2021 IEEE International Autumn Meeting on Power, Electronics and Computing (ROPEC 2021).

Ixtapa, Mexico

Single-Phase Active Power Factor Correction using

a Boost Converter
A. Cleary-Balderas and A. Medina-Rios
Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas Hidalgo
Morelia, Michoacán, México
2021 IEEE International Autumn Meeting on Power, Electronics and Computing (ROPEC) | 978-1-6654-3427-0/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ROPEC53248.2021.9668062

[email protected] and [email protected]

Abstract—Many applications such as converters and rectifiers voltage is high, each time the active switching transistor is
power use diode rectifiers with DC capacitors, which leads to brought into conduction, the recovery current from the diode
a low power factor and require to meet international power will flow through the diode and through the transistor, causing
quality standards. The use of Power Factor Corrector (PFC)
allows compliance with regulatory standards. In this paper, a significant losses. This not only decreases the overall efficiency
single-phase power factor corrector is presented with interface but also creates a thermal and noise problem [5]-[6].
applications in AC to DC applications. The operating principles The different operating modes of the converter allow it
are detailed and described, as well as the design considerations to work in medium and high power applications, for this
of the proposed PFC. In order to show the effectiveness of PFC purpose four basic converter topologies are used: Buck, Boost,
experimental results are shown.
Buck-Boost, and Cuk Correctors. This paper presents a boost
converter as power factor corrector working continuous driving
I. I NTRODUCTION
mode (CCM), while discontinuous driving mode (DCM) is
The Power Factor (PF) is indicative of how effectively the used for low power applications [7]-[8]. Figure 1 shows a
real power of the system has been utilized. The development typical PFC system with isolation stage dc output. It comprises
of devices applied in Power Electronics has generated new a AC-DC power factor correction PFC stage. The PFC stage
electrical power control systems. The demand for applications using a boost converter can be operated in all three conduction
that demand DC voltages for industrial, commercial and modes and are conventionally used in continuous conduction
residential use requires power rectifiers. The widespread use mode, limit conduction mode (BCM) or discontinuous [9].
of power converters has caused a high harmonic content in
A. Power Factor Definition
the line current and increasing losses as the power factor de-
creases [1]. Different power factor correction methods in rec- The definition of the power factor is given in (1), where p
tifier converters have been developed such as: passive filters, is the active power and s is the apparent power
active power filters, and reactive power controllers.Different p
active and passive PFC methods are essential in applications fp = (1)
s
with electrical and electronic power converters and ensure Assuming the loads are linear and the voltage/current are
the sinusoidal input current and, therefore, comply with the purely sinusoidal the parameters active, reactive, and apparent
harmonic standards established by standards such as IEEE- power are defined as:
519 [2].
Passive PFC techniques are the most widespread in con-
P = V I cos(θ) (2)
verter applications to increase efficiency in power systems,
however they require bulky filters and another disadvantage is Q = V I sin(θ) (3)
the generation of resonances with the electrical network. S =VI (4)
Different rectifier converters require a PFC stage and output Where the load is nonlinear and the voltage or current is not
voltage regulation, so the input current must be sinusoidal with sinusoidal the parameters active, reactive, and apparent power
the dynamic voltage response of a conventional rectifier [3]- are not defined as demonstrated by equations (2), (3), and
[4] . For this purpose, the PFC must be processed in the same (4) this means that the power factor can be expressed as the
converter. This type of converters is called single-stage since product of the displacement factor and the harmonic content.
they manage to increase efficiency and reduce size than if it is Therefore the definition of power factor would be simplified
done with more than one stage. For this type of PFC converter as (5).
they are applied for medium and low power levels.
The disadvantages of this topology are: it can not have VRM S I ∗ IRM S1 cos θ
control over over-current limits, since there is no switching PF =
VRM S1 I ∗ IRM S
device between the input and output. Another disadvantage is (5)
IRM S1 ∗ cos θ
the inverse recovery limitation of the diode. Since the output = = Kd ∗ Kθ
IR M S

978-1-6654-3427-0/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: J.R.D. Tata Memorial Library Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Downloaded on January 09,2024 at 05:59:21 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 2021 IEEE International Autumn Meeting on Power, Electronics and Computing (ROPEC 2021). Ixtapa, Mexico

will change concerning polarity at its terminals, and the current

that passes through it when it is conducting. The different
modes of the switching elements define the driving modes.
One of the most important parameters in the design of the
converter in PFC mode is the inductance value. Factors such
as switching frequency, choice of core, and copper losses must
be taken into account [10]. A low magnitude inductor will
make the ripple in the current higher and it will be necessary
to increase the switching frequency. The expression for the
choice of the inductor operating in CCM is described as:
Vin D
L= (6)
Fig. 1. Block diagram of system using Active PFC ∆iL fC
The operation of boost converter conventional is when the
transistor (S) is on, D is reverse-biased and current ramps up
Where Kθ is the displacement angle of the voltage and
linearly in L to a peak value E = VdcLton . This represents an
current fundamental and Kd is the distortion factor that
amount of stored energy:
describes the harmonic content. Fig 1. shows an architecture
of Boost converter PFC with isolation stage. 1
E= (7)
2LIp2
B. Active Power Factor Correction
where E is in Joules,, L is in henries, and I is in amperes.
Power Factor Correction shapes the input current of the During the S on time, the output current is supplied entirely
power supply to be in synchronization with the AC input from C, which is chosen large enough to supply the load
voltage, in order to maximize the real power drawn from current for the time t0 with the minimum specific droop. When
the AC supply. In a perfect PFC circuit, the input current S turns off, since the current
is in phase with the input voltage (as it would be with a Controlling the time in S regulates the output voltage in
pure resistor), without any input current harmonics. For this a feedback loop. As the DC load current increases, the duty
purpose, the active PFC’s is use six basic converter topologies: cycle of S increases to deliver more power to the load. The
Buck Corrector, Boost Corrector, Buck-Boost corrector, Cuk, transfer function can be expressed as (7) defines
Sepic, and Zeta Correctors. respect these topologies buck,
boost and buck/boost converters can be used for non-isolated VO − Vin
D= (8)
active power factor correction without transformers. The boost VO
topology in figure 2 produces an output dc voltage higher than The transfer function between the input and output voltage
the input voltage and lower average output currents with re- of the converter operating in continuous conduction mode can
spect buck topology. The main function of the boost converter be expressed in terms of duty cycle as shown in (8).
is the output voltage regulated with input voltage variations.
Using the boost converter, the power factor corrector is at VO 1
= (9)
the output of the rectifier bridge. The power factor corrector Vi (1 − D
topology is shown in figure 2. II. CONTROL STRUCTURE
Many circuits and control methods have been developed
using switched-mode topologies to meet with standards [2]
a boost converter can work of two forms in the discontin-
uous and continuous mode is when D1 current falls to zero
before the next turn on or if the current has not fallen to zero
at the end of the time is operated for each mode respectively
It is possible to affirm that boost converters in power appli-
cations up to 50W, have an efficiency of up to 90%, among
the advantages are in energy saving and in the improvement of
power density. However, for higher power levels they begin to
Fig. 2. Topology of boost converter for PFC have significant disadvantages such as filtering capacity and
high peak current. For high power applications continuous
Diode (D) and MOSFET (S) are modeled as ideal compo- mode control is a better option. In general, a converter operates
nents and resistance in inductor rL is considered. If the two in PFC mode, if it succeeds in making the current waveform
switching components are ideal, their behavior is similar to equal to the voltage and in phase. These factors can be
that of an ideal switch, that is, it can be open (OFF) or closed measured and are known as phase shift and total harmonic
(ON) because you only have control of the MOSFET, the diode distortion.

Authorized licensed use limited to: J.R.D. Tata Memorial Library Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Downloaded on January 09,2024 at 05:59:21 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 2021 IEEE International Autumn Meeting on Power, Electronics and Computing (ROPEC 2021). Ixtapa, Mexico

Fig. 5. Hysteresis band currents, sensed current and average inductance

current

III. C ONTROL S TRUCTURE

Fig. 3. Waveforms of voltage and current VL in continuous mode
Simulation tests were performed on a boost converter to
demonstrate the controller performance. Conventional hystere-
sis control was also implemented to establish performance
with the applied technique. Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show results
concerning the conventional hysteresis controller proposed.
The continuous operation of the converter in CCM is clearly
shown in Fig. 6 without exceeding the capacitor upper limit
designed voltage. Fig 6(a) shows the inductor current Fig. 6
(b) shows the output voltage and Fig. 6 (c) presents diode
voltage and current waveform.

Fig. 4. Waveforms of voltage and current VL in discontinuous mode

A. Hysteresis control for PFC

In the control of power converters, there are several methods
such as voltage or current control at fixed frequency and
hysteresis control. These types of controls should cover the
following aspects: fast dynamic response, low harmonic dis-
tortion, and reference tracking. Hysteresis band control is a
method used to control the output current for a voltage-fed Fig. 6. Simulation Hysteresis band currents, a) sensed inductor current, b)
converter. This type of control is shown in Figure 5. It is based Output Voltage c) Diode voltage and current
on the monitoring of a reference current through a bandwidth
with an upper limit and a lower limit, in which the on and off
states of the switches for the converter are generated; One of
the advantages of this control is that it has a good performance,
with fast dynamic response; on the contrary, a disadvantage is
the variable switching frequency. However, one way to nullify
this disadvantage is by using variable band modulation, which Fig. 7. PWM signal for hysteresis control
causes a constant switching frequency to be obtained.

Authorized licensed use limited to: J.R.D. Tata Memorial Library Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Downloaded on January 09,2024 at 05:59:21 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 2021 IEEE International Autumn Meeting on Power, Electronics and Computing (ROPEC 2021). Ixtapa, Mexico

IV. E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS PWM control. The advantage of this control is can be modified
The boost converter is used as an active power factor for upper and lower limits of the hysteresis band, and constant
corrector, such as shown in fig. 8. the proposed scheme. is switching frequency can be achieved. The proposed design
validated with Hysteresis current control. Fig. 9 shows the method can be used to design high-efficiency PFCs in high-
current in the inductor IL and the voltage. It can be seen from power applications.
the PFC boost converter that using continuous mode control ACKNOWLEDGMENT
the current ripple is low. Scheme 11 shows the prototype of
The authors would like to thank the facilities provided by
the active power factor corrector system.
the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo during
the realization of this work.
R EFERENCES
[1] D. Stepins,“An Improved Control Technique of Switching-Frequency-
Modulated Power Factor Correctors for Low THD and High Power
Factor,” IEEE Trans. on Ind. Elect, vol. 31, pp. 5201–5214, Sep. 2015.
[2] IEEE Standard Definitions for the Measurement of Electric Power
Quantities Under Sinusoidal, Nonsinusoidal, Balanced, or Unbalanced
Conditions, IEEE Std 1459–2010 (Revision IEEE Std 1459–2000),
2010, pp. 1–52.
[3] J. Sebastian, M. M. Hernando, A. Fernandez, P. J. Villegas, and J.
Diaz, “Input current shaper based on the series connection of a voltage
source and a loss free resistor,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 37, no.
2, pp. 583–591, Mar./Apr. 2001.
Fig. 8. Active power factor correction circuit [4] J. Sebastián, A. Fernández, P. Villegas, M. M. Hernando, and M. J.
Prieto, “New topologies of active input current shapers to allow AC-
to-DC converters to comply with the IEC 1000-3-2,” in Proc. IEEE
PESC’00, 2000, pp. 565–570.
[5] G. Vázquez-Guzmán, P. R. Martı́nez-Rodrı́guez, J. M. Sosa-Zúñiga
“High Efficiency Single-Phase Transformer-less Inverter for Photo-
voltaic Applications,” Ingenierı́a Investigación y Tecnologı́a, volumen
XVI (número 2), abril junio 2015, 173-184.
[6] L. Huber and Y. M. M. Jovanovic, “Single-stage, single switch,
isolated power supply technique with input-current shaping and fast
output-voltage regulation for universal input voltage-range applica-
tions,” in Proc. IEEE APEC’97, 1997, pp. 272–280.
[7] Jian-Min, Wang, Sen-Tung Wu, Yanfeng Jiang, and Huang-Jen Chiu
“A Dual-Mode Controller for the Boost PFC Converter” IEEE Trans.
on Ind. Elect., vol. 58, pp. 369–372, Jan. 2011.
[8] Fei Zhang, and Jianping, “A Novel PCCM Bost PFC Converter
with Fast Dynamic Response,” Trans. on Ind. Elect., vol. 58, pp.
4207–4216, Sep. 2011.
[9] Hengshan Xu, Diyi Chen, Fei Xue, and Xutao Li, “Optimal Design
Method of Interleaved Boost PFC for Improving Efficiency from
Switching Frequency, Boost Inductor, and Output Voltage”, IEEE
Trans. on Power Elect., vol. 34, pp. 6088-6107, July. 2019.
Fig. 9. Prototype of Active PFC [10] Jian-Min Wang, Sen-Tung Wu, Yanfeng Jiang, and Huang-Jen Chiu,
“A Dual-Mode Controller for the Boost PFC Converter”, IEEE Trans.
on Ind. Elect., vol. 58, pp. 369-372, Jan. 2011.

Fig. 10. PWM signal for hysteresis control

V. C ONCLUSIONS
This document has presented a boost PFC converter the
control used has the advantages of conventional hysteresis and

Authorized licensed use limited to: J.R.D. Tata Memorial Library Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru. Downloaded on January 09,2024 at 05:59:21 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.