High-Efficiency High-Density Critical Mode Rectifier/Inverter for WBG-Device-Based On-Board Charger

A widebandgap-based bidirectional on-board charger (OBC) has been proposed with a variable dc-link voltage, which tracks the battery voltage fluctuation. Although this approach is deemed most efficient for the resonant dc/dc stage, it posts significant challenges for the rectifier/inverter stage, which operates in the critical mode to realize zero-voltage switching (ZVS), while subjecting to the large variations of input and output voltages. Design considerations of the ac/dc stage are presented in this paper, including: the evaluation of 1.2-kV SiC MOSFETs; the ZVS extension techniques to realize ZVS under all input/output variations; and a novel universal control strategy for both the rectifier mode and the inverter mode. A prototype is built which achieves 98.5% efficiency at a switching frequency higher than 300 kHz. Furthermore, a 6.6-kW OBC system is demonstrated, using both SiC and GaN devices with 37-W/in(3) power density and above 96% efficiency.