Power electronics with integrated supercapacitor energy storage

Abstract

A system includes a set of ultracapacitors, an input characterized by a first nominal voltage, an output characterized by a second nominal voltage, a direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converter, and switching power electronics electrically connected to the set of ultracapacitors. The DC-DC converter is configured to convert power from an input at a first nominal voltage to power of an output at a second nominal voltage. The DC-DC converter includes a magnetic coupling system that electromagnetically couples a first side of the DC-DC converter to a second side of the DC-DC converter. A magnetic coupling system electromagnetically couples the switching power electronics to the second side of the DC-DC converter.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63 / 512,604, filed on July 7, 2023, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates to power electronics, and more particularly to DC-DC power electronics with integrated energy storage. Background Art

[0003] A supercapacitor is an electrochemical energy storage device that acts similarly to a battery. Supercapacitors differ from batteries in that they typically contain less energy storage by weight and volume, have greater power density, exhibit significantly longer life (both calendar life and cycle life), and follow voltage characteristics according to the capacitor equation (specifically, J = 1 / 2CV 2 , where J is the stored energy, C is the capacitance, and V is the potential difference across the capacitor). Ultracapacitors (also called supercapacitors) typically have a higher capacitance than standard capacitors (such as electrolytic capacitors). For example, the capacitance of an ultracapacitor can be 1, 2, or more orders of magnitude greater than a standard capacitor (for a given weight or volume). In various implementations, ultracapacitors can be based on electrostatic double layer capacitors or electrochemical pseudocapacitors.

[0004] Due to their properties compared to batteries, supercapacitors are typically used for short duration, high power, long life applications, whereas batteries are used for energy intensive applications with longer operating times that are considered to have a shorter lifespan. Therefore, supercapacitors are suitable for certain long life applications that require short duration pulsed power, such as airbags. In the event of a collision, the vehicle electrical network may become inoperable due to damage to the engine (alternator), battery compartment and / or fuse box. The supercapacitor inside the airbag unit stores enough electrical energy to deploy the airbag without relying on other energy sources, ensuring continued functioning even in the event of damage to the entire vehicle electrical system. The long life characteristics of the supercapacitor ensure that the airbag will function within its designed life.

[0005] The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the present disclosure. To the extent described in this background section, the work of the presently designated inventors and aspects of the specification that were not otherwise identified as prior art at the time of filing the application are neither explicitly nor implicitly admitted as prior art with respect to the present disclosure. Summary of the invention

[0006] Further areas of applicability of the present disclosure will become apparent from the detailed description, claims and drawings.The detailed description and specific examples are intended for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] The present disclosure will become more fully understood through the detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

[0008] Figure 1A is a simplified block diagram of an example implementation of the present disclosure.

[0009] Figure 1B is a simplified block diagram of an example implementation of the present disclosure.

[0010] Figure 2 is a simplified functional block diagram of an example implementation of the present disclosure.

[0011] Figure 3A is a simplified block diagram of a first example implementation of a synchronous rectifier.

[0012] Figure 3B is a simplified block diagram of a second example implementation of a synchronous rectifier.

[0013] Among the drawings, reference numerals may be repeated to identify similar and / or identical elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION introduction

[0014] The typical low voltage vehicle electrical grid is 12 volts (12V). Some vehicles also include a higher voltage (such as 48V) electrical grid. Traditional vehicles obtain 12V energy from the alternator on the engine, buffered by a 12V battery typically located in the engine compartment (the engine compartment itself is typically located under the hood of the vehicle). The electrification of vehicles has increased the demand for highly reliable electrical power. Some examples include electrically activated anti-lock brakes, drive-by-wire brakes, electrically activated emergency parking brakes, electrically activated door locks, and drive-by-wire steering. Other applications include soft shutdown of the CPU in the event of a power outage and "phone home" emergency GPS transponders.

[0015] Battery electric vehicles (BEV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) have large battery packs that are used in conjunction with an electric motor to provide traction power (propulsion) to the vehicle. In order to provide sufficient power for propulsion, the battery pack can output high voltage (e.g., greater than 48V, and in various implementations, greater than 100V, 200V, 600V, 750V, or 1000V). Specialized wires, connectors, and interfaces are used to protect this voltage. High voltage is limited to as few uses as possible, such as propulsion motors, air conditioning compressors, and power steering assistance. The rest of the vehicle uses a low-voltage 12V and / or 48V power grid. In these cases, the 12V power grid is powered by a DC-DC converter that inputs power from the high-voltage battery pack and outputs 12V for the low-voltage vehicle power grid. Supercapacitors

[0016] The present disclosure describes a system for implementing energy storage via a supercapacitor set. The supercapacitor set includes one or more supercapacitors. When the set includes multiple supercapacitors, the supercapacitors can be electrically arranged in series, in parallel, or in a combination of series and parallel. A supercapacitor set (or network) with a total capacitance (C) can be abstracted and simplified to a single supercapacitor (C)

[0017] A simplified DC-DC converter can be envisioned as a high voltage direct current (HVDC) input fed to a switching device that breaks the DC voltage into a series of pulses. The switching device may be referred to as a chopper and may be implemented using an "H-bridge" formed by transistors such as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) and / or insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). In an H-bridge, a first pair of switches connects two input terminals to one output terminal, respectively, and another pair of switches connects two input terminals to the other output terminal, respectively. Within each pair of switches, the switches are oppositely controlled (one is open when the other is closed) so that the two input terminals are not short-circuited together.

[0018] The pulses are fed into the primary of a transformer with a specific winding ratio, producing the desired voltage on the secondary. The output waveform (from the secondary) is rectified to produce the desired low voltage output, such as 12V or 48V. In some implementations, the low voltage output is about 12V or 48V (in various implementations, about means within 20% above or below these values). Rectification can be performed using, for example, diodes and / or synchronous switching transistors. By adjusting the pulse modulation in the input chopper, the output can be modulated based on the output voltage, current, and / or power requirements.

[0019] A power outage of the high voltage power supply will cause an almost immediate power outage of the low voltage grid. Power outage of the high voltage power supply may be caused by a battery voltage failure in the battery pack, a wiring harness failure, a connector failure, physical damage, etc. As another example, a failure of a DC-DC converter will also cause a power outage of the low voltage grid. According to the present disclosure, a supercapacitor set can be used to store energy when the high voltage grid and the DC-DC converter are operating, and in the event of their failure, at least temporarily supply energy to the low voltage grid.

[0020] exist Figure 1A In the example implementation shown, the HVDC input is chopped (eg, by an H-bridge 116) into an AC waveform, and the HVDC output is connected to a transformer primary winding. The transformer secondary winding is connected to a rectifier, which is connected to a rectifier. Figure 1A 1 is represented by a single diode 112. The output of the rectifier is low voltage (eg 12V) power.

[0021] Another secondary winding is located on the shared transformer core and is connected to the supercapacitor set 104 through a switching power electronics 108 (e.g., an H-bridge). This arrangement gives the supercapacitor set 104 a bidirectional capability to monitor and control the bus voltage. In the event of a high voltage fault, the supercapacitor set 104 can power the rectifier and, therefore, the low voltage grid until the supercapacitor set 104 is exhausted. In various implementations, the additional winding on the shared transformer may affect efficiency.

[0022] In various implementations, one or more windings of a transformer (eg, a transformer primary and / or a transformer secondary) may be implemented by an automatic former or other type of magneto-electric component. Figure 1B As shown, the autoformer relies on two windings (one with multiple taps) to magnetically couple the H-bridge 116 , the diode 112 , and the switching power electronics 108 . Bidirectional converter

[0023] exist Figure 2 In another example implementation shown, the high voltage network 200 provides power to the low voltage network 204 through a DC-DC converter 208. For example, the DC-DC converter 208 may include a switching device 212, such as an H-bridge, which chops the DC of the high voltage network 200 into a pulsating DC. The pulsating DC is provided to a transformer 216, which reduces the voltage and provides the stepped-down pulsating DC to a rectifier 220. By way of example only, the rectifier 220 may include a diode and / or a switching transistor. In various implementations, the transformer 216 may be coupled to a transformer 248. For example, one or more windings of the transformer 216 and the transformer 248 may be wound around a common core.

[0024] The output of the DC-DC converter 208 is fed to the supercapacitor set 240 (i.e., a group of supercapacitors connected in parallel and / or series) through the bidirectional DC-DC converter 244. When the high-voltage network 200 and the DC-DC converter 208 are operating, the bidirectional DC-DC converter 244 can provide power to the supercapacitor set 240; when either stops operating, the bidirectional DC-DC converter 244 can provide energy from the supercapacitor set 240 to the low-voltage network 204. In various implementations, the bidirectional DC-DC converter 244 includes a transformer 248 and a switch device 252. The transformer 248 can be dedicated - that is, not sharing a common core with the transformer 216 - or can include windings that are electromagnetically coupled to the transformer 216 (such as winding around some or all of the core of the transformer 216). Synchronous Rectification

[0025] exist Figure 3A In another example implementation shown, the supercapacitor set 304 is directly integrated into the synchronous rectification of the 12V output (low voltage output - LV output 312). In this way, depending on the synchronous switching of transistors G1, G2 and G3, the supercapacitor set 304 can be charged or discharged. In the event of a high voltage fault, the supercapacitor set 304 can be discharged into the 12V output via the switching of G2 and G3.

[0026] exist Figure 3A , the HV input 316 is connected to a first winding of a transformer 328. A second winding of the transformer 328 is connected to G1 and a reference terminal 320. G1, G2, and G3 are connected to an internal node 324. G2 is connected to the supercapacitor bank 304.

[0027] When charging the supercapacitor bank 304, the high voltage (HV input 316) is rectified by G1 and routed into the supercapacitor bank 304 using G2 synchronously with G1. When discharging the supercapacitor bank, the supercapacitor bank is switched to the inductor 308a (connected to the internal node 304 and the LV output 312) using G2 asynchronously with G1. In the event of a high voltage fault, G1 is disabled and the supercapacitor bank is switched into the inductor using G2.

[0028] The outputs of transistors G1 and G2 may be smoothed by a low pass filter 308 formed by an inductor 308a and a capacitor 308b arranged in series to generate a low ripple DC. In various implementations, capacitor 308b is not a supercapacitor.

[0029] Figure 3A is just one example of a simplified rectifier topology. Rectification can be achieved using a variety of topologies. For example, in Figure 3B Another simplified schematic diagram shows a synchronous rectifier, where Figure 3A308a is replaced by transistor G4. When transistor G2 and transistor G4 are activated, a loop is formed that establishes a magnetic field in the inductor. When G4 is deactivated, the magnetic field of inductor 308a is dissipated into the LV output 312. This unique arrangement allows synchronous rectification and step-up conversion from the supercapacitor set 304. This allows the supercapacitor set 304 to power the LV output 312 even if the voltage across the supercapacitor set 304 is less than the nominal voltage of the LV output 312. Conclusion

[0030] The foregoing description is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the present disclosure, its application or use. The broad teachings of the present disclosure can be implemented in a variety of forms. Therefore, although the present disclosure includes specific examples, the true scope of the present disclosure should not be so limited, because other modifications will become apparent after studying the drawings, the specification and the following claims. In the written specific embodiments and claims, one or more steps within the method can be performed in a different order (or simultaneously) without changing the principles of the present disclosure. Similarly, one or more instructions stored in a non-transient computer-readable medium can be executed in a different order (or simultaneously) without changing the principles of the present disclosure. Unless otherwise specified, the numbering or other markings of instructions or method steps are for ease of reference, not for indicating a fixed order.

[0031] Furthermore, while each of the embodiments is described above as having certain features, any one or more of those features described with respect to any embodiment of the present disclosure may be implemented in and / or combined with features of any of the other embodiments, even if the combination is not explicitly described. In other words, the described embodiments are not mutually exclusive, and the permutation of one or more embodiments with respect to each other is still within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0032] Various terms are used to describe the spatial and functional relationships between elements (e.g., between modules, circuit elements, semiconductor layers, etc.), including "connected," "engaged," "coupled," "adjacent," "next to," "on," "above," "below," and "disposed." Unless explicitly described as "directly," when the relationship between a first element and a second element is described in the above disclosure, the relationship encompasses a direct relationship between the first element and the second element in which there are no other intermediate elements, and an indirect relationship between the first element and the second element in which there are one or more intermediate elements.

[0033] As described below, the term "set" generally refers to a grouping of one or more elements. However, in various implementations, a "set" may be an empty set in some cases (in other words, the set has zero elements in these cases). As an example, depending on the query, the set of search results produced by a query may be an empty set. In cases where it is unclear, the term "non-empty set" may be used to explicitly exclude the empty set - that is, a non-empty set will always have one or more elements.

[0034] A "subset" of a first set typically includes some elements of the first set. In various implementations, a subset of the first set is not necessarily a proper subset: in some cases, the subset may be contiguous with (equal to) the first set (in other words, the subset may include the same elements as the first set). In unclear cases, the term "proper subset" may be used to make it clear that the subset of the first set must exclude at least one element of the first set. Furthermore, in various implementations, the term "subset" does not necessarily exclude the empty set. As an example, consider a candidate set selected based on a first criterion and a subset of the candidate set selected based on a second criterion; if no elements in the candidate set meet the second criterion, the subset may be an empty set. In unclear cases, the term "non-empty subset" may be used to make it clear that the empty set is excluded.

[0035] In the drawings, the direction of the arrows, as indicated by the arrow heads, generally demonstrates the flow of information (such as data or instructions) of interest to the illustration. For example, when element A and element B exchange various information, but the information passed from element A to element B is relevant to the illustration, the arrow may point from element A to element B. This unidirectional arrow does not mean that no other information is passed from element B to element A. In addition, for information sent from element A to element B, element B may send a request or receipt confirmation to element A for the information.

[0036] In this application, including the following definitions, the term "module" may be replaced with the term "controller" or the term "circuit". In this application, the term "controller" may be replaced with the term "module". The term "module" may refer to, part of, or include: an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC); a digital, analog, or mixed analog / digital discrete circuit; a digital, analog, or mixed analog / digital integrated circuit; a combinational logic circuit; a field programmable gate array (FPGA); processor hardware (shared, dedicated, or group) that executes code; memory hardware (shared, dedicated, or group) that is coupled to the processor hardware and stores code executed by the processor hardware; other suitable hardware components that provide the described functionality; or a combination of some or all of the above, such as in a system on a chip.

[0037] The module may include one or more interface circuits. In some examples, (multiple) interface circuits may implement a wired or wireless interface connected to a local area network (LAN) or a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Examples of LANs are the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11-2020 (also known as the WIFI wireless network standard) and the IEEE standard 802.3-2018 (also known as the ETHERNET wired network standard). Examples of WPANs are IEEE standard 802.15.4 (including the ZIGBEE standard from the ZigBee Alliance) and the BLUETOOTH wireless network standard from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) (including core specification versions 3.0, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 5.0 and 5.1 from the Bluetooth SIG).

[0038] Modules may communicate with other modules using (multiple) interface circuits. Although modules may be depicted in the present disclosure as logically communicating directly with other modules, in various implementations the modules may actually communicate via a communication system. The communication system includes physical and / or virtual network equipment, such as hubs, switches, routers, and gateways. In some implementations, the communication system is connected to or traverses a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet. For example, the communication system may include multiple LANs connected to each other via the Internet or point-to-point leased lines using technologies including multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) and virtual private networks (VPNs).

[0039] In various embodiments, the functionality of a module may be distributed among multiple modules connected via a communication system. For example, multiple modules may implement the same functionality distributed by a load balancing system. In further examples, the functionality of a module may be divided between a server (also referred to as a remote or cloud) module and a client (or user) module. For example, a client module may include a local or network application that executes on a client device and performs network communications with a server module.

[0040] Some or all of the hardware features of a module may be defined using a hardware description language, such as IEEE Standard 1364-2005 (commonly referred to as "Verilog") and IEEE Standard 1076-2008 (commonly referred to as "VHDL"). Hardware description languages ​​may be used to manufacture and / or program hardware circuits. In some implementations, some or all of the features of a module may be defined by a language, such as IEEE 1666-2005 (commonly referred to as "SystemC"), which encompasses both code (described below) and hardware descriptions.

[0041] As used above, the term code may include software, firmware, and / or microcode, and may refer to programs, routines, functions, classes, data structures, and / or objects. Shared processor hardware encompasses a single microprocessor that executes some or all of the code from multiple modules. Group processor hardware encompasses a microprocessor that, in combination with additional microprocessors, executes some or all of the code from one or more modules. References to multiple microprocessors include multiple microprocessors on discrete chips, multiple microprocessors on a single chip, multiple cores of a single microprocessor, multiple threads of a single microprocessor, or a combination of the above.

[0042] Memory hardware may also store data with or separately from code. Shared memory hardware encompasses a single memory device that stores some or all of the code from multiple modules. An example of shared memory hardware may be a level 1 cache on or near a microprocessor die that may store code from multiple modules. Another example of shared memory hardware may be a persistent storage device, such as a solid state drive (SSD) or a magnetic hard disk drive (HDD), that may store code from multiple modules. Group memory hardware encompasses a memory device that, in combination with other memory devices, stores some or all of the code from one or more modules. An example of group memory hardware is a storage area network (SAN), which may store code for a particular module across multiple physical devices. Another example of group memory hardware is the random access memory of each server in a group of servers that, combined, store code for a particular module. The term "memory hardware" is a subset of the term "computer-readable medium."

[0043] The apparatus and methods described in this application may be implemented in part or in whole by a special purpose computer created by configuring a general purpose computer to perform one or more specific functions embodied in a computer program. Such apparatus and methods may be described as computerized or computer implemented apparatus and methods. The above functional blocks and flow chart elements serve as software specifications that may be converted into computer programs by the routine work of a skilled technician or programmer.

[0044] The computer program includes processor executable instructions stored on at least one non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program may also include or rely on stored data. The computer program may include a basic input / output system (BIOS) that interacts with the hardware of the special-purpose computer, device drivers that interact with specific devices of the special-purpose computer, one or more operating systems, user applications, background services, background applications, etc.

[0045] A computer program may include: (i) descriptive text to be parsed, such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), XML (Extensible Markup Language), or JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), (ii) assembly code, (iii) object code generated by a compiler from source code, (iv) source code for execution by an interpreter, (v) source code for compilation and execution by a just-in-time compiler, etc. By way of example only, a computer program may be used from a language including C, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift, Haskell, Go, SQL, R, Lisp, Fortran, Perl, Pascal, Curl, OCaml, HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language Fifth Edition), Ada, ASP (Active Server Pages), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor), Scala, Eiffel, Smalltalk, Erlang, Ruby, Visual Lua, MATLAB, SIMULINK, and The syntax of the language is used to write source code.

[0046] The term "non-transitory computer-readable medium" does not cover transient electrical or electromagnetic signals propagated through a medium (such as on a carrier wave). Non-limiting examples of non-transitory computer-readable media are: non-volatile memory circuits (such as flash memory circuits, erasable programmable read-only memory circuits, or mask read-only memory circuits), volatile memory circuits (such as static random access memory circuits or dynamic random access memory circuits), magnetic storage media (such as analog or digital magnetic tapes or hard drives), and optical storage media (such as CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray discs).

[0047] The term "set" generally refers to a grouping of one or more elements. The elements in a set do not necessarily need to have any common characteristics or otherwise belong together. The phrase "at least one of A, B, and C" should be construed to mean a logical (A or B or C), using a non-exclusive logical "or", and should not be construed to mean "at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C". The phrase "at least one of A, B, or C" should be construed to mean a logical (A or B or C), using a non-exclusive logical "or".

Claims

1. A system comprising: Supercapacitor set; an input characterized by a first nominal voltage; an output characterized by a second nominal voltage; a direct current (DC-DC) converter configured to convert power from an input at the first nominal voltage to an output at the second nominal voltage; as well as a switching power electronic device electrically connected to the set of supercapacitors, wherein the DC-DC converter comprises a magnetic coupling system that electromagnetically couples a first side of the DC-DC converter to a second side of the DC-DC converter, and Wherein, the magnetic coupling system electromagnetically couples the switching power electronic device to the second side of the DC-DC converter.

2. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The electromagnetic coupling system comprises: a first winding electrically connected to the first side of the DC-DC converter; and a second winding electrically connected to the second side of the DC-DC converter, Wherein, the first winding and the second winding are wound around a core.

3. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that The second winding includes a tap electrically connected to the switching power electronics.

4. The system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The magnetic coupling system includes a third winding electrically connected to the switching power electronic device, and The third winding is wound around the core.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The DC-DC converter comprises a switching device configured to convert the first nominal voltage into a pulsating DC.

6. The system according to claim 5, characterized in that The switching device comprises an H-bridge.

7. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The DC-DC converter comprises a rectifying device configured to convert the pulsating DC into the second nominal voltage.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein: The first nominal voltage is greater than 100 volts; and The second nominal voltage is one of approximately 12 volts and approximately 48 volts.

9. The system according to claim 1, characterized in that The switching power electronics include an H-bridge.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein: The supercapacitor set includes a plurality of supercapacitors connected in series and / or in parallel.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a second DC-DC converter, the second DC-DC converter configured to: in a first operating mode, providing power from the second side of the DC-DC converter to the set of supercapacitors, and In a second mode of operation, power is provided from the set of supercapacitors to the second side of the DC-DC converter.

12. The system according to claim 11, characterized in that The second side of the DC-DC converter includes a rectifier connected to the output.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein: The magnetic coupling system includes a first transformer having a first core, The magnetic coupling system includes a second transformer having a second core, The first core and the second core are separate, and The second transformer is connected between the second side of the DC-DC converter and the set of supercapacitors.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a switching device connected between the second transformer and the set of ultracapacitors.

15. A system comprising: Supercapacitor set; a first switching device comprising (i) a first terminal connected to an internal node and (ii) a second terminal; a second switching device connected between the internal node and the set of supercapacitors; a third switching device connected between the internal node and a reference terminal; a magnetic coupling system configured to electromagnetically couple an input to the second terminal and the reference terminal of the first switching device; as well as an inductive device connected between the internal node and an output, wherein: The input is characterized by a first nominal voltage; and The output is characterized by a second nominal voltage.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein: The magnetic coupling system includes a transformer, The first winding of the transformer is connected to the input, and The second winding of the transformer is connected between the second terminal of the first switching device and the reference terminal.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a fourth switching device connected across the output.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein: The first switching device comprises a transistor, The second switching device comprises a transistor, The third switching device includes a transistor, and The fourth switching device includes a transistor.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein: The first nominal voltage is greater than 100 volts; and The second nominal voltage is one of approximately 12 volts and approximately 48 volts.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein: The supercapacitor set includes a plurality of supercapacitors connected in parallel and / or in series.

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