Power Electronics

Battery Chargers

The battery chargers of today go beyond bulky transformer/rectifier sets. They require advanced control methods to ensure the lowest possible input current and most effective output power. They involve careful monitoring of the battery charge process and temperature to achieve maximum battery performance and life. They must be small and easy to mount in a home or office area.

 

Due to the high power demands and designs for low cost, power electronics designers are looking to provide high performance while meeting these demands. Forward converter topologies offer isolation and the flexibility to satisfy most of the requirements.

 

The use of power factor correction (PFC) controllers are helping designers meet international power quality specifications set by the IEEE.

A sample design is shown below. This charger is rated at 4 kW and includes PFC as well as low harmonic distortion. Design is focused on low cost, small size with capability of accepting almost any available ac input voltage.

 

This schematic comes from the report: Design of a 4 kW On-board Battery Charger for Electric Vehicles which appeared in the 1995 VPEC seminar procedings. The authors are: Zhang, C.Y. Lin, X. Zhuang, K. Rinne, and F. C. Lee.

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