An investigation of the boost inductor volume applied to PFC converters

In this paper is investigated the magnetic volume in a single-phase PFC boost converter with universal line input, taking into account the trade-offs between switching frequency, input current ripple and the generated differential mode noise, complying the IEC 61000-3-2 and CISPR 22 standards. The analysis is carried out considering that the boost inductor is built with a low-cost powder core material and with a single layer coil. This arrangement has been shown as a suitable layout for this application when constraints such as power density, leakage capacitances, irradiated noise and costs are taking into account. It is shown that an appropriate selection of the pair: switching frequency and input current ripple, during design procedure, can bring magnetic volume reduction when compared with the commonly adopted values for the mentioned variables.