A 100 kW high-performance PWM rectifier with a ZCT soft-switching technique

This paper presents a 100 kW three-phase pulse-width modulated (PWM) boost rectifier that serves as the front-end power source for a DC distributed power system. A zero current transition (ZCT) soft-switching technique is applied to achieve greater performance in this high-power converter. This ZCT soft-switching technique assists the turn-on as well as the turn-off of the main and auxiliary insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switches. An issue about the implementation of the ZCT soft-switching technique in three-phase applications is discussed. A space vector modulation (SVM) scheme suitable for high power applications with high performance is identified. Experimental results demonstrate that high performance is achieved, in terms of wide control bandwidth, low total harmonic distortion (THD), unity power factor and high efficiency.