Development of a novel 5kW/42V intelligent converter for automotive applications

Growing pressure on the automotive industry to produce cars with less exhaust emission, better fuel economy, and to save energy necessitated the introduction of higher voltage electrical power system to meet these requirements in short to mid-term. Already, various electric systems architectures have been proposed and investigated over the past ten years. To meet such growing demands, the automotive industry has to move to higher voltage and the 42V power-net system is the preferred option [8]. The 42V is further processed by the interleaved six-phase dc-todc buck converter system to supply power to the conventional automotive loads that are expected to remain at 14V level as well as to absorb the peak transients on the 42V bus voltage. A special DC/DC converter is therefore needed to interconnect the 14V and the 42V DC buses in the car of the future. Automotive electronics place severe demands on the performance and price of power electronic components and making the development of a suitable converter a challenging task. This paper will present the initial development of the 5kW/42V intelligent converter for automotive applications using Matlab/Simulink.