A comparison of various DC-DC converters and their application to power factor correction

For rectifier circuits with power factor correction, boost converters are generally used, and as a result the output voltage becomes limited. To expand the controlled voltage range, buck boost or Cuk converter types should be utilized. This paper presents a circuit configuration with power factor correction by a third type of buck boost converter, termed a 'canonical switching cell'. Single-phase power factor correction using a buck boost converter can control the output voltage over a wide range, because it has the ability to step-up and step-down the output voltage. Firstly, this paper compares the mechanisms of the power transmission and the characteristics based on the switching ripple of various converters. Secondly, the canonical switching cell is applied to the single-phase power factor correction. It is proposed that this converter is suitable for power factor correction.