Voltage Balancing in DC/DC Multilevel Boost Converters

This paper discusses the Multilevel Boost Converter, a DC-DC converter recently proposed. The DC-DC Multilevel Boost Converter is based on one inductor, one switch, 2N-1 diodes and 2N-1 capacitor, for an Nx converter, it is a boost converter able to control and maintain the same voltage in all the N output levels, and able to control the input current. The application proposed in this paper is the voltage balancing of the DC link in a diode clamped multilevel inverter, with the purpose to use it in renewable energy generation feed by a PV panel or by a fuel cell, where the DC input voltage needs to be boosted and regulated, a five level diode clamped multilevel inverter can be used to inject the power directly to the medium voltage distribution grid. The multilevel boost converter will balance the DC-link voltage; experimental results in a scaled low power prototype prove the proposition's principle.