High Frequency ZVT Converter for Variable DC-Link in Electric Vehicle Traction Drive

A bi-directional synchronous Buck/Boost DC/DC converter with easy interleaving capability is proposed with a simple soft-switching mechanism. The use of wide bandgap, high voltage SiC switches as well as zero voltage switching transitions allows for high efficiency operation even at high switching frequencies and high temperatures. Experimental results from a scaled-down hardware prototype is used to validate the performance of the proposed approach. With soft-switching, converter efficiencies over 98% are achieved for a wide load range of operation with 250 kHz switching frequency.