Computer Aided Engineering for optimal EMC design of On-Board Battery Chargers

Abstract

This work deals with a new approach that can be adopted in the e-mobility industry for the development, design and optimization of On-board battery chargers (OBCs) for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV), with a particular focus on the fulfilment of the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) aspects. Car-makers are pushing towards extreme and challenging production lead times, so it is often necessary that early prototypes behave similarly to the final product sold with the car. In order to fulfill EMC requirements, simulations can help the EMC design engineer to speed-up the optimization phase as well as the problem-solving phase by limiting the number of time consuming tests in anechoic chambers. This paper shows how is possible to use electromagnetic computer aided design (CAD) tools for EMC purposes, applied to a three-phase 22kW – 800V battery charger, with a power density of about 2.5kW/l.