Switched-capacitor power electronics circuits

One of the main orientations in power electronics in the last decade has been the development of switching-mode converters without inductors and transformers. Light weight, small size and high power density are the result of using only switches and capacitors in the power stage of these converters. Thus, they serve as ideal power supplies for mobile electronic systems (e.g. cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and so forth). Switched-capacitor (SC) converters, with their large voltage conversion ratio, promise to be a response to such challenges of the 21st century as high-efficiency converters with low EMI emissions and the ability to realize steep step-down of the voltage (to 3 V or even a smaller supply voltage for integrated circuits) or steep step-up of the voltage for automotive industry or Internet services in the telecom industry. This paper is a tutorial of the main results in SC-converter research and design.