essential to use a power factor corrector

[jegandren]

Hi all,

i would like to seek advise, is it essential to use a PFC to convert AC to DC to supply to my DC-DC half-bridge SMPS. or can i just straight away convert from AC-DC from the mains and supply to the DC-DC half-bridge SMPS. Please advise.

[Bootstrapper]

Hi, power factor correction is not necessarily required - you can design a fully operational ac-dc -converter without pfc. The thing is, pfc is required after your converter exceeds certain power level. This way the line current distortion is kept at acceptable level.

What I am trying to say is that you don't have to use pfc, unless you are about to build thousands of converters for selling. Although pfc circuits are quite simple, so if you have a functional half-bridge converter, you should be able to design a pfc circuit, too. After all, a pfc circuit is just a boost converter.