Front-end converters with power factor correction (PFC) capability are widely used in distributed power systems (DPSs). Most of the front-end converters are implemented using a two-stage approach, which consists of a PFC stage followed by a DC/DC converter. The purpose of the front-end converter is to regulate the DC output voltage, supply all the load converters connected to the distributed bus, guarantee current sharing, and charge a bank of batteries to provide backup energy when the power grid breaks down. One of the main concerns of the power supply industry is to obtain a front-end converter with a low-cost PFC stage, while still complying with required harmonic standards, especially for high-power three-phase applications. Having this statement in mind, the main objective of this dissertation is to study front-end converters for DPS applications with PFC to meet harmonic standards, while still maintaining low cost and performance indices. To realize the many aforementioned objectives, this dissertation is divided into two main parts: (1) two-stage front-end converters suitable for telecom applications, and (2) single-stage low-cost AC/DC converters suitable for mainframe computers and server applications. The use of discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) boost rectifiers is extensively explored to achieve simplicity, while reducing the cost for DPS applications. Interleaving of DCM boost rectifiers is also explored as an alternative approach to further reduce the system cost by reducing the filtering requirements. All the solutions discussed are implemented for 3kW applications, while 6kW is obtained by interleaving two converters. / Ph. D.

Three-phase rectifiers/inverters are widely used in grid-tied applications. Take the electric vehicle (EV) charging systems as an example. Within a certain space designated for the chargers, quick charging yet high efficiency are demanded. According to the current industry practice, with a power rating between 10 and 30 kW, the power density are limited by silicon (Si) power semiconductor devices, which make the systems operate at only up to around 30 kHz. The emerging wide bandgap (WBG) power semiconductor devices are considered as game changing devices to exceed the limits brought by their Si counterparts. Much higher switching frequency, higher power density and higher system efficiency are expected to be achieved with WBG power semiconductor devices. Among different types of WBG power semiconductor devices, Silicon Carbide Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (SiC MOSFETs) are more popular in current research conducted for tens of kW power converter applications. However, the commonly adopted hard switching operation in this application still leads to significant switching loss at high frequency operation even for SiC-based systems. With the unique feature that the turn-off energy is almost negligible compared with the turn-on energy, critical conduction mode (CRM) based zero voltage soft switching turn-on operation is preferred for the SiC MOSFETs to eliminate the turn-on loss with small penalty on the conduction loss and on the turn-off loss. With this soft switching operation, switching frequency of SiC-based systems is able to be pushed to more than ten times higher than Si-based systems, and therefore higher power density yet even higher system efficiency can be achieved. The CRM-based soft switching is applied to three-phase rectifiers/inverters under the unity power factor operating condition first. Decoupled CRM-based control is enabled, and the inherent drawback of wide switching frequency variation range at CRM-based operation is overcome by the proposed novel modulation technique. It is the first time that CRM-based soft switching modulation is demonstrated in the most conventional three-phase H-bridge ac–dc converter, and more than three-time size reduction compared with current industry practice yet 99.0% peak efficiency are achieved at above 300 kHz switching frequency operation. Then this proposed soft switching modulation technique is extended to non-unity power factor operating conditions especially for grid-tied inverter system applications. With several improvements on the modulation, a generalized CRM-based soft switching modulation technique is proposed, which is applicable to both the unity and non-unity power factor conditions. With the power factor down to 0.8 lagging or leading according to commercial products, above 98.0% peak efficiency is achieved with the generalized soft switching modulation technique at above 300 kHz switching frequency operation. Furthermore from the aspect of electromagnetic interference (EMI), compared with the traditional Si-based design, CRM operation brings higher differential-mode (DM) EMI noise, and higher dv/dt with SiC MOSFETs brings higher common-mode (CM) EMI noise. What's more, hundreds of kHz switching frequency operation makes the main components of the system EMI spectrum located within the frequency range related to the EMI standard (150 kHz – 30 MHz). Therefore, several methods are adopted for the reduction of EMI noise. The total inductor current ripple is reduced with multi-channel interleaving control in order to reduce DM EMI noise. The balance technique is applied in order to reduce CM EMI noise. With PCB winding coupled inductors, the well-controlled parasitic parameters make the balance technique able to be effective for a uniform reduction of CM EMI noise from 150 kHz to above 20 MHz. In addition, PCB winding based magnetic designs are beneficial to achieving manufacture automation and reducing the labor cost. / Doctor of Philosophy / Power electronics and power conversion are crucial to many applications related to electricity, such as consumer electronics, domestic and commercial appliances, automobiles, data centers, utilities and infrastructure. In today's market, quality and reliability are usually considered as a given; high efficiency (low loss), high power density (small size and weight) and low cost are the main focuses in the design of power electronics products. In the past several decades, significant achievements in power electronics have been witnessed thanks to the silicon (Si) semiconductor technology, especially the Si power semiconductor devices. Nowadays, the development of Si power semiconductor devices is already close to the theoretical limits of the material itself. Therefore, in order to meet the increasing demands from customers in different applications, wide bandgap (WBG) based power semiconductor devices, namely Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Silicon Carbide (SiC), are becoming attractive because of its great potential compared with their Si counterparts. In literature, great contributions have already been made to understanding the WBG based power semiconductor devices. It is exciting and encouraging that some of the GaN-based power electronics products featuring high efficiency, high power density and low cost have been commercialized in consumer electronics applications. However, when pursuing these objectives, previous literature has not shown any applications of high frequency soft switching technology into the high power ac–dc conversion (usually three-phase ac–dc) in a simple way as the low power ac–dc conversion (usually single-phase ac–dc) in consumer electronics products. The key to achieving high efficiency, high power density and low cost is the high frequency soft switching operation. For single-phase ac–dc systems, the research on the realization of soft switching by control strategies instead of additional physical complexity has been intensively conducted, and this technology has also been adopted in the current industry practice. Therefore, the major achievement of this work is the development of a generalized soft switching control strategy for three-phase ac–dc systems, without adding any physical complexity, which is applicable to the simplest and most conventional three-phase ac-dc circuit topology. The proposed soft switching control strategy features bidirectional (rectifiers/inverters) power conversion, active/reactive power transfer, grid-tied/stand-alone modes, and scalability to multi-channel interleaved operation. Furthermore, with high frequency, the integration of magnetic components with embedded windings in the printed circuit board (PCB) becomes feasible, which is also beneficial to achieving electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and manufacture automation. Based on the proposed control strategy and design methodology, a SiC-based 25-kW three-phase high frequency soft switching rectifier/inverter is developed for various applications such as electric vehicle (EV) charging stations, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and renewable energy based utilities.

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται την μελέτη και το σχεδιασμό μιας τριφασικής ανορθωτικής διάταξης με την οποία επιτυγχάνεται διόρθωση του συντελεστή ισχύος. Η εργασία αυτή εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο Ηλεκτρομηχανικής Μετατροπής Ενέργειας του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών της Πολυτεχνικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Κύριος σκοπός αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η κατασκευή ενός μετατροπέα ανόρθωσης ανύψωσης ο οποίος λειτουργεί σε ασυνεχή αγωγή και μπορεί να τοποθετηθεί στην έξοδο μιας ανεμογεννήτριας σαν πρώτο στάδιο σύνδεσης με το δίκτυο. Απώτερος σκοπός είναι η πειραματική επιβεβαίωση της θεωρίας καθώς και του μηχανισμού με τον οποίο επιτυγχάνεται η διόρθωση του συντελεστή ισχύος. Αρχικά γίνεται μια γενική αναφορά στην έννοια της ποιότητας ισχύος, τα χαρακτηριστικά της μεγέθη, το συντελεστή ισχύος και τις ανώτερες αρμονικές. Επίσης αναφέρονται βασικές τριφασικές ανορθωτικές διατάξεις με διορθωμένο συντελεστή ισχύος ενώ γίνεται και μια γενική αναφορά στα αιολικά συστήματα, τον τρόπο λειτουργίας τους και την σύνδεση τους με το δίκτυο. Στη συνέχεια, αναλύεται η λειτουργία του μετατροπέα που κατασκευάστηκε κατά την διάρκεια αυτής της διπλωματικής εργασίας, δηλαδή τριφασικής διάταξης ανόρθωσης-ανύψωσης με ένα διακοπτικό στοιχείο, που λειτουργεί στην περιοχή ασυνεχούς αγωγής (DCM). Ο μετατροπέας αυτός θα δέχεται πολική τάση στην είσοδο του 40-100V, ανυψώνοντας την στα 350V στην έξοδο. Παράλληλα το ρεύμα εισόδου έχει μικρό αρμονικό περιεχόμενο επιτυγχάνοντας έναν υψηλό συντελεστή ισχύος. Το επόμενο βήμα είναι η μοντελοποίηση και η προσομοίωση του μετατροπέα σε περιβάλλον Matlab/Simulink έτσι ώστε να εξακριβωθεί η ορθή λειτουργία του σύμφωνα με τη θεωρητική ανάλυση. Τέλος, μελετάται και κατασκευάζεται στο εργαστήριο η πειραματική διάταξη με την οποία διεξάγονται μετρήσεις για την επιβεβαίωση και αξιολόγηση της θεωρητικής μελέτης. / In this diploma thesis the analysis and design of a three phase rectifier achieving high power factor are presented. This work was developed in the Laboratory of Electromechanical Energy Conversion at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Technology of the Polytechnic School, University of Patras, Greece. The main purpose of this diploma thesis is the implementation of a Power Factor Correction Three Phase Rectifier operated in Discontinuous Current Mode (DCM) which can be used as a first stage for the connection of a small wind turbine to the grid. Through this work, the theoretical analysis and the mechanism that achieves the high power factor are verified through the implementation of a laboratory prototype. Initially, the concepts of power quality, power factor and high order harmonics are explained. Furthermore, some common power factor correction rectifier topologies are reported as well as a reference on wind turbines, their operation and their connection to the grid. Secondly, the working principle of the Single Switch Power Factor Correction DCM Boost Rectifier is presented. This converter is designed to rectify and boost the voltage of a small wind turbine, varying between 40 and 100V line to line rms, to 350Vdc. In addition the converter’s input current presents low harmonic distortion which results in a high power factor. The following step is to model and simulate the converter in Matlab/Simulink in order to verify its operation based on the theoretical analysis. Finally, a laboratory prototype is designed and implemented, on which experiments are conducted, in order to verify and evaluate the theoretical study.

One of the requirements for the next generation of power supplies for distributed power systems (DPSs) is to achieve high power density with high efficiency. In the traditional front-end converter based on the two-stage approach for high-power three-phase DPSs, the DC-link voltage coming from the power factor correction (PFC) stage penalizes the second-stage DC/DC converter. This DC/DC converter not only has to meet the characteristics demanded by the load, but also must process energy with high efficiency, high reliability, high power density and low cost. To meet these requirements, approaches such as the series connection of converters and converters that reduce the voltage stress across the main devices have been proposed. In order to improve the characteristics of these solutions, this dissertation proposes high-efficiency, high-density DC/DC converters for high-power high-voltage applications. In the first part of the dissertation, a DC/DC converter based on a three-level structure and operated with pulse width modulation (PWM) phase-shift control is proposed. This new way to operate the three-level DC/DC converter allows soft-switching operation for the main devices. Zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and zero-voltage and zero-current switching (ZVZCS) soft-switching techniques are studied, analyzed and compared in order to improve the characteristics of the proposed converter. This results in a series of ZVS and ZVZCS three-level DC/DC converters for high-power high-voltage applications. In all cases, results from 6kW prototypes operating at 100 kHz are presented. In addition, with the ultimate goal of improving the power density of the DC/DC converter, a study of several resonant DC/DC converters that can operate at higher switching frequencies is presented. From this study, a three-element ZVS three-level resonant converter for applications with wide input voltage and load variations is proposed. Experimental results at 745 kHz obtained without penalizing the efficiency of the PWM approaches are presented. The second part of the dissertation proposes a quasi-integrated AC/DC three-phase converter that aims to reduce the complexity and cost of the traditional two-stage front-end converter. This converter improves the complexity/low-efficiency tradeoff characteristics evident in the two-stage approach and previous integrated converters. The principle of operation for the converter is analyzed and verified on a 3kW experimental prototype. / Ph. D.