Frontiers in Computer, Communication and Electrical Engineering Acharyya (Ed.

)
2016 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN: 978-1-138-02877-7

Design and simulation of a power factor corrected boost converter

Sourav Tola, Ayandeep Ganguly, Ujjal Dey, Megha, Soumitra Mukherjee, Amit Kumar Das,
Tanushree Dey, Ishita Mondal & Sourav Mondal
Haldia Institute of Technology, Haldia, East Medinipur, West Bengal, India

ABSTRACT: The interest towards improving the quality of power, which are supplied to the electronic
equipments has been increasing to ensure the optimum utilization of power generated. A low power
factor is responsible for reducing the active power thats available from the grid. Thus, it causes a high
harmonic distortion of the line current eventually, which results in electromagnetic interference problems
and cross-interferences, through the line impedance, between different systems connected to the same supply. The standard rectifier employing a diode bridge followed by a filter capacitor for DC utilities gives
unacceptable performances in terms of power quality according to the rising benchmark set by recent
developments in the relevant field. The most popular topology for power factor correction is certainly the
boost topology. In this work, a power factor corrected boost converter has been designed and simulated
in MATLAB and the proposed control strategy has been implemented.
1

INTRODUCTION

The conventional AC/DC power converters that

are connected to the line through diode rectifier
draw a non-sinusoidal input current. Because of
the large harmonic content, a typical diode rectifier is used for interfacing the power electronic
equipment with the utility system and exceeds the
limits on individual current harmonics and THD
specified (IEEE guide 1992). These harmonic currents flowing through the impedances in the electrical utility distribution system can cause several
problems such as voltage distortion, heating, and
noises. These harmonics distort the local voltage
waveform; potentially interfering with other electrical equipment connected to the same electrical
service and reduces the capabilities of the line to
provide energy. In addition to, the effect on the
power line quality and the poor waveform of the
input current also affects the power electronic
component itself in different ways (Mohan et al.
2003). Due to this fact, the presence of standards
or recommendations is forced to use power factor
correction in power supplies.
Inductors and capacitors can be used in conjunction with the diode bridge rectifier to improve
the waveform of the current, drawn from the utility
grid. The obvious disadvantages of such arrangements are cost, size, losses, and the significant
dependence of the average DC voltage on the
power drawn by the load.
By using a power electronic converter for current shaping, it is possible to shape the input line

current drawn by bridge rectifier is to be sinusoidal

and in phase with the input voltage. The choice of
the power electronic converter is based on different
considerations. In most applications, it is acceptable, and in many cases desirable, to stabilize the
DC voltage slightly in excess of the peak of the
maximum of the AC input voltage. The input current drawn should ideally be at a unity power factor so that the power electronic interface emulates
a resistor supplied by the utility source (Erickson
et al. 2004). The cost, power losses, and size of
the current shaping circuit should be as small as
possible. Based on these considerations, the obvious choice for current shaping circuit is a step-up
DC-DC converter.
2

PFC BOOST CONVERTER

2.1 Basic principle of boost converter

Figure 1 shows a boost converter. Its main application is in regulated DC power supplies and the
regenerative braking of DC motors. As the name
implies, the output voltage is always greater than
the input voltage. When the switch is on, the diode
is reverse biased, thus isolating the output stage.
The input supplies energy to the inductor. When
the switch is off, the output stage receives energy
from the inductor as well as from the input. The
output filter capacitor is assumed to be very large
to ensure a constant output voltage at steady state.
The switch used in the boost converter configuration is typically a power BJT, power MOSFET,

265

LAHIRI_Book.indb 265

3/7/2016 11:05:56 AM

D =1

Vi
Vo

(5)

So, from this expression we can see that the

output voltage is always higher than the input
voltage.
2.2 Proposed control strategy

Downloaded by [Aritra Acharyya] at 00:56 09 May 2016

Figure 1.

Boost converter operational circuit.

or IGBT. DC power is obtained by rectifying the

power from an AC source using a diode bridge
rectifier. The boost converter converts the rectified
DC voltage to a higher output voltage.
The key principle that drives the boost converter
is the tendency of an inductor to resist changes in
the current. The operation of the boost converter
has two distinct states.
The switch is closed. The current IL(t) flows
through L, RL and back to the voltage source. In
this mode, the inductor stores energy.
The switch is opened. The path for the inductor current to flow is through the freewheeling
diode D1, capacitor C, and load R. The stored
energy in the inductor collapses and the polarity across the inductor is reversed. The energy
is transferred from the inductor to the capacitor and the capacitor gets charged to a voltage
higher than the source voltage.
At the end of On-state, the increase of IL is
1
L

II LON =

DT

Vi dt =

DT
Vi
L

(1)

dII L
dt

2.3 Implementation of PI controller

Output voltage from the boost converter is compared with reference voltage level before feeding
in the controller circuit. Proper choice of the PI
controller parameters are decided by the transfer
function obtained from the DC-to-DCconverter
model.
From Figure1, when the switch is at position 1,
VL (t ) =V
Vg

D is the duty cycle which represents the fraction

of the total time period T that the switch is kept
on. So, D varies from 0 to 1. During, the off period
the change in IL is:
Vi Vo = L

The control strategy proposed in this work is hysteresis control. In hysteresis current control the
current is made to vary within a specific band,
as shown in Figure 2. Currentmode control can
be achieved by sensing the current of the switching power devices or energy storage element and
integrating it into main voltage control loop
(Fagerstrom et al. 2012). Whenever the actual current reaches the upper limit of the band the switch
of the boost converter must be off and whenever
the current falls to the lower limit of the band,
the switch must be ON. In this control scheme the
switching frequency is not constant.
The block diagram of the implemented control
strategy is shown in Figure 3.

iL (t )RL

(6)

Using small ripple approximation, iL(t) replaced

by its DC component IL, hence

(2)

So, the variation of IL during the off period is

T

II LOFF =

(Vi V )dt (Vi Vo )( D )T

=
L
L
DT

(3)

The inductor current has to be the same at the

start and end of the cycle at steady state. So,

LON

II LLOFF
OFF
F =0

(4)

Substituting the values of ILON and ILOFF we

V
1
which can be rearranged to find
get o =
Vi 1 D

Figure 2. Input current waveform of PFC boost converter with hysteresis control.

266

LAHIRI_Book.indb 266

3/7/2016 11:05:56 AM

Design of PI controller requires transient analysis

and without detail analysis of each mode of switching cycle. Combined state equation model is formed
for both ON and OFF state in the form of a set
of two linear time-variant state equations ignoring ripple components. Linearization technique to
optimize proportional and integral constant values
using Ziegler-Nichols tuning method is applied.
3
Figure 3. Block diagram of the proposed control strategy.

Downloaded by [Aritra Acharyya] at 00:56 09 May 2016

VL (t ) =V
Vg

I L RL

(7)

Similarly,
ic (t ) =

V
R

(8)

During the first subinterval, the switches are

in position 1 for time dTs and during the second
subinterval, of length of switching duration is
(1 d)Ts. The duty cycle d(t) may now be a timevarying quantity. Using small signal approximation, the state equations of the circuit can be
developed considering that natural frequency of
the converter network is much smaller than the
switching frequency.
Small signal control (d(s)) to output transfer
function is described by (Mahmood et al. 2014),
1
Gd ( s ) = Gd 0

s
z

s
s
1+
+
Q 0 0

(9)

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

The simulation of both the normal boost converter

and the power factor corrected boost converter has
been done in MATLAB and the results have been
compared.
Figure 4 shows the simulation diagram of the
boost converter without power factor correction.
The rectified DC voltage, output DC voltage,
and the inductor current waveforms for a boost
converter without power factor correction are
shown in Figure 5. Input AC voltage and current
waveforms are shown in Figure 6. It can clearly be
seen that the current waveform is not following the
voltage waveform and the power factor obtained
from the simulation is 0.822 and the THD is
0.5176. The current waveform is observed to be far
from sinusoidal.
Circuit diagram for Power Factor Corrected
boost converter operation has been shown in
Figure 7. The rectified DC voltage, output DC
voltage, and the inductor current waveforms for a
power factor corrected boost converter are shown
in Figure 8. Input AC voltage and current waveforms are shown in Figure 9. The inductor current
is following the rectified voltage obtained from the
diode bridge rectifier. Hence, current drawn from
supply is in same phase with the voltage waveform.
Consequently, the power factor obtained is 0.999

With the condition Vg(s) = 0

Line to output transfer function can be obtained
with d(s) = 0 as,
Gg ( s ) = Gg 0

1
s
s
1+
+
Q 0 0

(10)

where,
Gg 0 =

1
1 D
0 =
1 D
LC

Gd =

V
(1 D )2 R
z =
,Q
1 D
L

(1 D )R LC

Figure 4. Circuit diagram for the rectifier fed boost

converter without power factor correction.

267

CH054_66.indd 267

3/21/2016 5:01:24 PM

Downloaded by [Aritra Acharyya] at 00:56 09 May 2016

Figure 5. Rectified DC input voltage, output voltage

across the capacitor and inductor current waveforms of
the boost converter without power factor correction.

Figure 8. Rectified DC input voltage, output voltage

across the capacitor and inductor current waveforms of
the Power Factor Corrected boost converter.

Figure 6. Input voltage and input current waveforms

of the rectifier fed boost converter without power factor
correction.

Figure 9. Input voltage and input current waveforms

of the rectifier fed Power Factor Corrected boost
converter.

minimize the measurement and calculation error

results to the computation delay. Instead of varying the voltage manually, a chopper circuit can be
used for automatic voltage control purpose which
is effective to reduce torque pulsation and better
transient response.
REFERENCES

Figure 7. Circuit diagram for power factor corrected

boost converter operation.

and the THD is 0.0319. Both of these values show

improved operation compared to a boost converter
without power factor correction.
4

CONCLUSION

The speed controlled scheme is developed using

a modern microcomputer (PIC 18F4520) to

Erickson, R.W., Maksimovic, D. (2004). Fundamentals

of Power Electronics. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Fagerstrom, S., Bengiamin, N. (2012). Modelling and
Characterization of Power Electronics Converters
Using Matlab Tools. InTech, http://www.intechopen.
com.
Mohan, N., Undeland, T.M., Robbins, W.P. (2003). Power
Electronics Converters, Applications and Design.
John Wiley & Sons.
Mahmood, O.Y., Mashhadany Y.I., Khadim, J.S. (2014).
High Performance DC-DC Boost Converter Based
on Tuning PI controller, The Second Engineering
Conference of Control, Computers and Mechatronics
Engineering (ECCCM2).
(1992). IEEE Guide for Harmonic control and Reactive
Compensation of Static Power converter. ANSI/IEEE
Std. 5191981, revised in 1992 to 5191992.

268

LAHIRI_Book.indb 268

3/7/2016 11:06:27 AM