Active power factor correction technique for single phase full bridge rectifier

This work addresses the power factor correction technique adopted for a high output power, single phase full bridge rectifier with a large capacitor at its output stage. Full bridge rectifier with a large capacitor at its output stage is the most commonly used circuit topology in AC-DC conversion to get a constant DC output voltage required for various applications. This topology is popular because of its simple construction, low cost and high reliability. However this topology will have a distorted input current waveform shape with lot of lower order harmonics and low power factor which needs to be corrected. The power factor can be improved either by using passive or active components. In this work, a comparative study and analysis of passive and active power factor correction methods has been demonstrated. The simulation of passive power factor correction for a single-phase bridge rectifier with large output capacitor for 1 kW output has been carried out using PSpice simulation software. The active power factor correction for a single-phase, 1 kW output full bridge rectifier has been designed and tested and results are presented. Further the results of both the schemes are compared and advantages of active power factor correction is recorded and demonstrated in this work.