What Is a Voltage Multiplier?

The capacitor multiplier uses only one capacitor and amplifier to amplify the capacitance of the capacitor.

The capacitor multiplier is actually a virtual capacitor, but it can be made smaller than a real capacitor of the same size. With a capacitor multiplier, there are many benefits, not only replacing many occasions where large capacitors are required, but also designing ultra-low-frequency filters and long-delay circuits using analog circuits only.

It is very difficult to do this with real capacitors, which are often bulky, and capacitors with huge capacity are difficult to buy.

An important aspect of the rapid advancement of modern electronic technology is the rapid development of integrated circuit technology. At the current level, it is difficult to make large-capacity capacitors in integrated circuits. ^[2]

At the same time, the larger the capacity, the larger the area occupied by the chip. However, miniaturization of electronic systems such as portable devices and handheld meters requires the integration of large-capacity capacitors.

Capacitor multiplier

By using the impedance conversion effect of the current transmitter, a small-capacitance capacitor can be equivalently converted into a larger-capacity floating capacitor. Although some active devices are added in this way, this can just take advantage of the integrated circuit itself and overcome the disadvantage of difficult to integrate large-capacity capacitors.

Applying this active floating capacitor multiplier to a switched capacitor DC-DC converter can provide a new method for its full monolithic integration.