A new configuration of single-phase symmetrical PWM AC chopper voltage controller

With the increased availability of power MOSFETs and insulated gate bipolar transistors, a new generation of simple choppers for AC inductive loads is foreseen. These new power semiconductors ease the use of forced commutations of thyristor switches to improve the supply power factor, even with highly inductive loads. The AC controllers with thyristor technology can be replaced by pulsewidth modulation (PWM) AC chopper controllers which have important advantages. In this paper, a symmetrical PWM AC chopper designed to operate with single-phase inductive loads with a reduced number of controlled switches is described. The operation as a variable voltage source of this converter is evaluated. This includes the conversion characteristics, harmonic generation, harmonic distortion factor, and input power factor. By digital simulation, these characteristics are investigated theoretically, and to correlate the measurements with theory, an experimental setup is presented to confirm the analytical analysis.