648 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 44, NO.

5, OCTOBER 1997

Power-Factor Correction Using Ćuk Converters in

Discontinuous-Capacitor-Voltage Mode Operation
Bo-Tao Lin and Yim-Shu Lee

Abstract— The characteristics of Ćuk converters in

discontinuous-capacitor-voltage mode operation are studied.
A Ćuk converter in this mode of operation is an inherent
power-factor corrector and features soft turn-off switching.
Simulation and experimental results are reported to verify
the theoretical analysis. In addition, the advantages and
disadvantages of power-factor correction circuits using Ćuk
converters in discontinuous-inductor-current mode operation
Fig. 1. Ćuk converter.
and Ćuk converters in discontinuous-capacitor-voltage mode
operation are discussed.
Index Terms— AC–DC power conversion, converters, power
electronics, power quality. in DCVM operation inherently have a good power factor. In
addition, these converters also have the following attractive
features:
I. INTRODUCTION
1) Soft turn-off switching. This feature is desirable for the

S INGLE-PHASE power-factor correction based on stan-

dard dc–dc converter stages has been a hot topic in power
electronics for the last several years. The boost, buck–boost,
and Ćuk converters in discontinuous-inductor-current mode
(DICM) operation were demonstrated to have inherent power-
factor correction (PFC) capability [1]–[4]. Due to their simple
control circuitry, they are attractive for low-power applica-
tions. However, these converters have high-current stress and
thus heavy conduction loss. Furthermore, the input current
(namely the line current) contains much switching ripple so
that further filtering may be required.
Discontinuous-capacitor-voltage mode (DCVM) operation
has been known to exist for years [5], [6], which is the
dual of DICM operation. Based on the duality principle, it
is natural to expect that converters in DCVM may also have
inherent PFC capability. Recently, it has been proven that a
buck converter with an input filter in DCVM operation (the
dual of a boost converter in DICM) can be designed to have
fairly good power-factor correction characteristic at constant
duty-cycle [7]. (In [7], the operation mode is referred to as
discontinuous-input-voltage mode.) However, similar to the
boost converter in DICM operation, such a buck converter is
not an ideal power-factor corrector because its power factor
cannot approach unity unless the output current is much larger
than the input current.
Ćuk converters in DCVM operation were reported by Ćuk
in [5]. It is in fact the dual of buck–boost converter in DICM
operation. It will be shown in this paper that Ćuk converters
minority-carrier semiconductor devices such as IGBT’s
and BJT’s because these devices exhibit a current tail at
turn-off, which causes high turn-off switching loss. Soft
turn-off slows down the voltage rise and thus reduces
the turn-off loss.
2) Low switch current stress and low input current ripple.
Due to the low current stress, the conduction loss is
low. Also, due to the small current ripple, further input
filtering is unnecessary.
3) Better utilization of isolation transformer. For
transformer-isolated Ćuk converters, the magnetic
cores of the transformers are better utilized when
compared with forward and flyback converters [8].
4) Almost unity power factor. The input admittance is
resistive and linear over a wide range of input voltage,
implying a power factor very close to 1.
In Section II of this paper, the principle and dc character-
istics of Ćuk converters in DCVM operation will be studied
in detail. In Section III, the criteria of designing converters
to function as power factor correctors will be described. The
simulation and experimental results will also be reported to
verify the theoretical prediction. In Section IV, the two duality
modes of operation (DCVM and DICM) will be compared
and their advantages/disadvantages, as applied to power-factor
correction, will be identified.
II. PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION AND DC CHARACTERISTICS
OF ĆUK CONVERTERS IN DCVM

Manuscript received June 1, 1996; revised December 8, 1996. This work

was supported by the Industry Department of Hong Kong Government and A. Operation Principle
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The circuit of a Ćuk converter is shown in Fig. 1, where
The authors are with the Department of Electronic Engineering, The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. the inductors and are assumed sufficiently large so that
Publisher Item Identifier S 0278-0046(97)06529-5. the converter will not enter DICM or DQRM (discontinuous
0278–0046/97$10.00  1997 IEEE
LIN AND LEE: POWER-FACTOR CORRECTION USING ĆUK CONVERTERS 649

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig. 2. Equivalent circuits at different stages.

B. DC Characteristics
Since and are large, the ripples in and are
small. Denoting the average values of and as and
, respectively, we have in Fig. 3:

for
for
for
Fig. 3. Waveform of vC . (1)
where
quasi-resonant mode) operation [6]. It is also assumed that the
capacitor is sufficiently small so that it is fully discharged (2)
(namely ) for part of the switching cycle. The equiva-
lent circuits for different switching stages of the converter are The average values of and , denoted as and ,
shown in Fig. 2, where is the switching period. Referring respectively, can be determined from (1) as
to the capacitor voltage waveform in Fig. 3, the operation of
(3)
the circuit can be explained as follows:
Assume that just before switch is turned on, diode (4)
carries all of the output inductor current , and that the
capacitor voltage has reached its maximum value. Hence,
1) : At the beginning of a switching cycle, ,
switch is turned on and diode is turned off. Input (5)
inductor is charged up by input voltage and
the current through output inductor , discharges
capacitor . At the energy stored in is (6)
completely transferred to the output and becomes
zero.
2) : Since is equal to zero at , diode
starts to conduct, allowing to flow. stays idle
(7)
and continues to charge .
3) : At , switch is turned off. Capacitor On the other hand, we have from Fig. 1
is charged up from zero by . The capacitor voltage
reaches its maximum value at . (8)
When compared with a Ćuk converter in continuous- Combining (2), (5)–(8) gives
inductor-current mode (CICM) operation, it can be seen that
an additional switching stage, in which both the transistor (9)
switch and the flywheel diode are conducting [as shown
in Fig. 2(b)], is introduced in the DCVM operation. This (10)
dramatically changes the characteristics of the converter. where is the switching frequency ( ).
650 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 44, NO. 5, OCTOBER 1997

Defining On the other hand, the energy delivered to the load during
the same half-cycle is

(11) (19)
we then have where output voltage can be viewed as constant due
to the bulk capacitor . By equating (18) and (19), the
following expression for the output voltage, , can be
obtained:

(12)

Now we consider the effective input resistance of the

converter. From (9), we have (20)
where is the rms value of the line voltage.
• Selection of Capacitor :
(13) To operate the converter in DCVM, the inequality (14)
should be satisfied, or equivalently
Since the effective input resistance in (13) is constant
for a given , Ćuk converters in DCVM operation have (21)
inherent PFC capability. The condition for DCVM operation
is , or equivalently It should, however, be noted that since is not a constant
dc voltage, the converter may not operate in DCVM
(14) when is near zero (see Appendix for the condition to
One disadvantage of the Ćuk converter in DCVM is the rel- maintain DCVM operation). It is possible that for some
atively large voltage stress across the semiconductor devices, short durations of the line period the converter operates
. It is equal to the maximum voltage of . From (1), in DICM [2] (see simulated waveforms shown in Fig. 5).
we have However, if the converter is operated in “deep” DCVM,
for example

(22)
(15)
a high power factor can still be obtained.
which is independent of the loading resistance.
It should also be noted that the smaller the loading
III. DESIGN CRITERIA, SIMULATION RESULTS resistance, the “deeper” the converter operates in DCVM
AND EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS and the higher is the power factor. This is contrary
to converters in DICM, where good power factors are
A. Design Criteria obtained only at light loads (when the loading resistance
Assume that the supply to the Ćuk converter is an ac mains is large).
followed by a bridge rectifier, as shown in Fig. 4, so that the • Selection of Inductors and :
input voltage to the Ćuk converter is given by The inductor will contribute some reactance at ac
mains frequency. However, if is not excessively large,
(16) it would have little effect on the power factor. On the
other hand, and should be large enough to smooth
where and are the amplitude and the period of the ac out the ripples at the switching frequency of the converter.
line voltage, respectively. Thus, we need to have
• Relationship Between the Input and Output Voltages:
First, we consider the input energy from the ac line in (23)
a half cycle ( ), :

(17)
(24)
Combining (9), (16), and (17) we have
• Selection of Switches:
From (15), the switch voltage stress can be
found as
(18) (25)
LIN AND LEE: POWER-FACTOR CORRECTION USING ĆUK CONVERTERS 651

Fig. 4. Ćuk converter with bridge rectifier.

Comparing (25) with (22), we can see that whereas a

smaller gives a lower voltage stress it will also result
in a lower power factor. A compromise should therefore
be made between the voltage stress and the power factor
by selecting a suitable duty cycle .

B. Simulation Results
Based on the design criteria given above, a circuit (as shown
in Fig. 4) with the following parameters was designed for
simulation:
150 sin (100 ) (namely, 110
Vrms, 50 Hz);
950 H;
0.047 F;
320 H;
2200 F;
10 ;
(switching frequency) 45 kHz;
(duty cycle) 0.5.
The above circuit parameters ensures that (22) holds and
the converter operates in “deep” DCVM.
The transistor model used was IRFPG50 and the diode
model used was MUR8100. The circuit was simulated by
PSpice (version 5.0). Fig. 5 shows the simulated waveforms. It
was found that the line current followed the line voltage very
well (and in phase). From the waveforms of and ( ),
Fig. 5. Simulated waveforms.
it can be seen that for a large portion of the line period the
converter operated in DCVM (namely reaching zero and
( ). However, for the small portion where the line supply is (110 Vrms, 50 Hz). It can be seen that the line current
voltage was crossing zero, we have and ( ) followed the line voltage closely, which agreed well with the
reaching zero, indicating DICM operation. simulations in Fig. 5. The measured power factor was 99.9%,
It is interesting to note that a Ćuk converter in DICM and the measured total harmonic distortion (THD) of the line
operation actually also has inherent power-factor correction current was 1.7%. The conversion efficiency of the converter
characteristic, as it has been proven in [2]. As a result, the was 80% for an output of 120 W at 35 V. The calculated and
line current within this small portion of the AC line period measured values of and were
[where ] should also follow closely calculated:
the line voltage. It is therefore not surprising that the circuit
has a very good overall power factor.

C. Experimental Measurements measured:

An experimental circuit has been built to verify the theory
and simulation described above. The circuit parameters were
all the same as those for simulation. (It should be noted
that this circuit has not been optimized). Fig. 6 shows the The differences were mainly due to the lossy components
waveforms of the line voltage and line current, where the ac of the circuit. These include series resistances of inductors
652 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 44, NO. 5, OCTOBER 1997

TABLE I
COMPARISON BETWEEN DICM AND DCVM
DICM DCVM
Voltage stress Low High
Current stress High Low
Line current ripple Large. (Further input Low. ( No input
filtering may be needed, filtering is needed)
leading to a relatively
low power factor.)
Switching characteristic Soft turn-on Soft turn-off
Preferred switches No optimum switches. IGBT’s
(If a MOSFET is used,
the conduction loss will
be high. If an IGBT is
used, the turn-off loss
will be high.)
Fig. 6. Measured waveforms of the line voltage (CH1) and line current Loading characteristic More suitable for light More suitable for heavy
(CH2). Scales: line voltage (50 V/div); line current (1 A/div). Time scale: load (large loading load (small loading
5 ms/div. resistance). resistance).
Most appropriate Low-current, Low-voltage,
applications high-voltage. high-current.

where

(27)

A comparison between (25) and (26) indicates that a

Fig. 7. Measured THD of line current and power factor versus line voltage.
and capacitors, diode and transistor voltage drops, etc. (In
the theoretical calculation, 100% conversion efficiency is
assumed.)
The upper curve in Fig. 7 shows the measured power
factor for different line voltages. The lower curve shows the
measured THD of the line current for different line voltages.
It was observed that the power factor was consistently above
99.8% and the THD of the line current was consistently below
2.5% for a line voltage varying between 50–120 V(rms). Both
the power factor and THD were insensitive to the line voltage.
It is therefore quite obvious that Ćuk converters in DCVM
operation are suitable as power-factor correctors over a wide
range of input voltage.
IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN DCVM AND DICM
In order to get a more complete picture about the use of Ćuk
converters for PFC applications, the two modes of operation,
DCVM and DICM, will be further compared in this section.
A detailed study on the two modes of operation can reveal
the following.
1) When a Ćuk converter is operated in DICM (with a large
capacitor ), the voltage stress is [2]
(26)
Ćuk converter operated in DCVM should normally have
a higher voltage stress when is large.
2) For a Ćuk converter in DICM operation, the input-
current ripple is at least twice as large as the average dc
input current. Thus the peak current stress is high. For
a Ćuk converter in DCVM operation, the input current
is naturally smooth.
3) For DCVM operation, because of the large voltage
stress but soft turn-off switching characteristic, minority-
carrier semiconductor devices, such as IGBT’s (which
have high-voltage rating but large turn-off loss compared
with power MOSFET’s), are particularly suitable as the
electronic switch .
4) In order to achieve a good power factor, the loading
resistance should be large for DICM operation and small
for DCVM operation.
As a general conclusion, it may be stated that whereas
DICM operation is more suitable for low-current high-voltage
applications, DCVM operation is more suitable for low-voltage
high-current applications.
Table I contains a summary of the comparison given above.
(It should be noted that this comparison is generally also
applicable to other types of converters.)
V. CONCLUSION
The operation and dc characteristics of Ćuk converters in
discontinuous-capacitor-voltage mode operation have been
studied. It is found that these converters possess interesting
properties such as inherent power-factor correction capability
and low turn-off switching loss. Simulations and experimental
work have been performed to verify the theoretical analysis.
A comparison has also been made between discontinuous-
inductor-current mode and discontinuous-capacitor-voltage
mode operations for PFC applications. It is believed that
LIN AND LEE: POWER-FACTOR CORRECTION USING ĆUK CONVERTERS 653

Ćuk converters in discontinuous-capacitor-voltage mode It is obvious that the inequality (A.9) cannot always be
operation are more suitable for low-voltage and high-current satisfied, because the minimum value of its right-hand side
applications. is zero. Thus the Ćuk converters will drop out of DCVM
operation when is crossing zero, as can be observed in
APPENDIX Fig. 5.
CONDITION FOR MAINTAINING Similarly, we can demonstrate that the same phenomena
DCVM OPERATION IN PFC CIRCUIT will occur when the converters are in close-loop operation.
Following the approach of analysis introduced in [9], we REFERENCES
shall show that a Ćuk converter will not always operate in
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criteria for Sepic and Ćuk converters as power factor preregulators
The input power during a switching period taken from the in discontinuous conduction mode,” in Proc. IEEE IECON’92, pp.
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[2] M. Brkovic and S. Ćuk, “Input current shaper using Ćuk converter,” in
(A.1) Proc. IEEE INTELEC’92, pp. 532–539.
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where is the amplitude of the line current and is for Sepic, Ćuk and Flyback converters as power factor preregulators in
discontinuous conduction mode,” in Proc. IEEE PESC’93, pp. 735–741.
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and
Bo-Tao Lin received the B.S. degree in electronic
(A.5) engineering from South China University of Tech-
nology, Guang Zhou, China, in 1992, where he is
currently working towards the Ph.D. degree.
Solving (A.4) and (A.5), assuming 100% conversion effi- Currently, he is a Research Assistant of the De-
ciency, gives partment of Electronic Engineering in The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University. His research has been
concentrated on analysis and synthesis of power-
(A.6) factor-correction circuits, soft-switching dc–dc con-
verters, and nonlinear circuits and systems.
Thus, the effective loading resistance is time variant. Due
to this fact, the dimensionless parameter must be re-defined
as follows [9]:
Yim-Shu Lee received the M.Sc. degree from the
University of Southampton, U.K., and the Ph.D.
degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1974
(A.7) and 1988, respectively.
He was with the Cable & Wireless, Rediffusion
Television, and General Post Office, all in Hong
where [the same as (11)]. Kong, respectively, before joining The Hong Kong
If the converter operates in open-loop, is equal to Polytechnic University in December 1969, as a
member of the academic staff. Currently, he is a
[see (14)]. Thus, the condition for DCVM operation is Professor in the Department of Electronic Engineer-
ing. He is the author of the book, Computer-Aided
(A.8) Analysis and Design of Switch-Mode Power Supplies, and his research interests
or include design of switch-mode power supplies and computer-aided design of
analog circuits.
(A.9) Dr. Lee is a Fellow of both IEE (U.K.) and HKIE.