Boost converters:

The boost converter is widely used in single-phase power factor correction (PFC) converters, because its input current is continuous and the topology is simple. With the increase of the power rating, it is often required to associate converters in parallel. Boost converters are widely used as power-factor corrected pre-regulators. A major design criterion then is to ensure equal current sharing among the parallel converters. The boost converter cells have very good current sharing characteristics even in the presence of relatively large duty cycle mismatch. In addition, it can be designed to have small input current ripple and zero boost-rectifier reverse-recovery loss with the tightening requirements of power quality, offline power supplies are required to operate at high power factor and to draw low harmonic currents from the ac mains. The conventional method of reducing input current harmonics using an LC input filter is no longer practically sufficient to meet the requirements in many high-power applications. Among these converters, the single-ended boost converter has been widely adopted as a front-end power-factor-corrected (PFC) regulator. The reasons for using boost converter are the simplicity in circuit and system design, reduced voltage stress on devices, and high conversion efficiency compared to the other topologies. Further, the step-up conversion makes it suitable for universal input voltage application (90 264 V).PFC boost converters operating in continuous inductor current mode (CICM) have better utilization of power devices, lower conduction loss, and lower input current ripple. On the other hand, boost converters in discontinuous inductor current mode (DICM) have lower boost-rectifier reverse-recovery loss and lower transistor switching-on loss. In order to reduce the input current ripple, modified boost converter topologies have been proposed in. In high-power applications (greater than 1.5 kW), boost converters are often paralleled in an interleaved manner to increase the output current and reduce the input current ripple.

However, current sharing among the parallel paths is a major design problem. It can be shown that, when two similar but independently controlled boost converters are connected in parallel (with the same input and output voltages), the converter with a larger duty cycle may operate in CICM, while the other will the automatically operate in DICM. Under this condition, any further additional loading current will be taken up by the converter in CICM operation. Thus, current sharing is very sensitive to the mismatch in duty cycle.[3]

Boost converters are popularly employed in equipments for different applications. For high-power-factor requirements, boost converters are the most popular candidates, especially for applications with dc bus voltage much higher than line input. Boost converters are usually applied as pre-regulators or even integrated with the latter-stage circuits or rectifiers into single-stage circuits. Most renewable power sources, such as photovoltaic power systems and fuel cells, have quite low-voltage output and require series connection or a voltage booster to provide enough voltage output. Boost converters are widely used in the low-to-high DCIDC application and power-factor-corrected circuits. The boost converter cells can share the input current, so this prototype circuit can be designed to have small input current ripple. And when using this method, output voltage ripple can also be reduced. Boost converter has the simplicity in circuit and system design, reduced voltage stress on devices and high conversion efficiency compared to the other topologies. Boost circuit is widely used as DC/DC converter in the photovoltaic system.PFC boost converters are the most widely used circuit as the active power factor correction circuit. PFC boost converters operating in continuous inductor current mode (CICM) have better utilization of power devices, low conduction loss, and lower input current ripple. On the other hand, the boost converters in discontinuous inductor current mode (DICM) have lower boost-rectifier reverse-recovery loss and lower transistor switching-on loss [6].

Power Electronic (PE) converters are now being used in the processing of electrical energy in industrial applications such as adjustable speed drives, SMPSs, UPSs, etc. [1]. Therefore, the converters with high power factor are highly required in industries. Most of the PE systems which get connected to AC utility mains use diode rectifiers at the input. The nonlinear nature of diode rectifiers causes significant line current harmonic generation; thus, they degrade power quality, increase losses, failure of some crucial medical equipment, etc

To comply with various worldwide specifications governing the harmonic limits of the line current in off-line power supplies, the front-end power-factor-corrected (PFC) boost converter has been used almost exclusively in off-line power supplies for computer and telecom applications. However, in universal-line (90-264 VRMS) PFC applications, the boost converter exhibits a significant degradation of performance over the linevoltage range. Specifically, the low-line (90 VRMS) operation of the boost rectifier is much less efficient than high-line (264 VRMS) operation. Generally, an improvement of the low-line efficiency of the conventional PFC boost rectifier can be obtained by configuring the rectifier to work as a voltage doubler at lowline.

In PFC pre-regulators, the most popular topology used is a boost converter. This is because boost converters can have continuous input current that can be manipulated with average current mode control techniques to force input current to track changes in line voltage. Fig. 1 shows a traditional single stage boost. The inductor ripple current (IL1) is directly seen at the converters input and will require filtering to meet EMI specifications. The diode output current (I1) is discontinues and needs to be filtered out by the output capacitor (COUT). In thistopology, the output capacitor ripple current(ICOUT) is very high and is the difference between I1 and the dc output current (IOUT).

Fig. 1. Traditional boost stage.

Boost converters are popularly employed in equipments for different applications. For high-power-factor requirements, boost converters are the most popular candidates, especially for applications with dc bus voltage much higher than line input. Boost converters are usually applied as pre-regulators or even integrated with the latter-stage circuits or rectifiers into single-stage circuits. Most renewable power sources, such as photovoltaic power systems and fuel cells, have quite low-voltage output and require

series connection or a voltage booster to provide enough voltage output. Converters with interleaved operation are fascinating techniques nowadays. Boost converters are generally used to realize input PFC and ac/dc conversion in the front end of an ac/dc converter.