Active power decoupling in capacitive idling converter based PFC rectifier

Bulky capacitors are usually needed to buffer the double-frequency ripple power (DFRP) in single-phase power factor correction (PFC) rectifier. It is important to reduce the capacitance requirements for improving the system reliability and power density. In this paper a control method for capacitive idling converter based PFC (CIC-PFC) rectifier is proposed. The DFPR is diverted to the energy transfer capacitor and stored by swinging its voltage. Then, the required capacitance is reduced. Compared with other active power decoupling methods, the proposed is cost-effective as no extra hardware is added. The paper also discusses the selection of the energy transfer capacitor by comprehensively considering the voltage stress, cost, volume, current ripples, and power losses. Finally, experimental results are presented to show the effectiveness.