A Compact and Integrated Multifunctional Power Electronic Interface for Plug-In Electric Vehicles

The basic power electronic interfaces rendering volume and weight of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are inverter, on-board charger, and bidirectional dc/dc converter. This manuscript proposes an innovative integrated bidirectional converter with a single stage on-board charger to reduce the number of switches, size and weight of the power electronic interfaces. The analyses show that 266 cm3 and 1.1 kg can be saved due to the elimination of the inductor core used for power factor correction in charging mode, in addition to the reduction achieved through removal of inductor winding, power switches, diodes, and additional heat sink of the conventional structures. A proof-of-concept prototype with power limits of 8.4 kW in charging and 20 kW in propulsion modes has been designed and validated at various power levels. The peak efficiencies for propulsion and regenerative braking operations are measured as 96.6%, and 94.1%, respectively. The power factor is recorded as 0.995 at 1.8 kW charging power, where crest factor and peak efficiency are recorded as 1.49 and 91.6%, respectively.