Reduced size single-phase PHEV charger with output second-order voltage harmonic elimination capability

The single-phase PWM rectifier is one of the converter types applicable for the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) chargers. A primary challenge with the single-phase rectifiers is the input alternative power with twice the grid frequency, which should be filtered out properly. The lack of proper filtering leads to significant second-order voltage harmonic at the charger output. This results overheating and decreasing of the battery lifetime and performance. In this paper, an active method to filter out the second-order voltage harmonic is proposed. In the proposed method, the input alternative power of the charger is absorbed by an inductive auxiliary energy storage element. Using the proposed method, the size, weight and implementation cost of the charger are decreased, as well as its power density and reliability are increased. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been verified by detailed simulation studies in MATLAB/Simulink.