Switched capacitor DC-DC converters have features that make them ideal for many industries, including the aerospace and automotive industries. The converter solely relies on switches and capacitors to accomplish the energy transfer task. Additionally, this converter does not require the use of magnetic components to operate, thus enabling the switched capacitor circuit to be small, lightweight, and more immune to EMI problems, making it possible for the whole converter to be manufactured on a single IC chip. This study develops the design and implementation of modular multilevel switched capacitor DC-DC converters. The converter takes two charge pump paths feed the load directly, leading to less power loss in the energy transfer, and making the output voltage almost ripple-free. The converter is suitable for high voltage gain applications. This study also investigates the feasibility of implementing the converter with output power of 200 W for the photovoltaic (PV) applications using the TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor) T25HV process. A four-stage 8X converter has been developed and the circuit is fabricated in TSMC T25HV process. The simulation and experiment results are presented, and some issues regarding maximizing output power are also addressed.
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