Active Compensation of the Input Filter Capacitor Current in Single-Phase PFC Boost Converters

Abstract

Single-phase PFC boost converters use an input filter capacitor to limit propagation of the switching noise into the AC line. Reactive current drawn by the capacitor from the line is negligible at 60 Hz but increases in magnitude significantly in applications with higher line frequencies (360-800 Hz in future aircraft power systems) such that the total power factor of the converter is no longer unity. The paper proposes a method for canceling the capacitor current using an adapted leading-phase admittance cancellation technique. Bidirectional converters allow complete, load-independent, line-frequency-independent cancellation of the input capacitor current. Unidirectional converters allow load-independent, line-frequency-independent, unity-power-factor operation with substantial reduction but not complete elimination of the switching ripple in the line current