Concepts for high efficiency single-phase three-level PWM rectifiers

Risks of energy shortage and control of greenhouse gases emission increase the demand for high efficiency power conversion. Power quality standards require electronic equipment with power factor correction. This adds an extra conversion stage that decreases overall efficiency. Therefore, research on PFC converters with high efficiency is paramount for power conversion equipment. This work proposes new concepts that make use of multilevel topologies and multi-state switching cells in order to improve the efficiency of PWM rectifiers. Analytical and experimental analysis are provided in order to validate this objective.