Three-phase PWM voltage source rectifier with a reduced number of switches

This paper deals with the analysis of three-phase PWM voltage source rectifiers with reduced number of active switches. The main contribution of this paper is to simplify the control system and to minimize the number of active switches used in the standard three-phase-three-pole and three-phase-four-pole topologies of a PWM rectifier. The popular topologies with reduced number of switches are given. A new topology of three-phase-four-pole PWM voltage source rectifier is proposed. The proposed topology uses only four active switches (IGBTs). The new rectifier topology is analyzed and its performance is compared with a standard topology of the PWM rectifier. To improve the performance of the proposed new topology and to minimize the content of even harmonics in the supply current π/2 symmetry is introduced in its carrier based PWM current controller (used for generation of switching signals). The new rectifier topology is tested for different steady state and transient operating conditions of the load to establish performance and design criteria. Key results are given