Power conversion system for electric vehicles

• US 10,046,646 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2014
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung SDI Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Samsung SDI Company Limited
• Inventors: Yamane, Futoshi, Ishikawa, Masami, Murayama, Yoshinari, Muraoka, Mitsutoshi, Yoshida, Taro, Furusawa, Kenji
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thienvu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baxter, Brian K
• Application Number:
  US14/448,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20150069832A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,475 Days
• Field of Search: 307101, 307 91
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 1/00 Supplying electric power to auxiliary equipment of vehicles circuit arrangements for charging batteries H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 15/007 Physical arrangements or structures of drive train converters specially adapted for the propulsion motors of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/12 Buck converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/14 Boost converters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2210/42 Voltage source inverters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/003 relating to inverters
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0092 with use of redundant elements for safety purposes
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 50/51 characterised by AC-motors
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/20 having different nominal voltages
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 7/14 for vehicles propelled by ac motors
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/155 using semiconductor devices only
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/53875 with analogue control of three-phase output
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/64 Electric machine technologies in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility

Abstract

A power conversion system including a DC main power supply for supplying a DC voltage, boosting circuits for performing a retrogression operation of boosting the DC voltage and comprising driving circuits, an inverter circuit for converting the DC voltage into an AC voltage, a motor/generator for receiving the AC voltage, and a control circuit for outputting a control signal to the driving circuits and stopping an operation of a faulty boosting circuit of the boosting circuits when one of the boosting circuits is faulty, for setting power control values depending on a number of remaining non-faulty boosting circuits of the boosting circuits, and for controlling the remaining non-faulty boosting circuits and the inverter circuit based on the power control values, wherein the inverter circuit and the boosting circuits perform a regeneration operation of supplying regeneration power to the DC main power supply, peripheral equipment, and/or a DC auxiliary power supply.

Claims

1. A power conversion system for electric vehicles, the power conversion system for electric vehicles comprising:

a DC main power supply configured to supply a DC voltage;

a smoothing capacitor coupled to the DC main power supply;

a plurality of boosting circuits coupled to the DC main power supply, each of the plurality of boosting circuits being configured to perform a retrogression operation of boosting the DC voltage of the DC main power supply, each one of the plurality of boosting circuits comprising a reactor and a corresponding one of a plurality of driving circuits;

an inverter circuit coupled to the plurality of boosting circuits and configured to convert boosted DC voltage into an AC voltage;

at least one of a motor or generator coupled to the inverter circuit and configured to receive the AC voltage;

a plurality of current detection units corresponding to the plurality of boosting circuits, each of the plurality of current detection units being configured to detect a current flowing in a reactor of a corresponding one of the plurality of boosting circuits; and

a control circuit configured to detect a fault of each of the plurality of boosting circuits based on the detected current flowing in the reactor of each one of the corresponding one of the plurality of boosting circuits, to output a control signal to the plurality of driving circuits to stop an operation of a faulty boosting circuit of the plurality of boosting circuits when at least one of the plurality of boosting circuits is faulty, to set power control values depending on a number of remaining non-faulty boosting circuits of the plurality of boosting circuits, and to control the number of remaining non-faulty boosting circuits and the inverter circuit based on the power control values, such that at least one of the motor or generator is continuously operated in a power restriction manner even after at least one of the plurality of boosting circuits is faulty,

wherein the inverter circuit and the plurality of boosting circuits are configured to perform a regeneration operation of supplying regeneration power to at least one of the DC main power supply, peripheral equipment, or a DC auxiliary power supply; and

wherein a terminal of each of the reactors is coupled to the smoothing capacitor.

2. The power conversion system for electric vehicles of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of boosting circuits comprises a plurality of other smoothing capacitors, and

wherein each of the plurality of the other smoothing capacitors is configured to operate as a smoothing capacitor for an input terminal of the inverter circuit.

3. The power conversion system for electric vehicles of claim 2,

wherein each of the driving circuits is configured to detect a fault of a corresponding one of the plurality of boosting circuits and to generate a corresponding fault signal, and

wherein the control circuit is further configured to detect the faulty boosting circuit based on the corresponding fault signal of each of the driving circuits.

4. The power conversion system for electric vehicles of claim 1,

wherein each of the driving circuits is configured to detect a fault of a corresponding one of the plurality of boosting circuits and to generate a corresponding fault signal, and

wherein the control circuit is further configured to detect the faulty boosting circuit based on the corresponding fault signal of each of the driving circuits.