Onboard battery chargers in electric cars: benchmarking a novel 5-level hybrid converter with a full SiC-based approach

Conference: PCIM Europe 2014 - International Exhibition and Conference for Power Electronics, Intelligent Motion, Renewable Energy and Energy Management
05/20/2014 - 05/22/2014 at Nürnberg, Deutschland

Proceedings: PCIM Europe 2014

Pages: 8Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Oliveira, Eduardo de; Araujo, Samuel; Dombert, Benjamin; Zacharias, Peter (Centre of Competence for Distributed Electric Power Technology (KDEE), University of Kassel, Wilhelmshoeher Allee 71, 34121 Kassel, Germany)

Abstract:
High power battery chargers are considered as one of the potential solutions to address the present range limitation of electric cars. Among the two possible basic approaches, namely high power DC or AC, the second one was chosen given its enhanced integration capabilities and also higher potential for cost reduction. In this paper, a 5-level three-phase hybrid rectifier with an innovative approach feasible to on-board EV battery charging systems is introduced. Some other possible power electronics circuits for battery charging of EVs are comparatively evaluated based on dimensionless benchmark factors concerning the semiconductor stresses and the volume of the main passive components. Furthermore, a 22 kW hardware prototype was built, so that the topology as well as the operation concept and the feasibility of the system are validated with the obtained experimental results. Finally, the proposed system is benchmarked with a more basic topology designed fully relying on SiC devices. From the presented results, it is possible to identify technical limits of the application, such as power density, efficiency and costs.