Advanced active rectifiers for electric vehicle battery charging

In a big picture sense, the work presented in this dissertation is in the area of fully electric or plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Both of these vehicle types require an external power source to fully charge their large amount of energy storage. For most consumers this means plugging their vehicle into the utility which necessitates battery charging circuitry. More specifically, this dissertation focuses on the power factor correction (PFC) circuit which makes up one part of a typical battery charging system. The circuits presented here are not dependent on battery chemistry, so they can be utilized with all popular chemistries in use today. The first section lays out the motivation and society\u27s need for this research. Following that, a section is dedicated to summarizing advances in the field. This serves as a tool to help new researchers gain familiarity with topics related to active rectification such as common topologies and control methods. The third section explores zero crossing current error reduction in single phase full bridge rectifiers in addition to digital current control using delta modulation. The final section builds upon a more advanced interleaved full-bridge topology by introducing more accurate inductor voltage and current equations while also applying gain scheduling based on system power to improve current harmonic performance. While the topologies and control methods of the last two sections are different, the main goal of both is the same, which is to improve input power quality drawn from the grid while also maximizing system efficiency --Abstract, page iii