Single-Phase Five-Level Flying-Capacitor Rectifier Using Three Switches

In this paper, a unidirectional single-phase five-level PWM rectifier based on flying-capacitor topology operating as PFC is proposed. The main feature is the fact that the proposed converter has three active switches, therefore offering a cost reduction compared to traditional five-level topologies. The multilevel voltage operation reduces the weight and bulk of the magnetic devices. Moreover, 82% of the semiconductors are subject to one fourth to DC output voltage which allows the use of low voltage semiconductor devices. An extensive mathematical analysis, control-oriented modeling in addition to experimental results are presented in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the structure.