Research on a 2.5kW 8-Phase Bi-directional Converter for Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicles

This paper is a study on the bi-directional DC-DC converter, one of the key elements of 48V-12V dual systems in mild hybrid electric vehicles. Mild hybrid electric vehicles require a bi-directional DC-DC converter that can efficiently transmit power in two directions between a 48V battery and a 12V battery. To develop a bi-directional DC-DC converter with better price competitiveness, upgraded fuel economy, excellent performance and smaller size, this study designed, produced and presented a circuit that improved on the existing one. In the proposed 8-phase bi-directional DC-DC converter, the size of the passive element was reduced through the 8-phase interleaved topology, whereas downscaling had previously posed a difficulty. This study also designed and produced a 2.5kW class prototype. Based on the proposed 8-phase interleaved topology, a size of 227.5 (W) * 172 (L) * 64.35 (H) was achieved. In the boost mode operation and buck operation modes, the maximum efficiency was recorded at 94.04 % and 95.78 %, respectively