Challenges in Achieving High Performance in Boost PFC Converter

Boost type front end Power Factor Correction (PFC) converters are used to obtain a sinusoidal input current which is in phase with the input sinusoidal voltage while at the same time maintaining the output voltage constant. This front end stage is required to conform to harmonic norms. Unlike a DC-DC boost converter with small signal input variations about the quiescent operating point, the boost PFC converter is subjected to large signal variations in every half line cycle. In this paper, the nature of these large signal variations and effect of a linear controller in this converter is analyzed. Further, certain issues that lead to performance degradation in the converter are highlighted based on simulation results.