Three-Leg DC-DC Converter for Efficient Inductive Power Transfer of Electric Vehicles for Wide-Range Battery Applications

Abstract

The design of an inductive power transfer system for different electric vehicle (EV) models with widely varied battery pack voltages has been a challenging task. The majority of modern EV models are equipped with 400 or 800 V battery packs. To charge both batteries efficiently, an additional dc-dc converter on the receiver side is employed, which reduces the overall system efficiency and also increases the cost. This letter proposes a reduced switch count novel converter to charge distinct EV models without degrading the efficiency of the system. The proposed converter has two operating modes, a voltage doubler mode to charge an 800 V battery and a current doubler mode to charge a 400 V battery at the same power level. MATLAB/Simulink simulations have been carried out to verify the performance of the three-leg converter for both 400 and 800 V batteries at 7.2 kW. Furthermore, a laboratory prototype of the proposed converter for 500 W has been built using the silicon carbide (SiC) devices, and the results obtained are provided. © 1986-2012 IEEE.