SuperBox: A 4-in-1 Power Electronics Solution for Dual-Motor Electric Vehicles

The integration of power electronics systems in electric vehicles (EVs) is increasingly attractive for achieving compactness and cost-effectiveness. This paper introduces the SuperBox, a highly integrated 4-in-1 power electronics solution specifically designed for EV applications. The scope of SuperBox encompasses the functionalities of on-board charging, DC boost charging, motor traction, and auxiliary power modules (APMs), all within a single housing. While leveraging established topologies to facilitate rapid industry adoption, SuperBox is distinguished by its novel approach to functional integration. This integration is achieved through three key technical strategies, namely utilizing motor windings for charging, employing a threeport transformer to magnetically couple the high-voltage and low-voltage batteries while maintaining galvanic isolation, and repurposing the traction inverter as a totem-pole power factor correction (PFC) circuit in charging mode. Implementation of such features eliminates the need for the PFC stage of the on-board charger as well as the primary-side circuitry of the APM converter. Subsystem simulations demonstrate the efficacy of SuperBox to achieve significant cost savings while delivering performance on par with conventional systems. Preliminary benchmarking suggests a 15% saving in the power stage cost compared to conventional non-integrated solutions.