resonant branches are designed

to be the same, that is, C1 = C2 and L1 = L2, the two resonant
frequencies ω1 and ω2 in ‘state I’ are equal. The resonant
currents of the two resonant loops both vary in the same
manner and the oscillation amplitudes of capacitor voltages
VC1 and VC2 are also the same. The only difference between
the two resonant branches is the average voltages across C1
and C2 are the copy of V1 and V2, respectively. Moreover,
when the value of output filter capacitor CO is far larger
than C1 and C2, the equivalent capacitance and inductance
of the resonant loop in ‘state III’ are: Ceq ≃ C1 /2 = C2 /2
and Leq = 2L1 = 2L2, respectively. Moreover, the new
resonant angular frequency ω0 is approximately equal to ω1
and ω2. The amplitude of discharging current for C1 and C2
is also approximately equal to their charging current
amplitudes, that is, IL12 ≃ IL1 = IL2 .

3.2 Oscillation amplitude analysis and design

considerations

In the proposed voltage conversion circuit, each

switched-capacitor Ci experiences two processes of
charging and discharging during each switching cycle. The
Fig. 7 State circuits of the three-input resonant converter amount of charges flowing through the resonant inductor
a State I (Li) in the two processes should be equal and are the same
b State II amount of charges flowing though the load during one
c State III switching cycle. The amount of charges flowing through the
d State IV switches Q1–Qi should be equal and are also the same
amount of charges flowing though resonant inductors
loop, they are equal to during discharging process. Moreover, all the amount of
⎧ charges flowing though all resonant inductors during
⎨ Leq = L1 + L2 charging process do flow though Q0. The above analysis
C1 C2 CO (6) can be easily verified by Fig. 8 which is the simulation
⎩ Ceq = waveforms of the three-input resonant voltage summation
C1 C2 + C2 CO + C1 CO
converter. The current oscillation amplitude therefore can

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2. The values of all switched-capacitors Ci (i = 1, 2, 3, …, n)
should be equal. From (14), the values can be determined by
the requirements of the oscillation amplitude of VCi and
output current, that is

IO TS
Ci = (15)
2DVCi

3. The all resonant inductors L1, L2 … and Ln also should be

the same and their values can be calculated by

Ti = 2p Li Ci (16)

that is

Ti2
Li = (17)
4p2 Ci

4. The value of the output filter capacitors CO should be

Fig. 8 Simulation waveforms of the three-input resonant converter much larger than switched-capacitor Ci and can be
estimated by the basic capacitor voltage ripple. In detail,
during the states I, II and IV, the output current IO is totally
be calculated as follows provided by the filter capacitor CO because the output diode
DO is reverse biased. For the state III, DO is forward biased
TS and its current changes from zero at the time t2 in the sine
ILi = pIO (10) wave manner, which is the same as the current flowing
Ti
though Q1 and Q2. The capacitor CO continues to discharge
or to the load until the diode current reaches to larger than the
load current IO. Defining the angle θ as the diode current
I TS changes from zero to the load current IO, or from IO back to
ILi = O (11) zero as shown in Fig. 6. It could be therefore derived
2 Li Ci from (8) and (10) and then expressed as the following
equation
where Ti is the period of the resonant frequency of the
resonant branch Li and Ci, IO is the average output current, T0
TS is the period of switching frequency. Moreover, the u = sin−1 (18)
pTS
relationship of DVCi and ILi is

 where T0 = 1/ 2p Leq Ceq . The charge amount DQCO
Li flowing out the capacitor CO during one switching cycle
DVCi = ILi (12) can be calculated by (19) and also expressed in (20)
Ci
  (u/2p)T0  
T0 TS
DQCO = IO TS − +2 IO − pIO sin v0 t dt
So the oscillation amplitude of the voltage across Ci is 2 0 T0
 (19)
T Li
DVCi = pIO S (13) DQCO = DVCO CO (20)
Ti Ci

or where DVCO is the voltage ripple across the output filter

capacitor CO, ω0 is the resonant angular frequency and
IO T S equal to 2π/T0. The filter capacitor determination equation
DVCi = (14) therefore can be derived form (19) and (20) and then
2Ci
expressed as
Based on the above analysis, the circuit parameters can be   
IO T u
decided according to the following steps: CO = TS cos u − 0 1 − 2 (21)
DVCO 2 p
1. The switching frequency is not restricted by the circuit
topology. It is usually selected to be high to promote high 4 Experimental results
frequency operation provided that switching device can
handle. Suitable choice is 50–250 kHz. The resonant In order to verify the above analysis, a low-power three-input
frequency should be determined to meet the requirement of switched-capacitor voltage summation converter prototype
zero-current switching, that is, Ti ≤ TS . has been built. The resonant parameters are designed as C1 =

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Fig. 10 Efficiency against load of the three-input voltage

summation converter

C2 = 1.1 μF and L1 = L2 = 2.3 μH. Output filter capacitor CO =

47 μF. The resonant frequencies in charging and discharging
states are all therefore close to 100 kHz. The switching
frequency therefore can be set from 50 to 100 kHz. Input
sources V0, V1 and V2 are selected to be 20, 15 and 20 V.
The load is an adjustable resistor whose resistance can be
shifted from 20 to 100 Ω. Three IRF1010ZPBF MOSFETs
are selected as active switches Q0, Q1 and Q2. Their on-state
resistances are about 5 mΩ. Five DSSK40-008B diodes are
selected to play the roles of other non-active switches DO,
D10–D21.
Fig. 9 shows the waveforms of the prototype operating in
70 kHz switching frequency and with 45 Ω load. The output
voltage measured is 49.6 V which is just slightly lower than
the mathematical value V0 + V1 + V2, that is, 55 V,
because of the voltage drops of the switching devices.
Fig. 9a shows the control signals of switches Q0, Q1 and
Q2. Q0 is turned ON one half of the switching cycle, and
Q1, Q2 are turned ON simultaneously during another half
cycle. Their current waveforms are shown in Fig. 9b. It can
be seen that all switches Q0, Q1 and Q2 are turned ON and
OFF under zero-current. The current waveforms flowing
though switched-capacitors C1 and C2 are shown in Fig. 9c.
Their variations are basically the same. Fig. 9d shows the
voltage waveforms of switched-capacitors and output voltage.
Efficiency is a very important design specification. When
the load is changed, the conversion efficiency cannot
maintain constant because of the circuit loss. However, the
switches turned ON and OFF under zero current, the
circuits can maintain very high conversion efficiency in a
wide range of load. It has been verified by the experimental
measured results as shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that
the three-input voltage summation resonant converter has
the maximum efficiency of 93%.

5 Conclusions
Fig. 9 Experimental waveforms for the three-input voltage
summation resonant converter A novel multi-input DC–DC converter is presented in this
a Control signals: upper, Vgs of Q0 (10 V/div); middle, Vgs of Q1 (10 V/div); paper. The proposed converter is composed of multiple
lower, Vgs of Q2 (10 V/div); time base (5 μs/div) switched-capacitor cells, each of which consists of one
b Currents of active switches: upper, iQ0 (5 A/div); middle, iQ1 (5 A/div); active switch, one switched capacitor and two diodes. This
lower, iQ2 (5 A/div); time base (5 μs/div) structure is therefore very simple and easy to be upgraded
c Currents of switched-capacitor: upper, iC1 (5 A/div); lower, iC2 (5 A/div);
time base (5 μs/div) for large number of inputs applications and the number can
d Voltages: upper, VC1 (10 V/div); lower, VC2 (10 V/div); lower, VO (50 V/ be from 2 to unlimited. The multiple inputs and output
div); time base (5 μs/div) terminals are shared on a common neutral and the output

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1916 IET Power Electron., 2013, Vol. 6, Iss. 9, pp. 1909–1916

& The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2013 doi: 10.1049/iet-pel.2013.0015