Bridgeless SEPIC PFC Converter for Low-Voltage EV Applications With Reduced Sensor Count

This article proposes a single-phase bridgeless single-ended primary inductance-based power factor correction (PFC) converter that can function as a front-end converter for on-board low-voltage electric vehicle charging applications. The ability to inherently achieve the PFC in discontinuous inductor current mode is utilized in the proposed converter, thereby, the need for input voltage/current sensing is completely eliminated. Further, the structure of the proposed converter reduces the gate driver complexity owing to the common ground shared by all of the active switches which further adds to the cost effectiveness. The experimental results from a 1 kW prototype are presented to validate feasibility under steady state and dynamic conditions for wide output and input voltage ranges.