Power factor correction in three phases boost AC-DC electric power converters with Vienna power block using sliding mode control

A three phase, three switch, three level pulse width modulated (PWM) rectifier is studied, in particular the Vienna rectifier. A control method to control and to drive the output of this rectifier to a certain desired value is presented. The proposed control approach is a sliding mode control design that keeps the power factor to all three phases close to unity (over 0.9995) in the presence of unknown parameter uncertainties. The Vienna rectifier is controlled using its basic math-model and without the use of any special transformations that would influence the rectifier's characteristics. Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method.