Single-phase voltage-doubler rectifier using a

capacitive energy storage/transfer mechanism

H. Kiyotake, H. Okada, K. lshizaka and R. ltoh

Abstract: A switch-mode voltage-doubler rectifier using a capacitive energy storage/transfer

mechanism is studied in the paper. The voltage doubling can be provided by means of a high
frequency pumping action of the capacitor. Moreovcr, thc rectifier is operated in the switching state
for forcing the input current to follow its sinusoidal reference independently of the working
conditions by dischargng the capacitor to the circuit consisting of the supply and the boost
inductor. The arrangcment tested, using three insulated-gate bipolar transistors and a micro-
computer as a PI controller, is used to investigate experimentally the steady-state and transient
characteristics. The experimental and simulated results confirm that the rectifier can be operated
with a good quality input current under stcady-state and transient conditions.

List of symbols 1 Introduction

matrix Switch-mode voltage-doubler rectifiers based on a so-called

capacitors half-bridge can provide voltage doubling by rectification of
instantaneous duty factor a single-phase supply without a voltaze step-up transformer
capacitor voltages when the supply voltage is insufficient to meet the DC
reference of c2 output voltage requirement [I-31. They can also provide the
mean value of e2 capacitive divider DC voltage with bidirectional power flow.
supply frequency so that they are suitable not only for gencral-purpose DC
harmonic order sources but also for a rectifier-inverter system using a
input current single-phase half-bridge inverter or a thrce-phase neutral
point clamped inverter. Unfortunately, however, the input
current is not always sinusoidally waveshaped because the
output capacitors connected in series continue to discharge
repetitively during the half cycle of the supply and so the
indictor voltages across them can be lower than the peak supply
rcsistance of L voltage dependent on the working conditions [I]. To
load resistance improve upon this inability to waveshape the input current
time actively. the imbalance between the voltages across the
sampling period output capacitors must be minimised by using two or four
output of controller additional power switching devices [4. 51.
supply voltage To counteract the above-mentioned drawback inherent
fictitious supply voltage in the half-bridge topologies, an energy storage/transfer
RMS value of U mechanism using the capacitor as in a common terminal
state vector voltage doubler is introduced. A high frequency pumping
stcp-up ratio action of the capacitor can provide the voltagc doubling
2nf under the conditions to meet the requirement for a step-up
operation. To ensure thc sinusoidal input current wave-
shaping, moreover, the rectifier is also operated in the
switching state for discharging the capacitor to the circuit
consisting of the supply and the boost inductor. This
enables the input current to be actively waveshaped without
difficulty [3, 61. The arrangement tested, using three
0IEE. 2002 insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and a digital
/LE Proreedings online no. 2Ml20740
proportional-plus-integral (PI) controller is implemented
doi: ID.IW5l/ipepa:2002074C and IGBTs are switched at 20kH2, which is out of the
Paper first m i r c d 12th A p d 2W2 and in revised form ZXth A u ~ u i 2002
i audible band. Steady-state operation and transient con-
H . KiyotdkC is with the Oeparlinenl of Electrical Eagineing. Oil&National
College of Technology. Maki 1666. Oita. Japan
trollability for a variation in load resistance are examined.
H. Okada is hith the Paculty of Engineenng, Oilit University. Dannohiiru 7W.
Moreover, a statespace simulation is introduced to predict
Oiu. Japan the operation of the reclificr presented. Thc cxperimental
K . Isbizika and R. l a h are wiih the Faculty of Engnirnng. Fukaoka and simulated results confirm that the input current can be
Univenily. Nanakuma 8-19-1. Jyonawku, Fukuoka. Jepiln sinusoidally waveshaped with a near-unity power factor and
ICE Proc-Elenr. Poiler Appl., Vol. 150, A,". 1. Junuor) 2m3 81
a satisfactory output voltage regulation under the voltage
doubling.
2 Main circuit topologies
Fig. I sliows a well-known common terminal voltage
doubler. which is also known as a diode pump, where the
Fig. 1 Cu,nmun remind ~;olroge-rloub/rr.r ~ r , f ; e r
energy stored in the capacitor C, on the negative half-cycle
of the supply is transferred to the load circuit on the nest
positive half-cycle. This has the advantage that the voltage
doubling can easily be provided by using a small number of
circuit elements. However, the output voltage reduces on
the load and the input current is asymmetrical because that
flows in the different loops during each half-cycle of the
supply.
To overcome these shortcomings. auxiliary switches Qc,I
and Qa2, by which CI is allowed to charge and discharge for
a high frequency energy storage/transfer independent of the
supply frequency, are added to the cascade combination of
a diode bridge and a boost DC-DC converter [7, 81, as
shown in Fig. 2, where Dhl and Db2 prevent the capacitors
from short-circuiting, and the reverse bias across Q,,, is
blocked by Q,,. Neglecting at this stage the resistance of the
inductor, when Qc,2is turned on, the current i, through the
boost inductor L increases at a rate proportional to Iu~/L.
When Q and Qu2 are simultaneously turned on, on the
other hand_ current i, increases at a rate proportional to
(101 +el)/L because the sum of Iu1 and el with the polarity
shown in Fig. 2 is applied to L. It is expected therefore, that
the current distortion that appeared in the vicinity of a zero
crossing of the supply can be improved even if the rectifier is
operated with a small load resistance and/or a high output
voltage [3, 61. After these modes of operation, Q',2 is tumed
offand either Q<,Ior Q operates in the on-state according to
the control scheme described in the nest Section. When Q(,,
is in the on-state, the energy stored in L is transferred to
C,. When Q is in the on-state, on the contrary, the
energy stored in L and C , is transferred to the load circuit
for the voltage doubling. If the switching frequency is
sufficiently high, the input current can he symmetrically
waveshaped.
3 Control strategy
A voltage and current control block diagram is illustrated in
Fig. 3, in which a full-wave rectified sinusoidal signal with
unit amplitude, synchronised with the supply. has been
previously written on a read-only memory (ROM). More-
over. the switching frequency is set to 20 kHz_ which is out
of the audible band. Capacitor voltages must satisfy the
following conditions, which also give proof of the voltage
doubling, in order to meet the requirement for the step-up
operation:
el 2 JZV (1)
e2 _> Jzv + e , (2)
where Vis the RMS value of U . To regulate el and ez under
the conditions given by ( I ) and (2), two controllers are
generally required because the voltage el across the energy
storage/transfer capacitor is allowed to range from f i V to
e> f i V . When voltage e , satisfies the constraint:
~
el = 4 2 (3)
by using simple circuitry shown by the comparator in which
the inputs are el and 4 2 , however, both capacitor voltages
can be successfully regulated by a single controller, shown
by a PI controller in Fig. 3, over a wide variety of output If the snpply frequency is denoted h y j a n d w is defined
voltage as long as the output voltage is regulated higher by 2x5 the sinusoidal input current reference li*l is
than twice that of the supply. discretely regulated with zero-order-hold at every interrup-
When the clock pulses are applicd, Q and Qc,r are tion according to:
simultaneously turned on from a zero crossing to the peak
of the supply. The time interval from a zeio crossing to the li'l = 1 sinwtlu(kT) (6)
peak of the supply can be determined by two monostables
shown in Fig. 3. From the peak to the next zero crossing of a s seen from Fig. 3. The output u(kT) of a PI controller is
the supply, Q is not turned on. Whcn the current ilreaches described by:
the rcference li*l> Q(,2 is turned o f by operation of the
comparator for current-mode control. At the same time. u(kT) = u [ ( k - I)T] + k,(c(kT) - E { ( k ~ I)T}]
either or Q operates in the on-state. This enables C, to
charge or discharge at the same frequency as that of the
clock pulses in order to satisfy the constraint represented by
+ ktc(kT) (7)
(3). If the capacitors are large enough to permit the where T i s the sampling period, given by 1/25 and kr,,k;are
proportional and integral gains, respectively. The error c is
pulsating components of their voltages to be neglected,
defined by:
D C equivalent circuits during the intervals from (k-l)x to
(2k-l)n/2 and from (2k-l)n/2to kx can be reprcsented hy s(kT) = e; e2(kT)
~
(8)
Figs. 4 and 5, respectively, where k is the positive integer. where e: is the reference of ez and e Z ( k n is the detected
When DC equivalent circuits are operated under pulse value at t = k T . The computation of (7) is executed
by a microcomputer in the tested setup and thc rectifier
can be controlled with the vpltage doubling by adjusting the
output voltage reference ez higher than twice that of the
supply.
Under shortcircuit fault conditions, there is a direct path
across the rectifier bridge, that cannot be controlled by the
switches. To prevent this, it is necessary to use the suitable
input fuses fitted in the rectifier arms.

4 Modes of operation and circuit equations

When the opcration of the rectifier shown in Fig. 2 is

rigorously simulated, it is sufficient to investigate the
operation during the positive half-cycle of the supply
because the input current can be symmetrically waveshaped.
When Q and are simultaneously turned on from a zero
crossing to the peak of the supply, C , is discharged. Then
the sum of the voltagcs across the supply and C , is applied
to the boost inductor via diodes D ,and Dq.This mode of
operation can be illustrated by Fig. 6(d) and the following

Fig. 5 DC quilvlmr riwuir drrrimg (he incwwl,fiomz [2k-l)n/2 r o

hn

width modulation with instantaneous duty factor cl, the

relationships bctwcen the supply voltage and the mean
output voltage Ez are given by:

for Figs. 4 and 5, respectively, using the principle of

inductor volt-second balance. It can be seen from (4) and
(5) that the voltage doubling is always guaranteed during
the interval from (k-l)n to kn.
equations are obtained charged by il flowing through L. The equations in this
dil U R el
mode of operation are as follows:
dr
-
L L
il +y (9)

wherc R is the resistaiice of L and i, is equal to the input

current denoted by I as shown in Flg. 2. From the peak to
the next zero crossing of the supply. on the other hand, the When Q is in the on-state, on the contrary, the capacitor C,
supply is short-circuited through DI, L, D/A,?,Q, and D4 as is discharged via diode as shown in Fig. 7(b) and the
shown in Fig. 6(b) and el is kept constant because Q is not energy stored in L and Cl is transferred to load circuit.
turned on in this mode of operation. The equations are Then the following equations are obtained:
gven by:
dil U R~ _ el e2
dil - U R - -_
~

;I+---
dt L Lil dt L L L L

When the current il reaches the reference /i*l and Q<,,is
in the on-state as shown in Fig. 7(a), the capacitor Cl is
After these modes of operation. the mode, illustrated by
Fig. 7(c), occurs if the energy stored in the boost inductor is
completely discharged and so the current il is reduced to
zero. In this mode of operation all the power devices stop
conducting. The load circuit is then isolated from the supply
and the energy dissipated in the load resistance is supplied
only by the discharge of C2. Fig. 7(c) gives the following
equations:

The operation shown in Fig. 7(b) enables to pump twice the

peak supply voltage onto the output capacitor. If the
capacitor C2 is sufficiently large. moreover, the output
voltage is almost kept constant in the other modes of
operation. The relations between switching states and
modes of omration can be summarised in Table I

0 on. Q,,:ott(i,sO)
b Table 1: Switching States and modes of operation

ut (rad! Q Q
,, Qa2 i, mode
Ik-l!n-(Zk-l)ld2 1 0 1 non-negative 1
0 1 0 positive 3
zero 5
1 0 0 positive 4
zero 5
(2k-l)n/Z-h 0 0 1 non-negative 2
c 0 1 0 positive 3
Fig. 7 Modes of operurion during ofl~iimedwaiion of Qa! zero 5
a Q:off. Q,,:on(i, >O) 1 , 0 0 positive 4
h Q:on. a,,:off(i,>O)
zero 5
c Q:oB Q#,:off(i, = 0 )

84
5 State-space simulation method
If the supply voltage li is given by
U = AV sin wt (24)
the following fictitious supply voltage is introduccd to
obtain the solution of the state equation without a
convolutioii integral:
U, = Jzv cos f 0 t (25)
Then
If the state vector x is defined by
T
x = [U, U,: il: e l , e21 (28)
(9H23)and (26). (27) give the state equation of the form:
where A denotes the coefficient matrix in each mode of
operation shown in Figs. 6 and 7. This caii be solved, mode
by mode, according to thc relationship:
+
x(r dr) = eaCd'x(t) (30)
at f f d f . Eqn. (30) is repeated with (7), (8) unpl the output
voltage e? converges to the desired reference e>.
6 Steady-state characteristics
The operating conditions and circuit constants are set as
follows in the paper: V= 50V, f= 60Hz, L=2.204niH
( R = 0.124 O), CI = C, = 1000 pF, RI. = 49.8 O. Fig. 8
shows the experimcntal operating wavefonns of the rectifier
shown in Fig. 2 when the mean output voltagc is set to
150V, a little over 2 d V , by adjusting the output voltage
reference e;. It is ohscrved that the input current can be
sinusoidally waveshaped with a near-unity power factor. It
is also iipprcciated that the constraint represented by (3) is
always satisfied as was expected. Experimental waveforms
can be verified by those shown in Fig. 9, rigorously
simulated by the afore-mentioned state-space simulation
method with A t = 1/120/18000=0.463ps in (30). The
0
clit (rad)
v, e,, += 100 vldiv ; i=
10 Ndiv
Fig. 9 Siiiiuluted nowfurnu nf Fig 8
I). e , . c2= IOOV/div; i= IOAjdiv
simulated results are generally in good agreement with the
experimental results except for a slight difference in
switching phenomenon between them. To examine the
input currents shown in Figs. X and 9 in more detail. they
were analysed by the FFT analyser and by the numerical
calculation of trigonometric Fourier series, respectively. The
low-order harmonics. which cause the serious distortion. are
shown in Table 2 where U,, is the amplitude of the hth-order
harmonic current and so ui,/ul is the value normalised by
the fundamental-frequency component. It appears that the
low-order harmonics contained in the input currents shown
in Figs. X and 9 are effectively suppressed, although the
measured values are a little larger than those obtained by
the simulation on thc whole. To demonstrate the depen-
dence of the input currents upon the working conditions,
moreover, the measured and simulated distortion factors
when varying the output voltage are shown in Fig. 10,
Table 2 Low-order input current harmonics
harmonic order ada, 1%)
h measured simulated
3 2.343 1.801
5 1.251 0.851
7 0.723 0.650
9 0.659 0.568
11 0.569 0.508
13 0.302 0.443
15 0.222 0.384
11 0.262 0.324
19 0.216 0.275
85

5 7
t 1
which are chosen to minimise thc settling time. Fig. II
1 shows the selected experimental transient responses with
e ~ 15OV,
= in which the output voltage is controlled to be
kept constant when the load resistance is changed from
49.80 to 94.60 and vice versa. The experimental transient
responses can also be verified by the state-space simulation.
as shown in Fig. 12. It is appreciated that the constraint
represented by (3) is always satisfied and the sinusoidal
input current with a near-unity power factor is maintained
even if the rectifier is operated under the transient condition.

1
I t i
01 ' 1 ' 1 I ' 1 ' 1 '
1I
2.9 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 4.0

Fig. 10 Measured und d,arlr,fed d;.sior-fionfilctws

where the step-up ratio i. is defined as the ratio of the: mean

output voltage to RMS value of the supply voltage as
follows:
i. = E>/ V (31)
It can be seen that both the distortion factors are kept low
enough over the range illustrated in Fig. IO. It is also
considered that the difference in magnitude between them is
dependent on the superiority of the measured low-order
harmonics over those obtained by thc simulation, a s shown
in Table 2.

7 Transient characteristics

To investigate the sinusoidal input current waveshaping

under transicnt conditions, the transient responses are
examined for a variation in load resistance RI-. Then the
gains of a PI controller are set to k,=O.21 and k,:=0.12,
8 Conclusions
A novel switch-mode voltage-doubler rectifier using a
capacitive enersy storag/transfer mechanism has been
studied by the experiments and simulations in the paper.
From the results, it can be seen that the input current can be
sinusoidally waveshaped with a near-unity power factor
independent of the working conditions, and that the desired
transicnt rcsponscs of the output voltage can be obtained by
a single PI conlroller. Moreover, in practice, it has been
confirmed by the experiments that a switching strategy with
a fixed frcqucncy out of the audible band contributes to the
suppression of the magnetic noises. Consequently. it is
considered that the single-phase rectifier studied is suitable
for AC-DC conversion equipment with the voltage
doubling and the high quality input current although three
power switchins devices are required and this results in a n
increase in the cost.

1
4 I
9 Acknowledgments

The authors thank M r T. Egashira of the Fukuoka

University for his experimental works.

10 References
I MAKINO. Y . . T A M U K A . H.. USHIJIMA, K..andTSUKAMOTO.
K.: 'New power supply ~ysleinFor air conditioner using hidirectionill
CUIICIII amlrollrd c~nverler'.Nalional Convention Kccord of Ina.
Electr. Eng. Jpn (Industry Applications Society), 1988. pp. 4 5 7 4 6 2

IEE Pmc.~N<mr.
P u w r Appl., Vol. ISU, N o 1. J m m ~ r r j2W3
2 ROYS, J.T., and GREEN, A.W.: 'Current-forced single-phasc 6 OISHI. H.. OKADA. H., ISHIZAKA. K.. and ITOH. R.: 'Single-
reversihle rectifier', 1.56 Pruc. Elccrr Ponlrer Appl.. 1989. 136, (5). pp. phase switch-mode rh-tificr employing voltage-reversal circuit switched
with a fined frequency., IEE Pro?.. Elecrr. Power Appl.. 1995, 142. (2).
"" ._.
I C L I""
l f r
7 TAKAHASHI. 1.. and IKESHITA. W.: 'Improvrmmt of input
~ ~ n r i waverom
it 01 is single-phax rectifier cixu11'. Tmm I m ! . €lev.
Eng. Jpu R, 1985, 105. (2). p. 174
8 MANIAS. S.. and ZIOGAS. P.D.: 'An SMR to polo^ with ruppresscd
fc&ce. Tokyo. Japan. 15-17 A p d I?%,pp. 2%')-294 DC link componcnts and predictive line current waveshaping'. IEEE
5 LIN. R.R.. HOU. Y.L.. and CHIANG. H.K.: .Implcmenration of a Tram. Itid Appl., 1987. 23, (4). pp. W 5 3
thm-level reclifier for nower faclor ~orre~tion'.
IEEE Tmnr, Pmwr
Eleorr*z., 2000. 15. (5).'pp. 891-900