UC Berkeley

Continuous advancements in power electronics are essential to meet the demands of an increasingly electrified future. This dissertation explores the application and operation of a multilevel power converter topology in two parts. In the first part, the flying capacitor multilevel (FCML) converter is assessed as a promising topology for high-density hardware designs in applications ranging from renewable grid integration to electrified transportation. In this part, high-density prototypes utilizing gallium nitride switching devices are described alongside modulation techniques used to increase efficiency. In the second part of this dissertation, conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) is explored for the FCML converter. A discussion of differential-mode EMI is provided, and an analytical model for common-mode EMI is presented and detailed for the FCML converter. Using this hardware-validated common-mode EMI model, the first evidence of the FCML converter having intrinsically better conducted EMI than a conventional two-level solution is identified. Through the parallel efforts presented in this dissertation, the FCML converter is shown to be a superior topological alternative to conventional power converter topologies for a broad range of application spaces.