Design and Development of Boost PFC Converter for Medium-Power High-Voltage Power Supply

Deepu E. Koshy; S. A. Kannan; T. K. Sindhu; M. P. Shreelakshmi

doi:10.2478/pead-2026-0027

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Design and Development of Boost PFC Converter for Medium-Power High-Voltage Power Supply

Power Electronics and Drives

Volume 11 (2026): Issue 1 (January 2026)

By: Deepu E. Koshy , S. A. Kannan , T. K. Sindhu and M. P. Shreelakshmi

Open Access

|Sep 2026

Abstract

This paper presents the design, modelling, and control of a front-end boost power factor correction (PFC) converter for a medium-power, high-voltage (HV) power supply intended for non-thermal plasma (NTP)-based electrostatic precipitator (ESP) and indoor air purifier. In such systems, the front-end PFC supplies a downstream inverter, HV transformer, and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), together forming a non-linear and time-varying load. The load behaves as a capacitor in series with a non-linear resistor once plasma discharge is initiated. These abrupt transitions in load impedance impose stringent limitations on the control bandwidth and system stability. To ensure robust operation and tight DC bus regulation under these conditions, a deliberately slow outer voltage loop is required. Therefore, a frequency-differentiated modelling (FDM) approach is proposed, in which a conventional state space averaged small-signal model represents the fast inner current loop, whereas the slow outer voltage loop is modelled using a capacitor charge transfer (CCT) model that captures low-frequency energy dynamics. In addition, a grid-aligned resonance tuning (GART) method is proposed to select the DC-link capacitor by aligning the plant resonance with the grid frequency. This enables improved current shaping and reduced harmonic distortion using a simple proportional integral (PI) control. In addition, a generalised PI tuning algorithm is derived from the passive component values of the converter and desired crossover frequencies, eliminating the need for plant transfer function (TF) derivation, Bode plot analysis, or iterative frequency-domain tuning. The proposed methodology is well suited for application-driven PFC designs that require simplicity, robustness, and compliance with power quality standards.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pead-2026-0027 | Journal eISSN: 2543-4292 | Journal ISSN: 2451-0262

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Language: English

Page range: 418 - 444

Submitted on: Apr 28, 2026

Accepted on: Aug 10, 2026

Published on: Sep 12, 2026

Published by: Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

boost power factor correction,

capacitor charge transfer model,

desired time-domain transient performance,

frequency-differentiated modelling,

grid-aligned resonance tuning

Related subjects:

Computer sciences,

Artificial intelligence,

Engineering,

Electrical engineering,

Electronics

© 2026 Deepu E. Koshy, S. A. Kannan, T. K. Sindhu, M. P. Shreelakshmi, published by Wroclaw University of Science and Technology
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 11 (2026): Issue 1 (January 2026)