An Universal On-board Battery Charger with Wide Output Voltage Range for Electric Transportation

Battery operated electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), contains an inherent on-board charger (OBC) to resolve the mileage anxiety and provide instant charge with available normal household power sockets. Conventionally, a two-stage converter is used in OBC that connects the input grid supply and battery pack whose output voltage levels differ from vehicle architecture. Typically, OBCs are available in voltage range of 200-450, 48-72 and 96-150 V. This paper mainly focus on the analysis and design of a novel universal battery charger with a voltage range of 50-500 V, suitable for automotive application. A control structure to attain the variable DC link in power factor correction stage (PFC) is presented here. Moreover, the design of high frequency (HF) transformer is highlighted with JMAG simulations. Isolated DC-DC converter along with the design considerations and implemented control algorithms is also presented in paper. An experimental set-up for 1 kW prototype of the proposed converter along with the results are presented in this paper. A high efficient universal charger, which can address the wide range of battery pack voltages, is most suitable for charging all range of vehicles.