Tuesday, 12 September 2017

components - Is there a dual of the transformer?


Capacitors and inductors are duals of each other.


A transformer is made of two inductors, and transfers power through mutual inductance, through the magnetic near-field (right?) Also, you can vary the ratio of voltages or currents by changing the ratio of turns on the core. You could think of this as coupling a single primary loop with many secondary loops, and then stacking the secondary loops so their output voltages are summed.


Is there an electric dual of the transformer? Something that uses capacitance and transfers power through the electric near-field over an isolation barrier? Some way to couple a single primary capacitor with multiple secondary capacitors and then stack them to do power conversion by summing their outputs?


I know that an isolated supply can be built using two capacitors, but I'm not sure if that's exactly a dual, or if there's an equivalent to adjusting the ratio of turns:



enter image description here source


Or maybe something related to this?


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For example, there are capacitive voltage dividers, but these only reduce voltage, they can't increase it like an autotransformer. There are charge pumps, but those require active elements like switches or diodes, which aren't present in a transformer.


More succinctly: Is there a way to transform power (1 V, 5 A on primary to 5 V, 1 A on secondary) using electric fields instead of magnetic fields, and passive components only? If not, why not? (Electric field screening?)




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