A high efficiency passive power factor corrector for single-phase bridge diode rectifiers

A recently introduced passive approach for power factor correction of single-phase uncontrolled bridge rectifiers is increased due to the circuit efficiency improvement. Power factor correction is obtained by adding a proper branch with resistive and capacitive elements at the DC-side terminals of the rectifier; the optimal values of the power factor corrector parameters are calculated bearing in mind the load demand and the DC-filter parameter values. The most important thinks of the paper are the introduction, the design and the analysis of an electronic circuit, called "resistance emulator", utilised instead of the resistor of the power factor correction branch. The resistance emulator circuit is able to guarantee circuit performances similar to that previously obtained by using a resistor avoiding, at the same time, extra power losses, so significantly improving the circuit efficiency.