A Novel High Frequency-Link Bidirectional
DC-DC Converter for Electric Vehicle Applications
Oguz Alkul, Member, IEEE
Texas A&M University at Qatar
Doha, Qatar
oguz.alkul@qatar.tamu.edu
Abstract—In this study, a novel high frequency-link bidirec-
tional DC-DC converter is proposed as part of electric vehicle
(EV) to achieve bidirectional power flow: grid-to-vehicle (G2V)
and vehicle-to-grid (V2G). The use of high frequency transformer
(HFT) in the system not only increases the system efficiency,
but also reduces the filter component size and dimensions.
Furthermore, the transformer has been designed to operate in
various conversion rates through the transformer selective pins.
To verify the performance of the converter, simulation studies
have been performed through Matlab/Simulink software.
Index Terms—battery charge system, bidirectional DC-DC
converter, electric vehicle, high frequency transformer.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In the automobile industry, there is an increasing com-
petition for “green car” development because of high oil
prices and more stringent environmental and fuel-efficiency
regulations. Many countries are employing support policies for
reduction of CO2 emissions and development of eco-friendly
EV technologies. However, some challenges from customer’s
point of view have not been taken into account entirely. One
of the most important challenges is charging infrastructure.
Battery and charge technologies are key elements for the
integration of EVs in the market since these technologies have
impacts on vehicle performance, driving range, and reliabil-
ity. Battery charge technology can be seen as an equivalent
structure of petrol stations for EVs. These technologies play
a crucial role for deploying EV since they directly influence
charging durations of EVs’ batteries, which is the primary
anxiety of using EVs. Battery chargers can be divided into two
groups; on-board and off-board battery chargers. This paper
presents a new topology for the on-board charging system. As
the name implies, on-board battery chargers are located in the
EVs. These chargers are used in low-power levels (up to 10
kW) and help to prevent battery health since they do not cause
battery heating. These kinds of chargers are suitable if there
is not enough physical infrastructure for off-board chargers.
Thus, users can charge their EVs either from their home or
public parking lots with standard electrical outlet.
To extend the battery life and improve the efficiency, differ-
ent battery charge technologies have been proposed [1]–[4].
In general, battery charge technologies can be divided into
two categories: unidirectional and bidirectional. As its name
suggests, unidirectional technology controls the charging rate
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Sevki Demirbas
Gazi University
Ankara, Turkey
demirbas@gazi.edu.tr
of EV battery in a single power flow direction [5], [6]. To
control the charge rate of battery in unidirectional technology,
a simple controller should be included in the management
level. On the other hand, bidirectional technology allows
bidirectional power flow between EVs and the power system.
This bidirectional power flow enables several ancillary services
that give the system operator more flexibility to manage the
power system. To use bidirectional technology, the power
electronic converters in the battery charger should be designed
to allow bidirectional power flow [7]–[10].
Recently, high frequency transformers (HFTs) have been
used in battery charge technologies to improve the system
efficiency and reduce the overall system size and weight
[11]. HFTs have been used in different applications including
voltage step-up, voltage step-down, and multiple input hybrid
system. Furthermore, the use of HFT ensures isolation between
input and output circuits [12]–[16].
This study presents a novel high frequency-link bidirec-
tional DC-DC converter for EV applications. The designed
transformer allow system to operate in various conversion
rate through the transformer selective pins. The interleaved
DC-DC converter is used in the output circuit to regulate
the voltage of battery. The paper is organized as follows;
the structure and operational principle of the system are
discussed in Section II. The proposed concept effectiveness
is demonstrated using simulation studies detailed in Section
III. Finally, the conclusion is presented in Section IV.
Fig. 1 shows the block diagram and the circuit diagram
of the proposed system. The system has three main stages
consisting of input circuit, HFT, and output circuit. Each of
these circuits include several sub-circuits to ensure proper
operation. In the first stage, a high-frequency bidirectional
DC-AC converter is employed to convert DC power into high
frequency AC power. After that, HFT with selective pins are
used to transfer power between primary and secondary circuits.
In the final stage of this system, high frequency AC power
is converted into the DC power to supply battery charge
unit. In addition, the interleaved DC-DC converter is used
to regulate the battery voltage and power during the battery
charging process. The use of interleaved DC-DC converters in
the last stage allows to reduce the size of filter components
that improves the output power.
The HFT voltage conversion ratio and connection options
 Voltage

Voltage
Current

Current
MICROCONTROLLER
PWM Digital Digital PWM

PWM
X4
GENERATION GENERATION

Digital
Digital

X2
X2
BIDIRECTIONAL

X4
X4
= ⁓ =
⁓
DC
SOURCE
= =
DC-AC HIGH FREQUENCY AC-DC INTERLEAVED BATTERY
SELECTIVE SELECTIVE
CONVERTER TRANSFORMER CONVERTER CONVERTER PACK

Q1 D1 Q3 D3 S1 S3 Q5 D5 Q7 D7 Q9 D9 Q11 D11 L1
2 2
C1 C2
S2 S4
1 1
L2
C3
Q2 D2 Q4 D4 Q6 D6 Q8 D8 Q10 D10 Q12 D12

Fig. 1. The block diagram and the circuit diagram of the proposed system.

II. C ONVERTER O PERATION M ODES

2V 2V
V V
3V
3V
V V
2V
3V 3V
V V
Fig. 2. The proposed transformer selection pins.
are illustrated in Fig. 2. It can be seen that four voltage
conversion ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3 and 2:3) can be obtained
through different connection of transformer pins. The designed
transformers contains two input and two output windings with
different turns so as to allow the user to use different voltage
ratio according to the considered system.
Initial charge current, maximum allowed charge current and
battery temperature should be considered in lead acid batteries
in charging process. To charge the battery, various charge tech-
niques are available including constant-current charging and
constant-voltage charging. To keep the battery characteristic
and health in safe margin, these control techniques are of great
importance.
Fig. 3 depicts the control block diagram for the battery
charge and discharge process. To control battery charge and
2V discharge, PI-based control loops are used. In charge control,
the operation mode can be either constant-current control or
constant-voltage control according to the level of state of
charge(SOC). If SOC is higher than 70%, the system operates
in the constant-voltage control mode; otherwise, the constant-
current control mode is activated. The selection of charge or
discharge mode depends on the DC source and the battery
SOC. The EV battery can be in charge mode when the user
plug in to the utility grid. Otherwise, the system is in the
discharge mode. The output of this control system is used to
generate PWM signals for interleaved DC-DC converter. The
operation modes of the proposed system is explained in the
following sub-sections.
A. Charging Mode
The operating principle of the charging mode is illustrated
in Fig. 4a. First, the input DC voltage is converted into AC
voltage through the high frequency (22 kHz) DC-AC converter.

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 III. S IMULATION R ESULTS
I_REF_BAT +
PI The considered system and its control structure have been
-
modeled and simulated through Matlab/Simulink environment.
I_BAT
SOC >70 DC
SOURCE The simulation parameters are given in Table I.
+ -
V_REF_BAT +
PI V_DC

BIDIRECTIONAL
CONVERTER
-
CHARGE
= TABLE I
V_BAT

DISCHARGE >0 PWM

CHARGE STATUS = S IMULATION PARAMETERS

V_BAT
I_BAT Parameter Name Value
+ -
VREF_DC + BATTERY Charge Controller Paramaters kp =120 and ki =0.1
PI
PACK Discharge Controller Paramaters kp =120 and ki =0.1
-
Switching Frequency of Transformer (f sst ) 22 kHz
V_DC

DISCHARGE Switching Frequency of Converter (f int ) 10 kHz

Interleaved Inductors 0.7 mH
Capacitors 220 µF
Sampling Time (Ts ) 0.1 µs
Fig. 3. The block diagram of the control technique.
Load 10-100 ohms
Mosfet Ron 1 mohm
Battery Properties 120 V, 20 Ah
Starting Battery SOC 50%
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)
Current (A)
PWM Micro
Generation controller Charge SST Conv. Rate 1:1
PWM

PWM

Discharge SST Conv. Rate 3:1

DC
Q1 D1 Q3 D3
S1
2 2
S3 Q5 D5 Q7 D7 Q9 D9 Q11 D11

L1
Different voltage values are applied to HFT at the 22 kHz
Source C1 S2
1 1
S4
C2
L2
Battery
switching frequency with the help of full-wave inverter. The
C3 Pack
Q2 D2 Q4 D4 High Frequency
Transformer
Q6 D6 Q8 D8 Q10 D10 Q12 D12
square wave is produced by full-wave inverter. The square
wave transformer is transformed into different voltages with
(a) the help of selectors located at the terminals. In practice, a
100 V with 1 to 3 pin selections was applied at the input. A
Current (A)
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)

Micro PWM
controller Generation square voltage waveform with a maximum value of 300 V was
PWM

PWM

Discharge optained at the output. The output voltage is converted back

Q1 D1 Q3 D3
Load
S1
2 2
C1 S2
1 1
Q2 D2 Q4 D4 High Frequency
Transformer
Fig. 4. The active components in (a) charging mode; (b) discharging mode.
After that the high-frequency AC voltage is transferred to
the secondary part of the system using HFT. Then, the high-
frequency AC voltage is converted into DC voltage through
uncontrolled full-bridge rectifier. The designed HFT provides
galvanic isolation between circuits and allow voltage step-
up and step-down functionalities. Finally, the DC voltage is
stepped down by the interleaved DC-DC converter to charge
the battery. The switching frequency of the interleaved DC-
DC converter is 10 kHz. In this mode, the interleaved DC-DC
converter acts as a buck converter.
B. Discharging Mode
The operating principle of the discharging mode is illus-
trated in Fig. 4b. In this mode of operation, the interleaved
DC-DC converter acts as a boost converter and transfer energy
from battery to the utility grid for V2G applications. The use
of the interleaved DC-DC converter reduces the ripple on the
voltage and the stress on the switching devices. Furthermore,
it allow bidirectional power flows as well.
to DC by means of full-wave rectifier. The transformer input-
S3 Q5 D5 Q7 D7 Q9 D9 Q11 D11
L1
output voltage graphs obtained from this process are shown in
S4
C2
L2
C3
Battery Fig. 5.
Pack
Q6 D6 Q12 D12
Q8 D8 Q10 D10
It is clear from Fig. 5 that voltage waveform was initially
distorted. This is attributed to the fact that capacitors are
(b)
initially not charged. When capacitors are sufficiently charged,
voltage input-output waveforms are not distorted even with the
use of HFT.
The amplified square wave signal obtained from the trans-
former output is rectified by the full-bridge rectifier. The
distortion in the transformer output voltage also affected
the rectifier’s output. This short-term voltage distortion is
due to the inability of the capacitor to meet initial charge
currents. shortly after the voltage waveform obtained from the
transformer output became stable, the output voltage of the
rectifier reached stability. The rectified voltage observed from
the transformer rectifier output is given in Fig. 6.
A. Charging Mode
The proposed circuit has been tested for different loads. In
practice, control delays have occurred due to different loads.
Charging mode process can be applied to different loads by
changing PI values. When the same values are applied, as
shown in Fig. 7, voltage control graphs are realized.
Constant current consists of constant voltage and constant
charging steps. With the help of constant current, the amount
of voltage applied to the battery gradually increases. When the
battery is charged to 70%, the controller switches to constant

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 300 300

200 200

100 100
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)
0 0

-100 -100

-200 -200
1 2 3 1 2 3
-300 -300
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
Time (ms) Time (ms)
300 300

200 200

100 100
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)
0 0

-100 -100

-200 -200
1 2 3 1 2 3
-300 -300
0 0.5 2 2.5 4 4.5 0 0.5 2 2.5 4 4.5
Time (ms) Time (ms)
(a) (b)

Fig. 5. Transformer signals: (a) input; (b) output.

300 300

250 250

200 200
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)

150 150

100 100

50 50 10 ohms
100 ohms

0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25
Time (ms) Time (s)

Fig. 6. Transformer rectifier output. Fig. 7. The simulation results of step response in charge mode.

voltage control. If the decision is made full, the voltage applied
to the battery is kept constant. In this way, the battery can be
continuously connected to the circuit. In case of any power
failure, it will be able to switch to discharge position.
The battery 120 V, 20 Ah battery, with an initial SOC of
50% is changed by the system. Instantaneous charge of the
capacitor due to a short period of time has occurred. Then,
constant current charging, shown is Fig. 8c, was performed
with control algorithm.
B. Discharging Mode
The same 120 V, 20 Ah, %50 SOC battery is used to
examine the discharge status of the system. The output voltage,
for this case, is set to 120 V DC with the aid of the battery.

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 15.0

14.5

14.0

Current (A)
13.5

13.0

12.5

12.0
0.99970 0.99975 0.99980 0.99985 0.9990 0.9995 1.0000
Time (s)
(a)
(a)

(b) (b)

(c)
(c)
Fig. 8. The simulation results of charging operation mode: (a) L inductor
Fig. 9. The simulation results of discharging operation mode: (a) the output
currents; (b) The battery voltage and current waveforms; (c) The battery SOC.
currents; (b) the battery voltage and current waveforms; (c) the battery SOC.

10 ohms and 100 ohms resistive loads are used during this
process in order to observe the response of the PI controller.
The interleaved converter is used to convert the voltage from
120 V to 125 V. Finally, the transformer is used, with the aid
of the selector, to raise the voltage to 250 V.
The interleaved converter was operated with the buck
method during charging process (Fig. 4a). At this stage, the
current is divided into two cells as in the charging process,
and a quality current output is provided. When the values were
examined, a DC grid voltage was obtained at 330 mV ripple.
These values might be improved by adjusting the PI values.
Interleaved converter inductor current, application of battery
voltage-current values, and dependence on SOC are shown in
Fig. 8.
The interleaved converter was operated with the boost
method during the discharging process method (Fig. 4b). At
this stage, the current is divided into two cells as in the
discharging process and a quality current output is provided.
Interleaved converter total inductor current, application of
battery voltage-current values, and dependence on SOC are

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work has been supported by the Scientific Research
Projects Unit of the Gazi University (Project No: 07/2018-08)
for which the authors express their sincere gratitude.
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