Optimal design of high frequency H-bridge inverter for wireless power transfer systems in EV applications

With the emergence of Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems in electric vehicle (EV) applications, variety of power electronics converters topologies are implemented. The proper converter design is crucial in these application to be able to handle the high power and frequency operation. This paper presents an optimum design of 40 kHz single-phase H-bridge resonance inverter for wireless EV's charging system. The power and signal components selection and design are discussed in details. Also, the printed circuit board (PCB) layout design is optimized for reducing the electromagnetic interference (EMI) to comply the standard level. Moreover, snubber circuit is designed and added to each inverter leg to minimize the ringing issue. The proposed design includes voltage and current protection for both the DC and AC sides. Both the power switched and the driving circuits are embedded in one PCB. The proposed design is tested under different control and operating conditions and compared with a random design. Finally, the proposed inverter is introduced in a bidirectional inductive wireless power transfer (BIWPT) system prototype and examined by means of simulation and experimental tests. The results shows effective improvements for the proposed design.