A multilevel buck converter based rectifier with sinusoidal inputs and unity power factor for medium voltage (4160-7200 V) applications

A novel rectifier topology for high power (0.5 to 10 MVA) current source based AC motor drives is proposed. This rectifier is composed of a multi-winding transformer, a multi-level diode rectifier and a modified multi-level buck converter. The rectifier produces near unity input power factor and sinusoidal input current under any operating conditions. In addition, the proposed rectifier features reliable operation and low manufacturing cost. In this paper, the operating principle of the proposed rectifier is introduced. A number of design issues are investigated, which include PWM switching patterns, input power factor and line current harmonic distortion. Some design considerations such as the effect of the line inductance discrepancy on system performance are addressed. Experiments on a 5 kVA/208V four-level prototype are carried out for verification.