An Interleaved PFC Boost Converter With Soft Commutations and Voltage Follower Characteristics

This article presents an interleaved boost rectifier for power factor correction (PFC) that operate in the continuous conduction mode and is grounded on the switching cell with switching frequency modulation. The input current naturally follows the shape of the input voltage, which is a resistive input characteristic (voltage follower). In the proposed converter, only one output voltage control loop is required. Moreover, the proposed topology has a wide range of soft commutation and no reverse recovery when the diodes block. This article presents the operating principle, a mathematical analysis of the converter, and four topological variations. In addition, experimental results of a 1-kW rectifier prototype with four different switch technologies [
MOSFET
, high voltage superjunction
MOSFET
(CoolMOS), silicon carbide (SiC), and insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT)], are discussed and their operational characteristics are demonstrated.