Variable Pulse Density Modulation for a Buck-Type Three-Switch Current Source Rectifier

With flexible voltage adjustment without an intermediate DC/DC converter, short-circuit protection, self-starting, high reliability, and three-phase current source rectifiers (CSRs) are being widely used in high-power medium-voltage applications and low-power low-voltage applications. Modulation methods significantly affect the performance of CSRs and can be categorized into offline modulation methods, such as selective harmonic elimination/compensation pulse width modulation (SHE/SHC-PWM), and online modulation methods, such as space vector pulse width modulation (SV-PWM) and carrier-based pulse width modulation (CB-PWM). The SHE/SHC-PWM is popular in high-power medium-voltage applications that do not require a fast dynamic response and have a low switching frequency. Online modulations considerably improve the dynamic response and performance of the CSR; however, high computational power, such as digital signal processors (DSPs), is required at higher switching frequencies, leading to greater system complexity and cost. In this paper, an offline method based on variable pulse density modulation (VPDM) of power switches to synthesize sinusoidal input currents and control power transfer with pulse width modulation (PWM) is proposed. The proposed modulation is applicable to the three-switch buck-type VIENNA rectifier, showing the capability of improving the input current total harmonic distortion (THD) with respect to the SHE-PWM and is comparable to online modulations at a sufficiently high switching frequency. The simulation and experimental results basically prove the feasibility of the proposed modulation.