Design and evaluation of a 6.6 kW GaN converter for onboard charger applications

Gui Jia Su, Cliff White, Zhenxian Liang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents a compact, lightweight, highly efficient, 6.6 kW isolated three-port DC-DC converter for onboard charger (OBC) applications. The converter was designed and fabricated using normally-off gallium nitride (GaN) transistors; a three-dimensional (3-D) printed cold plate; high-voltage heavy copper printed circuit board (PCB) power planes; low-voltage (14 V) and high-current PCB power planes; and a planar transformer. The prototype has a power density of 10.5 kW/L and specific power of 9.6 kW/kg. Test results show greater efficiency than a silicon-based counterpart, even at 2.5 times higher switching frequency. The isolated GaN converter was integrated with a 100 kW segmented traction inverter that uses silicon carbide MOSFETs and 3-D printed components to test the functionality as a level-2 OBC. Testing and evaluation of the integral onboard charging functionality was successfully completed at power levels up to 6.6 kW.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2017 IEEE 18th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, COMPEL 2017
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9781509053261
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 18 2017
Event18th IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, COMPEL 2017 - Stanford, United States
Duration: Jul 9 2017Jul 12 2017

Publication series

Name2017 IEEE 18th Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, COMPEL 2017

Conference

Conference18th IEEE Workshop on Control and Modeling for Power Electronics, COMPEL 2017
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityStanford
Period07/9/1707/12/17

Funding

Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under Contract No. DE-AC0500OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for the United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

FundersFunder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable EnergyDE-AC05-00OR22725

    Keywords

    • 3D printed heat sink
    • gallium nitride (GaN) transistors
    • integrated charger
    • isolated converter
    • onboard charger

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