EV Charging: Industrial Application Corner

EV Charging stations for electric vehicles are crucial to the next generation of the transportation infrastructure network. The ability of the Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE) to effectively charge the traction batteries in Plug-In Electric Vehicles (PEV) in a timely fashion is the main driving force for developing high power, high performance, full-featured protection Electric Vehicle Chargers. Charging station are classified by power capabilities to address different use case scenarios.

Figure 1: EV Charging Levels

Level 1 Charging

• 120 V residential home based AC electrical outlet. Output current up to 15 A
• 1 Hour of charging through the EVSE chord set at 120 VAC will add approximately 4 miles of travel
• Typically, batteries can be fully charged overnight
• Fully drained PEV traction batteries may take up to approximately 20 hours of charge time with Level 1 charging standards

Level 2 Charging

• 220 V residential or 208 V commercial AC electrical outlet. Output current up to 40 A
• Level 2 equipment requires professional installation utilizing dedicated wiring circuits
• 1 hour of charging through a 6.6 kW On-board charger and EVSE chord rated for 220 VAC, will add approximately 30 miles of travel time. 
• 1 hour of charging through a 3.3kW On-board charger and EVSE chord rated for 220 VAC, will add approximately 15 miles of travel time.
• Fully drained PEV traction batteries may take up to approximately 7 hours of charge time with EVSE standards

Level 3 & 4 - DC Fast Charging (DCFC) 

• 480 V Commercial Grade AC power hardware and equipment. DC current up to 125 A
• 20-30 minutes of charging will add approximately 90-100 miles of travel
• DCFC EVSE directly converts AC power to DC power, bypassing the EV’s chord to deliver high DC current into the PEV’s traction batteries
• DCFC EVSE is connected directly onto the charging inlet of the Vehicle

In DC Fast Charging (DCFC) equipment, the higher power, cost and weight of the AC to DC conversion equipment require fixed installations. Below is a block diagram for the DC Fast Charging (DCFC) station, with a Vienna rectifier for the PFC front end and a full-bridge resonant LLC DC-DC stage. The green blocks show all the subsystem solutions which are offered by ON Semiconductor. ON Semiconductor’s super-junction MOSFETs, IGBTs, gate drivers, SiC devices, voltage sense and control products provide a complete system solution for of all types and power levels.

Explore our interactive block diagram and build a customized product list to complete your design.