Single-stage Isolated Bi-directional Converter

Topology using High Frequency AC link for

Charging and V2G Applications of PHEV
Shesh Narayan Vaishnav and H. Krishnaswami, Member, IEEE,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Texas at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas, USA
E-mail: sheshvaishnav@yahoo.co.in and Hariharan.Krishnaswami@utsa.edu

Abstract—In this paper, an isolated bi-directional ac/dc con- increased part count, size and weight, which are major design
verter with a single power conversion stage is proposed for both challenges for on-board or external level 1 or level 2 chargers.
charging and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) applications of PHEV. The To address these challenges, a single-stage power converter is
converter consists of two active bridges connected through a se-
ries resonant tank and a high-frequency transformer. Steady-state proposed in this paper.
analysis is presented for the proposed phase-shift modulation The proposed converter is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of
technique between active bridges, to control the bi-directional two active bridges with an intermediate high frequency ac link.
power flow in the converter. Simulation results are presented to A series resonant tank is used as the impedance at the high
augment the analysis. The proposed converter has the advantages frequency link. The high frequency transformer is used both
of minimal power conversion stages, high switching frequency
operation and low switching losses. for isolation and voltage conversion. Traditionally, resonant
converters are controlled using frequency or Pulse Width
I. I NTRODUCTION Modulation (PWM) in only one bridge and is uni-directional
due to the presence of a diode bridge at the load side. In
Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) are expected to
this paper, a phase-shift modulation technique is proposed
capture significant market share of automobiles in next 10
which controls the phase-shift between input and output-side
years [1]. PHEV batteries will be charged from the power
active bridges at constant switching frequency. This proposed
grid and hence, utilities nationwide have started exploring the
technique naturally allows bi-directional power flow and uses
effects of PHEVs on distribution infrastructure. Furthermore,
the principle of power flow in a dual active bridge converter
a fleet of PHEV can act as a distributed energy storage for
[6]. A three-port dc-dc-dc converter using similar principle is
utilities to use under peak load condition, termed as Vehicle-to-
explained in [8]. The proposed modulation technique in this
Grid (V2G) functionality. A review of the V2G functionalities
paper allows for direct dc-ac or ac-dc conversion determined
and the power electronics configurations associated with such
by power flow direction.
vehicles is given in [2]. Hence, the bi-directional charger either
The advantages of the proposed converter are: (1) Single-
on-board or off-board forms an important unit in PHEV. In
stage conversion with high frequency ac link reduces compo-
this paper, a high-frequency ac link based power electronic
nent count and increases power density and (2) Soft-switching
topology is proposed for bi-directional charging applications.
operation achieved due to the presence of resonant tank,
Existing bi-directional chargers proposed in literature [3],
reduces switching losses and increases efficiency. Analysis of
[4], [5] use two stages of power conversion, an ac-dc converter
the proposed converter is presented in the following section.
and a dc-dc converter, both bi-directional in power flow.
Several topologies for the ac-dc and dc-dc conversion stages II. A NALYSIS
are discussed in [3]. Two dc-dc converters are discussed, a dual
The converter shown in Fig. 1 has a series resonant cir-
active bridge high power converter [6] and the integrated buck-
cuit with inductance L and capacitance C. It switches at a
boost dc-dc converter [7]. A bi-directional battery charger for
frequency Fs which is above resonant frequency Fr formed
residential applications is discussed in [5] with an improved
by the series resonant tank. The input voltage vin (t) =
control method for V2G operating mode. Reactive power
V̂in sin (2πFo t) from grid, is connected to the active bridge
compensation, which is one of the V2G functionalities, is
through an input filter which filters the current ripple at
demonstrated in [4] with a bi-directional ac-dc front end con-
switching frequency. The PHEV battery is connected at the
verter. With two stages of power conversion, the intermediate
output of the load-side active bridge. The input-side active
link is mostly dc. Such two stage power conversion will lead to
bridge switches operate in four-quadrant mode, i.e., each
This project was partially funded by CPSEnergy through its Strategic switch uses two Mosfets connected back-back as shown in
Research Alliance with The University of Texas at San Antonio. Fig. 1. Vb is the battery voltage at the output side, Fs is

978-1-61284-247-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

 Phase Shift φ
iin
S1 S¯1 Series Resonant
Tank
C L
vin Ci
+ +
− iL vhf
S¯1 S1
Fig. 1. Proposed Single-stage bi-directional converter with high frequency ac link for PHEV application
the switching frequency and Fo is the line frequency 60Hz.
The high frequency transformer has a turns ratio of n. The
transformer can be either step-down or step-up based on the
design of battery voltage of PHEV.
Two modulation functions m1 (t) and m2 (t) are proposed.
The input-side active bridge is controlled by m1 (t) in (1) and
the output-side active bridge by m2 (t) in (2). The function
sgn(.) is the signum function which denotes the sign of the
signal and φ is the phase-shift angle between active bridges.
m1 (t)=sgn(sin(ωs t)) (1)
1h
m2 (t)= sgn(cos((ωs − ωo )t + φ))
2 i
− sgn(cos((ωs + ωo )t) + φ) (2)
Where ωs =2πFs ; ωo = 2πFo (3)
Square wave modulation is represented as m1 (t). It is
known that when a low frequency voltage waveform is ampli-
tude modulated with a high frequency square wave m1 (t) as
in an electronic transformer [9], the resultant Fourier spectrum
has two fundamental frequencies Fs − Fo and Fs + Fo whose
magnitudes are π2 V̂in . Since this voltage appears across the
input of the series resonant tank, it is necessary to produce a
voltage waveform across the secondary of the transformer with
two fundamental frequencies. For this reason, the modulation
function m2 (t) takes the form given in (2). This modulation
function produces two frequencies by introducing a slow
varying phase-shift at a frequency of Fo between the left
and right legs of the output-side active bridge such that
the average value in each switching cycle Ts = F1s varies
sinusoidally at low frequency Fo . In other words, the function
introduces zero voltage states in the output of the active bridge
whose width varies at low frequency. In this way, the voltage
across the resonant inductor and the transformer will have
two fundamental frequencies Fs − Fo and Fs + Fo . Finally,
these two modulation functions have to allow for power flow
control which is provided by the phase-shift angle φ between
the fundamentals of the outputs of the input-side and output-
side active bridges. This phase-shift angle, when varied from
−90o to 90o , will allow for bi-directional power flow control
S2 S3
ib
1:n
Vb
vs
−
S¯2 S¯3
S1
Ts t
S2 ON S3 ON 2
vs
Vb
t
φ
S2 OFF S3 OFF
Fig. 2. Switching pulses derived from the proposed phase-shift modulation
technique
between the utility and the battery.
The switching signals S1 , S2 and S3 (Fig. 1) can be
generated using (1) and (2) as detailed in [10]. The switching
signals are shown in Fig. 2 where the pulse-width ofthe voltage
waveform vs varies sinusoidally at low frequency and the
phase-shift φ is the angle between the fundamental of vhf
and vs . It is to be noted that the output-side active bridge is
controlled by center modulation and hence the phase-shift φ
remains constant as the pulse-width of vs varies.
The steady-state analysis assumes sinusoidal tank currents
and voltages due to operation above resonant frequency.
Hence, only two frequencies are used Fs − Fo and Fs + Fo for
analysis. The tank currents in these two frequencies are cal-
culated using phasor analysis and superposition theorem. The
resultant sum, by superposition, flows through the secondary
side active bridge and is rectified by the modulating signal (2).
After integrating the resultant waveform, the average value of
the current through the battery Ib is determined to be (4).
It is to be noted that this current is independent of battery
voltage Vb and the actual current waveform is at twice the
line frequency. The expression in (4) is similar to the load
current equation in a dual active bridge converter [6] with the
difference being the resonant tank in Fig. 1.
While deriving (4), two simplifying assumptions were
made: (a) Switching frequency Fs >> Fo and (b) The
 200 200
vin

vhf
0 0
-200 -200
10 40
0 0
iin

vs
-10 -40
40 20
0
ib

iL
0
-20
16.67 25 33.33 19.45 19.46 19.47
time(ms) time(ms)

Fig. 3. Input voltage in volts vin (t), filtered input current iin (t) and battery Fig. 4. Applied tank voltage vhf (t), transformer secondary voltage vs (t)
current ib (t) in Amperes for power flow from AC input to battery and tank current iL (t) in Amperes for power flow from AC input to battery
at time instant ωo t = 60o to illustrate the PWM from proposed phase-shift
modulation and soft-switching operation

impedance of the resonant tank at Fs + Fo and Fs − Fo are

equal.
from input-side bridge as seen in Fig. 4. Since the current
4 V̂in drawn from utility is in phase with the voltage, only one
Ib = 2 sin φ (4) Mosfet can be switched in the four-quadrant switch enabling
π nZ(F − F1 )
r Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) in all eight switches in the input
L Fs 1
where Z = ; F = ; Fr = √ (5) side active bridge. This eliminates the commutation problem
C Fr 2π LC in four-quadrant switches. Although it adds drive circuitry to
control each individual Mosfet in a four-quadrant switch, the
III. S IMULATION R ESULTS efficiency gain is significant.
ZVS operation is possible in the battery side active bridge
A charger with power level of Po = 650W is used for
only when the the voltage conversion ratio is unity. The
simulation purposes in order to verify the analysis results. The
condition for ZVS is that this tank current lead the transformer
input ac voltage is chosen to be Vin(rms) = 120V and the
secondary voltage vs (t) from the output-side active bridge
battery voltage Vb is chosen to be 36V . The battery voltage
based on current direction defined in Fig. 1. This lagging angle
is assumed fairly constant during the simulation time, since
can be observed from Fig. 4 proving that ZVS is possible in
the battery charging current is independent of battery voltage.
secondary-side switches also. But, the voltage waveform vs
The switching frequency is chosen as Fs = 100kHz close to
has zero voltage states and hence, when the pulse-width of
and 1.1 times above resonant frequency. The value of turns
vs (t) is lower than the phase-shift, ZVS is lost in one of the
ratio is chosen such that the overall voltage conversion ratio
legs.
is unity [8] i.e., nVV̂bin = 1. With the required value of Ib
and the maximum value of phase-shift angle, the value of IV. B I - DIRECTIONAL POWER FLOW
the characteristic impedance Z can be calculated using (4).
Power flow from PHEV to utility is needed for V2G
The values of the resonant inductor and capacitor can then be
applications. This paper considers only real power flow into
calculated from (5).
the grid with its application of peak load reduction. In the
The results of the battery current along with input voltage
proposed converter, if the phase-shift is made negative, the
and input current are shown in Fig. 3 for the specified power
power flows from the battery to the grid. Considering this
level and a phase-shift of φ = 90o . It can be observed that
mode, the average value of the current into utility can be
battery current waveform is at twice the line frequency and
derived using the same phasor analysis as in Section 2 and
its average value matches (4). The high frequency ripple in
is given in (6). This result is equivalent to the one presented
input current is filtered by Ci . The input current is normally
in [10] for photovoltaic inverter application.
in phase with the input voltage for this type of modulation
scheme. 8 Vb sin φ
īin (t) = sin (2πFo t) (6)
The tank current and the applied tank voltage vhf (t) for π 2 nZ(F − F1 )
few switching cycles are shown in Fig. 4. The phase-shift φ
between the waveforms of vhf (t) and vs (t) can be observed to Simulation results of the input current and battery current
be 90o from Fig. 4 shown for three switching cycles around are shown in Fig. 5 to illustrate the bi-directional capability
ωo t = 60o . The pulse-width of the waveform vs (t) varies of the proposed converter. The average of the battery current
sinusoidally such that its fundamental has two frequencies is negative as seen in Fig. 5. The difference in phase-shifts
Fs + Fo and Fs − Fo . Due to the resonant nature of the between Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 can be seen. It is observed from Fig.
circuit, soft-switching operation is possible in both the active 6 that the tank current still lags the applied voltage vhf (t) and
bridges. Tank current iL (t) lags the applied voltage vhf (t) hence ZVS is possible in the input-side active bridge with each
 200
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vhf

Congress and Exposition, ECCE’11, 2011, to be published.

-200
40
0
vs

-40
20
0
iL

-20
19.45 19.46 19.47
time (ms)

Fig. 6. Applied tank voltage vhf (t), transformer secondary voltage vs (t)
and tank current iL (t) in Amperes for power flow from Battery to ac input,
at time instant ωo t = 60o to illustrate the PWM from proposed phase-shift
modulation and soft-switching operation

Mosfet in the four-quadrant switch controlled individually. In

the output-side active bridge also, ZVS occurs in one of the
legs based on the pulse-width of vs (t). Hence both active
bridges can achieve soft-switching in V2G mode.
V. C ONCLUSION
This paper proposes a single-stage isolated bi-directional
high frequency link converter for both charging and V2G
applications of PHEV that has advantages such as reduced
size, part count, weight and switching losses when compared
to two-stage power converters for the same application. A
novel phase-shift modulation is proposed to control the bi-
directional power flow in the converter. Steady-state analyis
along with simulation results is presented.
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