A Unit Power Factor DC Fast Charger for Electric

Vehicle Charging Station

Zuzhi Zhang, Haiping Xu, Lei Shi, Dongxu Li, Yuchen Han
Inst. of Electrical Engineering (IEE)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Beijing, P.R.China
E-mail: zhangzuzhi@mail.iee.ac.cn


AbstractWidely applications of electric vehicle rely on
popularization of charging station. With the increase in the
number of charging station, the problem of grid pollution
becomes worse and worse, and the charging hours must be
decreased to raise the utilization rate of electric vehicle. This
article proposes a novel unit power factor DC fast charger for
electric vehicle charging stations. This DC fast charger, mainly
used in fast-charging station, includes two modules: the input
module is three-phase PWM rectifier and the output module is
the phase-shift full-bridge converter. The two modules are
controlled by only one DSP TMS320F2812. The three-phase
PWM rectifier overcomes traditional rectifiers shortcomings of
low power factor and large harmonic, and is higher power than
three-phase one-switch or two-switch power factor correction
circuit. The phase-shift full-bridge converter is the isolated high-
frequency DC-DC converter, and apt to be used in high power
situation. Furthermore, the volume and weight of the proposed
charger are decreased than conventional converter with grid-
frequency transformer. A prototype of 10 kW Charger is
constructed. The experimental results show that the novel DC
fast charger has excellent electrical characteristics, and it can be
applied to the electric vehicle charging stations.
Keywordselectric vehicle; unit power factor; DC fast charger;
PWM rectifier; phase-shift full-bridge
I. INTRODUCTION
The fast-charging station is mainly used in decreasing the
charging hours, and raising the utilization rate of electric
vehicle. Therefore, electric vehicle charging stations are needed
to provide a large current to battery, with high power
conversion efficiency.
The traditional electric vehicle charging system uses diode
rectifier bridges topology cascade with DC-DC. Diode rectifier
bridges have some disadvantages: the input current harmonic
content is high and absorbs reactive power from the grid,
which results in the very low input power factor. Because
transmission of reactive power in electric network can lead to
network loss and step-down voltage, transmission of a great
deal of reactive power necessarily will result in reduction of
using efficiency of power energy and severely affect voltage
quality. To isolate the power grid from the battery of electric
vehicle, the traditional electric vehicle charging system use
isolated grid-frequency transformer, which is large, heavy and
high cost.
To solve the above problems, this paper presents a DC fast
charger that consists of three-phase PWM rectifier and the
phase-shift full-bridge converter. This DC charger, which is
high-frequency PWM charger, makes grid current sinusoidal
with low THD and unit power factor. Three-phase PWM
rectifier and the phase-shift full-bridge converter can both be
used in high power applications. And the latter has an isolated
high-frequency transformer. Therefore the DC charger has lots
of advantages that accord with the need of fast-charging
station: high power, unit power factor, low harmonic input
content, small volume and light weight [1].
II. ANALYSIS OF THE CHARGING SYSTEM
Figure 1 shows the fast-charging system. It is consisted by
three parts: the three-phase PWM rectifier (Voltage Source
Rectifier - VSR), the phase-shift full-bridge converter (DC/DC)
and the controller.

Figure 1. The block diagram of the charging system
A. The three-phase PWM rectifier
The main circuit of a three-phase PWM rectifier (VSR) is
composed of three input filter inductances, a three-phase IGBT
bridge and a DC filter capacitor, as shown in Fig. 2. V
a
, V
b
, V
c

are AC power supply voltages. Switch S1~S6 constitute the
rectifying circuit. V
dc
is the output dc-bus voltage.
This paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China, Project no (51077122)
411
2012 IEEE 7th International Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference - ECCE Asia
June 2-5, 2012, Harbin, China
978-1-4577-2088-8/11/$26.00 2012 IEEE

Figure 2. The topology of the three-phase PWM rectifier
In recent works on the three-phase PWM rectifier, some
control strategies have been proposed. The phase and
amplitude control generates voltage modulation signal based
on the steady-state voltage vector. Because the control of
current loop is indirect, the system does not have a good
current regulation and a rapid dynamic response and the
control of system rely on the parameters of system.

Figure 3. Direct current control
The three-phase PWM rectifier with direct current control
can get a good current regulation and a good current tracking
speed because of the introduction of the current loop control
[2]. Figure 3 shows the block of the direct current control. It is
a double close-loop control system. The outer is voltage loop
control which is to control the output of dc-bus voltage, and the
inner is current loop control. The current loop regulates the DQ
axis current by PI controller to achieve the unit power factor
which is achieved by setting the negative Q axis current
reference to zero. R is the equivalent resistance of output.
B. The phase-shift full-bridge converter
Figure 4 shows the main circuit of the phase-shift full-
bridge converter. V
o
is the output voltage. T is an isolated high-
frequency transformer whose ratio is 1. Switches S1~S4
constitute the full bridge circuit. Diodes D1~D4 constitute the
rectifying circuit. L
2
is the output filter inductance and C
2
is the
output filter capacitor. The phase-shift full-bridge converter is
used to control the process of battery charge, adopting two-
stage method, which includes the stage of constant current
charging and the stage of constant voltage charging, to
optimize the charging process.

Figure 4. The topology of the phase-shift full-bridge converter

Figure 5. Timing diagram for power switch
The timing diagram for the power switch is shown in Fig.
5. Four independent PWM signals (DSP S1~S4) are produced
by DSP. They are the inputs of CPLD. Through logic
processing, the CPLD chip produces four signals (CPLD
S1~S4) according to the phase shift angle. The duty of the
PWM signals CPLD S1 and S2 keeps always 50%, and the
duty of the other PWM signals CPLD S3 and S4 is changed
according to the phase shifting angle. The control diagram is
shown in Fig. 6. V
B
is the voltage of the battery, which is used
to judge whether the battery has already been connected.
DC/DC
CPLD DSP
A/D
A/D
A/D
S
I
o
V
o
V
B
V
dc
K

Figure 6. Control diagram of the phase-shift full-bridge converter
412
The control system has two single closed loops: the current
loop and the voltage loop. Two-step charging method
combines the constant current and constant voltage charging
[3]. In the first stage of charging, the battery is charged by a
constant current, which is controlled by the current loop, until
the battery voltage reaches a preset voltage. In the second
stage, a constant voltage is applied for battery charging, which
is controlled by the voltage loop. Figure 7 shows the charging
curves for the two-step charging.

Figure 7. Two-step charging curves for battery
C. The controller
Digital signal processor is fast arithmetic operations and
high throughput to handle mathematically intensive algorithms
in real time. TMS320F2812 is accomplished by using the
following basic concepts: Harvard architecture, extensive
pipelining, dedicated hardware multiplier, special DSP
instructions and fast instruction cycle. Therefore, only one DSP
controller is used to control both the three-phase PWM rectifier
and the phase-shift full-bridge converter.
The Event Manager (EV) in the TMS320F2812 is used to
control the generation of the PWM. The two EV modules
(EVA and EVB) are identical peripherals, which control the
two converters, respectively. The CPLD chip is applied to
produce PWM signals and protect the whole circuit [4].
III. THE DESIGN OF THE PROGRAM
A. IQmath Library
Texas Instruments (TI) TMS320F28x IQmath Library is
collection of highly optimized and high precision mathematical
functions for C/C++ programmers to seamlessly port a
floating-point algorithm into fixed point code on TMS320F28x
devices. These routines are typically used in computationally
intensive real-time applications where optimal execution speed
and high accuracy is critical. By using these routines, execution
speed is considerable faster than equivalent code written in
standard ANSI C language. Therefore the TI IQmath library is
used in the control program.
B. The control program of the three-phase PWM rectifier
The control program of three-phase PWM rectifier is
achieved by Timer 1 (T1) interrupt. The interrupt program
flow-process diagram is shown in Fig. 8.The T1 interrupt
program contains AD sample, VSR safe model, calculation
model of grid voltage synchronous angle, Clarke
transformation, Park transformation, PI control model, inverse
Park transformation and calculation of switching time of
SVPWM [5].

Figure 8. T1 interrupt program
C. The control program of the phase-shift full-bridge
converter
Start
AD Conversion
Underflow
Interrupt?
Return
N
Y
Period
Interrupt?
PI Model PI Model
(1) Calculate
Switching Time
(2) Calculate
Switching Time
Y
N
AD Conversion

Figure 9. The switch program
The control program of the phase-shift full-bridge converter,
achieved by Timer 3 (T3) interrupt, contains the program that
controls four switches and the charging program. The switch
program contains the underflow interrupt program and the
period interrupt program, as shown in Fig. 9. In the underflow
413
and period interrupt of T3, the value of the compare register is
given by PI model. The A and B values in Fig. 5 are given in
the underflow interrupt, and the C and D values in the period
interrupt.

Figure 10. The charging program
The process of battery charge is achieved by the charging
program, as shown in Fig. 10. At first, the battery is charged by
a constant current. When the battery voltage reaches a preset
voltage (U
*
), the battery is charged by a constant voltage, and
the charging current goes down. The voltage and charging
current of End-of-Charging (EOC) for the battery is the preset
voltage and 1A, respectively.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT
Based on the analysis and design above, using DSP-
TMS320F2812 as main controller, a prototype of an electric
vehicle charger module was constructed.

Figure 11. The PWM waveforms of the phase-shift full-bridge converter
In Figure 11 the PWM waveforms for the two IGBT
switches of the phase-shift full-bridge converter are shown.
Channel 1 (CH1) is the waveform of the steady phase whose
duty is always 50% with a dead time. Channel 2 (CH2) is the
waveform of the phase-shift phase.

Figure 12. The grid voltage synchronous angle
Figure 12 are the waveforms of the grid voltage
synchronous angle. CH1 is the line voltage U
ab
. CH2 is the
phase voltage U
a
synchronous angle. CH4 is the phase A
current. The experimental waveforms show that the line
voltage U
ab
lead phase voltage U
a
synchronous angle 30
degrees and the phase A voltage and current have same phase.
Figure 13 and 14 are the waveforms of the electric vehicle
charger module whose input power is about 2.4kW and 10kW,
respectively. CH1 is the phase A voltage. CH2 is the phase A
current. CH3 is the dc-bus voltage. CH4 is the output current of
EV charger. The experimental waveforms show that the phase
voltage and current have same phase and output current is
steady whatever the input power is. Thus the EV charger
implements the grid current high sinusoidal and can reach unit
power factor under input power. By the power analyzer, power
factor can reach 1 and the grid current THD is less than 3%.

Figure 13. The EV charger under 2.4kW input power
414

Figure 14. The EV charger under 10kW input power
V. CONCLUSIONS
Nowadays, as the environmental pollution and energy crisis
is increasing seriously, electric vehicle will become more and
more popular. The traditional electric vehicle charging system
uses diode rectifier bridges topology cascade with DC-DC,
which results in reduction of using efficiency of power energy
and severely affects voltage quality. This requires a high power
factor electric vehicle charger to make full use of the grid
energy and to charge the battery fast.
The proposed unit power factor DC fast charger for electric
vehicle charging station is verified by experiment. The power
factor of this charger can reach 1 and THD is less than 3%.
Owing to the digital control its work characteristic is excellent,
and its control method is easy to improve for the future.
Therefore, the DC fast charger is suitable for electric vehicle
charging station.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author would like to thank the fund and support of the
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Project no
(51077122).
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