International Journal of Scientific Research and Engineering Development

Pulse‑width‑modulated (PWM) rectifiers are widely used in adjustable‑speed drives, renewable energy interfaces and electric vehicle chargers because they offer bidirectional power flow, controllable dc‑bus voltage and high power quality. Conventional diode or thyristor bridge rectifiers are attractive for their simplicity and ruggedness, yet they inject large low‑order harmonics into the utility and exhibit poor power factor [1]. Existing active harmonic reduction techniques such as multi‑pulse rectifiers, passive filters and active power factor correction stages increase the system cost and complexity [2]. This paper proposes a parabolic carrier PWM (P‑PWM) strategy that improves the harmonic performance of three‑phase voltage‑source rectifiers without additional hardware. The proposed modulation is integrated into the current control loop and modifies the carrier waveform to follow a parabolic shape instead of the conventional triangular wave. Simulations in MATLAB/Simulink demonstrate that the proposed P‑PWM reduces the total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input current to below 2 % while maintaining near‑unity power factor. Comparative analyses with sinusoidal and triangular carriers show that P‑PWM achieves smoother switching transitions, reduced switching loss and improved dynamic response under load changes. The findings indicate that parabolic carrier modulation is a viable alternative for future high‑performance rectifier applications.