Dual-purpose drive and charger systems and methods thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12355369-B2
Application number	US-202117392540-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2021
Priority date	Aug 3, 2021
Publication date	Jul 8, 2025
Grant date	Jul 8, 2025

Abstract

In an example embodiment, a system includes an inverter configured to operate in at least one of a charging mode or a drive mode, a cascaded direct current (DC)-DC converter, the DC-DC converter including a first portion of the inverter and at least one controller configured to selectively couple the first portion of the inverter to a first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter during the charging mode, and selectively couple the inverter to a second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter during the drive mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
an inverter configured to operate in at least one of a charging mode or a drive mode;
a cascaded direct current (DC)-DC converter, the cascaded DC-DC converter including
a first portion of the inverter, the first portion of the inverter including a half-bridge,
a first DC-DC converter including
a first portion of the first DC-DC converter, the first portion of the first DC-DC converter being a single active bridge, the single active bridge being a half-bridge for active switching control, and
a second portion of the first DC-DC converter, the second portion of the first DC-DC converter being a first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter,

a second DC-DC converter; and
at least one controller configured to, selectively couple, via at least one first switch, the first portion of the
inverter to the first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter during the charging mode, the first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter including two passive bridges, the two passive bridges being two diode bridges for rectification,
decouple the inverter from the first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter and selectively couple, via at least one second switch, the inverter to a second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter during the drive mode, the second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter including the second DC-DC converter, and
control the single active bridge such that the single active bridge is configured to operate in accordance with zero voltage switching (ZVS).

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first DC-DC converter is a unidirectional DC-DC converter.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first DC-DC converter further comprises:
a plurality of diode bridges; and
a transformer coupled between the plurality of diode bridges and the single active bridge.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a first voltage source; and
a second voltage source, wherein the first DC-DC converter is a first LLC converter having a first inductor connected in series with the first voltage source and the second DC-DC converter is a second LLC converter having a second inductor connected in series with the second voltage source.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to control the first portion of the inverter during the charging mode based on a DC bus reference voltage.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the at least one controller includes a proportional-integral-resonant (PIR) controller, a proportional-integral (PI) controller, phase-locked-loop (PLL) controller and a notch filter.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one controller includes a proportional-integral-resonant (PIR) controller and a pulse-frequency-modulation (PFM) controller for the first DC-DC converter.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one controller includes a proportional-integral (PI) controller and a pulse-frequency-modulation (PFM) controller for the second DC-DC converter.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the system comprises:
a single-phase AC-DC converter and two cascaded DC-DC converters during the charging mode.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the charging mode includes a constant current (CC) mode and a constant voltage (CV) mode and the at least one controller is configured to cause the system to operate in a CC mode or CV mode during the charging mode.

11. A computer-readable medium, when executed by at least one controller, configured to cause a vehicle system to,
selectively couple, via at least one first switch, a first portion of an inverter to a first portion of a cascaded DC-DC converter during a charging mode, the first portion of the inverter including a half-bridge and the first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter including two passive bridges and a first DC-DC converter, the two passive bridges being two diode bridges for rectification and the first DC-DC converter including
a first portion of the first DC-DC converter, the first portion of the first DC-DC converter being a single active bridge, the single active bridge being a half-bridge for active switching control, and

a second portion of the first DC-DC converter, the second portion of the first DC-DC converter being a first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter, decouple the inverter from the first portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter and selectively couple, via at least one second switch, the inverter to a second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter during a drive mode, the second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter including a second DC-DC converter, and
control the single active bridge such that the single active bridge is configured to operate in accordance with zero voltage switching (ZVS).

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein when executed by the at least one controller, is configured to cause the vehicle system to execute a proportional-integral-resonant (PIR) controller, a proportional-integral (PI) controller, phase-locked-loop (PLL) controller and a notch filter.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein when executed by the at least one controller, is configured to cause the vehicle system to operate in one of a constant current (CC) mode or a constant voltage (CV) mode during the charging mode.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second portion of the cascaded DC-DC converter is not part of the inverter.

15. The system of claim 2 , wherein the at least one controller is configured to selectively couple the first DC-DC converter to the inverter based on whether the inverter operates in the charging mode or the drive mode.

16. The system of claim 1 , further comprising at least one sensor configured to detect a zero-crossing point of a primary side current and a secondary side current of the single active bridge.

17. The system of claim 16 , further comprising an inductor connected in series between a voltage source and the inverter.

Assignees

• Deere & Co

Inventors

• Fu Tianjun
• Wu Yuheng
• Wu Long
• Li Danielle
• Vilar Eric

Classifications

• H02J7/933

  the cycle being controlled or terminated in response to electric parameters · CPC title

• H02J7/865

  Battery or charger load switching, e.g. concurrent charging and load supply (H02J7/50 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02P27/08

  with pulse width modulation · CPC title

• B60L2210/30

  AC to DC converters · CPC title

• B60L2210/10

  DC to DC converters · CPC title