Gallium Nitride (GaN) based High-Power Multilevel H-Bridge Inverter for Wireless Power Transfer of Electric Vehicles
Javad Chevinly, Shervin Salehi Rad, Elias Nadi, Bogdan Proca, John Wolgemuth, Anthony Calabro, Hua Zhang, Fei Lu
Abstract
This paper presents a design and implementation of a high-power Gallium Nitride (GaN)-based multilevel H-bridge inverter to excite wireless charging coils for the wireless power transfer of electric vehicles (EVs). Compared to the traditional conductive charging, wireless charging technology offers a safer and more convenient way to charge EVs. Due to the increasing demand of fast charging, high-power inverters play a crucial role in exciting the wireless charging coils within a wireless power transfer system.This paper details the system specifications for the wireless charging of EVs, providing theoretical analysis and a control strategy for the modular design of a 75-kW 3-level and 4-level H-bridge inverter. The goal is to deliver a low-distortion excitation voltage to the wireless charging coils. LTspice simulation results, including output voltage, Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis for both 3-level and 4-level H-bridge inverters, are presented to validate the control strategy and demonstrate the elimination of output harmonic components in the modular design. A GaN-based inverter prototype was employed to deliver a 85-kHz power to the wireless charging pads of the wireless power transfer system. Experimental results at two different voltage and power levels, 100V-215W and 150V-489W, validate the successful performance of the GaN inverter in the wireless charging system.