Characteristics of interleaved PFC stages

Interleaved PFC is an emerging solution that becomes particularly popular in applications where a strict form factor has to be met like for instance, in slim notebook adapters or in LCD TVs. This section will consider the interleaving of two (frequency clamped) critical conduction mode PFC stages that efficiently address wide mains applications above 200W. Interleaving continuous conduction mode PFC stages is also possible. However this option should be devoted to much higher power applications (above 1kW) and will not be detailed here.

The main goal of this paper is to give the main characteristics and merits of this approach. In particular, this application note focuses on the current ripple reduction when the interleaved stages are operated out-of-phase and on the design criteria when dimensioning the power components.

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