Soft Transitions Power Factor Correction Circuit

Soft Transitions Power Factor Correction Circuit

Reverse recovery of the diode rectifier has a negative effect on power converters’ performance when operating at high frequency. Due to the low impedance across the voltage source when the diode commutes this negative effect becomes worse in non-isolated converters using buck and boost topologies. Today’s industry requests for better power diodes rectifier regarding switching speed and low conduction losses seems to touch the technology limits. Thus the paper presents circuit techniques that minimize the negative effects of silicon power rectifiers’ reverse recovery. Two “soft” switching techniques applied to buck and boost topology are presented together with experimental results in a power factor correction application.