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Prodrive leads UK consortium on DC-DC converters

A consortium of UK companies, led by motorsport specialist Prodrive, is developing a new DC-DC converter for hybrid and electric vehicles, which is intended to be more efficient, smaller and lower cost than those currently available.

The project, part funded by the UK's Technology Strategy Board, will pool expertise from companies including Prodrive, HILTech Developments, International Transformers, LDV, Sloan Electronics and the Universities of Manchester and Newcastle.

Prodrive says that current hybrid vehicles without DC-DC converters compromise the energy storage device (usually ultra capacitors or batteries) and the electric motor.

For example, under braking, as the vehicle slows the voltage generated by the motor falls while the energy in the storage device increases. There is a point when the motor can no longer supply enough voltage for the storage device so energy recovery after this point is no longer possible. The situation is the same when using the stored energy to power the motor to accelerate the vehicle.

A DC-DC converter balances voltage between motor and energy storage device, boosting or reducing voltage as necessary. This reclaims more of the energy under braking and provides more under acceleration, making the vehicle more efficient.

“Our converter will be designed for use with 50kW systems,” said Pete James, electronics specialist at Prodrive. “This means it can provide an additional power boost of up to 67bhp, which allows a hybrid car to use a much smaller petrol engine without any loss in performance. The other exciting prospect is that such a system could be used instead of a turbo or supercharger on higher performance sports cars.”

The project will require new technologies in power electronics and thermal management. A feature of the system will be prognostics and health monitoring, providing the converter with the ability to predict failure and shut down, or run in a reduced 'limp home' mode.

Vehicle packaging, price and efficiency are fundamental to the success of the DC-DC converter. The targets for the project are to produce a unit of
• efficiency of 96 per cent
• power/volume ratio of 6 kW/litre
• power/weight ratio of 4 kW/kg.

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