EV Charger Power quality Improvement using
Synchronous rectified Bridgeless CUK Converter
2021 IEEE International Power and Renewable Energy Conference (IPRECON) | 978-1-6654-0137-1/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IPRECON52453.2021.9641057
Bharath kumar V
Department of Electronics and communication Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering,Coimbatore
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,India
cb.en.p2ael19007@cb.students.amrita.com
Abstract—A two stage Bridgeless CUK Converter is developed
and simulated in this paper work. The converter is cost effective
and simple with very less elements.The front end Power factor
Correction (PFC) unit rectifies the voltage along with the unity
power factor which improves the power quality and efficiency
of the power given to the Electric vehicle on-board charging
unit. The rear end Flyback with synchronous rectification (SR)
controls the vehicle battery charging in Constant Current (CC)
and Constant Voltage (CV) based on the battery State Of Charge
(SoC). The Electric vehicle (EV) charger draws a sinusoidal
current waveform keeping Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)
is under the guidelines of international regulations standard
IEC 61000-3-2. The proposed topology consists of very few
components excluding the unwanted capacitor banks as well as
conventional diode bridges will be resulting in fewer losses.
Index Terms—Bridgeless CUK, PFC, Power factor, Power
quality,THD, Voltage gain, Flyback, Synchronous rectification
I. I NTRODUCTION
Since more than a decade, due to environmental changes,
the demand for the battery operated electric vehicles (BEV)
rapidly increasing compared to gasoline driven conventional
vehicles. Batteries are major equipment for the BEVs. Charg-
ing and controlling those batteries are much important to
extend the battery life. A fuzzy logic control algorithm for
intelligently charge/discharge of an EV by energy transfer
from vehicle to grid and Grid to vehicle,is discussed in [1].For
charging the battery in electric vehicles (EV), the AC source
supply is converted to DC using AC-DC converter with power
factor improvement.These converters either in on-board or
off-board charger play a significant role in EV operation.
Earlier, battery chargers were using full wave bridge rectifiers
which were based on diode bridges or thyristors.The new
generation topologies use metal-oxide semi-conductor field
effect transistor (MOSFET) or insulated-gate bipolar transistor
(IGBT) which can be controlled using micro controllers [2].
The proposed system is a two-stage converter that consists
of a power factor correction unit along with a Flyback con-
verter.The Performance of the system is evaluated in MATLAB
Simulink.
A. Power quality
The quality of power fed to the on-board EV charger is
an important factor. A simple control algorithm for a Unified
Power Conditioner (UPC)is proposed in [3] to compensate
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Sindhu M R
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Amrita School of Engineering,Coimbatore
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,India
mr sindhu@cb.amrita.edu
voltage and current harmonics.Poor quality power worsens the
EV operation and might lead to severe problems. Most of
the converters use Power factor correction units at the front
end.In the literature[4], discussed the harmonics suppression
and how it reduces the reactive power present in the system
consists of non-linear and reactive loads. Control schemes
with suitable controllers are proposed in [5]-[6]for power
quality improvement by utilizing a shunt active power filter
to compensate for the harmonics.
B. Power factor correction
Most of the loads are inductive which has a lagging PF. This
will increase the current which results in additional losses in
active power. In the perspective of cost and engineering, this
Power factor must be as close as one. There are so many
disadvantages of low PF like high copper losses, poor voltage
regulation, greater conductor size, higher kVA rating of the
equipment, etc. To overcome these issues the PF improved by
using PFC at the front end in most of the topologies.
C. Flyback unit
The flyback converter unit has galvanic isolation between
input and output. The converter is equivalent to a buck-boost
circuit with an inductor split to form a transformer. The
advantage of the converter is that electrically isolating both
side supplies.
D. Synchronous Rectification
Power converters utilizing isolated topologies are used in
systems requiring galvanic isolation among system grounds.
All isolated topologies like forward, flyback, push-pull, half
and full-bridge, help in synchronous rectification. This will
help to increase the efficiency as well as to reduce the heat
by eliminating the Schottky diodes and replacing them with
an actively controlled switch.
This paper is organised as follows, Section II consists of
literature review, Section III describes the proposed charger
configuration , Section IV describes the operation and design
of the proposed converter, Section V explains about the control
of the charger, Section VI consists of MATLAB simulation,
Section VII has simulation results and Section VIII has the
conclusion part of the paper.
 II. L ITERATURE REVIEW
Most of the topologies which draw a sinusoidal cur-
rent waveform are discussed in the current literature. An
interleaved-boost converter shown in Fig 1.(a) has less switch-
ing losses by turning on both the active power switches at
a zero voltage which results in improving the conversion
efficiency. Though it has a lower output voltage ripple, but
no solution for poor thermal utilization of PFC switches [7].
LLC Resonant Converter shown in Fig 1.(b) is discussed in
[8] which is a single-stage AC to DC has advantages like high
efficiency and low noise due to discontinuous mode operation;
still, it is not advisable for EV operations because of its
circuit complexity.A non-isolated onboard charger is illustrated
in the literature [9] stating the advantage as low cost, but
it has challenges like disturbances due to lack of isolation
and high leakage current. Different kind of topologies are
discussed in the literature [10]. A Conventional Bridge rectifier
Cuk converter has lower efficiency due to significant loss in
Diode Bridge, high conduction loss. Bridgeless boost rectifier
has lack of isolation and high startup currents. Single-ended
primary-inductance converter (SEPIC) topology shown in Fig
1.(c) has advantages like lower input current ripple, fewer
conduction losses in semiconductor devices and wide duty
cycle variation range, but the output current is not continuous
resulting in high output ripple.
Fig. 1. Converter topologies (a)Interleaved converter (b)LLC resonant (c)
SEPIC
Bridgeless Cuk PFC rectifiers have high current stress in the
circuit components. Topology 1 as shown in Fig 2.(a) has bene-
fits like lower input current, implementation is easier, however,
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due to intermediate connection of C1 , C2 the losses are high.
Topology 2 as shown in Fig 2.(b) has many components with
the drawback of floating neutral. Topology 3 has losses across
the switch because of the partial return current flowing through
this.This means, when the Switch S1 operates in the positive
half cycle, the effect of the return current through the body
diode of S1 during the negative cycle will cause losses as
explained in Fig 2.(c).
Bridgeless CUK PFC offers few components which result in
lesser conduction losses. But the drawbacks are high noise and
input ripple current shown in Fig 2.(d)[11]. SEPIC converter
with Fuzzy logic Control explained in [12] claiming that
EV battery charging CC-CV methods are more efficient than
the no-contact charging methods. A new Improved Battery
Charger topology for Electric Vehicle with High PF operating
in discontinuous-conduction mode (DCM)is discussed in the
literature [13] which maintained the power quality standard as
per IEC 61000-3-2 in using a PI controller. It offers a wide
range of benefits like unity power factor, fewer conduction
losses, lower THD, less stress on the components but having
high ripple in input current, and high noise.
Fig. 2. Converter topologies (a)Topology1 (b)Topology 2 (c)Topology3 (d)
Bridgeless CUK PFC
 III. P ROPOSED CHARGER CONFIGURATION in the primary and secondary circuits should be in such a way
that both should not be turned ON at once.
The proposed Bridgeless CUK Converter circuit is exhibited
in Fig. 3. The components Li1 , S1 , Do1 , Lo1 , DP will be C. Converter Design For EV Charger
operating during the positive half cycle whereas Li2 , S2 , Do2 , The design calculations of the proposed bridgeless CUK
Lo2 , Dn will operate during the negative half cycle. The DCM EV charger of 1kW capacity is given as follows.Both PFC
mode operation makes the converter cost-effective. The cost of Switches and Flyback switches switching frequencies fs and
the EV charger depends on the PF correction converter [14]- fsb are 50kHz
[15]. The control scheme in CCM requires multiple sensors The voltage gain of the proposed converter with Vcuk as
compare to DCM mode operation. Though the CCM has converter output voltage and Vspk as Source Peak voltage is
many advantages, due to lesser cost and simple design, DCM given below equation (1)
operation has opted for the proposed work. The referred
Bridgeless CUK PFC converter uses the voltage follower mode Vcuk 300
M= = = 0.96 (1)
control using a PI controller (Proportional-Integral), which is Vspk 220 ∗ sqrt(2)
tuned to keep the output voltage constant by comparing with
Conduction parameter Ke calculated in the equation (2)
the reference voltage [16]. Cascaded voltage controller mode
and current controller mode control the Flyback converter to 1
Kecrit = = 0.1296 (2)
charge the battery in CC mode. The control is changed to the 2(M + n)2
CV mode from CC mode once the battery reaches to the Soc
For operating in DCM, Ke should be less than Kecrit .So
limit.
considered Ke for this converter as 0.08.
IV. O PERATION AND DESIGN OF CONVERTER CUK converter Duty cycle is calculated in equation (3)
p p
A. Operation of Bridgeless CUK Converter Dcuk = (2) × (M ) × (Ke ) = 0.384 (3)
The Fig 4 (a),(b) and (c) describes the complete cycle of
the Bridgeless CUK converter. 2
Vcuk 3002
Mode 1: Considering the positive half cycle operation, when Rcuk = = = 90Ω (4)
P 1000
a gate pulse is applied to the switch S1 , the current increases
By substituting equation (4) and fs (50kHz) in equation (5),
linearly through the input inductor Li1 . The intermediate
Leq is calculated as
capacitor C1 starts discharging through the S1 and Lo1, as
shown in Fig4 (a). Ke × Rcuk
Leq = = 0.072mH (5)
Mode 2: The gating signals to the switch are OFF, so the fs
capacitor C1 polarities reverses. The inductor Li1 discharges
Input inductance Li1,2 and output inductance Lo1,2 values
through the capacitor C1 , and the diode Do1 , as explained
are given below equations (6), (7) respectively
in Fig.4 (b). The output inductor Lo1 discharges through the
Do1 and DC link CUK capacitor Ccuk . Vs × Dcuk
Mode 3: The converter operates in DCM since the input and Li1,2 = = 1.3mH (6)
∆iL × fs
output inductor currents are equal in magnitude and opposite
direction,so the current through the diode Do1 is zero. In this Leq × Li1,2
Lo1,2crit = = 76µH (7)
mode, the DC link capacitor Ccuk supply power to Flyback Leq − Li1,2
as illustrated in Fig .4(c). Where ∆iL considered as 40%. For ensuring the CCM
B. Flyback converter operation the input inductance is considered as 4mH
Lo1,2 chosen lesser than Lo1,2crit for DCM operation 50µH
The flyback converter consists of both magnetizing induc- Intermediate capacitors C1,2 and CUK Capacitor Ccuk are
tance as well as leakage inductance. The conventional flyback given in below equations (8) and (9)
consists of a diode in secondary, whereas in this converter
the flyback consists of a switch S3 controlled by PWM signal 1
C1,2 = = 8.07µF (8)
synchronous with the primary switch Sf . ω 2 (Lo1,2 + Li1,2)
When the switch Sf is ON, the input voltage appears across Icuk
the primary inductance and the current linearly increases in Ccuk = = 1.71mF (9)
2 × ω × ∆Vcuk
the primary coil as shown in Fig 5(a). Even though the
secondary coil is not conducting, the capacitor Cf b provide Flyback circuit parameters are calculated in the below
the uninterrupted voltage to the load.After the switch Sf equations (10)...(12) considering fsb as 50kHz
turned OFF, the primary current conducting path opens and Duty cycle Df b ,
according to the law of magnetic induction, the polarities of Vbatt 65
the secondary winding reverse and the circuit become forward Df b = = = 0.396
turnsratio × Vcuk + Vbatt 0.33 × 300 + 65
biased as shown in Fig 5(b). The controlling of those switches (10)

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 Fig. 3. Bridgeless Cuk converter with output synchronous rectification.

Fig. 5. Flyback converter (a)Sf is ON (b)Sf is OFF

V. C ONTROL OF EV CHARGER CONVERTER

A. Control of PFC converter

A voltage sensor is connected to measure the CUK output
terminal Vcuk and compared with the desired voltage VCukref .
Fig. 4. Bridgeless Cuk converter PFC circuit operation (a)Mode1 (b)Mode2 The error VCuke is given to the voltage feedback controller.
(c)Mode3 The nth sample control signal is given in below equations
(13),(14)
Magnetizing inductance Lf ,
Vcuke (n) = Vcukref (n) − Vcuk (n) (13)
Vcuk × Df b 2
Lf ≤ = 0.14mH (11)
2 × Vbatt × Ibat × fsb
CV cuk (n) = CV cuk (n − 1) + Kpcuk V cuke(n)−
(14)
Df b × Vbatt Kpcuk Vcuke (n − 1) + Kicuk Vcuke (n)
Cbatt = 2 /P ) = 1.88mF (12)
fsb × Vbat × γ × (Vbatt
where KpCuk is a proportional gain constant and KiCuk is
an integral gain constants.

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 The pulses are generated for Bridgeless CUK PFC converter
by comparing the control signal, Cvcuk to a high-frequency
wave, Sc , as given in equations (15),(16).
If Vs > 0 or Vs < 0;

If Sc < CV cuk S1,2 = 1; (15)

If Sc ≥ CV cuk then S1,2 = 0 (16)

where S1,2 is a switching pulse for both the switches S1

and S2 in a synchronised manner. A regulated voltage is
obtained across DC link,over a wide range of supply voltage. Fig. 6. MATLAB Simulation
This control strategy is simple with only one voltage sensor.
Operating the switches, S1 and S2 in synchronous results in
less conduction loss. VII. S IMULATION RESULTS
Performance of the proposed Bridgeless CUK converter
B. Control of Flyback converter battery charger is simulated in MATLAB Simulink and the
results are observed as follows,Table 1 shows the proposed
The battery voltage, Vbatt is measured and compared with converter source and battery parameters with efficiency and
the constant voltage reference, Vbatt *. The voltage difference, THD values. The input and output wave forms are shown
Vbatte will saturate at the peak charging current limit by in Fig 7.where Vs and Is are source voltage and currents,
processing through the voltage controller, sets the reference Vbat and Ibat are battery voltage and currents.The source
Ibatt * for the inner current loop current. Vbatt and Cvbatt for current draws a sinusoidal waveform. Fig 8 shows the Fourier
the nth sample is given in equations (17),(18) analysis of source current and calculated the THD value using
MATLAB Simulink Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) function.
The voltage and current stress across the Switches S1 and S2
Vbatt (n) = Vbatt ∗ (n) − Vbatt (n) (17)
are plotted in Fig 9. From Fig 10, it is observed that battery
State of charge is increasing from the initial state set value
CV batt (n) = CV batt (n − 1) + KpV batt Vbatte (n)− 60%.
(18)
KpV batt Vbatte (n − 1) + KiV batt Vbatte (n)
TABLE I
The measured current, Ibatt of EV battery is compared with O BSERVATION R ESULTS
Ibatt * and the difference is processed through the inner current
P arameters V alues
controller. The desired pulses are generated by comparing the
Source Voltage Vrms 220V AC
controller output current with a high-frequency signal (md ). Source Current Irms 5.1A
The error and control signals Ibatte CIbatt are calculated using Battery Voltage Vbat 65V DC
equations (19),(20) Battery Current Ibat 16A
Power factor ≈1
Power rating 1kW
Ibatte (n) = Ibatt ∗ (n) − Ibatt (n) (19) Efficiency of the converter 92%
THD of the source current 1.68%

CIbatt (n) = CIbatt (n − 1) + KpIbatt Ibatte (n)−

(20)
Kpbatt Ibatte (n − 1) + KiIbatt Ibatte (n)

VI. S IMULATION

Fig. 6 shows the MATLAB Simulation blocks. An AC

single phase voltage is given to Bridgeless CUK converter
with input voltage and current measurements. The output DC
link voltage is supplied to Flyback and then to EV battery
taking necessary measurements.The synchronous pulses for
PFC converter and Flyback switches are controlled through
Fig. 7. Source and battery side parameters
respective PI Controllers.

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Fig. 8. Source current THD
Fig. 9. Voltage and current Stress with SoC
Fig. 10. Voltage and current Stress with SoC
VIII. C ONCLUSION
A Bridgeless CUK converter with PFC and Flyback is
proposed in this paper. Replaced Schottky diode in the con-
ventional flyback circuit with a MOSFET switch improves
the performance of the system. Since both PFC and Flyback
operated at 50kHz, the size of the inductors is reduced, which
results in less cost and weightless. The proposed converter
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PFC operates in DCM with one voltage controller will cost
cheaper. The proposed charger draws the sinusoidal source cur-
rent and THD of the source current is reduced to 1.68% and the
efficiency achieved about 92%. With these results,the proposed
charger offers improved power quality and high efficiency for
EV charging.This converter is also used for low output voltage
product applications as well as PFC applications. With IEC
standards this converter can be experimented using hardware.
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