10 IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS LETTERS, VOL. 1, NO.

1, MARCH 2003

Simple Topologies of PWM AC–AC Converters

Fang Zheng Peng, Senior Member, IEEE, Lihua Chen, and Fan Zhang

Abstract—This letter proposes a new family of simple topolo-

gies of PWM ac–ac converters with minimal switches. With exten-
sion from the basic dc–dc converters, a series of ac–ac converters
such as buck, boost, buck-boost, Cúk, and isolated converters are
obtained. By PWM duty ratio control, they become a “solid-state
transformer” with a continuously variable turns ratio. All the pro-
posed ac–ac converters in this paper employ only two switches.
Compared to the existing circuits that use six switches or more, Fig. 1. Three-phase bi-directional switch configurations.
they can reduce cost and improve reliability. The operating prin-
ciple and control method of the proposed topologies are presented.
Analysis and simulation results are given using the Cúk ac–ac con-
verter as an example. The analysis can be easily extended to other
converters of the proposed family.
Index Terms—Ac-ac converter, power line conditioning, PWM
converter, solid-state tansformer.

I. INTRODUCTION

F OR AC–AC power conversion that requires variable

output voltage and variable frequency, the most popular
topology is the voltage-source inverter with a dc link, i.e., the Fig. 2. Three-phase buck ac–ac converter.
pulse width modulation (PWM) inverter with a diode-rectifier
front end and dc capacitor link. However, for the applications
where only voltage regulation is needed, the direct PWM ac–ac
converter is a better choice to achieve smaller size and lower
cost. The ac–ac converters, or ac–ac line conditioners, can also
perform conditioning, isolating, and filtering of the incoming
power in addition to voltage regulation [3] and [4].
Traditionally, ac–ac converters employ thyristors to regulate
ac–ac power, i.e., phase-controlled ac–ac converters. This is
largely due to cost, reliability, and larger power handling capa-
bility of thyristor switches. Such ac–ac conditioners, however,
have slow response speed and need large input–output filters to
reduce low-order harmonics [4].
The use of self-commutated switches with PWM control
can significantly improve the performance of ac–ac converters, Fig. 3. Three-phase boost ac–ac converter.
which has been articulated in a number of technical publications
[1]–[9]. In [1], a PWM ac–ac converter was reported with a
comparison to the older generation thyristor-based phase-con-
trolled converters. In [2]–[8], each paper proposed a different
ac–ac converter and some simulation results were presented
to illustrate their performance in the presence of voltage sags,
surges, and load fluctuations. A family of ac–ac converters with
six switches was proposed in [9], and a comparative evaluation
of these converters was made with the goal of presenting a
design guideline.

Fig. 4. Three-phase buck-boost ac–ac converter.

Manuscript received April 11, 2003; revised May 9, 2003. Recommended by
Associate Editor L. Tolbert.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi- Inspection of the topologies of the ac–ac converters men-
neering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA (e-mail:
fzpeng@egr.msu.edu). tioned above reveals that they could be directly extended or de-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPEL.2003.814961 rived from the well-understood dc–dc converter technologies.
1540-7985/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
PENG et al.: SIMPLE TOPOLOGIES OF PWM AC–AC CONVERTERS 11

Fig. 5. Three-phase Cúk ac–ac converter.

The analysis and design methods available for dc–dc converters

may also be extended to ac–ac converters due to their topolog-
ical and functional similarities [8].
In general, the use of fewer switches can reduce cost and im-
prove reliability of a system. In this letter we will propose a
family of simple topologies of three-phase PWM ac–ac con-
verters that employ only two switches. A switch with a full diode
bridge is used to replace the conventional three-switch structure
as shown in Fig. 1. Only two switches are used in each proposed
ac–ac converter.
In Sections II and III, the proposed ac–ac converter topologies
and their operating principle will be described. As an example,
the Cúk ac–ac converter will be analyzed and simulation results
will be presented.
Fig. 6. Three-phase flyback ac–ac converter.
II. PROPOSED AC–AC CONVERTER TOPOLOGIES
Figs. 2–5 show the proposed topologies of various three-
two states exist in this circuit. Figs. 9 and 10 show the equivalent
phase PWM ac–ac converters, i.e., buck converter, boost con-
circuits of the two states. In state I, is turned on and turned
verter, buck-boost converter, and Cúk converter, respectively.
off. The ac source charges the line inductors, , , and
All these converters utilize only two active devices ( and ),
shorted by , while capacitors , , and discharge and
and each is combined with a full diode bridge. Small inductors
transfer energy to , , and . In state II, is turned off and
and capacitors are used for filtering purposes.
turned on. The energy stored in , , and is released
The proposed ac–ac converters can be extended to isolated
and transferred to capacitors , , and through switch
topologies, just like the traditional dc–dc converters, by incor-
, whereas energy stored in , , and is released and
porating a high-frequency transformer. The isolated flyback and
transferred to the load and capacitors, , , and .
Cúk ac–ac converter are illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7.
Simulation results for this Cúk ac–ac converter are shown in
All the proposed ac–ac converters can be operated with PWM
Fig. 11. The ac line input voltage has a 50% voltage sag during
duty ratio control in exactly the same way as the conventional
the time from the nominal voltage of 240–V rms
dc–dc converters. Fig. 8 shows the control scheme, common to
to 120-V rms. By PWM duty ratio control, we can keep the
all the proposed ac–ac converters. As shown in the figure,
output voltage constant at 200-V rms. The Cúk converter op-
and are turned on and off in complement. Table I shows the
erates in the buck mode when the input voltage is normal at
steady state input–output voltage gains of these converters as
its nominal voltage of 240-V and in the boost mode during
a function of duty ratio , which are respectively identical to
the voltage sag. In the simulation, the switching frequency is
those of the dc–dc converters. By controlling the duty ratio, the
10 kHz and the output power is 10 kW. Because of high-fre-
output voltage can be regulated as desired.
quency switching and filtering effect, both current and voltage
waveforms on input and output sides are sinusoidal. The input
III. ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION RESULT OF CúK
current ( , , and ) has switching ripple that can be fur-
AC–AC CONVERTER
ther reduced by increasing the input inductance ( , , and
For the new PWM ac–ac converters, the control scheme de- ) and switching frequency, whereas the output voltage ( ,
scribed in Fig. 8 is simple and easy to implement. As an ex- , and ) and output load current ( , , and ) both
ample, the Cúk ac–ac converter shown in Fig. 5 is analyzed. A have negligible ripple because of the relatively large output filter
similar analysis can be extended to other ac–ac converters. used. The output filter is composed of inductors ( , , and
The switches and are gated on and off in complement as ) and capacitors ( , , and ). For some applications,
shown in Fig. 8. Similar to the traditional Cúk dc–dc converter, capacitors , , and can be omitted and inductors ,
12
Fig. 7. Three-phase isolated Cúk ac–ac converter.
Fig. 8. Duty ratio control of ac–ac converters.
TABLE I
VOLTAGE TRANSFER RATIO OF AC–AC CONVERTERS
Fig. 9. State I: S is on and S is off.
Fig. 10. State II: S is off and S is on.
, and can be the load inductance. In addition, the line
impedance can serve the function of inductors , , and .
As a result, only capacitors , , and and switches and
are needed to implement the Cúk converter.
IEEE POWER ELECTRONICS LETTERS, VOL. 1, NO. 1, MARCH 2003
Fig. 11. Simulation results of Cúk ac–ac converter. (From top to bottom: input
ac source voltage v , v , and v ; input current i , i , and i ; output
voltage v , v , and v ; and output load current i , i , and i ).
Fig. 12. Bi-directional switches for single phase.
IV. CONCLUSION
As a natural extension from the dc–dc converters, a new
family of simple topologies of three-phase ac–ac converters
was proposed in this paper. By PWM duty ratio control, they
become a “solid-state transformer” with a continuously variable
turns ratio. The operating principle and control scheme are
exactly the same as the corresponding dc–dc converters. The
ac–ac converters can be used for ac–ac line conditioning to
overcome voltage sags, surges, and load fluctuations. Because
the proposed converters employ only two active devices, they
can reduce cost and improve reliability. Steady state analysis and
simulation results were illustrated using the Cúk converter as
an example. In this paper, six ac–ac converters were presented,
corresponding with the most commonly used dc–dc converters.
PENG et al.: SIMPLE TOPOLOGIES OF PWM AC–AC CONVERTERS
In the same manner, any other dc–dc converter topology can
be extended to an ac–ac counterpart. In addition, single-phase
ac–ac converters can be easily derived by replacing and
with a bi-directional switch as shown in Fig. 12.
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