HIGH VOLTAGE DEVICE BUILT FROM MODULAR LOW VOLTAGE DEVICES AND OPERATION METHODS THEREOF

The present disclosure provides a high voltage device built from modular low voltage cells. Each low voltage cell includes a plurality of low voltage semiconductor devices and one or more low voltage passive components. Each cell can be a current-bidirectional two-quadrant switch or a four-quadrant switch. All the cells may be identical and controlled with a delay time in between. Therefore, the total on and off time of the high voltage device can be controlled to reduce the output equivalent dv/dt. The cell's voltage balancing can be achieved through a control algorithm disclosed herein.