A Current-Programmed Modulator with Smooth Bin Transitions and Inherent Capacitor Voltage Balancing for Flying Capacitor Multilevel Converters

Current-programmed modulation offers improved natural balancing in flying capacitor multilevel converters. This work addresses the crucial challenge of transitioning steady-state operation across nominal duty ratios. Demonstrated steady-state discontinuity of a preliminary implementation is resolved by a more sophisticated modulator design featuring multiple reference currents. The proposed technique is demonstrated in hardware to achieve continuous full-range output voltage regulation and fast flying capacitor voltage balancing dynamics.