Three-level TAIPEI rectifier

A new low-cost, three-phase, four-switch, three-level, zero-voltage-switching (ZVS), discontinuous-current-mode (DCM), power-factor-correction (PFC) boost rectifier, for short named the three-level TAIPEI rectifier, that achieves a low input-current total-harmonic-distortion (THD) and features ZVS of all the switches is introduced. In the proposed rectifier, the voltage stress of the four switches is equal to one-half of the output voltage. Consequently, the rectifier can utilize switches with a lower voltage rating, which, generally, have lower conduction losses. The performance was evaluated on a three-phase 6-kW prototype for the line-to-line voltage range from 340 V to 520 V. The proposed rectifier exhibits efficiency in the 96-98% range, achieves less than 5% input-current THD over the entire input and above 10% load range.