LIBRARY
High-Efficiency, High-Density, GaN-Based 6.6kW Bi-Directional On-board Charger for Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs)
10/01/2014TYPE: PROJECT
Document Tags: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017
PIs: Qiang Li, Fred C. Lee
Sponsors: Department of Energy (Sub- Awardee of Delta Products Corporation)
ABSTRACT
This project involves the development and commercial- ization of a lightweight, compact and efficient bidirection- al on-board charger (OBC) for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). PEV hereafter refers to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV).
The OBC uses novel circuit architectures and control schemes enabled by Gallium Nitride (GaN) based wide- bandgap (WBG) semiconductors to obtain charger effi- ciency better than 95% and reduce volume and mass by approximately 30% to 50% of the existing state-of-the-art silicon (Si) based chargers by pushing converter switch- ing frequency to the MHz range. A Si-based bidirectional OBC is typically implemented with two separate mod- ules: a charger and an inverter. A GaN-based bidirection- al OBC can integrate both functions in a single module. It will result in substantial reductions in size, weight and cost.
With ChryslerÃÂs commitment, this project aimes to demonstrate the viability and commercial potential for WBG semiconductors in PEV applications. The core char- ger/inverter technology will also provide the added con- sumer benefits of providing emergency or convenience ac power on a vehicle, a feature that is strongly desired by consumers. In addition, it supports effective vehicle-to- grid (V2G) integration. V2G enables more efficient energy management practices, such as wind and solar photovol- taic distributed generation, peak shaving, and discounted off-hour charging rates for customers. All of which will help support the mainstream commercialization of PEVs. This project brings together four world-class organiza- tions including: the Center for Power Electronics Systems (CPES); Transphorm, Inc.; Delta Products Corporation; and Chrysler LLC.
In this project, CPES will focus on developing advanced circuit architectures and control schemes for GaN based battery charger. The main tasks included high-frequency GaN device and driver evaluation; topology selection and evaluation; high-frequency magnetic components development; reference design of high frequency PFC stage, dc/dc stage and EMC filters.
