A Soft-Switching Step-Down PFC Converter with High Power Factor Using Auxiliary Flyback Circuit

In this paper, a new soft-switching bridgeless single-phase power factor correction converter is introduced and analyzed. Employing an auxiliary flyback circuit, existing dead angle in the input current is eliminated while softswitching is achieved. The flyback converter processes only small amount of output power. Therefore, conduction losses of its bridge diode and semiconductor devices are low. Also, the auxiliary flyback converter provides soft-switching condition for buck switches. All semiconductors are turned on and off under soft-switching condition. In addition to reduction of switching losses, diode's reverse-recovery problems are eliminated due to soft-switching condition. The proposed approach takes advantage of operating under discontinuous conduction mode to shape the input current into sinusoidal form inherently. Experimental results are reported for a 120-W prototype at 110 V rms input and 48-V output. The results demonstrate efficiency of 93% at nominal load condition. Furthermore, the input current harmonics fulfill IEC61000-3-2 (Class D) standard as well.