Design of Power Factor Correction (PFC) Converters

Training structure:

The duration of the training is 2 days. 

Training objective:

The objective of the course is to acquire the basic abilities about controller design for DC/DC power converters using analog or digital devices for the implementation. Starting with a basic study of the control problem, design procedures based on software tools like PSIM and SmartCtrl will be applied and illustrated through practical design cases. 

Intended audience:

The training course is recommended to everybody interested in the theoretical aspects and practical design issues of analog and digital control of dc-dc converters. Having previous experience in power electronics and circuit simulation is useful, but beginners with no background in those topics will also benefit from the course. 

Topics:

Section I: General Aspects.

• Introduction to Power Factor Correction
• Revision of single and three-phase topologies

  Section II: Single-phase PFC

• Power Stage Design
  • Power Losses Calculations
  • Inductor design
  • Input and Output capacitors selection
  • Semiconductors selection
• Power losses simulations with PSIM´s Thermal Module (Inductor, MOSFET and Diodes)
• Analog controller design using SmartCtrl
  • Block diagram of UC3854 and related ICs
  • Inner current loop design
  • Outer voltage loop design
• PSIM simulation of the control loops
• EMI Filter design
  • Estimation of the required attenuation in differential and common modes
  • Design of single-stage and two-stage filters
  • Interaction of the EMI filter and the PFC

  Section III: Three-phase PFC

• Power Stage Design
  • Inductor design
  • Input and Output capacitors selection
  • Semiconductors selection
• Power losses simulations with PSIM´s Thermal Module (Inductor, MOSFET and Diodes)
• Digital controller design using SmartCtrl
  • Block diagram
  • Inner current loop design
  • Outer voltage loop design
• PSIM simulation of the control loops
• EMI Filter design

  Section IV: Complete digital control design of Three-phase PFC: SmartCtrl design, PSIM simulation and HW experiments

• Description of the hardware set up: Three-phase PFC converter and SoC based digital control
• SoC control parametrization with SmartCtrl Console
• Experiments: input voltage steps, reference steps, load steps, etc.

Methodology:

The overall methodology is based on theoretical explanation on main concepts and details followed by practical implementation of the complete design procedure: controller design by means of SmartCtrl, PSIM simulations and hardware validation by means of a scale – down prototype.

• 60% theoretical contents
• 20% practical exercises by means of guided PSIM simulations and SmartCtrl designs
• 10% exercises using a hardware demonstrator

A complete set of SmartCtrl and PSIM exercises already developed will be provided to the audience together with the rest of course materials. During practical exercises, attendees will be asked to change some component values and/or modify the schematics of the provided examples and carry out simulations. For hardware experiments SmartCtrl Console will be used to modify control parameters of a digitally controlled three-phase PFC. Attendees will experiment different effects of the digital control design by means of reference and output current step changes.