Optimized OnBoard battery charger for electrical vehicles

Today, the conscientious handling of primary energy is becoming increasingly important and is one of the main drivers for the development of highly efficient electrical appliances. This also holds good for electrical vehicles and the electrical devices involved. But for OnBoard battery chargers, it is not only a high efficiency that should be taken into account. Furthermore, a minimum weight for an increased driving range and a small construction volume for a flexible installation within the vehicle are important issues.

Currently used OnBoard chargers are only slightly optimized and in best case these are only adapted power supplies for industrial applications. These devices apply standardized grid friendly rectifier (PFC-Rectifier) and DC / DC converterwith different topologies which do not meet the requirements in terms of weight, robustness, efficiency, electromagnetic compatibility and cooling for mass production. The specific requirements for the reliability and the vehicle-compatiblelayout with regard to heat dissipation and vibration require new design solutions and especially the demand for a high efficiency in a wide operating range make the use of a new self-optimizing control inevitable

The aim of this project is the design of an electrical OnBoard charger with preferably high efficiency and high power density. Here, the institute of power electronics and electrical drives focuses on

• Design of a loss-optimized circuit topology for power converters
• Modeling of the cooling system and validation of temperature profiles
• Development of a self-optimizing control strategy