A novel multilevel interleaved-based PFC rectifier with modular DC interfaces

Abstract

As it has been recognized, mainly over the last decades, PFC rectifiers are more and more fundamental and are increasingly present in several applications in the perspective of limiting power quality problems. In line with this reality, this paper proposes a novel topology of single-phase PFC rectifier. On the AC-side, the proposed PFC rectifier operates with sinusoidal current in phase with the voltage, but, additionally, it presents these very important advantages: Multilevel voltage operation; Interleaved-based current control; Modular design, allowing to establish n DC interfaces on the DC-side. The proposed PFC rectifier is comprehensively detailed, and the validation is carried out with a configuration that allows to have two independent DC interfaces, resulting in an operation with five different voltage levels, and in a current control with a ripple with a frequency that corresponds to four times the value of the switching frequency of each switching device. The validation was carried out addressing the operation of the proposed PFC rectifier in steady-state and transient-state.