Two Impedance-Network DC-DC Converters Based
on Switched-Capacitor Techniques
2nd Guidong Zhang
1st Zhiyang Wang
School of automation
School of automation
Guangdong University of Technology
Guangdong University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
Guangzhou, China
guidong.zhang@gdut.edu.cn
2111604018@mail2.gdut.edu.cn
4th Yun Zhang
School of automation
Guangdong University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
yun@gdut.edu.cn
Abstract—This paper devises two impedance-network DC-
DC converters based on switched-capacitor techniques to
realize high voltage gain. Compared to the traditional ones, the
proposed ones vary the position of a diode and add only a
capacitor and diode to increase the voltage gain. Moreover, the
proposed ones have the same voltage stresses of all diodes,
capacitors, and switch, which helps to choose components and
reduce economic costs. In order to verify their features, their
detailed analysis is demonstrated and compared with
traditional converters. Finally, simulation results are
conducted to validate their effectiveness.
Keywords—switched-capacitor, impedance-network, step-up
DC-DC converter
I. INTRODUCTION
High-step-up DC-DC converters play a key role in
renewable energy systems [1-4]. As shown in Fig. 1, a high-
step-up DC-DC converter is used to boost the low DC
voltage to a high DC voltage for a typical photovoltaic (PV)
application [5]. During the past couple of decades, various
topologies have been developed for the step-up applications
[6-15]. They are divided into two types, non-isolated and
isolated. An isolated step-up DC-DC converter needs a high-
frequency transformer, which is hard to design and may
cause high voltage spike on the switches. Compared to
isolated converters, non-isolated DC-DC converters have the
advantages of simple structure and low cost.
Fig. 1. A typical photovoltaic (PV) application.
The introduction of non-isolated DC-DC converters will
be introduced from the two parts of coupled-inductor-based
step-up DC-DC and non-coupled-inductor step-up DC-DC
converter. By increasing the turn ratio of the coupled
inductor, the voltage gain of coupled-inductor-based DC-DC
converters can be high. However, it may increase the leakage
inductance to cause a high voltage spike on the switches. To
avoid the high voltage spike, various non-coupled-inductor
step-up converters have been proposed. They are cascaded
[6-7], voltage-lift [8-9], switched-inductor [10-11], switched-
capacitor (SC) [12-13], active-switched switched-inductor
[14], and their combination [15-16].
978-1-5386-6054-6/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
3rd Sizhe Chen
School of automation
Guangdong University of Technology
Guangzhou, China
sizhe.chen@gdut.edu.cn
However, the duty cycle of the abovementioned non-
coupled-inductor step-up DC-DC converters is work in the
range of 0-1. Generally, a large duty cycle will be used to
achieve a high voltage gain. It means that high conduction
losses on switches will be generated. To reduce the loss of
switch, a Z-source DC-DC converter (ZSC) and q-Z-source
DC-DC converter (qZSC) are proposed in [17] and [18] to
decrease the duty cycle to 0-0.5. The circuit structure of ZSC
and qZSC are shown in Fig .2(a) and 2(b).
Fig. 2. (a)Z-source DC-DC converter and (b) q-Z-source DC-DC converter.
This paper proposes two impedance-network DC-DC
converters based on switched-capacitor techniques to obtain
high-step-up voltage gain. The proposed converters have
simple structure, low switch conduction loss with a small
duty cycle.
The proposed converters will be analyzed in Section II.
Then, Section III gives a detailed comparison between the
traditional converters and the proposed ones. To verify the
effectiveness, simulations are presented in Section IV and a
conclusion is drawn in Section V.
II. PROPOSED CONVERTERS
The proposed two impedance-network DC-DC
converters are improvements of ZSC and qZSC named
switched-capacitor-based Z-source DC-DC converter
(SCZSC) and quasi-Z-source DC-DC converter (SCqZSC),
which are shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b). They consist of
two inductors (L1 and L2), four capacitors (C1-C4), three
diodes (D1-D3), one switch (S1), and a load (R). Fig. 4(a) and
Fig. 4(b) show the key waveforms of the proposed SCZSC
and SCqZSC, respectively. To simplify the operation
analysis, the following assumptions are made.
1) All components are ideal;
2) All converters work in continuous conduction mode
(CCM);
 VC1 Son

vL2 =  . (2)
Vin − VC2 Soff

Then, according to the volt-second balance law of

inductors L1 and L2, the voltages across capacitors C1 and C2
can be derived as
1− D
VC1 = VC2 = Vin , (3)
1 − 2D
where D is the duty cycle of S1, Vin is the input voltage.
Then, according to Fig. 5, the voltage across capacitor C3
and output voltage can be written as
Fig. 3. Proposed converters: (a) switched-capacitor-based Z-source DC-DC
1
converter and (b) switched-capacitor-based quasi-Z-source DC-DC VC3 = VC1 + VC2 −Vin = Vin , (4)
converter. 1 − 2D
and
2−D
iL1 IL1 iL1 I L1 VO = VC3 + VC1 = Vin . (5)
1 − 2D
iL2 I L2 iL2 I L2
B. Switched-Capacitor-Based Quasi-Z-Source DC-DC
vL1 VC2 vL1 VC1 Converter
The equivalent circuits of the proposed SCqZSC are
Vin − VC1 −VC2 shown in Fig. 6.
VC1 Vin + VC2
vL2 vL2
Vin − VC2 Vin − VC1

Fig. 4. Key waveforms of the proposed converters: (a) switched-capacitor-

based Z-source DC-DC converter and (b) switched-capacitor-based quasi-Z-
source DC-DC converter.

A. Switched-Capacitor-Based Z-Source DC-DC Converter

The equivalent circuits of the proposed SCZSC are shown
in Fig. 5.

Fig. 6. Equivalent circuits of SCqZSC during (a) switch-on and (b) switch-
off.

The voltages across inductors L1 and L2 are

Vin + VC2 Son


vL1 =  , (6)
Vin − VC1 Soff

and
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuits of SCZSC (a) switch-on and (b) switch-off. VC1 Son

vL2 =  . (7)
The voltages across inductors L1 and L2 are −VC2 Soff
VC2 Son
 According to the volt-second balance law of inductors L1
vL1 =  , (1) and L2, the voltages across capacitors C1 and C2 can be
Vin − VC1 Soff
derived as
and 1− D
VC1 = Vin , (8)
1 − 2D
 D components remain unchanged. Therefore, the proposed
VC2 = Vin . (9) converters are meaningful in the high-step-up DC-DC
1 − 2D
application.
Then, according to Fig. 6, the voltage across capacitor C3
and output voltage can be written as
1
VC3 = VC1 + VC2 = Vin , (10)
1 − 2D
and

2−D
VO = VC3 + VC1 = Vin . (11)
1 − 2D

III. COMPARISON
This section gives a comparison between the SCZSC,
SCqZSC and the ZSC, qZSC. As shown in TABLE I, the
detail parameters of those four converters are listed. Fig. 7
shows the voltage gain curves of traditional and proposed
converters. Compared to the traditional ZSC and qZSC, the
proposed converters use one more capacitor and diode but
with (1-D)/(1-2D) voltage gain added which is a obviously Fig. 7. Comparison of the voltage gains.
improvement. Moreover, all the voltage stresses of original

TABLE I. COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PROPOSED CONVERTERS AND THE TRADITIONAL CONVERTERS

ZSC SCZSC qZSC SCqZSC

1 2− D 1 2− D
G
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1− D 1− D 1− D 1− D
VC1 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1− D 1− D D D
VC2 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1 1 1 1
VC3 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
2− D 2− D
VC4 ? Vin ? Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1 1 1 1
VS1 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1 1 1 1
VD1 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1 1 1 1
VD2 Vin Vin Vin Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
1 1
VD3 ? Vin ? Vin
1 − 2D 1 − 2D
IL1 1 2− D 1 2− D
IO IO IO IO
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
IL2 1 1+ D 1 1+ D
IO IO IO IO
1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D 1 − 2D
2 1+ D 2 1+ D
IS1 IO IO IO IO
1 − 2D D (1 − 2 D ) 1 − 2D D (1 − 2 D )
1 2−D 1 2−D
ID1 IO IO IO IO
(1 − 2 D)(1 − D) (1 − 2 D)(1 − D) (1 − 2 D)(1 − D) (1 − 2 D)(1 − D)
1 1
ID3 ? IO ? IO
D D
SCZSC. In addition, the input current of SCqZSC is
IV. SIMULATION continuous, but the input current of SCZSC is discontinuous.
The proposed SCZSC and SCqZSC are simulated in this
Section. Assume the corresponding parameters depicted in TABLE II. SIMULATION PARAMETERS
TABLE II, Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 show the simulation results of
the proposed SCZSC and SCqZSC, respectively. The Vin Vo L1, L2 C1,C2,C3 fs R
voltages of C1, C2, C3 in SCZSC are 76V, 76V, 124V, 30 V 200 V 470 uH 100 uF 50 kHz 200 
respectively. The voltages of C1, C2, C3 in SCqZSC are 76V,
46V, 124V, respectively. All the voltage stresses of switch
and diodes are lower than the output voltage. Differently, the
voltage of capacitor C2 in SCqZSC is lower than that of
 (a)

Fig. 8. Simulation results of the proposed SCZSC.

(b)

(c)
Fig. 11. Experimental results of SCZSC: (a) Waveforms of the driving
signal, the output voltage, the currents of the inductors L1, L2; (b) Voltage
stresses of the switch S1 and the diodes D1, D2, D3; and (c) Waveforms of
the voltages of capacitors C1, C2, C3.

Fig. 9. Simulation results of the proposed SCqZSC.

V. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Two prototypes have been built in Fig. 10. TABLE III list
the main parameters and the type of components.
Experimental results are demonstrated in Figs. 11 and 12. (a)
Figs. 11(a) and 12(a) demonstrate the waveforms of driving
signal VGS1, output voltage Vo, inductor currents iL1, iL2; Figs.
11(b) and 12(b) demonstrate the waveforms of switch
voltage stress VDS1 and diode reverse voltages VD1, VD2, VD3;
Figs. 11(c) and 12(c) demonstrate the waveforms of
capacitor voltages VC1, VC2, VC3. Apparently, the experimental
results validate the superiority and feasibility of the proposed
converters.
(b)

(c)
Fig. 12. Experimental results of SCqZSC: (a) Waveforms of the driving
signal, the output voltage, the currents of the inductors L1, L2; (b) Voltage
(a) (b) stresses of the switch S1 and the diodes D1, D2, D3; and (c) Waveforms of
Fig. 10. Prototypes. (a)SCZSC (b) SCqZSC. the voltages of capacitors C1, C2, C3.
 TABLE III. EXPERIMENTAL PARAMETERS

Vin Vo Po L1, L2 C1,C2,C3 C4 S1 fs D1 D2, D3

SCZSC 30 V 200 V 200 W 470 uH 100 uF/160 V
SCqZSC 30 V 200 V 200 W 470 uH 100 uF/160 V
VI. COMCLUSION
This paper has devised two impedance-network DC-DC
converters based on switched-capacitor techniques. The
detailed theoretical analyses have been described. Moreover,
comparisons between the proposed converters and traditional
Z-source DC-DC converter and quasi-Z-source DC-DC
converter are conducted to show the advantages of the
proposed converters. Additionally, simulation and
experimental results well verify the superiority of the
proposed converters.
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