電気学会論文誌●（●●●●●●●部門誌）
IEEJ Transactions on ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●
Vol.●● No.● pp.●-●
DOI: ●.●●/ieejeiss.●●.●Paper

A Single-phase-to-three-phase Power Converterwith an Active Buffer and a Charge Circuit
Yoshiya Ohnuma＊, Student Member,

Jun-ichi Itoh＊a), Member(Manuscript received Jan. 00, 20XX, revised May 00, 20XX)
This paper proposes a new circuit configuration and a control method for a single-phase-to-three-phase power converter withpower decoupling function. The proposed converter does not require a large inductor and large smoothing capacitors in the DC
link part. Large smoothing capacitors are conventionally required in such converters to absorb the power ripple with a frequency
that is twice that of the power supply. The proposed topology is constructed based on an indirect matrix converter with an active
buffer to decouple the power ripple. The buffering energy is provided by the voltage variation of the capacitor rather than its
capacitance. In addition, the transfer ratio between the input and output voltages is obtained to be 0.707 because of the connectedcharge circuit. In this study, the fundamental operations of the proposed converter are confirmed by simulation and experimental
results. The experimental results show the input current THD and the output current THD to be 3.54% and 4.91%, respectively.
An input power factor (PF) of over 99% is achieved. In addition, a maximum efficiency of 94.6% is obtained for a prototype
circuit of 1 kW.
Keywords : single-phase-to-three-phase power converter, indirect matrix converter, power factor correction.

1.

ripple is absorbed by the inertia moment of a motor [9]. Thismethod does not require additional components over theconventional converter; however this approach limits theapplications because the large torque ripple will occur in the motor.
In another approach, the single-phase power supply and energy
capacitor are connected to the input side of the three-phase matrix
converter [10]. However, this method increases the switching
devices to 18 units.
A single-phase-to-three-phase power converter using an active
buffer has been proposed in [11]. This converter is based on theconcept of an indirect matrix converter that coupled with an active
buffer to decouple the power ripple. The size of the converter canbe reduced because the converter does not require a largesmoothing capacitor in the DC link part and a boost inductor.
However, the voltage transfer ratio between the input voltage andthe output voltage is less than 0.5 because a load inductance isused to charge the buffer capacitor. The low voltage transfer ratio
constrains its applications. Besides, the lower output voltage
causes the increase of power loss because the current is increasedin the circuit and load when the same power outputs.
This paper proposes a new circuit configuration using an active
buffer, which has a charge circuit in the DC link part with theactive buffer circuit. Although the proposed circuit uses two
switches, by using the charge circuit, the voltage transfer ratio
between the input and output voltages is improved to 0.707. The
additional charge circuit is small because the boost inductor of thecharge circuit is small. Therefore, the proposed circuit canmaintain the advantages of the active buffer circuit. This paper isorganized as follows; first, the principle of the proposed converter
is described; second, the design of the buffer capacitor and theboost inductor are discussed; after that, the fundamental operationand the validity of the proposed method are confirmed bysimulation and experimental results, which are demonstrating

Introduction

Single-phase-to-three-phase power converters achieve energy
saving in the application of home motor appliances. One of themost significant problems for a single-to-three-phase converter isthat the power ripple is found with a frequency that is twice that ofthe power supply.
A conventional converter consists of a diode rectifier, athree-phase inverter, and a large energy buffer, such as anelectrolytic capacitor. A power factor correction (PFC) rectifier isalso required in order to suppress the input current harmonics[1]-[4]. Many of the three-phase inverters with a single phase PFC
have been proposed. However, almost all of the converters requirea large boost inductor and a large energy buffer such as
electrolytic capacitors. In addition, almost all of PFC circuits use
additional switching devices or diodes in the main circuit in series
and it causes substantial power loss.
On the other hand, in order to compensate the power ripple atthe DC link part, some strategies have been proposed, such as DC
active filters and power decoupling methods [5]-[8]. Certainly,
these topologies can reduce the capacitance value of the DC link
capacitor by storing the power ripple in a sub-capacitor with anadditional circuit. However this additional circuit requires more
switches and a large inductor. Consequently, the additional circuit
increases the total power consumption.
AC-AC direct converters, such as matrix converters, have also
been studied. AC-AC direct converters are smaller in size andhave longer lifetimes, since the large energy buffer is not required.
A number of matrix converters have been proposed forsingle-phase-to-three-phase conversion. For example, the powera) Correspondence to: Jun-ichi Itoh. E-mail: itoh@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp＊
Nagaoka University of Technology
1603-1, Kamitomioka-cho, Nagaoka, Niigata, Japan 940-2188© 200● The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

1

A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)good waveforms at the input/output currents.

Circuit topology

2.1 Conventional circuits
Figure 1(a) shows aconventional single-phase-to-three-phase power converter circuit.
Since this circuit consists of a single-phase diode bridge rectifier
and a three-phase inverter, it is a very simple circuit topology.
Thus, this circuit efficiency is very high. However, many
harmonic components occur in the input current. Therefore thiscircuit cannot meet the international standard regarding harmonic
currents, such as IEC 61000-3-2, without a DC inductor or any
related devices.
Figure 1(b) shows a conventional single-phase-to-three-phasepower converter circuit with power factor correction (PFC) circuit.
In order to suppress the harmonic currents, a boost chopper circuit
is added to DC link in Figure 1(a). This circuit can obtainsinusoidal waveform of the input current because the boost
chopper controls the input current with a current regulator.
However, this converter requires a large boost inductor andanother switching device that causes substantial power loss. In
addition, conventional Converters require a large smoothing
capacitor to absorb power ripple at twice the frequency of thepower supply.
2.2 Proposed circuit
Figure 2 shows a previous
single-phase-to-three-phase power converter with an active buffer
circuit in [11]. The converter is based on an indirect matrix
converter topology, where the rectifier is operated as a current
source rectifier, and the inverter stage is operated as a voltage
source inverter. An active buffer circuit consisting of a small
capacitor and a switch is inserted into the DC link to decouple thepower ripple with twice the frequency of the power supply. In thisconverter, low cost diode rectifier can be used as the AC-DC stage
converter because most home appliances do not require aregeneration mode from the output power. In addition,
zero-current switching of the active buffer switch and diodes in
the rectifier are achieved during the zero-voltage vector period of
the inverter. In this manner, there is no switching loss at the buffer
switch and no recovery loss at the diode rectifier. It is noted thatthe active buffer is also used as a snubber circuit for protection in
the proposed converter. However, the voltage transfer ratio
between the input and the output voltages is less than 0.5 because
a load inductance is used to charge the buffer capacitor.
Figure 3 shows the circuit configuration of the proposed
converter. The proposed converter has the aforementioned
advantages. In addition, the voltage transfer ratio between the
input and output voltages is improved to be 0.707 because of use
the charge circuit. A charge circuit is connected into the DC link inparallel with the active buffer circuit. The charge circuit is similar
to a boost chopper circuit. However, it is small compared to boost
chopper in the conventional converter shown in Figure 1(b). Thisis because the amount of current flows into the boost inductor isquarter compared to the conventional converter shown in Figure1(b) (the design of the boost inductor will be described in detail at
section 4.2). In the proposed control method, half of the input
power is supplied directly to the inverter. Moreover, the charge
circuit and the active buffer (discharge circuit) alternately operate
at a quarter cycle of the input voltage. Therefore, the efficiency ofthe proposed circuit will be higher than the conventional PFC
converters.

M

Diode rectifier

Inverter(a) Diode rectifier and inverter type.
Input filter
M

Diode rectifier Boost chopper

Inverter(b) Diode rectifier, boost chopper and inverter type.
Fig. 1. Conventional single-to-three-phase circuits.
Input filter
M

Diode
rectifier

Active buffer
circuitInverter
circuitFig. 2. Previous single-to-three-phase converterwith active buffer circuit.

irec
Lb

v iin
in

il

Input filter

SC
Cdc

SL

SUp

SVp

iu

vuv

va_dc

2.

ic

SWp
M

Diode Charge Active buffer Inverter
rectifier circuit (Discharge circuit
circuit)Fig. 3. Proposed circuit configuration.
vin

vc
VCmax
vin = VINp sin(wt) VC0
VINp
VCmin
t 0
0

＋

iin
iin = IINp sin(wt)ic(LPF)

t

＋

t

0

iu ,iv,iw＋

Discharge

IINp

t

0

vuv ,vvw,vwu,(LPF)

t

0

t

0

ChargeDischarge＋

1
2 PINp

t

0

pout

＝

pbuf

＝

＝

pin
PINp

＝

t

0

0

t

ChargeInput powerpin [W]

Buffer powerpbuf [W]Output power
pout [W]Fig. 4. Compensation principle of power ripple.
2

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)3.

Control strategy

3.1 Principle of the power ripple compensation
Figure 4 shows the principle of the power ripple compensation.
When both the input voltage vin and the input current iin waveform
are sinusoidal, the instantaneous input power pin is expressed aspin  VINp I INp sin2 wt ,11
 VINp I INp  VINp I INp cos2wt 
2
2

irec
SC

vrec

(1)

1
VINp I INp
2

On

vc

iz V

dc

il

SZ

(2)

Idc

On
Off

vrec

SL

vc

(b) Equivalent circuit in charge period.
Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit of proposed converter.

(3)

constrained by (6). On the other hand, the ic should be controlledby (7) from (2) in order to compensate the power ripple.
irec  I INp sinwt 

ic 

VINp I INp
2vc

(6)

cos2wt (7)Therefore, the duty ratios can be obtained bydc 

VINp I INp
2vc I dc

1  dc  d z 
dz  1cos2wt  ,
I INp
I dc

VINp I INp
2vc I dc

(8)

sinwt cos2wt  

I INp
I dc

.

(9)

sinwt 

In contrast during the charge period which polarity of the pbuf isnegative, the active buffer (discharge circuit) does not work (dc =zero) as shown Figure 5(b). In this period, the irec, the iz and theinductor current il are controlled by the switch SZ and SL,
respectively. The irec, the il and the iz are constrained by thecontinuous current Idc as follows.
(10)

irec  il  iz  I dc

Therefore, each current can be expressed byirec  il  1  d z 
 I dc .
 iz   d z 

(4)

(11)

It is noted that the control method of the charge circuit is basedon the discontinuous mode of inductor current. In this case, fromthe Ref. [15], the relationship between the il and the duty ratio ofswitch SL dl can be expressed by

As the result, each current can be expressed byirec  1  d c  d z 
  

dc
 ic   
 I dc , iz  

dz

Idc

Off

irec

3.2 Control approach
Figure 5 shows the equivalentcircuit of the proposed converter. An input voltage vin and a
rectifier are replaced by the absolute rectifier voltage vrec and thediode. A three-phase motor and an inverter are replaced by thecontinuous DC current Idc and the switch SZ which is controlled byzero-vector of inverter. On-state of the SZ is defined as thecondition that the SZ is connected to the upper side. It is noted thatcurrents and voltages that are shown in the equivalent circuit, aredefined as the average value during one cycle of a carrier. In
addition, the capacitor voltage vc have to be higher than the vrec.
Therefore, the current does not flow from the rectifier to thecapacitor through the switch SC. Besides, the converter loss
including passive components can be neglected.
The proposed converter can separate two periods which aredischarge period and charge period because the switch SC and SL
are not work at the same time.
During the discharge period which polarity of the pbuf is positive,
the charge circuit does not work as shown Figure 5(a). The
rectifier current irec, the capacitor current ic and inverter circulation
current iz are controlled by the switch SC and SZ, respectively.
When the SC is turned-on, the ic becomes the Idc. On the other
hand, the iz becomes the Idc when the SZ is turned-on. The irec
becomes the Idc when both of the SC and SZ are turned-off. In
addition, these currents (irec, ic and iz) are constrained by thecontinuous current Idc as follows.
irec  ic  iz  I dc

Vdc(a) Equivalent circuit in discharge period.

where the polarity of the pbuf is defined as positive when the buffer
capacitor discharges. The mean power of the capacitor is zero
because the buffer capacitor absorbs only the power ripple.
Consequently, the instantaneous output three-phase power poutcan be constant as follows.
pout 

SZ

icwhere, VINp is the peak input voltage, IINp is the peak input current,
and w is the input angular frequency.
From (1), the power ripple that contains twice the frequency
appears at the DC link part. In order to absorb the power ripple,
the buffer circuit instantaneous power pbuf is required by1
pbuf  VINp I INp cos2wt  ,
2

iz

(5)

il 

where, dc and dz are the on-duty ratios of the switch SC and SZ.
In order to obtain the sinusoidal input current, the irec isvrec vcTsw
2dl ,2 Lb vc  vrec (12)

where, Lb is an inductance of the charge circuit inductor and the3

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)

Tsw is a carrier period.In order to obtain the sinusoidal input
current, the irec is constrained by (6). On the other hand, the input
side power for the inverter corresponds to the pout which isconstant. Therefore irec - il is controlled by

It is noted that, in order to calculate the dl, the peak input
current IINp is necessary. The estimation method for the value isexplained by section 3.4.
3.3 Maximum output voltage of the proposed converter
The DC voltage Vdc of the equivalent circuit is expressed as (19)from (16) and (17). The peak output line to line voltage VUVp issame as the Vdc. Therefore, the voltage transfer ratio between the
input and output voltage of 0.707 is obtained by (20). Therefore,
the maximum output voltage is 0.707 times the input voltage.

vrec irec  il   poutirec  il 

VINp I INp
2vrec



VINp I INp

2 VINp sinwt 



I INp

2 sinwt 

.

(13)

Therefore, the duty ratios can be obtained by (14) and (15) from
(6), (11), (12) and (13).

I INp 2 Lb vc  vrec  I INp sinwt  vrec vcTsw 
2 sinwt  

dl 

VUVp

(14)

VINp

2 I dc sinwt 

dz  1

I INp

(15)

2 I dc sinwt Then, the ratio between IINp and Idc is considered. When the
power ripple is compensated completely, the input side power for
the inverter is expressed as (16).

Vdc I dc 

I INpVINp
2

I dc



1
 2
sin( 4)(16)

2
VINp  0.707VINp
2

(19)

Vdc
 0.707
VINp

(20)

(21)

Moreover, the WC in the capacitor is required from the relations
between the electric power and the voltage of the capacitor by

WC 

1
1
2
2
CdcVCmax  CdcVCmin ,
2
2

(22)

where, VCmax is the maximum voltage, VCmin is the minimum
voltage of the buffer capacitor. VCmax and VCmin can be detectedfrom the voltage sensor. Therefore, the IINp is calculated by (23)from (21) and (22).

(17)

I INp Finally, these duty ratios are obtained by (18).

ππDischarge periode( 2  2ωt  2 ) d l  0d  2VINp cos(2wt )
 c
2vc



2VINp
cos(2wt )  2 sin(wt ) d z  1 

2vc


Charge periode( π  2ωt  3π )

2
2


2 Lb (vc  vin ) 
I INp 
 I INp sin(wt )  d l vin vcTsw 
2 sin(wt )  d c  02d z  1  2 sin(wt )







 /  4w 
1WC  VINp I INp cos2wt dt
3 / 4w 
2
VINp I INp pout


2w
w

From (16), the ratio between IINp and Idc should keep theconstant. This is because the DC voltage Vdc and the input peakvoltage VINp is stationary. When the operation makes transition
from the charge period to the discharge period, the instantaneous
power of the buffer circuit (as shown (2)) becomes zero. As aresult, the phase angle of the input voltage becomes /4 and the dc
becomes zero. In addition, the dz should be zero in order toachieve the maximum modulation index. Therefore, from (9), theratio between IINp and Idc are expressed as follows.
I INp

2I dc

3.4 Estimation method of the peak value of input current
In order to calculate the dl by (18), the peak input current IINp isnecessary. However, it is difficult to decide the IINp due to the loadchange. Therefore, this paper proposes a method where the peakvalue of input current is estimated by using voltage fluctuation of
the buffer capacitor voltage. The electric storage energy required
to compensate the power ripple WC is obtained by (21) from (2)because WC equals to the electric charge power of the capacitor.

I INp

1 dz I INpVINp

Vdc 



2wWC wCdc
22

VC max  VC min
VINp
VINp



(23)

From (23), this method does not need a current sensor becauseof the IINp can be calculated by the buffer capacitor voltage vc froma voltage sensor.
3.5
The pulse generation method by space vector
modulation
In order to implement the inverter vector
command v*, approximate two vectors V1 and V2 are required, andthe duty ratios of these vectors are calculated by using the
projection of the vector commands in the  axis(v) and in the axis(v) as follows.

v  V1 T1  V2 T2  V0 Tzv  V1 T1  V2  T2  V0  Tz ,
 1  T1  T2  Tz

(18)

(24)

where, T1, T2 and Tz are the output duty ratios of V1 vector, V2
vector and zero vector of inverter, respectively.
Therefore, the duty ratios T1, T2 and Tz can be obtained by

4

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)

SVp
SWp
SL
SC

Carrier

0

T1

v*
ZCS

Capacitance of buffer [mF]

2000

0

1

SWp 01SC 1

ZCS(b) Discharge period (switch SC soft-switching method).
Carrier

T1rec+T1c+T2rec+T2c
T1rec+T1c+T2c
T1rec+T1c
T1rec(dl=0)
1
SUp 0

1

SWp 01
SC 1
0

SL 1

0

(c) Discharge period (switch SC hard-switching method).
Fig. 6. Switching patterns.

T2 

1 V1
A V1

v

V2
v

V2 

V2  
.

(25)

Tz  1  T1  T2

Finally, the output duty ratios for each switch are obtained by(26) from (18) and (25).

T1rec  T1  1  d c  d z  T1c  T1  dc

T1z  T1  d z

T2 rec  T2  1  dc  d z  T2c  T2  dc T2 z  T2  d z(26)

In order to reduce the number of the switching times, all zero
vectors should be summarized to one.
TZZ  T1z  T2 z  Tz

1

(Input frequency = 50 Hz)

2

3

VCmax = 350 V
VCmin = 300 V

4

5

6

VCmax = 300 V
VCmin = 150 V
VCmax = 400 V
VCmin = 300 V

100

VCmax = 400 V
VCmin = 150 V

50
500

1000
1500
Output power [W]2000

the inverter outputs three-vector; the V1rec vector and V2rec vector
from the input voltage vectors and the zero vector. In order tocharge the buffer capacitor, the SL is operated. It is noted that theturning on of the SL is zero current switching due to discontinuous
method of an inductor current. On the other hand, in the discharge
period (Figure 6(b) and Figure 6(c)), the voltage vector outputs thecapacitor voltage vector. That is, the inverter outputs five-vector;
V1rec and V2rec from the input voltage vectors, V1c and V2c from thecapacitor voltage vectors and the zero vector. We can choose two
types switching pattern of the discharge period. In thesoft-switching method in Figure 6(b), the SC is turned-on or off
while the inverter outputs zero-voltage vector. Therefore, zerocurrent switching of the SC and diodes in the rectifier are achieved.
However, the switching frequency of inverter is increased. In thehard-switching method in Figure 6(c), a voltage error of inverter
for dead time is small because the switching frequency of inverter
is same as charge period.
Figure 7 shows the control block diagram of the proposed
converter. The duty ratio commands are calculated from the input
voltage vin, the input phase q which is calculated by phase locked
loop (PLL) and the buffer capacitor voltage vc. It is noted that thepeak input current IINp is calculated by (23) from command of the
maximum capacitor voltage VCmax* and detection value of theminimum capacitor voltage VCmin using the voltage sensor. The
gate pulses are given by comparing between the duty commandand the triangle carrier, as shown in Figure 6.

0V A  1

V1


sUn
sVn
sWn

Fig. 8. Relationship between necessary electric energy or necessary
capacitor and output power when input frequency is 50 Hz.

1

V2 

150

0

SVp 0

1 v
A v

+

sL
sC
sUp
sVp
sWp

Necessary electric energy to compensate for power ripple [J]

1

SVp 0

T1 

5

T1rec,T1c,
T2rec,T2c,
Tzz

Vector info.

Carrier

ZCS+

Fig. 7. Control block diagram.

T1rec+T2rec+Tzz+T1c
T1rec+T2rec+Tzz
T1rec+T2rec
T2rec(dl=0)
1
SUp 0

0
1

dz

Space vector T2
modulation Tz
Eq. (25)(a) Charge period.

SL 0

dc

q

PLL

1
0
1
0
1
0
1
ZCS
0

dl

Duty cal.
IINp cal. IINp
Eq. (18)
Eq. (23)

Switchingtable Ref.[14]1Calculation of output
vector duty Eqs. (26),(27)Carrier
T1rec+T2rec
T1rec
dl(dc=0)1
SUp 0

Vcmax*
vc
vin

(27)

Figure 6 shows the inverter carrier, each duty and switchingpattern of the proposed method. In the charge period as shown in
Figure 6(a), the dc is zero. Therefore the SC does not turned-on and

4. Design method of circuit parameters
4.1 The buffer capacitor value
The electric storage
energy to compensate the power ripple WC is obtained by (21) and5

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)(22). Therefore, the required capacitance in the buffer capacitor is
obtained by (28).
Cdc Table 1. Inductor parameters of the proposed circuitand the conventional circuit (b).

2WC2

VC max  VC min

2

VINp I INp

w (VC max  VC min )
2

2



(28)

2 poutw (VC max  VC min )2

2

Accordingly, the required capacitance can be determined by theoutput power, the input angular frequency and the fluctuation
capacitor voltage.
Figure 8 shows the relations among the necessary electricenergy or necessary capacitor and the output power when the input
frequency is 50 Hz. In this condition, in order to compensate thepower ripple for a rated output power of 1 kW, the required
electric storage energy WC is 3.18 J. The minimum voltage of thebuffer capacitor VCmin is limited by peak input voltage. So, when
the input voltage is 200 V(rms), dashed lines are selected. In
addition, the maximum voltage of the buffer capacitor VCmax andcapacitance of the buffer have trade-off problem.
From there, the minimum capacitance requires approximately
100 mF. Therefore, a film capacitor or a laminated ceramic
capacitor of small capacity can be used instead of an electrolytic
capacitor.
4.2
Inductance value in the charge circuit
This
section discusses the design of the charge circuit inductor. In order
to simplify the derivation, we design the inductor value based on
the peak condition of the input voltage. At the input phase of /2,
the peak input voltage is VINp and the capacitor voltage is assumed
as the average value VC0.
First of all, the ripple of the inductor current is discussed. The
inductor current ripple IL is obtained fromI L 

VL
t on ,Lb

VC0 I L

I L / 2,IL

0.1 p.u.

1.1 p.u.

3.83 mH

0.35 mH

3.53 A

7.07 A

7.07 AIL_peak

7.77 A

7.77 A

15.6 A

Storage energy(Lb times IL_peak2)

42 mJ

231 mJ

85 mJ

Charge circuit
Inductor

VIN VC 0  VIN Tsw.
2VC 0 I L K r l(33)

The required inductance Lb is dominant at the value of theinductor current in the maximum condition IL and the ratio of theinductor current ripple Krl. It is noted that, the inductor current is
continuous current (CCM) when the ratio of the inductor current
ripple Krl is from 0 to 1. In contrast, the inductor current becomes
discontinuous current (DCM) when the ratio of the inductor
current ripple Krl is more than 1. Then the peak inductor current
with switching ripple IL_peak are calculated by

I L _ peak  I L K rl  I L
I L _ peak  2 I L K rl

, when K rl  1 (CCM), when K rl  1 (DCM)

.

(34)

From (34), IL_peak of DCM becomes twice of the IL and more. It
is noted that, the peak current value of the charge circuit isincreased when the inductance value is decreased. Therefore, it isneeded to consider the current capacity of the switching device.
Table 1 shows the inductor parameters of the proposed circuitand conventional circuit (b). In term of design to meet the stablecurrent control, we assumed that the ripple ratio of inductor
current Krl is less than 0.1 p.u. as CCM operation in theconventional circuit. The Krl parameter for the DCM in theconventional circuit and proposed circuit is set to 1.1 p.u. to keep
the DCM operation. From Table 1, the IL of the proposed circuit ishalf of the conventional converters. The size of inductor is roughly
proportional to the Lb times the square of IL_peak (from the Ref.
[16], [17]). Therefore, in the proposed circuit, a small inductor canbe selected compared to conventional one.

(31)

In order to normalize the IL, the current ripple ratio Krl isdefined in (32).
K rl 

1.1 p.u.
0.70 mH

Lb 

(29)

.

Krl
Lb
IL

Conventional converter Conventional converter
(CCM)
(DCM)

Items
Value
Items
Value
Maximum capacitor
Peak input voltage
400 V
200 2 V
voltage VCmax
VINp
Input frequency
50 Hz Buffer capacitor Cdc 100 mF
fin = w / 2
Output frequency
30 Hz
fout
Inductance Lb 0.25 mH
Carrier frequency
10 kHzfsw = 1 / Tsw
Maximum
Output power
20 A
current
1 kW
pout

From (29) and (30), the required inductance of the inductor Lb
is obtained by
VINp (VC0  VINp )Tsw

Proposedconverter

Table 2. Simulation and experimental parameters.

where ton is turned-on time of the switch SL and VL is applied
voltage of the inductor.
In the peak condition of the input voltage, the VL equals VINp
when the switch is tuned-on. In contrast, when the switch is
tuned-off, VL equals to VC0 - VINp. Therefore, the turned-on time
ton is calculated byV
V  VINp
Tsw  ton 
0  INp ton  C0
Lb
Lb
.
(30)
VC0  VINp
ton 
Tsw
VC0

Lb 

Items

5. Simulation results(32)

The operation of the proposed converter is demonstrated bysimulation results. Table 2 shows the simulation parameters. In
this simulation, the 100 mF capacitor is used for the 1 kW output
power. In this case, the capacitor voltage is controlled fromapproximately 300 V to 400 V. It is noted that this simulation is
implemented without dead time and the input filter.

where, IL is the peak value of the inductor current il which is theaverage value during one cycle of carrier. Therefore, (31) can be
rewritten as

6

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●

10
0
-10

Blue line : with LPF

500
400

0
-200

vuv

0
-400

ic [A]

vuv vvw vwu

200
0
-200

va_dc [V]iwu iuv ivw
5
0
-5

0

30

80

Time [ms]

1

0.5

dc

dl

10
5
0

10
0
-10
400
200
0

0

130

(a) Relationship among input/output waveforms and capacitor voltage.
Fig. 9. Simulation results.

Input
voltage vin 0(1-dc-dz)

0

il [A]

300
400

200

dc,dl

vin [V]

200
0
-200

Applied
Duty
Inductor
Input
voltage of Capacitor
current commands voltage
current
inverter(1-dc-dz),

Outputcurrent

Outputvoltage

Capacitor Input

Input

vuv ,vvw,vwu [V] voltage current voltage
iu ,iv,iw [A] (LPF) (Non filter) vc [V] iin [A] vin [V]A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)20

10Time [ms](b) Details of active buffer circuit.

Outputvoltage vuv[500 V/div][250 V/div] 0

Input
current iin 0

Outputvoltage vuv 0[10 A/div][200 V/div](LPF 1.5 kHz)Capacitor
voltage vc[200 V/div]

Outputcurrent iu 0
[10 A/div]0[10 ms/div][10 ms/div](a) Input and capacitor voltage waveforms.
(b) Output voltage and current waveforms.
Fig. 10. Experimental results.
Figure 9 shows the simulation results with the proposed control
method. The input current iin and the output voltage vuv(LPF) as
shown Figure 9(a) were observed using a low-pass filter (LPF)with a cut-off frequency of 1 kHz in order to confirm the low
frequency distortion on the waveforms. Output load is decreased
from 100% to 20% after 40 ms, and 110 after ms, it is increased
from 20 to 75%. In each case, sinusoidal waveforms without
distortion are obtained for the output voltage. In addition, an input
current is obtained as sinusoidal waveform in its half period.
Moreover, the capacitor maximum voltage is controlled by 400 V.
From Figure 9(b), the active buffer circuit and charge circuit arecontrolled alternately at per quarter cycle of the input voltage.

6.

used because the laboratory has it. It is noted that there is therelationship of the trade-off between the volume and the efficiency
in the inductor. In the experiments, the control method of theswitch SC is the hard-switching method. The inverter dead-time isset to 3 ms.
Figure 10(a) shows the input and capacitor waveforms of the
proposed method. From the result, sinusoidal waveforms without
distortion are obtained at the input current. In addition, thecapacitor voltage is controlled from 400 V to 300 V of twice thefrequency of the input voltage according to the proposed strategy.
Figure 10(b) shows the output current and voltage waveforms.
The output voltage vuv(LPF) was observed using a LPF with acut-off frequency of 1.5 kHz. As a result, sinusoidal waveforms of
the output voltage and current were obtained. In addition, the peakvoltage is obtained approximately 200 V as same as calculation
value by (19). That is, the voltage transfer ratio between the input
and output voltage can output about 0.707.
Figure 11shows the transient response for the proposed circuit.

Experimental results

In order to demonstrate the validity of the proposed system, aprototype circuit of 1 kW has been tested. The experimental
conditions are the same as the simulation, in Table 2. The
inductance value of 0.25 mH and maximum current of 20 A are
7

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)Input
voltage vin 0

Input
voltage vin 0

Input
current iin 0

Input
current iin 0

Capacitor
voltage vc

Capacitor
voltage vc[500 V/div][500 V/div][10 A/div][10 A/div][200 V/div][200 V/div]00[10 ms/div][10 ms/div](a) Transient response of input and capacitor voltage waveforms.

Outputvoltage vuv 0[250 V/div]

Outputvoltage vuv 0

Outputvoltage vuv 0

Outputvoltage vuv 0(LPF 1.5 kHz)(LPF 1.5 kHz)

Outputcurrent iu 0

Outputcurrent iu 0[250 V/div][200 V/div][200 V/div][10 A/div][10 A/div][20 ms/div][20 ms/div](b) Transient response of output voltage and current waveforms.
Fig. 11. Experimental results of transient response.

20

Efficiency and input power factor [%]Total harmonic dictortion [%]25

Output current

15
10
5

0

Input current
500

1000

Output power [W]1500

Fig. 12. THD of the input and output current.

100Power factor
97.5

95

Efficiency
92.5

90

0

500

1000

Output power [W]1500

Fig. 13. Efficiency and input power factor.

Output load is changed from 100% to 20% or 20% to100 %. In theexperimental results, the input current is obtained as sinusoidal
waveform. In addition, the capacitor maximum voltage iscontrolled by 400 V. Moreover, in any case, sinusoidal waveforms
without distortion are obtained for the output voltage as same as
simulation results.
Figure 12 shows the total harmonics distortion (THD) of the
input current and the output current. The minimum value for the
input current THD is 3.54% and the output current THD is 4.91%.
It is also noted that THD is calculated by using harmonics
components less than 1 kHz. The input current harmonics in the
proposed circuit is much lower than standard of IEC 61000-3-2.
Figure 13 shows the efficiency and input power factor in
respects to the output power of the proposed circuit. As the results,
the input power factor (PF) over 99% and high efficiency of

94.6% were obtained. The reason of low power factor in the lightload region is because the lead current flows in the capacitor of the
input filter initially.

7. Conclusion
This paper proposes a circuit configuration and a control
method for a single-phase-to-three-phase power converter with anactive buffer added a charge circuit for the power decoupling
between the input and output side. The proposed circuit can
improve the voltage transfer ratio to 0.707. The validity of the
proposed control strategy is confirmed by simulation results andexperimental results. The power ripple at twice the frequency ofthe power supply can be adequately suppressed using a buffer
capacitor of only 100 mF at 1 kW. The input current and output
current THD are less than 4% and unity power factor are obtained.
8

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●A Single-to-three-phase Power Converter with an Active Buffer (Yoshiya Ohnuma et al.)

In addition, almost all efficiency of over 94% is obtained byprototype.
References
(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

Jun-ichi Itoh

(Member) received his M.S. and PhD degrees inelectrical and electronic systems engineering from
Nagaoka University of Technology, Niigata, Japan
in 1996 and 2000, respectively. From 1996 to 2004,
he was with Fuji Electric Corporate Research andDevelopment Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. Since 2004, He
has been with Nagaoka University of Technology as
an associate professor. He received the IEEJ
Academic Promotion Award (IEEJ Technical Development Award) in 2007
and the Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award in 2010. His researchinterests include matrix converters, DC/DC converters, power factor
correction techniques and motor drives. He is a member of the Institute ofElectrical Engineers of Japan.

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Yoshiya Ohnuma(Student member) received his B.S. and M.S.
degrees in electrical, electronics and informationengineering from Nagaoka University ofTechnology, Niigata, Japan, in 2008 and 2010
respectively. He is currently working towards to a
Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronic engineering.
His research interests include indirect matrix
converters and power factor correction techniques.

9

IEEJ Trans. ●●, Vol.●●, No.●, ●●●