500-kW Resonant Switched-Capacitor Converter for 1600-V Electric Trucks and Electric Aircraft Powertrain Application

Hybrid/Battery power electric trucks or aircrafts draw more attention nowadays since they can eliminate greenhouse gases emission and other harmful gases to human health. For such a megawatt level electric power train design, a 1600 V system is more attractive due to the use of lighter, thinner wiring and potential much faster battery charging speeds, compared with the traditional 400 V or 800 V voltage bus. In this paper, a 500 kW three-phase interleaved resonant switched capacitor dc-dc converter is proposed and developed for such 1600 V applications. The operating principle is discussed, a detailed power loss analysis is provided, including MOSFETs losses, passive components losses, and busbar losses. An effective high-power testing method has also been proposed to validate the proposed converter’s performance at the rated voltage and rated current. Both of the simulation and experimental results are provided, indicating a peak efficiency of 99.1% and an efficiency of 98.7% at full load conditions of 500 kW hardware prototype.