A High Current Ripple EV Battery Charger Utilizing Capacitor-less CUK Converter

Nowadays, plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) has been given a tremendous market share worldwide due to its advantages over the fuel vehicles. Consequently, high reliability electric vehicles (EVs) have been enabled by high performance on-board battery charger (OBC). A common drawback in the conventional OBC is the adoption of low lifespan electrolytic capacitor which decreases the average lifespan of the charger. Thus, recent trends in research focus on eliminating this type of capacitors by replacing it with lower energy density film or ceramic capacitors. Unfortunately, employing low energy density capacitors introduce high ripple in the output current as a common implication. According to the AC impedance model for the battery, it can be driven with a high ripple current without deteriorating the battery lifetime or prolonging the charging/discharging time. In contrast, the high ripple current is proved that it has a positive impact by enhancing the battery performance parameter. In this paper, AC-DC capacitor-less CUK converter is proposed that leverages the concept of high ripple current charging which increases the lifespan and reliability of the charger while maintaining an improved battery performance. In addition to, the proposed charger complies with the IEC61000 3–2 for harmonics distortion standard.