Three-Leg DC–DC Converter for Efficient Inductive Power Transfer of Electric Vehicles for Wide-Range Battery Applications

The design of an inductive power transfer system for different electric vehicle (EV) models with widely varied battery pack voltages has been a challenging task. The majority of modern EV models are equipped with 400 or 800 V battery packs. To charge both batteries efficiently, an additional dc–dc converter on the receiver side is employed, which reduces the overall system efficiency and also increases the cost. This letter proposes a reduced switch count novel converter to charge distinct EV models without degrading the efficiency of the system. The proposed converter has two operating modes, a voltage doubler mode to charge an 800 V battery and a current doubler mode to charge a 400 V battery at the same power level. MATLAB/Simulink simulations have been carried out to verify the performance of the three-leg converter for both 400 and 800 V batteries at 7.2 kW. Furthermore, a laboratory prototype of the proposed converter for 500 W has been built using the silicon carbide (SiC) devices, and the results obtained are provided.