Due to a smaller environmental footprint than conventional vehicles, electric vehicles (EVs) may help in the fight against climate change. In spite of their many advantages, especially those in maintenance, disadvantages such as less traveling range, long recharging time and the high price tag - compared to gas-powered vehicles - are essential barriers to extensive usage of EVs. The forenamed limitations can be partly overcome by advancing electrical equipment in terms of efficiency, weight and compactness. The development of novel materials for circuit components and improvements in circuit design have been the primary focus of advancement with regard to DC/DC converters, one of the fundamental building blocks of electrical equipment. Therefore, this paper proposes an All-SiC-based multi-device interleaved boost converter (MDIBC) to replace the Silicon insulated gate bipolar transistors (Si IGBT)-based BC topology in Toyota Prius. To achieve high efficiency from the proposed converter, the power efficiency is examined with respect to the input current ripple values. The obtained results disclose the best efficiency is achieved for a 10% input current ripple with a 50% decrease in output voltage ripple. Additionally, for these ripple values, other decisive parameters are determined and compared to the benchmark converters. The outcomes reveal that (at 70 kHz switching frequency), the best values of inductor and capacitor with reduction in their values of 83.55% and 96.45%, respectively – are achieved. This considerable decline not only results in downsizing the passive components but also leads to a higher power density that has a crucial importance for power efficiency.
Key words: — Hybrid electric vehicles; SiC MOSFET; Multi-device interleaved boost converter; Current and voltage ripples; Power efficiency.
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