I-Corps: Integrated Onboard Charger and Auxiliary Load Converter for Electric Vehicles

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是探索集成转换器的商业化潜力。所提出的集成不仅降低了机载电力电子接口的重量、体积和成本，而且提高了它们的效率，并实现了双向操作。该团队的目标不仅是通过提高车载电力电子设备的性能来促进电动汽车的广泛采用，而且还寻找可以从这项技术中受益的其他行业。该项目有可能显著降低电气化运输系统的成本，同时提高其性能。这项工作将导致探索的商业化潜力的第一个集成车载充电器/转换器的插电式电动汽车。这个I-Corps项目的目的是探索市场的发展和商业化机会的集成车载充电器和辅助负载DC/DC转换器的电动汽车。所提出的技术利用碳化硅（SiC）半导体来充分利用宽带隙（WBG）SiC开关，以增加操作开关频率，减小无源元件的尺寸，并降低冷却要求，而不牺牲转换器的操作效率。该技术还使用最大效率跟踪策略来提高充电器的效率，不仅在满负载时，而且在中等和轻负载时也是如此。所提出的技术的概念验证原型已被设计、开发，并显示出在小外形尺寸的最大效率方面有显着提高。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to explore the commercialization potential of an integrated converter. The proposed integration not only reduces the weight, volume and cost of onboard power electronic interfaces, but also enhances their efficiencies, and enables bidirectional operation. The team aims at not only fostering the widespread adoption of electric vehicles through improving performance of onboard power electronics, but also looking for other industries that could benefit from this technology. The project has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electrified transportation systems while enhancing their performance. This work will lead to exploring the commercialization potential of the first integrated onboard charger/converter for plug-in electric vehicles.This I-Corps project is aimed at exploring market development and commercialization opportunity of an integrated onboard charger and auxiliary load DC/DC converter for electric vehicles. The proposed technology utilizes silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors to take full advantage of wide band gap (WBG) SiC switches, to increase the operation switching frequency, reduce the size of passive components, and reduce cooling requirements, without sacrificing the operation efficiency of the converter. This technology also uses a maximum efficiency tracking strategy to enhance the efficiency of the charger not only at full loads but also particularly at medium and light loads. A proof-of-concept prototype of the proposed technology has been designed, developed and shown to have significant improvement in maximum efficiency in small form factors.