Review and Comparison of Bi-Directional AC-DC

Converters with V2G Capability for On-Board EV

and HEV
Behnam Koushki1, Alireza Safaee2, Praveen Jain1, Alireza Bakhshai1
1
Queen’s University Kingston ON, Canada, 2Bombardier Transportation Inc. Kingston ON, Canada
E-mail: b.koushki.foroushani@queensu.ca

Abstract — In this paper, recent topologies for bi-directional
AC-DC converters are reviewed. The reviewed topologies are
efficient, isolated and compact and can be used as an on-board
battery charger for EV or HEV. It is assumed that each converter
is made up of a set of building blocks and choice of these building
blocks results in different topologies. The topologies are divided
into two families: single-stage and two-stage. To compare the
topologies, two converters from the two families are chosen and
compared in terms of efficiency, number of the devices and rating
of them.
Index Terms — V2G, Bi-directional, AC-DC, EV charger.
I. INTRODUCTION
An extensive research has been carried on AC-DC
converters including single-stage single-phase [1], single-stage
three-phase [2] or ZVS inverters [3]. The on-board
bidirectional AC-DC converter for electric vehicle (EV) or
hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) has limitations in terms of
weight and volume because it is integrated to the vehicle. The
off-board AC-DC converters, in contrast usually don’t have
these limitations. In addition, since the price of the converter is
a part of the vehicle cost, the final cost is also limited and
should be low [4]. This paper reviews and compares the recent
topologies for bidirectional AC-DC converter which are
appropriate for EV and HEV applications. All the available
topologies proposed as bidirectional AC-DC convertor can be
categorized into two main groups or families:
• Group A: AC (low frequency)-AC (high frequency)-DC
• Group B: AC(low frequency)-DC-AC (high frequency)-DC
Here each category is described.
A. AC (LF)-AC-(HF)-DC
Topologies in Group A, which are also called single-stage
topologies, and are shown on Fig.1, have a high frequency
transformer on their AC (HF) side. The AC-filter is used to
filter high frequency ripple. The filter can be composed of C,
L, LC or LCL depending on the reminder of the topology. The
switch module found after the AC-filter, can be either a half or
full bridge, with bidirectional switches to chop the line
frequency AC-voltage into HF voltage. Energy transfer
Element can be LC or L, and if it is L, it can be integrated with
the transformer or the leakage inductance of transformer can be
used. The HF transformer is to provide isolation and match the
DC-side voltage with AC-side voltage. The DC filter can be L,
C or LCL based on the other components in the circuit and
battery requirements. Its role is to prevent high frequency
ripple from going to the battery.
B. AC (LF)-DC-AC-(HF)-DC
Group B topologies, as shown in Fig.2, have two-stages: an
AC-DC converter which is connected to grid and a DC-DC
isolated topology that is connected between the DC-link and
the battery. The descriptions of the building blocks used in
group B topology (such as DC filter, energy storage elements
and etc.) are similar to the ones of group A. In this family of
topologies, the DC-link can be either a current DC-link or a
voltage DC-link.
II. SINGLE-STAGE (AC-AC-DC) TOPOLOGIES (GROUP A)
Many topologies which match the pattern of Fig.1 have been
proposed and studied. Among them, the topology proposed in
[5] can be mentioned. This topology is shown in Fig.3. The
AC-filter consists of a single inductor. A full-bridge (FB)
switch module with bidirectional switches is used afterwards.
The energy storage element is the leakage inductance of the

Fig. 1: Basic component and structure of high frequency AC-link AC-DC converters.

978-1-4799-2262-8/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

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 Fig. 2: Basic building blocks and structure of two-stage AC-DC converters.
transformer. On the DC-side, after the transformer, there is
another FB switch module and a capacitor is used at the output.
The capacitor plays the role of the DC-filter and absorbs the
high frequency current ripple. Besides this, the DC-side FB
works under ZVS and the AC-side FB works under ZCS for all
of the operating points. Modulation is rather complicated and
the communication of the switches slows down the switching
frequency. This topology is proposed for both single-phase AC
voltage [5] and three-phase AC voltage [6] for rated power of
40KVA, DC-link voltage of 600V and operating frequency 6
kHz.
Fig.4 shows the typology proposed in [7]. It uses a LC AC-
filter, LC high frequency transfer element and a capacitive DC-
filter. The control variables are the duty cycle of the DC-side
full bridge and the phase shift between the bridges. With these
two degrees of freedom, it is claimed that ZVS can be achieved
within the full range of operation. No experimental results is
presented and simulation result is achieved for P=650w, Vac
=120V, Vb =36V and fs =100 kHz.
Fig.5 shows the topology proposed in [8]. Instead of a FB
with bidirectional switches, it uses a transformer with two
windings and two bidirectional switches on its primary. The
leakage inductance of the transformer is used as the energy
transfer element. The DC-side full bridge operates under ZVS
and the AC-side switches operate under ZCS. The proposed
control strategy, which utilizes phase shift and duty cycle,
brings about a linear relationship between the control variables
and the output power. This simplified the control system. No
experimental results are presented. Simulation results for Vac
=200V, Vb=40V and fs =5 kHz are demonstrated. A similar
three-phase circuit is also proposed in [9].
Fig.6 shows the work done in [10]. An LC filter for AC-side
and a CL filter for DC-side are used. The leakage inductance of
Fig. 3: Topology proposed in [5].
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transformer plays the role of the energy transfer element. Also,
a HB on the AC-side and FB on the DC-side is utilized as the
switch modules. By using phase shift along with variable
frequency and duty cycle control, the result is to obtain ZVS
for the full range of operation. Two kinds of modulation, M,
for the full load and M2, for the partial load, are used to
optimize the efficiency and THD. Simulation result and
calculated efficiency are provided for the power of 3.3kW,
Vac=200V, Vb=280-430V and fs =20-120 kHz. Calculations
indicate that the converter can reach an efficiency of 0.98 and
THD below 5% at PF= 0.99. No experimental results are
provided.
III. TWO-STAGE TOPOLOGIES (GROUP B)
Most of the two-stage convertors use an AC-DC converter to
connect AC-side to the DC-link and then an isolated DC-DC
converter to connect the DC-link to the battery. The AC-DC
convertor can be either full bridge, half bridge or a multilevel
converter and the DC-DC converter can be a dual-active bridge
(DAB) or a resonant convertor. The DC-link can be either a
current or voltage DC-link and is usually a voltage DC-link.
The control of the power factor is assigned to a separate
controller through the AC-DC converter and the control of the
DC voltage or current is through the DC-DC convertor using
another controller.
Fig.7 shows a recently proposed topology [11]. The AC-
filter is an inductor and FB alters that. The DC-link is a voltage
link. On every energy direction, it acts as a resonant half-
bridge convertor. The DC-filter is a capacitor. The advantage
of this convertor is high conversion efficiency, high integration
and ZVS for the primary and ZCS for the secondary side
diodes. Low switch voltage stress and small circulating current
are among the other advantages of this circuit. Simulation and
Fig. 4: Topology proposed in [7] with an LC energy transfer
element (series resonant AC-DC converter).
 Fig. 5: Topology proposed in [8].
experimental results are provided for a laboratory prototype of
300W, 400V/24V.
IV. COMPARISON OF SINGLE-STAGE AND TWO-STAGE AC-
DC CONVERTERS
To compare the two basic power convertor families, a single
converter is chosen from each family as the representative and
then both are compared in terms of efficiency, component
stress and conduction loss. The topology shown in Fig.8 (a)
which is simulated in [12], is from the single-stage family, and
the topology shown in Fig.8 (b), which consists of an AC-DC
boost converter and a DC-DC dual active full bridge convertor,
are selected for comparison. Since these topologies have many
similar parts such as FB1, FB2, FB3 and transformer, and the
principle of operation of the combination of FB2-transformer-
FB3 in both of them are almost the same, the rms currents,
efficiency and rating of the devices are fair criterions to
compare the performance of the groups of topologies.
To compare the topology performances, it is considered that
the grid voltage, Vrms , is 110V and the grid frequency is 60Hz.
Battery voltage, Vb, is 400V and the nominal power of the
charger, Pn, is 3kW. PF=1 and the input current ripple is kept
lower than 1%.
A. single-stage converter
The single-stage converter is presented in Fig.8 (a) and has
an unfolding bridge, FB1, which works with the line
frequency. The combination of FB2-transformer-FB3 consist a
DAB DC-DC like the second stage of the two-stage topology,
but its input converter voltage is a rectified sine wave. The
DAB is controlled to achieve ZVS for all the switches,
minimize the loss and shape the input current to FB2 like a
rectified sine wave with controllable amplitude. This action is
done by keeping the duty cycle of FB2 equal to 50% and
changing the duty cycle of FB3 and phase shift between FB2
and FB3. Calculations for phase shift and duty cycle are done
offline using MATLAB for various voltage and load. Using
MATLAB, the transformer turn ratio, n, and L are also
optimized. L=12µH and n=0.75
Since DAB is operating under ZVS, no switching loss
exists. The only type of loss in this converter is conduction loss
which is distributed in the inductor L (PconL), and full bridges
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Fig 6: Topology proposed in [10].
(PconFB1, PconFB2 and PconFB3).
B. Two-stage converter
The two-stage converter is shown in Fig.8 (b). It has two
parts: the inverter (FB1,Linv and Clink) and DAB DC-DC
converter (FB2, transformer and FB3). Here, analysis, design
and loss and rms current calculation is discussed briefly for
each stage.
AC-DC stage: This stage works as a boost AC-DC
converter. Therefore, the Vdc should be equal to or greater than
the maximum grid voltage which is 110 2 . The value of
200V is chosen for Vdc. The switching frequency of each leg of
the inverter (FB1-Linv), cannot be very high since FB1 is
working under hard switching condition. The value of finv= 20
kHz is chosen. The grid current, ig should be kept with low
THD. To keep the grid current ripple, iripple , below 1%, the
filter inductor Linv should be sufficiently large. Equation (1)
shows the ripple for a boost AC-DC stage. The maximum
ripple irip,max happens at vg=0.5Vdc and is shown in (2).
1 Vin 1 Vin V
iripple = d= (1 − in ) (1)
2 Lfinv 2 Lfinv Vdc
1 Vdc
iripple max = (2)
8 Lfinv
Form (2), the smallest inductor required to keep the ripple
limited can be calculated (3).
1 Vdc
LinvMin = (3)
8 iripple max f inv
Considering the design for a nominal power of 3kW, the
maximum grid current, Im will be 38A and iripplemax=0.38. So
L>3mF should be considered.
For the AC-DC part, the total power loss, can be divided into
switching loss, PswFB1, conduction loss of the bridge switches,
PconFB1 and conduction loss of the inductor ,PLinv.To calculate
conduction loss of the switches (4) is used [13]. For the other
two losses, it is assumed that the inductor current is constant
and its ripple is neglected for further simplification (5, 6).
 Fig. 7: Two level AC-DC converter proposed in [11].

Fig. 8: Two topologies to be compared (a) Single-stage AC-DC [12]. (b) Two-stage: boost inverter plus dual active bridge.

PswFB1 = kVdc | ig | finv (4) Vdc 16 Lf sw

iLrms = (1 + 1 − iav ) (9)
2
8 Lf sw Vdc
PconFB1 = Rdson1ig (5)
This relationship states that a larger Lfsw results in smaller
PLinv = 2 RLinv1ig 2 (6) rms and maximum current and lower loss and cost.
Nevertheless, there are limitations in increasing fsw and L. large
DC-DC stage: For the DC-DC stage, in order to achieve L is not desired because it is bulkier and since the tq, the
ZVS from no load to full load, the ratio nVb /Vdc should be deadbad between the gating signals of the upper and lower
equal to one [14]. Based on the assumption the duty cycle of switches of every leg, needs to be much smaller than the
both bridges is 50% and n=0.5. The DC-DC stage doesn’t have switching period, the frequency can not be increased very
any switching losses and operates under ZVS from no load to much. A proper choice using trial and error and simulations is
full load. The only control variable is φ, the phase shift fsw=50 kHz, L=25µH and n=0.5.
between the legs, which varies from -1 to 1. The switching
frequency of DAB, fsw, and the HF inductor value, L, are the The only power losses in this stage is conduction loss,
parameters for design. The maximum current through L can be associated with the transformer (PconL) and conduction loss of
calculated from (7) FB2 (PconFB2) and FB3 (PconFB3). Equations (10-12) show each
of these losses.
V ϕ
I m = dc (7)
2 f sw L PconL = RL iLrms 2 (10)
The average current to the FB2 is iav and is related to PconFB 2 = Rdson1iLrms 2 (11)
maximum current (8). The inductor rms current is also related
to Im as shown in (9) PconFB 3 = Rdson3iLrms 2 (12)
1
iav = 2 I m ( − ϕ ) (8)
2
Combiniing (7) and (8) we can find the relationship between
the rms current and Lfsw . This is shown in (9).

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 single-stage
40 two-stage
i
av 20
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

100
i
max 50
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

50
i
Lrms
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

50
i
Iripple,rms
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

40
i
Oripple,rms 20
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
time(s)

Fig. 9: Average, maximum and rms current(A)of the two-stage and single stage converters for P=3kW.

TABLE I
C. Comparison POWER RATING AND PARAMETERS OF FB1,FB2 AND FB3.
Required
In this section, the performance of the two converters in Bridge Converter
rating
Device Parameters
terms of rms current and loss are compared. The HF inductor Vn>200V APTM50HM35FG
Single –stage Rdson=39mΩ
rms current, iLrms , and the inductor maximum current, im , of FB1
In>80A 500V,99A,
the DAB in every topology represents the rating and loss of the Vn >200V APTM50HM65FT3G
Double-stage Rdson=78mΩ
In >40A 500V,50A,
DAB components. For the two-stage converter, these Single –stage Vn>200V APTM50HM35FG
parameters are calculated from (7-9). The rms of the output FB2
Double-stage In >80A 500V,99A,
Rdson=39mΩ
ripple current, iOripple,rms , represents size of Co and the loss Single –stage Vn >500V APTM50HM38FG
associated with it. iIripple,rms is the rms value of the ripple of the FB3 Rdson=45mΩ
Double-stage In >40A 500V,90A,
current entering the FB2. This value also represents the size of
Cin and the loss associated with it in the single-stage converter
and the loss associated with Clink in the two-stage converter. Fig. 10 shows the losses associated with every converter.to
For the two-stage converter, equations (13,14) can be used for make a better comparison, the loss in the two-stage converter is
calculation of rms currents. broke down into the inverter loss, PLin, and loss of FB2, FB3
and inductor. For the single-stage converter, the loss is also
iOripple,rms = n 2 iLrms 2 − iav 2 (13) broke down to the loss of FB1, FB2, FB3 and inductor. Then
the inverter loss in the two-stage converter is compared with
iIripple,rms = iLrms 2 − iav 2 (14)
the FB1 loss of the single-stage converter and the loss
Fig.9 shows the rms value of the inductor current, input associated with the other identical part of two converters are
ripple, output ripple and also maximum value of inductor compared together. As it seen in this Figure, the single-stage
current for both converters. It is evident that the single-stage converter has a lower total loss and is more efficient. Table 2
converter has a lower rms value for the inductor, input and summarizes the two candidates.
output ripple. To keep the maximum current of the single-stage
converter equal to the two-stage, the inductor L increased.
I. CONCLUSION
With this selection, the same switches can be used for both
converters and the loss comparison will be fair. In this paper the most important topologies for EV and HEV,
Based on Fig.9, for a nominal power of 3kW, the devices with the capability of V2G are reviewed. It is considered that
shown in Table I are selected and their parameters are used for all selected topologies are made up of building blocks and the
loss calculation. selection of those blocks results in new topologies. Topologies
are divided into two groups: Two-stage and single-stage.
Candidates from each group are chosen and are compared.
Comparisons in terms of number of devices and loss and
efficiency are done. The single-stage topology offers a lower
power loss, smaller value for components such as the output
inductor and HF inductor, and lower number of devices.

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 single-stage
400
PconFB1 PLinv two-stage
200

0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

200
PconL
100
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

100
PconFB2
50
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

100
PconFB3
50
0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03

500
PLtot

0
0 0.005 0.01 0.015 0.02 0.025 0.03
time (s)

Fig. 10: Power loss (W) break down in two-stage and single-stage converters for P=3kW.

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