A Three-Phase Single-Sensor-Based Cuk-Derived PFC Converter With Reduced Number of Components for More Electric Aircraft

A new three-phase Cuk-derived power factor corrected (PFC) converter with only three switches for more electric aircraft is presented. The proposed converter benefits limited components for its operation, and only one semiconductor from each phase is in the current conduction path throughout the converter operation that substantially reduces the conduction losses leading to high efficiency and low converter thermal management. Further, the control effort required for converter operation is very less as all the three switches are driven by one gate signal. The converter output inductors are designed for discontinuous current operation for the entire converter power range to realize natural PFC at ac power source. The converter control is very simple, economical, and reliable since only one sensor is required for implementation. A detailed discussion on the converter steady-state operation for one switching cycle is presented. The converter small-signal model and the design expressions are derived to ease the converter control and the design. Further, the feasibility of the proposed scheme and the design are validated with the experimental results from a 2-kW laboratory prototype.