New developments in single-phase power factor correction

Power Factor Correction (PFC) is a necessary feature of many AC/DC Power Electronics products. The issues of increasing the value of the Power Factor (PF) and increasing efficiency of transferring the power in such applications motivated this thesis.; Input rectification is needed for the most topologies in AC/DC applications for these topologies to perform however, it is pretty much one of the main causes of distortions and power losses. Diode bridge is also one the hottest components of PFC, which is an important issue in terms of thermal management.; New approach for Power Factor Correction is introduced in the first part. Topologies with bipolar gain characteristics are proposed to be used, naturally providing constant DC output from non-rectified AC input. Practical design of such converter is presented and analyzed, theoretical predictions are confirmed by experimental data; proposed idea of Power Factor Correction is verified.; Another new general approach of Power Factor Correction improvement is introduced in second part. Idea of shifting input line rectification to switching elements of the power stage is proposed for certain topologies and verified on practical example. Key features are analyzed and illustrated by experimental data. This class of converters presents an opportunity for accurate comparison with related conventional topologies, which is included to show the advantages of the new approach.; General advantages and improvements of Power Factor value in bridge-less topologies in comparison to conventional converters are analyzed and illustrated experimentally in the third part of the thesis.