A Controlled Full-Bridge Rectifier as AC-DC

Converter for On-board EV Chargers

Maryam Binti Kamarun Nisham
Faculty Of Electronic Engineering
Technology
University Malaysia Perlis (UNIMAP)
Kangar, Perlis
maryamkamarun@studentmail.unimap.
edu.my

Abstract—There has been a rise in sales and production of
Electric Vehicles (EV) as a result of the global energy crisis. A
common issue put forward in the design of EVs are the AC-DC
converters used in the on-board charges (OBC). There is a
need to design an OBC converter that provides efficient output
and controlled output voltage for an efficient power.
Controlled full-bridge rectifiers allows controlled output
voltage through firing angles and LC filters help smoothen the
DC output. For a design of OBC charger with a 96-150V
voltage range, with an input voltage up to 240VAC, the design
proposed is able to generate a steady DC output of 150V at 30A
producing power of approximately 4.7kW.
Keywords—component, formatting, style, styling, insert (key
words)
I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1)
Electric Vehicles (EV) continue to show an increase in
sales and production with higher demands from consumers
primarily in China. With the recent fuel crisis in Europe, this
market is projected to grow even more. A common
specification often looked for in any chargeable electrical
equipment is the battery capacity and for EVs this is an
extremely important parameter. In other words, how long can
the battery last before it runs out? Even for consumers
unfamiliar with EVs, this range anxiety is their primary
concern especially when the next charging point is uncertain
and not as common as petrol stations.
Charging stations or electric vehicle service equipment
(EVSE) are installed along the streets, parking lots, rest
stations and even home garages as part of the grid
infrastructure providing supply to charge the EV battery[2].
AC charger for EVs are categorized as level 1 using 120
VAC/230 VAC and poly-phase 240 VAC respectively In
Malaysia, there is a growing number of EV charging stations
with capacities ranging from 3.7kW to 22kW. The charging
time for each EV is different depending on the level of the
charging station, the size of car battery, the state of charge
and finally the on board charger (OBC) of the car[2].
AC charging level 1 and 2 can take a few hours to charge
therefore is making ESVE located at residential and
workplace practical. OBC design is important in the design
for EV especially for most countries where DC fast charging
is not widely available. Therefore, it is critical to develop an
efficient and practical AC charger that is able to transfer
power from a single phase residential grid.
This paper is focused on the design of the AC/DC
converter used in AC chargers of EV that will be marketed
towards users in countries where EV are a luxury and not in
demand in order to promote the use of EV. Therefore, the
design of this converters must be minimal and cost-efficient
to encourage EV sales. Section II will discuss the concepts in
designing converters in general and with regards to EV
application. Section III will disclose the mathematical
equations and used for design and procedure, Section IV and
V will display the data, results, simulation and discussions of
the achieved results. Section VI concludes the design and
future developments.
II. BACKGROUND OF STUDY
A. Rectifiers
As mentioned in the introduction, power supply is
generated from the grid which is an AC voltage supply. In
order to charge the power into a battery, which is a form of
DC supply, the voltage must be converted from AC to DC.
This is the function of rectifiers.
Rectifiers generally consists of either diodes or thyristors
which classifies them into controlled and uncontrolled
rectifiers respectively. SCR, the most common type of
thyristor, and diodes both are in forward-biased when the
current is positive[3]. They behave as a short circuit and is
ON. When the current is in reverse direction, the diode/SCR
then is reverse-biased and behave as an open circuit,
diode/SCR is OFF. Diodes are very simple and
uncontrollable. SCRs however require a gate current for
conduction which allows it to be controlled and used for
applications that require this feature such as light dimming
and motor control.
Rectifiers, controlled or uncontrolled can be half-wave
rectifiers where they only convert the positive half cycle of
the sinusoidal input wave into the DC output. Half-wave
rectifiers are only practical in low power applications as the
output voltage produced is low and half of the cycle is
wasted which means the power is wasted. Full wave
rectifiers convert the whole waveform to a DC output and
thus produces a higher output voltage and is much more
efficient in terms of power.
B. Controlled Rectifier Design Parameters
Generally, rectifier’s main purpose is to convert AC to
DC and as known AC signals are sinusoidal waves
alternating from positive to negative values in a cycle. DC
signals on the other hand are roughly constant and do not
reverse direction. Our main goal and objective to design a
rectifier is to ensure that the AC supply voltage converted to
DC is efficient and a high output voltage. Therefore, it is
important to first recognize the parameters in designing a
rectifier.

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Fig. 1 Full-wave controlled bridge rectifier [8]
Fig. 2 Voltage and current waveform for single phase full bridge
rectifier [8]
Figure 1 shows a basic full-wave bridge rectifier circuit
with a resistor as the load. Based on this circuit, the
parameters we need to analyze the circuit is the output
current, the average output voltage (also the DC voltage
produced) and the load (resistor).
 Voltage source,
 vs = Vm sin t
 Average output voltage or the DC component of the
voltage is determined by,
 Vo =1/  Vm sin td(t)≤ t≤ 
 Vo =2Vm (cos /

 Output current is determined by Ohm’s law,
Io= Vo/R=2Vm/R
 Power output is
 Po =VoIo 
C. Rectifier Design for EV Charger
In developing a rectifier for real-life application, it is
important to understand the basic flow of the overall system
from the supply all the way to the batteries. As shown in
figure 3, a basic converter receives the voltage supply from
AC grid source and is converted to DC through rectifiers .
Fig. 3 Basic block diagram of a conventional AC/DC converter [4]
However, as shown in figure 2, the output voltage is not a
smooth pure DC voltage. Therefore in order to tackle this
issue, filters can be introduced to the system to improve the
output DC voltage. Ripple voltages are the amount of AC
voltage that appears on the DC output, ripple voltages should
be as minimum as possible to produce a larger output
voltage. Capacitors are often used to store energy and
constantly hold the output voltage. This behavior changes the
output waveform to much more constant level making the
output close to pure DC output [3].
Filters selection also depends on the application of the
system. The most common EV batteries, made of Lithium-
Ion can range from 17.6kWh up to over 100kWh. In order to
charge such large load from a high voltage supply, the
current generated to power the system will also be high.
Thus, a filter is required to maintain the circuit from
overheating or breakdowns. Inductors stores electrical energy
as magnetic energy and therefore can smooth the rectifier
current [1].
III. DESIGN PROCEDURES

Considering all the parameters and design concept stated
in section II, a full bridge controlled rectifier with an LC
filter is the most basic design possible to develop a converter
for an EV charger targeted for cost-efficiency and simplicity.
SCRs are used for control purposes so that we can control the
 output for maximum and minimum values of the EV battery.
Considering Level 1 and 2 charging criteria which is the
most commonly available EVSE charging point, the general
 AC supply for single phase ranges from 110VAC-240VAC.
We will therefore decide on the maximum voltage supply
240AC as the Vm. The table below shows parameters
selected. We desire to design an OBC with a voltage range of
96-150V. The frequency is set at 50Hz so that it delivers
output range (96-150V) at such range. The resistor value is
selected not so high to allow continuous and larger current to
pass through the circuit in order to deliver energy at an
efficient rate. The selected values are then used for
calculation of other parameters
TABLE 1 SELECTED VALUES FOR PARAMETERS
Parameters Selected Values

Frequency, f (Hz) 50 Fig. 4 The circuit design for rectifier with LC filter [ref]

Magnitude Voltage, Vm (V) 240

Output Voltage Range (V) 96-150

IV. RESULTS
The designed AC/DC converter consisting of a full
Maximum resistor, Rmax () 5
bridge rectifier and an LC filter is constructed using
PSIM_2021a as in figure 5.
Output voltage, Vo is set as it is our desired minimum and
maximum output for the charger. The trigerring or firing
angle,  is determined using equation (2) such that when the
angle reaches the firing angle, the desired output voltage will
be produced. A pair of thyristors will be set for the positive
half cycle and another pair will be set for the negative half
cycle that is after 180. The Vrms=Vm /2. Io in the circuit is
is calculated using equation 3. Next, the design parameters
that we have to choose and select is the LC filter. In the
design of LC filters, it is desirable to start with determining
the maximum load resistance, RL,max then decide the critical
value of inductor, Lk using the following equation

 Lk = RL,max/(3   Fig. 5 Design of circuit in PSIM_2021a

The values of components in the circuit were designed based

The value of inductor must be greater than the critical value
on calculation and real life market available values as
inductor from the above equation in order to achieve a
mentioned in the previous section. The simulated waveform
continuous current condition. Finally, the capacitor can be
for the voltage supply
decided by 1/(ωC) ≪ Lkω [1]. The summarized calculated
values are given in the table below.
Table 2 The calculated values
Parameters Calculated Values

RMS voltage, Vrms(V) 169.71

10.96 (for 150V)
Firing Angle, 
51.07 (for 96V)
Average Output current, Io (A) 30.56

Power Output, Po (W) 4669.26 Fig. 6 Voltage Waveform of input source voltage
Critical Inductor, Lk (mH) 5.31

Capacitor, C (uF) At least 2,026

For practical design considerations with value of components

available in the market, the value of resistor is 5, the value
of inductor is 5.6mH and capacitor is set for 10, 000uF.
Circuit construction is as the figure 4. The design is
constructed and simulated using PSIM software version Fig. 7 Output current waveform, IO=IR
PSIM_2021a. with ideal diodes. The results and simulation is
displayed in section IV.
 Fig. 8 Voltage Output waveform
Parameters
Calculated /set Simulation
Values Results Value
RMS voltage, Vrms(V) 169.71 169.71
Maximum Output voltage, Vo
150 149.26
(V)
Average Output current, Io (A) 30.56 29.85
Power Output, Po (W) 4669.26 4685.19
Critical Inductor, Lk (mH) 5.31 5.6
Capacitor, C (uF) At least 2,026 10,000
The values of voltages obtained from the simulation is
detailed in the following table with comparison to calculated
values.
V. DISCUSSION
Based on the results obtained in section IV, there are a
few key points to address and discuss. There are four
important points to discuss which are the output voltage and
current behavior based on the waveform simulated, the effect
of the LC filter incorporated in the design, the power output
of the circuit and some limitations or future works.
First and foremost, regarding the waveforms generated,
the input AC voltage shows a standard sinusoidal waveform
with Vm is 240Hz. The Vo and Io waveforms show similar
pattern in which the voltage and current starts only after the
minimum firing angle set i.e 10.91 and experiences an
overshoot in the initial stage before the waveform shows a
steady form. Compared to the input AC, the output voltage
shows an output that is much closer to a pure DC output,
with no values below 0 indicating that the electricity is in one
direction. The value of the Vo is 149.26 and Io is at 29.85A
both similar to the calculation made. The differences might
be due to the overshoot in the waveform.
Secondly, we observe the effects of adding the LC filter
at the output of the rectifier. This is done to increase average
output voltage. The capacitor stores energy and discharges it
at appropriate times allowing the voltage to become more
constant as it does not reach zero value, reducing ripple
voltage in the waveform and increasing the average voltage
value. The inductor also contributes in smoothing the output
by damping of the current fluctuations. The results are more
apparent through the waveform in the figure below.
Fig. 9 The Vs (in green) Vo (in blue) and Io (in red) when the rectifier is
designed without an inductor
As seen in the figure, the current fluctuates as the capacitor
charges and discharges. An inductor helps to store energy
and supplies it to the circuit when the diode is in off mode,
making the current more smooth.
Next, the power output of the DC component through
calculation and through simulation is 4.67kW and 4.69kW
respectively and the differences are due to the differences in
voltage and current values. This just means that the power
capacity is roughly 4.7kW in which the converter can deliver
150V at 30A.
Finally, there are definitely some changes that can be done to
improve the circuit, but certainly at a higher cost due to a
much more complex architecture. Most EV charger
architecture today includes a power factor correction circuit,
PFC which aims to improve power efficiency to bring its
power factor close to 1.0. These circuits have different
designs such as including an inductor to the power supply,
adding switches and changing certain structures of the
components.
VI. CONCLUSION
EVs has been increasingly in demand lately due to global
energy crisis and awareness in climate change caused by fuel
burning. Some countries, including Malaysia, where the
growth of EV is not as rapid as other countries it becomes a
challenge to promote EV. Here, we propose a conventional
controlled full bridge rectifier design with LC filter to deliver
efficient controlled supply to the EV batteries. Design
calculation and simulation results show a steady DC supply
of 96-150V at 30A with a power capacity of roughly 4.7kW.
This will only be design for the converter, for other
additional designs for further efficiency and safety criteria of
the OBC will be discussed in the future.
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