A Disruptive Approach to Electric Vehicle Power Electronics Final Report
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Wolfspeed Inc., Fayetteville, AR (United States)
This project developed and demonstrated a new power electronics technology for electric vehicle drivetrains, that achieved significant improvements in power density and efficiency over standard drive cycles, relative to the commercial state of the art. In particular, the prototype measured loss and efficiency curves demonstrated a reduction in total loss over the US EPA US06 drive cycle by a factor of four. Similar reductions are observed for urban (UDDS) and highway (HWFET) drive cycles. Further, the project demonstrated a significant reduction in the total film capacitor requirements, by over an order of magnitude; this was achieved through fundamental improvements in converter circuit topologies. These nonincremental technology advances can lead to significant improvements in temperature rise, reliability, cost, and cooling system size and weight. These results were achieved through a new proposed composite converter architecture, and were demonstrated in a boost-type system similar to that employed by Toyota, Ford, and Honda. A 30 kW silicon prototype achieved a US06 average efficiency of 97.5%, which represents a reduction in average loss by a factor of approximately four relative to the 92.5% average efficiency of the commercial state of the art. A silicon carbide prototype achieved similar efficiency, while also achieving power densities of 23 kW/L (volumetric) and 20 kW/kg (gravimetric) in a boost dc-dc system including magnetics and film capacitors. This was achieved with a SiC switching frequency of 240 kHz, which allowed employment of planar magnetics. These power densities are roughly four times better than the commercial state of the art, and significantly exceed the DOE APEEM 2020 goals. In addition to the composite boost system, a SiC inverter was demonstrated at the 800 V 30 kW level. This inverter was demonstrated driving a permanent magnet machine over the US 06 drive cycle. The replacement of 1200 V Si IGBTs with 1200 V SiC MOSFETs led to improvement of CAFE average efficiency from 98.7% to 99.5%, which corresponds to a reduction of average loss by a factor of approximately two. The modular nature of the composite converter architecture opens the possibility of reuse of one or more converter modules during charging operations, providing a path for onboard charging capability at significant power levels while significantly reducing the volume and weight of the added charger module. This project demonstrated an integrated Level II charger whose add-on specific weight was approximately four times better than the DOE PHEV charger 2022 targets.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Vehicle Technologies Office (EE-3V)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0006921
- OSTI ID:
- 1395340
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-COLORADO-0006921
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: H. Kim, H. Chen, D. Maksimovic, and R. Erickson, “Design of a High Eciency 30 kW Boost CompositeConverter,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Sept. 2015: Appeared. H. Chen, K. Sabi, H. Kim, T. Harada, R. Erickson, and D. Maksimovic, “A 98.7% Ecient CompositeConverter Architecture with Application-Tailored Eciency Characteristic,” IEEE Transactions on PowerElectronics, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 101-110, Jan. 2016: Appeared H. Chen, H. Kim, R. Erickson and D. Maksimovic, “Electrified Automotive Powertrain ArchitectureUsing Composite DC-DC Converters,” IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 98-116, Jan. 2017: Appeared. Hua Chen, “Advanced Electrified Automotive Powertrain with Composite DC-DC Converter,” Ph.D. thesis,University of Colorado, April 2016: Completed. U. Anwar, H. Jin, H. Chen, R. Erickson, D. Maksimovic, and K. Afridi, “High Power Density Drivetrain-Integrated Electric Vehicle Charger,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition, Sept. 2016:Appeared. H. Kim, H. Chen, D. Maksimovic, and R. Erickson, “Composite Converter Design Based on Drive CycleWeighted Losses in Electric Vehicle Powertrain Applications,” IEEE Energy Conversion Congress andExposition, Sept. 2016: Appeared. H. Kim, H. Chen, Z. Cole, B. Passmore, K. Olejniczak, R. Erickson, and D. Maksimovic, “SiC ElectricVehicle Composite Boost Converter with 23 kW/L Power Density," IEEE Applied Power ElectronicsConference, March 2017: Appeared. H. Kim, H. Chen, J. Zhu, D. Maksimovic, and R. Erickson, “98.4% CAFE Eciency SiC-MOSFETEV Traction Inverter,” IEEE Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications, Nov. 2016:Appeared. Hyeokjin Kim, “Analysis and design of high eciency composite converter for electric vehicle powerconversion unit,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Colorado, November 2016: Completed.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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