A novel suppressed-link rectifier-inverter topology with near unity power factor

This work describes a novel method in improving the input current total harmonic distortion (THD) as well as the power factor of a three-phase suppressed-link rectifier-inverter circuit. This proposed method makes use of only three bi-directional low power static switches with a relatively simple gating circuit. This paper illustrates how the proposed method is superior in reducing the input current THD of a rectifier-inverter set to about 5%, which is in line with the requirements of IEEE standard 519-1992. This is accomplished without the use of any filter or complex wave shaping techniques. A delta-modulated (DM) voltage source inverter (VSI) with proportional integrator forms the output stage of the converter. It helps to provide constant volts per hertz operation without the need for additional feedback circuitry and complexity. Moreover, this novel DM technique also helps to provide a smooth transition from the pulse width modulation (PWM) to square wave, hence allowing full utilization of the DC bus voltage.