Interleaved Swiss rectifiers for fast EV/PHEV battery chargers

Development of fast charging stations is expected to reduce the charging time required by Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). Fast charging stations require the rectification of the grid AC voltage to a DC voltage while maintaining high power factor (PF) and low total harmonic distortion (THD) on the grid side. Furthermore, the chargers must be able to provide a controllable DC output voltage to meet the voltage level requirement of the battery pack. This research effort is focused on the development of a battery charger based on parallel connection of Swiss rectifiers. An interleaved switching strategy is proposed that enables (i) cancellation of the AC-side current harmonics at switching frequency and (ii) reduction of DC-side current and voltage ripple. Performance of the interleaved paralleled Swiss rectifiers is evaluated under various operating conditions, based on time-domain simulation studies in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.