Title :
Using the DC bus current to improve the power factor in low-cost electric drives
Author :
Cacciato, M. ; De Caro, S. ; Testa, A. ; Consoli, A.
Author_Institution :
DIE, La Sapienza Univ., Rome, Italy
Abstract :
A new approach is presented based on the dither effect, aimed to improve the power factor of PWM inverters equipping low power electric motor drives for household appliances. The key feature of the proposed approach is that the DC bus current is used to generate a suitable dither that forces the diode rectifier to draw current from the main, when the DC bus capacitor voltage exceeds the AC input voltage. Therefore, exploiting the presented idea, a traditional PFC front end, based on a DC/DC converter, is not necessary to comply with power quality requirements and only an additional HF transformer is introduced, that marginally affects the cost and size of the whole drive. Experimental results confirm the consistence of the proposed approach.
Keywords :
PWM invertors; domestic appliances; high-frequency transformers; induction motor drives; power factor correction; rectifying circuits; 200 W; AC input voltage; DC bus capacitor voltage; DC bus current; HF transformer; PWM inverters; additional HF transformer; diode rectifier; dither effect; household appliances; low power electric motor drives; low-cost electric drives; power factor; power factor improvement; power quality requirements; three-phase induction motor drive; AC generators; Capacitors; DC generators; DC-DC power converters; Diodes; Electric motors; Home appliances; Pulse width modulation inverters; Reactive power; Rectifiers;
Conference_Titel :
Electric Machines and Drives Conference, 2003. IEMDC'03. IEEE International
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7817-2
DOI :
10.1109/IEMDC.2003.1210399
