Patent Description:
With the much more restricted requirements for energy conservation and environmental protection, electric vehicles with low or zero emissions, including hybrid vehicles and electric-only vehicles, are increasingly used. Although the electric vehicles already have greater advantages than traditional fuel vehicles in terms of power, noise and cost of use, there are still some shortcomings of electric vehicles compared to traditional fuel vehicles, especially the charging problem. Compared to traditional fuel vehicles an empty tank of which can be fully filled in a few minutes and which can then drive more than <NUM>-<NUM>, it takes at least at least a few hours for electric vehicles to charge the battery to drive similar or less kilometers. As a result, there are still many inconveniences in daily use for electric vehicles.

Accordingly, some fast charging technologies have been proposed in the prior art, which typically use <NUM> volts for charging. As a result, many charging facilities have been designed to provide <NUM> volts. More recently, even higher voltage charging technologies, such as <NUM>-volt architectures, have been proposed and used. Higher voltages provide much more efficient charging under the same operating conditions. In this way, the battery can be charged with a battery power of <NUM> kilometers in a few minutes, or more than <NUM>% of the battery power can be charged in half an hour.

However, most of the current charging facilities are only capable of providing <NUM> volts charging. In addition, charging at higher voltage requires substantive modifications to existing facilities and is not economical. Therefore, it is proposed in the prior art that using external <NUM>-volt charging voltage, while the battery in the vehicle has a higher voltage specification, such as <NUM> volts. This enables efficient charging with higher voltage without modifying the present external charging equipment.

In order to achieve boosting an external voltage of <NUM> volts to <NUM> volts, in the art, a technical solution is currently proposed which uses the neutral point of a motor in a vehicle motor driving system to receive the power voltage from an electric vehicle external power supply device and to boost it to charge the battery. The electric vehicle external power supply device uses the existing infrastructure, which provides a lower charging voltage, for example <NUM> volts. With such a solution, it is possible to boost the voltage by means of the motor drive system when it is not operating in driving mode, and provide the boosted voltage to the battery, and thus charge the battery without additional devices and additional costs.

Specifically, such a battery charging solution using motor-driven system is a charging solution that apply external charging power to the motor neutral, by using the motor's coils and the inverter's switching elements to boost the voltage at the motor neutral (e.g., <NUM> volts) to the higher charging voltage of the battery (e.g., <NUM> volts). If the external charging voltage has a magnitude suitable for the battery charging voltage (e.g., <NUM> volts), the external charging voltage can be applied directly to the battery instead of applying external power to the motor neutral. In this manner, when the external charging voltage (e.g. <NUM> volts) is lower than the battery design charging voltage, the external charging voltage is boosted to the battery charging voltage by using the motor and inverter; when the external charging voltage is suitable for the battery charging voltage, the battery is charged directly by the external voltage.

Typically, a boost charging circuit using the neutral point of the motor comprises: an inverter, which is connected to a rechargeable battery; a motor, which is connected to the inverter and is provided with a neutral point, configured to provide power supplied to the neutral point to the inverter, wherein the inverter and the motor form a motor drive system capable of providing drive to the vehicle when in the driving mode; a relay, which has one end connected to the charging power input terminal and has an opposite end; a neutral point capacitor arranged on a by-pass path, a first end of which is connected to the motor neutral point and to the charging power input terminal, wherein the DC charging power is adapted to be input from the charging power input terminal, and a second end of the by-pass path is connected to the charging power input terminal and to the opposite end of the relay. Such a charging system is e.g. disclosed in document <CIT>.

When the motor driving system is operating in a charging mode, the neutral point capacitor functions as an input capacitor of the boost charging circuit during the boost charging process. Whereas when the motor driving system is operating in the driving mode, i.e., when the battery and the inverter drives the motor, this neutral point capacitor must be disconnected from the motor's neutral point, otherwise it will interfere with the normal SVPWM control of the motor. Thus, it is necessary to also have a second relay between the charging power input terminal and the neutral point of the motor (especially between the first terminal of the by-pass path and the neutral point of the motor). The second relay closes the circuit when the boost charging circuit is operating and opens when the motor is driving the vehicle.

In addition, such circuits can be integrated with external voltage direct charging circuits to achieve a multiple (<NUM> and <NUM> volts) charging systems.

However, in such a boost charging circuit, the second relay is arranged in the main charging circuit, which requires a higher rated current and therefore a larger size. However, for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) reasons, this second relay usually needs to be arranged in an integrated drive module (iDM). Usually the integrated drive module has very limited space and any oversized relays are not easy or even impossible to package, which makes the entire project impossible to implement. In addition, large rated current relays also lead to higher production costs.

The background technologies described above are intended only for the understanding of the background of this disclosure and should not be understood that they are conventional technologies known to those skilled in the art.

It should be noted that the purpose of the present invention is to overcome one or more drawbacks that have been found in the background art.

To this end, the present invention provides a vehicle high-voltage charging system as defined in independent claim <NUM>.

With the above arrangement, the current of the second relay is significantly reduced because only the ripple current of the neutral capacitor flows through the second relay on the by-pass path. This is because the battery main charging current does not flow through the second relay. Therefore, the size of the second relay is significantly reduced and it can be easily arranged in the integrated drive module. In addition, since the second relay requires only a smaller rated current, the production cost of the relay is also significantly reduced.

Furthermore, the second relay is positioned between the neutral point capacitor and the neutral point of the motor. Alternatively, the neutral point capacitor is positioned between the second relay and the neutral point of the motor.

Thus, the second relay can be flexibly arranged in series with the neutral capacitor in the by-pass path to active and stop the neutral capacitor of the charging system.

Furthermore, the second relay is a relay with solenoid and contactors. The use of such conventional relays allows for better control of production costs and system complexity. Alternatively, the second relay is a semiconductor switch without contactors. For example, such a semiconductor switch is a MOSFET switch. Alternatively, the second relay is a mechanical switch operated by electric motors to switch on or off by a control signal.

Furthermore, the charging system further comprises a third relay having one end connected to the rechargeable battery and an opposite end connected to the charging power input terminal. Thus, a direct charging circuit can be formed and the rechargeable battery can be charged directly through the charging power input terminal.

Furthermore, the charging system further comprises a fourth relay having one end connected to the neutral point of the motor and the first end of the by-pass path and an opposite end connected to the charging power input terminal. It can connect or disconnect the charging power input terminal to meet the regulations.

Furthermore, the by-pass path, the motor, and the inverter are arranged in an integrated drive module (iDM).

Furthermore, the charging system is adapted to be used for <NUM> to <NUM> volts boost charging. Thus, it is possible to adapt to a wider range of charging voltages and improve the practicality of this system.

The characteristics and advantages of other aspects of the present invention will be discussed in the following embodiments. Those skilled in the art can clearly understand the content of the present invention and the technical effects obtained based on these exemplary embodiments.

The other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent by referring to the following specific embodiments without limiting the invention, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:.

The following are exemplary embodiments according to the present invention. The relevant definitions below are used to describe exemplary embodiments, rather than to limit the scope of the present invention which is defined by the claims.

<FIG> shows an embodiment of a first embodiment of a vehicle high-voltage charging system using a motor-driven system according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the high-voltage charging system comprises:
An inverter <NUM> connected to a rechargeable battery <NUM>; in the present embodiment, the rechargeable battery is a high voltage HV battery, e.g. <NUM> volts high voltage.

A motor <NUM> connected to the inverter <NUM>. In a driving mode, the motor <NUM> is used as a driving motor, by discharging through the battery <NUM>, electrical energy then flows through the inverter to the motor <NUM>, thereby driving the motor <NUM> to operate in order to provide driving power to the vehicle. In addition, the motor <NUM> has a neutral point N which, in a charging mode, is configured to provide the power (e.g. <NUM> volts), provided to said neutral point, to said inverter and boost that external power to <NUM> volts, which then charges the battery <NUM>.

A first relay R1 having one end connected to the charging power input terminal <NUM> (such as negative electrode) and an opposite end;.

A neutral point capacitor Cn arranged on a by-pass path, wherein a first end of the by-pass path is connected to the neutral point N and a positive electrode of the charging power input terminal <NUM> to which DC charging power is adapted to input, and a second end of the by-pass path is connected to the opposite end of the first relay R1, which is connected to the negative electrode of the charging power input terminal, and to the rechargeable battery;.

This neutral point capacitor Cn can filter the DC voltage being input to the charging power input terminal <NUM> and reduce the interference of other noise to the charging circuit or the discharging circuit.

In the present embodiment, the charging system further comprises a second relay Rn, which is also arranged in the by-pass path and in series with the neutral point capacitor Cn. Specifically, in the embodiment shown a in <FIG>, the neutral capacitor Cn is located between this second relay Rn and the neutral point N of said motor.

Optionally, in a second embodiment of the vehicle high-voltage charging system according to the present invention as shown in <FIG>, the only difference from the embodiment of <FIG> is that the second relay Rn can also be located between said neutral capacitor Cn and the neutral point N of the motor.

Optionally, the second relay Rn is a relay with solenoid and contactors. The use of such conventional relays allows for better control of production costs and system complexity. Optionally, the second relay Rn is a semiconductor switch without contactors. For example, such a semiconductor switch is a MOSFET switch. Optionally, the second relay is a mechanical switch operated by electric motors to switch on or off by a control signal.

Since the second relay Rn is arranged in a by-pass path and in series with the neutral capacitor Cn, a ripple current flows in the neutral capacitor Cn. For example, with a DC boost charge current of <NUM> A to <NUM> A, the ripple current in the neutral capacitor Cn is only <NUM> A to <NUM> A. As a result, the second relay Rn can be designed with a lower rated current, which makes it possible to reduce its size and facilitate its placement to meet the high space requirements, such as in an integrated drive module iDM.

In addition, to reduce electromagnetic interference, the neutral point capacitor Cn and the second relay Rn must be as close as possible to the stator winding of the motor <NUM>.

Preferably, the high-voltage charging system may also include a second capacitor Cbus, which is connected to the inverter <NUM> and can filter the DC voltage output from the inverter <NUM> and the DC voltage output from the battery <NUM>, and also store energy for the voltage output from the inverter <NUM> to finalize the charging of the battery <NUM>, effectively reducing the interference of other noise waves to the charging circuit, the discharge circuit, and the drive circuit.

The circuit described above can be used for boost charging, i.e., the ability to boost external DC power from, for example, <NUM> volts to <NUM> volts to charge the battery <NUM>.

Optionally, the high-voltage charging system further comprises a third relay R2, one end of which is connected to the rechargeable battery <NUM> and the opposite end of which is connected to the charging power input terminal <NUM> (positive), so that a direct charging circuit can be formed, i.e. the rechargeable battery <NUM> is charged directly via the charging power input terminal at an external voltage of, for example, <NUM> volts.

In this case, further, the charging system may further comprise a fourth relay R3, one end of which is connected to the neutral point N of the motor and the first end of the by-pass path, and the opposite end of which is connected to the charging power input terminal <NUM> (positive), wherein the fourth relay R3 is capable of connecting or disconnecting the charging power input terminal in order to switch between <NUM> volt boost charging from an external power source and <NUM> volt direct charging from an external power source in cooperation with the third relay R2.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the by-pass path, the motor, the inverter and the capacitor Cbus are arranged in an integrated drive module iDM.

Optionally, the other charge-related relays R1, R2 and R3 may be placed outside the integrated drive module iDM, for example in a power distribution unit PDU.

The circuit charging operation mode of the vehicle high-voltage charging system in this embodiment will be described below.

The vehicle high-voltage charging system according to the present invention can be charged by a first high voltage (e.g. <NUM> volts) or a second high voltage (e.g. <NUM> volts) power source, wherein the first high voltage is lower than the second high voltage and the second high voltage is a designed charging voltage of the battery.

With an external charging voltage of <NUM> volts, the third relay R2 according to the embodiment of the present invention is open and the first relay R1, the second relay Rn and the fourth relay R3 are closed in order to form a boost charging circuit.

For example, <NUM> volts DC is input to the neutral point of the motor through the charging power input terminal <NUM>, and then the <NUM> volts is boosted to <NUM> volts through the coils of the motor and the inductor of the inverter, and subsequently the battery <NUM> is charged.

With an external charging voltage of <NUM> volts, the first relay R1 and the third relay R2 in this embodiment are closed and the fourth relay R3 is open in order to form a direct charging circuit. Meanwhile, <NUM> volts DC power directly charges the battery <NUM> through the charging power input terminal <NUM>.

In addition, as previously described, the existing motor driving system of the vehicle can be used for boost charging in the present invention. This motor driving system can be powered by the battery <NUM> to generate power to drive the vehicle. In this case, the relay associated with charging, especially the second relay Rn, is disconnected to avoid the neutral capacitor interfering with the normal SVPWM control of the motor. As a result, the second relay Rn is closed when the boost circuit is operating and is open when the motor is driving the vehicle.

Claim 1:
A vehicle high-voltage charging system using a motor driving system, comprising:
an inverter (<NUM>) connectable to a rechargeable battery (<NUM>);
a motor (<NUM>) connected to the inverter (<NUM>) and configured to supply power, which is provided to a neutral point (N) of the motor (<NUM>), to the inverter (<NUM>);
a first relay (R1) having one end connected to a charging power input terminal and an opposite end;
a neutral point capacitor (Cn) arranged on a by-pass path, wherein a first end of the by-pass path is connected to the neutral point (N) and a charging power input terminal to which DC charging power is adaptable to input, and a second end of the by-pass path is connectable to the rechargeable battery and the opposite end of the first relay (R1);
characterized in that the charging system further comprises a second relay (Rn) arranged in the by-pass path and in series with the neutral point capacitor (Cn).