Efficiency evaluation of MMSPC/CHB topologies for automotive applications
As an increasing amount of research is investigating the replacement of conventional combustion engines in automo-biles with an electric power train, there has been significant interest in novel inverter topologies to replace two-level inverters. This paper compares two multilevel topology systems with integrated batteries, and evaluates their application in an electric vehicle. A state-of-the-art two-level inverter is considered for reference. Comprehensive simulations of both the converter power electronics and the battery are performed, in order to compare each topology over a wide power and switching frequency range. We have shown that battery-integrated multilevel converter systems can achieve higher efficiencies than two-level inverters, especially at low output power. This makes them very well suited for Electric Vehicle (EV) use, as most of the driving cycle occurs at low loads.
