Study of the Effects of Current Imbalance in a Multiphase Buck Converter for Electric Vehicles

Abstract

The excessive use of fossil fuels has caused great concern due to modern environmental problems, particularly air pollution. The above situation demands that different areas of research aim at a sustainable movement to reduce CO2 emissions caused by non-renewable organic fuels. A solution to this problem is the use of Electric Vehicles (EV) for mass transportation of people. However, these systems require high-power DC/DC converters capable of handling high current levels and should feature high efficiencies to charge their batteries. For this application, a single-stage converter is not viable for these applications due to the high current stress in a switch, the low power density, and its low efficiency due to higher switching losses. One solution to this problem is Multiphase Converters, which offer high efficiency, high power density, and low current ripple on the battery side. However, these characteristics are affected by the current imbalance in the phases. This paper is focused on the study of the effects of the current imbalance in a Multiphase Buck Converter, used as an intermediate cover between a power supply and the battery of an EV. Analyzing the efficiency and thermal stress parameters in different scenarios of current balance and current imbalance in each phase.

Compensation of the Current Imbalance of an Interleaved DC–DC Buck Converter, Sensorless Online Solution Based on Offline Fuzzy Identification and Post-Linearization

“…The solutions widely used and available in the market are still burdened with the unresolved problem of IBC current imbalance. In science, the problem of IBC current imbalance is still very present, highlighted by the modern development of power generation systems, but also by examples from energy utilization [27,28].…”

A Step-Up Converter with Large Voltage Gain and Low Voltage Rating on Capacitors

“…Several applications require a large voltage-gain DC-DC converter; one of the emerging applications is the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV) panels and fuel cell (FC) stacks. Power electronic converters are used to customize the electrical energy from those sources to the characteristics required to feed electrical appliances or inject power into the utility grid [1][2][3][4][5].…”