Hybrid/Electric Vehicles

The automotive industry is under pressure to improve efficiency of vehicles to reduce fuel consumption, dependence on imported oil, and environmentally harmful emissions. Several industry experts have stated that developing a new generation of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) may critical to this industry transformation.

Today’s serial or plug-in hybrids have a complex multi-stage power conversion architecture using four separate power converters (2 inverters, 1 boost converter, and 1 grid charger). The four separate power converters are used adds to system costs, efficiency losses, and cooling system complexity. More information on current PHEV trends and benchmarks can be found on the DOE Vehicle Technologies Program.



IPC’s current-modulated electronic power conversion topology enables a single multi-port power converter to replace all four existing converters. This is possible because the IPC PHEV power converter supports multiple AC and DC ports each with independent power flow. The voltages on every port are also independent due to the boost/bulk capability of the converter. The single stage converter system utilizes only one major magnetic component, the link inductor, which is shared by all ports.

The IPC PHEV power converter uses a single stage converter to provide the four major interfaces (traction motor, internal combustion engine generator, high voltage battery and charger). Additional interfaces can be added for ultra-capacitors for smoothing power flow or low auxiliary voltage if desired.

The major benefits of IPC’s single stage PHEV converter include:

• Lower weight, lower size and lower cost, since only one converter system is required.
• Higher system efficiency since only one power conversion is needed for power flow in any direction, verses two for current PHEV power converter systems.
• Improved system reliability since only one component is needed.
• Simplified cooling system due to higher efficiency and only one component is dissipating heat to be removed.
• Enables use of lower cost, non-inverter grade AC induction motors and generators improving motor/generator efficiency, reducing costs, improving reliability and eliminating need for rare earths. See IPC VFD Pilot Whitepaper
• The charging system can be designed to support internal high power charging at low incremental costs. The charging system can be improved from ~2kW in current PHEV models up to a full power level 3 charging (30-60kW) from standard commercial 480V 3-phase power . This capability would enable consumers to fully charge their vehicles in only a few minutes wherever standard commercial electrical lines are available