A Family of High Power Factor Current Multilevel Rectifiers Employing a Sinusoidal PWM Technique

• Published in: 2005 IEEE 36th Power Electronics Specialists Conference pp. 2547 - 2552
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, M.C.B., Teixeira, E.C., Braga, H.A.C.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2005
• Subjects: DC-DC power converters; Laboratories; Power semiconductor switches; Power system harmonics; Power system simulation; Pulse width modulation; Pulse width modulation converters; Reactive power; Rectifiers; Switching converters
• ISBN: 9780780390331; 0780390334
• ISSN: 0275-9306; 2377-6617
• DOI: 10.1109/PESC.2005.1581991

This work introduces the use of a sinusoidal pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique applied to two-stage single-phase current multilevel AC-to-DC converters. The use of a medium-frequency PWM strategy leads to a high power factor operation, with reduced harmonic content in the input current. Moreover, a safe distribution of the total current among the semiconductor switches is obtained, which is an inherent feature of the current multilevel converters. The DC-to-DC adopted converter stages employ a two-cell structure and draw a five-level sinusoidal PWM current from the AC utility. Along with theoretical and Pspice simulation results, the paper includes experimental details and waveforms from a 0.5 kW laboratory prototype which prove the practical feasibility regarding the present approach. It is expected that the proposed strategy can be applied to highly inductive DC load power systems