Power electronics in electric cars

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.

In this lecture, we will look at the basics of power electronics on electric cars.

First, we will look at what is a power electronic converter.

Then will look at the different converter types based on whether the power is AC and DC,
direction of power flow and the presence of isolation.

Finally, we will look at the converters in an electric car and understand the concept of four
quadrant converter operation.

A power electronic converter is an electronic device made of high power semiconductor

switches that uses different switching states to change the magnitude and waveform of the
voltage and current between the input and output.

A semiconductor switch is the basic building block of any power electronic converter.

We can see the schematic representation and real photo of a semiconductor switch.

In this case, it is an insulated-gate bipolar transistor or called as IGBT in short.

These power electronic switches are able to turn on and turn off at high switching
frequencies ranging from hundreds of hertz up to hundreds of kilohertz.

In other words, they are able to turn on and turn off within half a microsecond.

The new silicon carbide or Gallium nitride based switches turn on and off even faster within
tens of nanoseconds.

In this particular IGBT switch, an antiparallel diode is included that allows reverse currents.

The other commonly used semiconductor devices in power converters are Metal-Oxide
Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor or MOSFETs as they are commonly called and
thyristors.

The most common way to classify power converters is based on whether the input and
output is AC or DC, that is if it is alternating current or is direct current.

Based on this classification, we can have four types of power converters, namely a DC to DC
converter, a DC to AC converter which is commonly called an inverter, an AC to DC converter
which is commonly called a rectifier and an AC to AC converter.

For example, a DC to AC converter converts power from an input DC source to an output AC

load.
The second way to classify converters is based on if they facilitate unidirectional or
bidirectional power flow.

Typically, unidirectional converters use diodes at the output in order to allow power flow in
one direction only.

In case of bidirectional power converters, semiconductor switches like MOSFETs or IGBTS

are used on both input and output sides.

A third way to classify converters is based on whether there is a transformer isolation

between input and output.

Isolation in power converters is primarily required for safety reasons.

For example, all mobile phone chargers are isolated so that the 5V low voltage output is safe
to touch even though the input is from 110V or 230V AC.

Further, the transformer used for galvanic isolation can have a different turn ratio between
input and output that can help in stepping or stepping down the voltage.

This table gives you an overview of the three simple ways to classify power converters based
on AC or DC power, power flow direction and presence of isolation.

Different types of power converters can be developed that meet a combination of these
characteristics.

With this knowledge, we can look at the four main power converters in an electric car
namely the on-board charger, the traction battery converter, the auxiliary battery converter
and the motor drive An electric car uses a central DC bus, called High voltage bus in the
figure, for exchanging power between the various electric components, and the converters
are responsible for controlling the power flows.

The on-board charger is responsible for converting the AC power from the grid to the central
DC bus for the charging the traction batteries.

Hence, it is an AC to DC power converter.

The battery converter then controls the charging or discharging of the traction batteries by
either drawing or feeding power from the High voltage bus.

Hence, the battery converter is a bidirectional DC-DC converter.

Similarly, the auxiliary battery converter is used to charge the auxiliary battery by drawing
power from the High voltage DC bus.

Finally, the motor drive is a DC to AC inverter used to control and operate an AC motor.
The motor drive is bidirectional and feeds power to the motor for propulsions and acts as an
AC to DC rectifier by drawing power from the motor during regenerative braking.

In some cases, the motor drive can be a DC to DC converter if the motor is a DC motor like a
brushless DC motor.

This table gives an overview of the power converters in an electric car and their
characteristics for AC and DC power flow, power flow direction and isolation.

It is important to note here that one or both of the on-board charger and the battery
converter has to be isolated so that there is isolation between the battery and the AC grid
for safety reasons.

Secondly, both the traction battery converter and the motor drive must be bidirectional.

Let us look deeper into the bidirectional power flow operation of the power converters and
motors in an electric car.

Any car needs the ability to both drive and brake in the forward and reverse direction.

This can be represented using the four-quadrant torque-speed characteristics.

The four quadrants from 1 to 4 correspond to driving in the forward direction, braking in the
forward direction, driving in the reverse direction and braking in the reverse direction,
respectively.

Let us now look deeper into this.

For example, first quadrant operation is when the motor has both positive polarity torque
and speed, and this results in forward driving of the car.

In case of third quadrant operation, the motor has both negative polarity torque and speed,
and this results in reverse driving of the car.

Or in simple words, the car moves backwards.

In case of second quadrant operation, the motor has positive polarity speed but negative
polarity torque.

This happens when the wheels are moving forward, but the torque is in the opposite
direction.

This results in regenerative braking and the car slows down while moving forward.

Regenerative braking can also be implemented for operation in quadrant 4 by extracting

power out of the motor using the motor drive and to charge the traction batteries.

If a DC motor and a DC electric drive are used, we can generalise that the torque magnitude
and direction is dependent on the current magnitude and direction, respectively.
Similarly, the speed of rotation and direction is dependent on the voltage magnitude and
polarity, respectively.

So in order to control the torque and rotation of a motor, we need a motor drive that can
control current and voltage of the motor, respectively.

In this table, we can see the four combinations of motor inverter voltage and current
polarity and the corresponding motor rotation and torque for a DC motor.

Each of these four unique combination results in operation in one of the four quadrants of
the torque-speed characteristics.

Electric cars, however, often use AC motors and their control is more complicated than DC
motors.

In case of AC motor, the forward and reverse rotation of the motor is controlled by changing
the phases of the AC supply voltage from the motor drive.

In order to control the torque and speed, a variable speed motor drive is used that changes
both the AC voltage magnitude and frequency in order control the rotation speed of the AC
motor.

Generally, the speed of the motor can be increased by applying an AC voltage of a high
frequency.

To wrap up, we looked at what is power electronic converter and how power semiconductor
switches play a key role in their operation.

We learnt about different types of power converters based on AC or DC, isolation and power
flow direction.

The four key power converters in an electric car are the on-board charger, traction and
auxiliary battery converter and the motor drive.

The Motor drive facilitates in controlling the voltage, frequency, phase and current supplied
to the motor resulting in four quadrant operation.