Comparative evaluation of three-phase isolated matrix-type PFC rectifier concepts for high efficiency 380VDC supplies of future telco and data centers

Due to the high energy consumption in data and telco centers, the use of 380V or 400V DC facility-level distribution has been proposed as an alternative to the conventional AC distribution for a more efficient power delivery structure. The DC voltage is powered from the three-phase mains by a PFC rectifier and in many cases a mains transformer is used to provide galvanic isolation. In order to achieve a high efficiency in the DC voltage generation and to implement the required isolation, a single-stage concept, such as a matrix-type rectifier that enables PFC functionality and galvanic isolation in a single conversion, can be beneficial. In addition, due to the fact that with the matrix-type rectifier the galvanic isolation is performed with a high-frequency transformer, this results in a more compact rectifier system compared to conventional systems where the mains-frequency isolation transformer is located at the input of the PFC rectifier. In this paper, an overview of isolated matrix-type PFC rectifier topologies is given and a new converter circuit is proposed, analyzed and comparatively evaluated against another promising PFC rectifier concept, the phase-modular IMY-rectifier.