New Unidirectional Five-Level VIENNA Rectifier

for High-Current Applications

Dan FLORICAU Vasile PANGRATIE

University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest TECHNO VOLT
313 Spl.Independentei, CP 060042 20A B-dul.Constructorilor, Sector 6
Bucharest, ROMANIA Bucharest, ROMANIA
dan.floricau@upb.ro vpangrat@technovolt.ro

Abstract— In this paper a new AC/DC unidirectional PWM considered the most popular 3L structure of unidirectional
Vienna switching cell with five voltage levels is proposed. It is unity-power-factor PWM rectifier.
called 5L-Parallel-Unidirectional-Vienna (5L-PUV) cell and can Using the Flying-Capacitor (FC) [6], Stacked-Flying-
be connected between an AC current source – on the input side, Capacitor (SFC) [7] and Active-Neutral-Point-Clamped
and a DC voltage source – on the output side. The novelty of 5L-
PUV topology is based on two cascaded stages that work at
(ANPC) [8] conversion concepts different unidirectional
different currents and different switching-frequency. The first multilevel PWM rectifiers have been developed in the last
stage contains two diodes that operate at high-current and low- years [9], [10].
frequency. The second stage works at low-current and high- Until recently the researches have been focused on how to
frequency and contains two groups of stacked switching cells adjust the output voltage (buck, boost or buck-boost) and less
parallel connected by means of coupled-inductors (CIs). An on development of unidirectional Vienna PWM rectifier
interesting property of the 5L–PBV switching cell is the use of topology with more voltage levels than three. Thus, in 2011
two CIs which work alternatively on a half–cycle. Thus, the was published for the first time a novel Vienna-FC PWM
currents in inductor windings of CIs are naturally set to zero on rectifier topology with five voltage levels (5L) [11]. It was
each cycle and any difference between these currents is cancelled
periodically. Due to the parallel connection of high–frequency
based on SFC and 3L-Vienna PWM rectifier conversion
switching cells, the 5L-PUV concept appears as a useful solution concepts. The main advantage of this structure compared with
for high-current applications. The operation principle of the 5L- other 5L structures consists of small number of active power
PUV cell is verified by digital simulations both for single- and for devices. On the other hand, the switched voltage by the high-
three-phase unity power factor unidirectional PWM rectifiers. frequency power devices is half reduced in comparison with
3L-Vienna topology.
Keywords—pwm rectifier; power factor corection topology, This work presents a new AC/DC unidirectional PWM
parallel switching cells, shared power devices, coupled inductors Vienna switching cell with five voltage levels (Fig.1). It is
called 5L-Parallel-Unidirectional-Vienna (5L-PUV) cell and
I. INTRODUCTION can be connected between an AC current source and a DC
The diode rectifier structures produce low frequency voltage source.
harmonics in the input currents. These harmonics generate
reactive power and a low power factor. In the last two HC-LF LC-HF Voltage DC
stage stage source load
decades, there have been proposed various Pulse-Width-
Modulation (PWM) rectifier topologies which have several AC A
advantages [1]: current D11 Ls1 Lu1 D12
i1
- approximately sinusoidal input current; source Vdc
1 3 C1
- adjustable output voltage (buck, boost, buck-boost); i3 2
CI1
- high power density and high efficiency; Du
D3
ia D1 O O
- low complexity of the power and control circuits. a T1 T2 R
In 1992 [2] a bidirectional three-phase multilevel PWM D2 D4
rectifier to reduce harmonic components of the input current L Dd
CI2 Vdc
has been proposed. In order to generate three voltage levels i4 Vdc
vaO 2 4 C2
(3L) per phase an additional power device per phase was va ~ i2 2
D21 Ls2 Lu2 D22
necessary. This 3L structure was converted into a boost
B
unidirectional AC/DC topology in 1994 [3] and was named
Vienna rectifier. AC/DC 5L-PUV Switching Cell
Later, in 1996, other variants of 3L-Vienna rectifier [4], [5]
have been proposed. The topology published in [5] is Fig. 1. Proposed unity power factor AC/DC 5L-PUV switching cell.

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 The novelty of 5L-PUV topology is based on two cascaded states of controlled switch and the polarity of line currents at
stages that work at different currents [high-current (HC) and any instant of operation.
low-current (LC)] and different switching-frequency [high- For instance, if the line current ia is positive, and the
frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF)]. The LC-HF stage controlled switch T is off, the voltage between the converter
contains two groups of stacked HF switching cells parallel pole a and the dc-bus midpoint O (i.e., vaO) is Vdc/2. The
connected by means of two coupled-inductors (CIs). Specific conduction path for this case is illustrated in Fig.3(a).
to the HF stacked switching cells is the use of a shared Assuming that vC1=vC2=vC, the following system of equations
bidirectional three-pole power device. The proposed 5L-PUV is obtained:
topology is an attractive solution mainly for low-voltage
applications to increase the output current, while the switched dia
va = L ⋅ + vc
current in the HF stage is reduced. It can be used to develop dt
(1)
new unity power factor unidirectional PWM multilevel dv 2 ⋅ vc
ia = C ⋅ c +
rectifiers for single- and three-phase configurations. dt R
The work is organized as follows. In section II two
multilevel Vienna topologies are briefly presented. The first If the line current ia is positive, and the controlled switch T
topology is the classical unidirectional Vienna (UV) rectifier is on, the pole voltage vaO is zero and the conduction path is
with three voltage level (3L). It is shown the average model of illustrated in Fig.3(b). For this case the following system of
3L-UV structure used for numerical simulations. The second equations is obtained:
structure is the recent 5L-Parallel-Bidirectional-Vienna
inverter, used to develop the 5L-PUV topology. The properties dia
va = L ⋅
and control of the proposed single-phase half-bridge 5L-PUV dt
(2)
structure are explained in section III. The three-phase version dvc 2 ⋅ vc
of 5L-PUV concept is shown in section IV. Finally, 0=C⋅ +
dt R
conclusions are given.
D11 D11

II. MULTILEVEL VIENNA CONCEPTS C1 Vdc

2
C1 Vdc
2
ia L Du D1 ia L Du D1
O O
a T R a T R R
A. Three-Level Unidirectional Vienna Rectifier Dd D2 Dd D2
C2 Vdc C2 Vdc

The unity power factor PWM Vienna rectifier has 3L 2

Vdc 2
Vdc

voltage, only one active power device and less current ripples (a) D21 (b) D21
D11 D11
than in the case of the two-level PWM converter. Vienna
rectifier is a unidirectional converter that can operates only in C1 Vdc
C1 Vdc
Du 2 Du 2
D1 D1
rectifier mode. ia L
a T
O
R
ia L
a T
O
R R
The three-level Unidirectional-Vienna (3L-UV) switching Dd D2
C2 Vdc
Dd D2
C2 Vdc
cell (Fig.2) is based on two cascaded stages that work at 2
Vdc 2
Vdc
different switching-frequency (high- and low-frequency) and (c) D21 (d) D21
the same line current (ia). It can be connected between an AC
Fig. 3. Conduction paths for 3L-Vienna switching cell.
current source and a DC voltage source. (a) active switch T is off and line current (ia) is positive. (b) T is on and ia>0.
(c) T is off and ia<0. (d) T is on and ia<0.
AC current LF HF Voltage DC
source Stage Stage source load
Similarly, if the line current ia is negative, the pole voltage
vaO can be either −Vdc/2 if the switch T is off or zero if the
1 D11
C1 Vdc switch T is on, as illustrated in Fig.3(c) and (d), respectively.
2
ia L Du D1
O The relations (1) and (2) remain valid also for negative
a T R current ia, being dependent of the control of active switch T.
va Dd D2
~ C2 Vdc Using the modulation function f with two states (f=0 for T=off
2 D21 2 Vdc and f=1 for T=on), the relations (1) and (2) can be written as
vaO

dia
+ (1 − f ) ⋅ vc
3L-UV Switching Cell
va = L ⋅
Fig. 2. Unity power factor 3L-UV switching cell. dt
(3)
The operating principle of 3L-UV rectifier is discussed
(1 − f ) ⋅ ia = C ⋅ dvc + 2 ⋅ vc
dt R
below for positive and negative line current. With the
assumption of a continuous conduction mode, the rectifier Considering m - the average modulation function of the
pole voltage (vaO) has a definite state determined by the on/off modulation function f, the average model used for numerical

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simulations can be described by connection of two groups of stacked switching cells (S11-S1c-
S21; S12-S2c-S22), while the low-frequency (LF) stage is
dia composed by a basic 2L switching cell (S3-S4). Each group of
va = L ⋅ + (1 − m ) ⋅ vc stacked switching cells uses a shared bidirectional three-pole
dt
(4) power device (S1c, S2c). The principal DC supply voltage (Vdc)
(1 − m) ⋅ ia = C ⋅ dvc + 2 ⋅ vc is split into two secondary DC-link voltage (Vdc/2) realized by
dt R
two series-connected capacitors (C1 and C2). All the power
Tsw devices are rated for half of the DC-link voltage (Vdc/2).
1
where, m =
Tsw ∫ f (t )⋅ dt , and Tsw is the switching period.
0 S11 Ls1 Lu1 S12
The average model (4) of 3L-UV switching cell is validated Vdc
C1 1 3
by numerical simulation for single-phase half-bridge PWM 2 i1 i3
CI1
rectifier with a resistive load. The simulation results are S3
+ D1c D3c iA
presented in Fig.4. It is observed that the pole voltage vaO has O
T1c
O
T2c A
three voltage levels and the input current ia is sinusoidal. S1c D2c S2c D4c
S4
Vdc i2 CI2 i4
C2 2 4
2
Vdc S21 Ls2 Lu2 S22

Fig. 5. Single-phase half-bridge 5L-PBV inverter.

To control the single–phase half–bridge 5L–PBV inverter

Fig. 4. Simulation results for single-phase half-bridge 3L-UV rectifier
(Vdc = 700 V, fsw = 8000 Hz, Varms = 230 V/ 50 Hz, R = 65 Ω and L = 1 mH).
The active power device T of 3L-UV switching cell has the
following features:
(a) the average switching frequency (for one cycle of
input voltage) of T is equal to switching frequency fsw
(favT=fsw);
(b) the device T switch half of output voltage (Vdc/2) and
line current (ia) at fsw for the entire cycle; thus, it has
both conduction and switching losses;
(c) the apparent (effective) switching frequency (fap) of
the pole voltage vaO is equal to fsw (fap=fsw).
Due to these properties, the active semiconductor device T
limits the maximum output power and/or maximum switching
frequency of unity power factor 3L-UV rectifier. In order to
increase the maximum output power and/or maximum
switching frequency a new five-level unidirectional Vienna
rectifier concept is introduced in this paper. It is derived from
the five-level Parallel-Bidirectional-Vienna (PBV) inverter.
the phase-shifted (PS) and level-shifted (LS) techniques are
combined. Thus, the control of active power devices was
obtained from the comparison of the sinusoidal reference
voltage with four carriers phase-level-shifted (PLS).
The power devices S11 and T1c, respectively S12 and T2c, are
complementary controlled only on half-cycle when the
reference voltage is positive. For this case (vr>0), the control
of switches S11 and S12 are phase-shifted with 180°. For
negative reference voltage (vr<0) the power devices S21, T1c,
T2c and S22 are similarly controlled.
The 5L-PBV switching cell was validated by numerical
simulation with a RL load. Some simulation results for single-
phase half-bridge inverter are presented in Fig.6. It was
observed that the output voltage has five-levels and the load
current is divided in a balanced way in the windings of the
coupled-inductors.

B. Five-Level Parallel-Bidirectional-Vienna Inverter

The five-level Parallel-Bidirectional-Vienna (5L-PBV)
switching cell (Fig.5) was presented for the first time in [12]
for single- and three-phase topologies. It is based on two
Fig. 6. Simulation results for the single-phase half-bridge 5L–PBV inverter
cascaded stages controlled at different frequencies, two (Vdc = 800 V, fsw = 8 kHz, fr = 50 Hz, Ls1 = Lu1 = Ls2 = Lu2 = 1.5mH, Lsu1 = Lsu2
coupled-inductors (CI1 and CI2) and a basic switching cell. = 1.4 mH, R = 10 Ω and L = 2.5 mH): vAO - output voltage, iA - output current
The high-frequency (HF) stage is specific to a parallel and i1, i2, i3, i4 - currents in inductor windings.

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 An interesting property of the 5L-PBV solution is to use current ia flows through the coupled-inductor CI2 and the two
two CIs for each arm. Thus, the CIs work alternatively only on parallel cells: D21-SO2 and D22-SO4. The obtained current id also
a half-cycle and the currents in inductor windings of CIs are has three levels (0, ia/2 and ia).
set to zero after each cycle. In this way, any difference
between the currents in the inductor windings of CIs is set to i1 1 D11 iu

zero after each cycle. Ls1

v1O
ia + Vdc
S1O - 2
III. PROPOSED SINGLE-PHASE 5L-PUV RECTIFIER R
Lu1 i3 3 D12
The proposed 5L-PUV switching cell is presented for the B
first time in Fig.1. It is based on two cascaded stages CI1 v3O
controlled at high and low switching frequencies. The new 5L S3O
(a)
switching cell can be connected between a current source and
a voltage source to achieve a unidirectional transfer of i2 2 D21 A
electrical power. Thus, it can be used to develop new unity Ls2
SO2 R
ia v2O
power factor PWM boost rectifiers.
+ Vdc
The HF stage is specific to a parallel connection of two - 2
Lu2 i4 4 D22
groups of stacked switching cells by means of two coupled-
inductors (CI1 and CI2). Each group of stacked switching cells CI2 v4O SO4
id R

uses a shared three-pole power device. Depending on the

polarity of the line current ia this three-pole device has two (b)
different configurations (Fig.7). The two active devices (T1
and T2) are represented as bipolar transistors to highlight that Fig. 8. Equivalent magnetic circuits of proposed 5L-PUV rectifier.
(a) positive input voltage (va>0). (b) negative input voltage (va<0).
do not require anti-parallel diode. Is important to mention that
all semiconductor devices contained in this HF stage switch
Analyzing the ideal equivalent magnetic structures without
half of the line current (ia/2) (low-current: LC). The LF stage
energy storage, it can be seen for positive reference voltage
contains two diodes Du and Dd. Through theses diodes flow
that the voltage in the magnetic structure is
the line current (ia) (high-current: HC).
The principal DC output voltage (Vdc) is split into two
v1O − vaO = vaO − v3O (5)
secondary DC-link voltage (Vdc/2) realized by two series-
connected capacitors (C1 and C2). Thus, all the power devices
therefore the output voltage is given by
are rated for half of the DC-link voltage (Vdc/2).
v +v
1 vaO = 1O 3O (6)
O 2
1 1
2
O O In fact, the mutual inductance (Lsu) is always present in the
1 construction of the transformer. Also, the commutations are
O 2 2 not ideal and the secondary DC-link voltages (Vdc/2) are
realized by two series-connected capacitors (C1 and C2). Due
2 to these reasons, the sum of the instantaneous voltages v1O and
(a) (b) (c)
v3O is not perfectly constant and voltage oscillations can
appear at the input side. In the ideal conditions (without
Fig. 7. Three-pole switch. (a) Symbol. (b) Switch S1O. (c) Switch SO2.
energy storage), the use of the coupled-inductors allows the
The operating principle of proposed 5L-PUV rectifier is division of the line current through the HF switches in a
discussed below for positive and negative line current. With balanced way. Thus, the current in each parallel commutation
the assumption of a continuous conduction mode, the rectifier cell is half of the line current (ia/2). As a result, the switched
pole voltage (vaO) has a definite state determined by the on/off and conduction currents for the HF switches are reduced.
states of controlled switches and the polarity of line currents at
any instant of operation. i
i1 = −i3 = a (7)
Depending on the input voltage sign, two equivalent circuits 2
are obtained (Fig.8). When va>0, the diode Du is in conduction
and the line current ia flows through the coupled-inductor CI1 Another characteristic of this structure is the increasing of
and the two parallel cells: D11-S1O and D12-S3O. Thus, the the pole voltage levels at five (5L) in comparison with 3L-UV
obtained current iu has three levels (0, ia/2 and ia). rectifier. Also, the apparent switching frequency of the line
When va<0, the diode Dd is in conduction and the line current ia is twice the switching frequency:

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 f ap = 2 ⋅ f sw
These advantages lead to the reduction of the switching
losses in HF power devices, the size and the cost of the
inductor L of the line current source. For positive reference
voltage the line current is given by the difference of the
currents through the inductor windings CI1 (i1 and i3):
ia = i1 − i3
The proposed 5L-PUV switching cell also has the following
features:
(a) the diodes D11, D12, D21 and D22 switch half of line
current (ia/2) on half-cycle with fsw; the average
switching frequency is equal to half of fsw (fav-D11=fav-
D12=fav-D21=fav-D22=fsw/2); the switched voltage is equal
to half of output voltage (Vdc/2); these diodes have
both conduction and switching losses;
(b) the diodes D1 to D4 switch at zero voltage and they
have only conduction losses;
(c) the transistors T1c and T2c switch half of line current
(ia/2) with fsw; the average switching frequency is
equal to fsw (fav-T1c=fav-T2c=fsw); the switched voltage is
equal to half of output voltage (Vdc/2); these transistors
have both conduction and switching losses;
(d) the diode Du is in conduction for ia>0 and it has only
conduction losses; similarly, diode Du is in conduction
for ia<0 and also has only conduction losses; through
both diodes flows the line current ia;
(e) through both coupled-inductors (CI1 and CI2) flows
half of line current (ia) and any difference between the
currents in the inductor windings of CIs is set to zero
after each cycle.
Taking into account these properties, a better balancing of
total losses in switches is obtained and the new rectifier
topology increases substantially the maximum output power or
the maximum switching frequency. The average model of the
new 5L-PUV cell can be described by the same relations (4).
To control the active power devices of 5L–PUV cell the
i1a CI1a i3a
ia O O ib
a b
L L
vaN vbN
va vb
~ ~
CI2a
Fig. 10. Proposed three-phase unity power factor 5L-PUV rectifier.
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(8) phase-shifted (PS) technique is used. The 5L-PUV cell is
validated by numerical simulation for single-phase half-bridge
PWM rectifier with a resistive load. Some simulation results
are presented in Fig.9. It is observed that the pole voltage vaO
has five voltage levels and the line current ia is divided in a
balanced way in the windings of the coupled-inductors.
Another advantage consists in doubling fap of pole voltage vaO.
(9)
Fig. 9. Simulation results for single-phase half-bridge 5L-PUV rectifier
(Vdc = 700 V, fsw = 8000 Hz, Varms = 230 V/ 50 Hz, Ls1 = Lu1 = Ls2 = Lu2 =
1.5mH, Lsu1 = Lsu2 = 1.4 mH, R = 80 Ω and L = 1 mH).
IV. PROPOSED THREE-PHASE 5L-PUV RECTIFIER
Based on 5L-PUV concept a three-phase 5L-PUV rectifier
is proposed in this section (Fig.10). The control of active
power devices is obtained from the comparison of the average
modulation functions (ma, mb and mc) with two phase-shifted
(PS) carriers. It is mentioned that the optimization of PWM
strategy is not an objective of this paper.
Fig.11 presents some simulation results for three-phase 5L–
PUV rectifier. It is observed that the input line–to–line voltage
(vAB) has 9 levels with Vdc/4 steps value.
An interesting property of three-phase 5L-PUV rectifier is
the use of two CIs for each arm. Thus, the CIs from an arm
work alternatively only on a half-cycle and the currents in
inductor windings are set to zero after each cycle, as seen also
in Fig.11(b). In this way, any difference between the currents
in the inductor windings of CIs is set to zero after each cycle.
Vdc
2
C1
O O ic O O
c R
L
Vdc
Vdc
vcN C2
vc 2
~
1084

Fig. 11. Simulation results for three-phase 5L–PUV rectifier (Vdc = 700 V,
Varms = 230 V/ 50 Hz, R = 26.5 Ω and L = 1 mH, Ls1 = Lu1 = Ls2 = Lu2 =
1.5mH, Lsu1 = Lsu2 = 1.4 mH, fsw = 8 kHz). (a) ma, mb, mc – reference
modulation index, vab– line-to-line input voltage. (b) vaN– phase input voltage,
ia, ib – line currents, i1a, i3a – currents in the inductor windings of CI1a.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The maximum line current ripple is an important parameter
in the design of the series inductor to achieve a high efficiency
of the conversion. Using the multilevel approach, it is possible
to reduce the maximum line current ripple by reducing the
steps value of the pole voltage and/or by increasing the
apparent switching frequency.
In this paper a new AC/DC unidirectional PWM Vienna
switching cell with five voltage levels has been presented. It
was called 5L-Parallel-Unidirectional-Vienna (5L-PUV) cell
and can be connected between an AC current source and a DC
voltage source.
The novelty of 5L-PUV topology was based on two
cascaded stages that work at different currents and different
switching frequency. The low-current/ high-frequency stage
contains two groups of stacked switching cells parallel
connected by means of two coupled-inductors. Specific to the
stacked switching cells is the use of a shared bidirectional
three-pole power device.
The 5L-PUV cell can be used to develop new unity power
factor unidirectional PWM multilevel rectifiers for single- and
three-phase configurations. The operation mode of the
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proposed concept has been verified by numerical simulations
both for single- and three-phase rectifiers.
The features of these topologies have also been presented
and the obtained results confirm the performed theoretical
analysis. The low harmonic content on the pole voltage
produces a major reduction concerning the volume and the
cost of the line inductor. Another factor which contributes to
this reduction is the fact that the apparent switching frequency
of the pole voltage is twice the switching frequency.
The use of coupled-inductors in 5L-PUV concept represents
a hindrance (in view of the size, weight and cost) at low
switching frequency for medium-voltage applications. Thus,
the proposed 5L topology is an attractive solution for low-
voltage applications, mainly to increase the output current,
while the switched current through the HF power devices is
reduced.
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