Performance of an interleaved boundary conduction mode boost PFC converter with wide band-gap switching devices

Abstract

This paper presents the performance evaluation of an interleaved boundary conduction mode (BCM) boost power factor correction (PFC) converter employing three different switching devices: the super junction silicon (Si) MOSFET, silicon carbide (SiC) MOSFET, and gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). An experimental 500 W interleaved BCM boost PFC converters is built and its performance is evaluated while adopting each of the three semiconductor devices as the main switch. The overall efficiency and thermal performance of the experimental boost PFC converter are analyzed under three different operational conditions: one operational condition with the baseline switching frequency of fs base = 65 kHz and the other two conditions with fs base = 130 kHz and 200 kHz. The three baseline frequencies are selected in consideration of IEC 61000-3-2 and CISRR 22 EMC standards for conducted emission noise. This study confirms that the GaN HEMT exhibits the superior switching characteristics and pronounces its merits at high frequency operations. The current paper highlights the efficiency improvement with the GaN HEMT and demonstrates its application potentials to high power density/low profile BCM boost PFC converters.