SPACE SE & Co. KG

https://www.dspace.com/

Oct 5, 2023

Power Management

Developing and testing power electronics components for electric vehicles: Our solutions accelerate the development and the validation of all power electronics components for electric vehicles. This applies especially to in-vehicle applications that require different voltages to connect different sources and loads. Highly efficient converters for the charging process (AC/DC converters using ultra-fast (>200kHz) power electronics) and in-vehicle power management converters (DC/DC converters) serve this purpose. Depending on the vehicle architecture, this kind of converter control can also be integrated in the charging controller as well as in the motor controller. Similar conversions apply not only to automotive components, but to any kind of power electronics typologies.

Challenges

Since the various electric systems of an electric vehicle operate at different voltage levels, intelligently controlled power electronics components guarantee an efficient energy transfer. This applies to all different types of electric vehicles such as plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), battery electric vehicles (BEV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and fuel cell vehicles (FCV).

During DC charging of PHEV and BEV, the electric energy flows directly from the charging station to the high-voltage vehicle battery. In case of AC charging, the AC/DC conversion is performed via the vehicle onboard charger which is connected to the high-voltage battery. In addition, DC/DC converters are used to generate the energy for lower voltage levels (12 V and 48 V).
In FCV, the DC voltage provided by the fuel cell also must be converted.
In mild HEV, the high-voltage level is usually 48 V. Bidirectional DC/DC converters are used to interconnect the 12 V and 48 V board net.

Reduction of size and weight as well as increasing efficiency are major challenges of converter development.

Our Solutions for Power Management

dSPACE offers a wide range of solutions for developing and testing control algorithms and power electronics throughout the entire range of electric vehicle components.

Starting from simple DC/DC converters up to complex power management units connecting several energy sources (onboard charger, high-voltage battery, low-voltage batteries), dSPACE brings your ideas to life.

In addition to our product portfolio, customer-specific functions and implementations are available on request.