Comparison of High Frequency Inductors for Bidirectional DC-DC Converters for Electric Vehicles

In this paper, different high frequency inductors for a DC-DC converter for electric vehicles are designed and compared. The interleaved bidirectional DC-DC converters are good candidates to boost the battery pack voltage to the required voltage level, so that the traction inverters operate in an efficient manner. The use of wide bandgap devices allow to decrease the passive component size, as the switching frequency is increased. Nevertheless, the different high frequency effects need to be carefully analyzed. Different high frequency inductors are designed and compared at a target switching frequency of 0.5-1 MHz and a maximum power of 5 kW. For this purpose, different core materials, shapes and winding concepts are considered. An analytical and simulative analysis is first realized and then, the selected inductors are prototyped and tested using a laboratory platform.