Volume reduction of magnetic components in DC/DC converters for fuel cell vehicles

• Comparisons of different designs of magnetic components with ferrite as the core material are presented. • 3D FEM simulations were carried out to determine the losses and to verify the designs. • Customized core designs lead to a significant volume reduction with similar losses. • Coupled inductors with a customized core design can offer additional advantages in terms of volume and efficiency. • Further improvements through combinations of two different core materials or the use of permanent magnets are conceivable. In power electronic converter systems, the magnetic components are often the bulkiest and heaviest components. This is particularly disadvantageous in automotive applications, where volume, weight and costs are particularly important. Customized core geometries are a promising option to significantly reduce the volume of magnetic components compared to the use of standard core geometries. In this paper, customized magnetic components for an eightfold interleaved boost converter for fuel cell vehicles are presented. The customized core geometries are compared to an equivalent stacked standard core design in terms of enveloping volume and total losses. In addition, further possibilities for improvement in the form of customized coupled inductors that replace the discrete components are shown and discussed. The investigations show that the coupled design leads to a volume reduction of circa 68 % in combination with a reduction in total losses of circa 38 % compared to the stacked standard core design.