Semiconductor Solutions to Support High-Power Battery Charging Systems in Electric Mobility Scenarios

As the world is facing a change towards electric mobility in both, private and urban use, battery charging becomes a highly important topic [1]. As technically two options arise - wired and wireless charging - several topologies and technologies regarding semiconductors are currently evaluated. Ambitious efficiency targets can be met using either more complex topologies or more efficient semiconductors. Power levels from a few kilowatts in private use to several hundred kilowatts to charge large battery packs in buses need to be considered. The present work gives an overview on various topologies feasible for the application Battery Charging and discusses benefits arising from using IGBTs, silicon MOSFETs or even switches based on wide band gap materials like Silicon Carbide (SiC). Though best visible regarding electric mobility topics, battery charging also is an important subject in the field of renewable energies. Here, electric energy storage systems (ESS) can be used to safely increase the amount of renewable energy injected into the grid by decoupling the time of generation from the time of consumption. Though the power and the energy stored differ from the mobile applications, the basic principles and topologies along with technological concerns remain very similar.