Single phase voltage source converter (VSC) is an important power electronic converter (PEC), including single-phase voltage source inverter (VSI), single-phase voltage source rectifier (VSR), single-phase active power filter (APF) and single-phase grid-connection inverter (GCI). As the fundamental part of large scale PECs, single-phase VSC has a wide range of applications. In the paper, as first, on the basis of the concept of the discontinuous pulse-width modulation (DPWM) for three-phase VSC, a new DPWM of single-phase VSR is presented by means of zero-sequence component injection. Then, the transformation from stationary frame (abc) to rotating frame (dq) is designed after reconstructing the other orthogonal current by means of one order all-pass filter. Finally, the presented DPWM based single-phase VSR is established analyzed and simulated by means of MATLAB/SIMULINK. In addition, the DPWMs presented by D. Grahame Holmes and Thomas Lipo are discussed and simulated in brief. Obviously, the presented DPWM can also be used for single-phase VSI, GCI and APF. The simulation results show the validation of the above modulation algorithm, and the DPWM based single-phase VSR has reduced power loss and increased efficiency.