A new passive power factor corrector for single-phase bridge diode rectifiers

A new passive approach for power factor correction of single-phase uncontrolled bridge rectifiers is presented and discussed. Power factor correction is obtained by adding a proper branch with passive elements at the DC-side terminals of the rectifier; it is able to make the behavior of the total DC-load quasi-resistive. The optimal values of the power factor corrector parameters are calculated bearing in mind the load and the DC-filter parameters. An analysis of its performances and of its applicability limits is developed with the help of several PSpice numerical simulations on different case-study circuits. The proposed approach can be applied successfully on uncontrolled bridge rectifiers with continuous operation mode (i.e. inductive and inductive-capacitive filter on the DC-side) and good performances are also expected for diode rectifier with output voltage regulation operated by means of DC/DC regulators. The most important perspective is represented by the substitution of the resistor of the proposed passive branch with a "resistance emulator" able to guarantee similar effects on the rectifier absorbed current, avoiding extra power losses.