| Abstract: | A simple and reliable contactless battery charger for electric vehicles is proposed. Its feature is a unitized power factor correcting (PFC) converter and a high‐frequency inverter (HFI) where the low‐side switch of the HFI also works as the boost switch of the PFC in discontinuous conduction mode, which results in a high input power factor and low harmonic distortion without any feedforward control. The exiting current of the inductive connector, compliant with SAEJ1773, works effectively to make the converter operate in zero voltage switching (ZVS) condition. Another feature is that the charger is controlled by a single magnetically coupled variable frequency oscillator developed by the authors. This paper analyzes the circuits, gives a design example, describes the inductive connector and the oscillator, and presents experimental results. A 1.7‐kW output prototype charger achieved a charging efficiency of 87.4% for total one cycle charging, an overall efficiency of 90% at heavy load, and an input power factor of over 98%. © 2000 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 132(2): 73–81, 2000 |
