Fast Chargers for Plug-In Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

This chapter introduces the technical background of fast chargers for plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles, including technique development for on-board chargers and fast charging stations, standard, regulations, and future trends. The development of wide-bandgap (WBG) devices is the basic technology and the biggest driving force for innovation of fast chargers. The fundamentals of WBG devices and the unipolar and bipolar WBG power semiconductors commonly used in fast chargers are introduced. To take advantages of WBG devices, state-of-the-art topologies for on-board chargers and fast-charging stations are presented. The medium frequency transformers and the control strategies for modular SST-based fast charging stations are also introduced.