477

Recent Developments in High Power Factor Switch-motde Converters

Zaohong Yang, Student Member, IEEE, and P.C.Sen, Fellow, IEEE

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6
Tel: (613) 545-2942, Fax: (613) 545-6615, Email: senp@post.queensu.ca

Abstract: This paper presents a comprehensive Comparing winh the passive PFC methods, the active
review of various power factor correction techniques PFC techniques have many advantages such as, high
proposed for single phase ac-to-dc power converters. power factor, n e d u d harmonics, smaller size and light
The topologies and control systems of tbese weight. However, the complexity and relatively higher
approaches are addressed. Their advantages and cost are the main drawbacks of this approach.
disadvantages are outlined. The active PFC techniquescan be further classified as
PWM power factor correctiontechniques, resonant power
L Introduction factor correction techniques and sofhvitching power
factor correction techniques.
In recent years, single phase switch-mode ac-to-dc
power converters have been increasingly used in the
industrial, commercial, residential, aerospace, and
military environment due to the advantages of high
efficiency and smaller size and weight. However, the
proliferation of the power converters draw pulsating
input currents from the utility line,this not only results Fig. 1 Ac-todk converters iciraw pulsating line current.
in poor input power factor of the converters but also
injects a signiscant amount of harmonic current into the
utility line [13, as shown in Fig. 1. To improve the power
qualily, various power Eactor correction methods (PFC)
have been proposed A comprehensive review of these
methods is provided in this paper. Their advantages and W
disadvantagesareoutlined Fig2 The passive power factor correction technique.

IL Power Factor Correction Techniques

The various methods of power factor correction can be
classified as: (a) passive power factor correction
techniques and (b) active power factor correction W
techniques. Fig.3 The active power factor correction technique.
A. Passive power factor correction techniques:
(1) PWM Power Factor Correction Techniques
In this approach, an L-C filter is inserted between the
In this appIoach, the power switching device operates
AC mains line and the input port of the diode rectifier of
at pdse-wi&h-modulation mode. The PWM mode has
ac-to-dc converter [l] as shown in Fig.2. This technique
is simple and ruggedbut has bullcy size and heavy weight many beneficial features mch as simplem~guration,
and the power factor can not be very high. ease of analysis and control, lowest voltage and current
stress. Therefore it is ex3anSively used in PFC circuits.
B. Active powerfactor correction techniques: Hawever, at higher switching frequency which is
essential for the " h a b i o n of the converter size, the
In this approach, power electronics techniques are hard switching nature (of PWM made generates
used to shape the input current dram by the ac-to-dc significant swiltching losses [11.
converter into a sinusoidal waveform and in phase with
the input voltage. Thus, the power factor can reach i) Commonlv lidtoDologii
almost unity and the addc interface of power converter The basic circuit topologies proposed for PFC are
emulates a pure resistor, as shown in Fig.3 [l-231. buck type. flyback type, boost type and Culc type
configurations.

0-7803-4314-x/98/%10.0001998 IEEE
 478

An improved boost type PFC circuit, as shown in

Fig4(d), was proposed in [SI. It has less conduction
losses than the boost configurationshown in Fig.4(c).
The Cuk type PFC circuit is shown in Fig.4(e) [9].
The advantages are: (a) input current remains continuous
even if the converter operates in discontinuous
conduction mode; (b) output voltage can be lower or
higher than the instantaneous input voltage. The
disadvantages are: the increased voltage and current
stresses on power W a s and the ex- inductor and
capacitor requkd.

ii) Current control strategies:

To program input current, several control strategies
have been proposed.
1. Automatic input arrent shupper:
The simplest method to generate a sinusoidal input
current i s to let a flyback PFC circuit [5] or a boost PFC
circuit [10,11] operate at discontinuous conduction mode
with fixed switching frequency and fixed duty ratio, as
shown in Fig.S(a). The input line current will
(e) automatidy follow the input voltage. No active control
of Line current is required. But this strategy has one ofthe
Fig.4 Commonly used PFC topologies following drawbacks: (a) input arrent is discontinuous
and has a triangular pulse waveform, resulting
The buck type topology [2,3] is shown in Fig.4(a). significant input current distortion [5,10]; (b)
The &antage of this topology is that the converter can requirement of additional inductor and capacitor to
supply a low output voltage. However, the clhdvmees improve the input m e n t waveform [111.
are: (a) when instantaneous input voltage is below the 2. Critical boundary current mode control
output voltage, the input current drops to zero, resalting This technique was proposed for boost PFC converter
in sigolscant current distortiow (b) input current has a working at the boundary of discontinuous conduction
discontinuous pulse waveform so that EMI mode 0 and continuous conduction mode (CCM)
(electromagnetic interferene) is higher and requires [1,12], as shown in Fig.S(b). The merit is tbat the power
careful design of input filter. switch is turned on at zero curpent. The draw?~cksare:
The flyback type topology [4,5] is shown i~ FigM). (a) the input current has a triangular pulse wavdom
Its advantages are: (a) output voltage can be higher or thus, is not suitable for high power; (b) variable
lower than the input voltage; (b) input and output switching fkqueney.
isolation can be provided by the M o m e r . The 3. Hysteretic current mode control:
disadvantages are : (a) higher switching device voltage This technique was proposed for boost converter
and ament ratings; @) input w e n t has a discontinuous operating at CCM mode [1,13], as shown in Figfj(c). It
pulse waveform, leading to signifisant EMI and has all the advantages of the boost type configuration
requirement of careful design of input filtq (c) "lt working at CCM mode.The shortcomes of tbis technique
to program the input current with current mode control. is the variable switching frequency.
The boost type topologv [l, 6-8, 10-12, as shm in 4. Peak current mode control:
Figqc). is so far the most popular configuration because This technique was proposed for boost converter
: (a) the input current is the inductor current and is operating at CCM mode with constant switching
thedore easily programmedby current mode control; (b) frequency 161, as shown in FigS(df. It has all the
the boost inductor is in series with the ac power line so advantages of the boost type configuration working at
that the input current has smooth waveform (at CCM mode. The problem of this technique is its
continuous conduction mode), resulting in much less requirement of a slope compensation to stabilize the
EMI and therefore reduced input filtering requirements; control system.
(c) the power switch is referenced to the ground 5. Average ament mode control:
However, this configuration can not provide e f € + v e This techinque was proposed for boost converter
protection to output shortcircuit M u r e . operating at CCM mode with constant switching
 479

fresuency [7j, as shown in FigS(e). It bas all the (2) Resonant Power Factor Correction Techniques
advantages of the boost type cordiguration working at
CCM mode. The demerit of this technique is current In the resonant converkr. the voltage across a switch
control system is complex and difficult to analyze and or the current through a switch is shaped by the
synthesize. In [14] a simplified circuit was proposed to resonance of L-C to become zero before it is turned on or
shape the sinusoidally varing average current without off. Thus the switching loss is greatly reduced Fig.6(a)
sensing the input voltage. shows the FWC technique with bridge type paraIle1
6. Dyamically robust current control : resonant converter topology [lq.Fig.6(b) shows the PFC
The authors are now working on a dynarmcally robust technique with bidirectional series resonant ac chopper
current control for boost converter operating at CCM topologv [181. ‘ n e high power factor is achieved by the
mode with constant switching fiquency. natural gain lmsting characterktic of the resonant
converter. The major disadvantages are higher voltage
and current Sbresses on the power switch than PWM
mode and a i&e switching frequency employed.
Fig.6(c) shows, a PFC circuit in which a resonant
converter is h c r t e d between1the hiput diode rectifier and
the dc-todc comerter. This resonant converter can be a
series resonant converter [19’] or a charge pump resonant
network [20].The advantage is that the current stress and
voltage stress cin resonant oomponents as well as power
switches are lower than the collfigurations shown in
Figd(a) and Fig6(b).

Fig.5 Input current control techniques

iii) Voltaee 1 0 0 ~remlators: Fig6 Resonant PFC techniques.
The voltage feedback loop is required to regulate the
output voltage of high power factor ac-to-dc converter. In (3) Soft-switching Power F:actor Correction
the PFC circuit, the twice the line fiwency ripple on the Techniques
output voltage transmitsthrough the voltage loop path to
distort the input current wavdorm. Conventional PFC The soft-svvitching PFC: technique combines PWM
techniques [l, 4-7, 141 use a narrow bandwidth voltage mode and resoinant mode techniques. With an additional
loop to reduce the impact of output voltage ripple on the resonant network consisting of a resonant inductor. a
line current quality. This leads to poor dynamic resonant capacitor and an auxiliary switch, the ac-todc
pe&ormance. Recently, the active ripple cancellation converter operates in PWM mode during most portion of
strategy is presented to improve the system clynanuc a switching cycle but operates in resonant mode during
response without distorting the input current [15. la]. A the switch turnl-on and turn..off inkrvals. As a result, the
recoflstnucted ripple is injected into the voltage loop to PFC circuit works at constant switching frequency and
remove the twice the line fresuency ripple. As a result, the power switch tums on and off at zero voltage or zero
the voltage loop can be designed with wide loop current conditions. Fig7(a) shows a boost PFC circuit
bandwidth. with a soft-switching network [21,22]. Fig.7(b) shows an
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