Three-phase interleaved semi-controlled PFC converter for aircraft application

In more electric aircraft (MEA), three phase PFC rectifiers of several kilowatts are required. In this paper, analysis and design of a single stage three phase PFC interleaved half controlled boost converter for aircraft application is presented. The proposed converter uses the voltage follower approach i.e it is operated in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM). This avoids the inner current control loop which further eliminates the sensing of current through current sensors. This makes the system more reliable and robust. This approach uses only one voltage control loop for output voltage regulation. A two stage approach is also proposed to improve the input current quality of the converter. To validate the analysis, the proposed converters are simulated in PSIM. A comparison between the single stage and two stage converters in terms of efficiency, power factor and input current quality are presented. The results show that the input current quality is high in two stage approach with slight compromise in efficiency.