Passive Components Blog
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • NewsFilter
    • All
    • Aerospace & Defence
    • Antenna
    • Applications
    • Automotive
    • Capacitors
    • Circuit Protection Devices
    • electro-mechanical news
    • Filters
    • Fuses
    • Inductors
    • Industrial
    • Integrated Passives
    • inter-connect news
    • Market & Supply Chain
    • Market Insights
    • Medical
    • Modelling and Simulation
    • New Materials & Supply
    • New Technologies
    • Non-linear Passives
    • Oscillators
    • Passive Sensors News
    • Resistors
    • RF & Microwave
    • Telecommunication
    • Weekly Digest

    Common Mistakes in Flyback Transformer Specs

    Vishay Releases Miniature SMD Trimmers for Harsh Environments

    Würth Elektronik Releases Push-Button and Main Switches

    Littelfuse Unveils High-Precision TMR Angle Magnetic Sensors

    Stackpole Extends Voltage of High Temp Chip Resistors

    High Voltage MLCCs Meeting the Growing Demand for Efficiency in Power Conversion

    Bourns Releases High Power High Ripple Chokes

    KYOCERA AVX Releases Hermaphroditic WTW and WTB Connectors

    Radiation Tolerance of Tantalum and Ceramic Capacitors

    Trending Tags

    • Ripple Current
    • RF
    • Leakage Current
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
    • Snubber
    • Low ESR
    • Feedthrough
    • Derating
    • Dielectric Constant
    • New Products
    • Market Reports
  • VideoFilter
    • All
    • Antenna videos
    • Capacitor videos
    • Circuit Protection Video
    • Filter videos
    • Fuse videos
    • Inductor videos
    • Inter-Connect Video
    • Non-linear passives videos
    • Oscillator videos
    • Passive sensors videos
    • Resistor videos

    Percolation Phenomenon and Reliability of Molded Power Inductors in DC/DC converters

    Root Causes and Effects of DC Bias and AC in Ceramic Capacitors

    How to Calculate the Output Capacitor for a Switching Power Supply

    Switched Capacitor Converter Explained

    Understanding Inductor Dot Markings and Their Application in LTspice

    Accelerating Full Bridge LLC Resonant Converter Design with Frenetic AI

    Understanding Switched Capacitor Converters

    Coupled Inductors Circuit Model and Examples of its Applications

    Inductor Resonances and its Impact to EMI

    Trending Tags

    • Capacitors explained
    • Inductors explained
    • Resistors explained
    • Filters explained
    • Application Video Guidelines
    • EMC
    • New Products
    • Ripple Current
    • Simulation
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Suppliers
    • Who is Who
  • Events
  • Home
  • NewsFilter
    • All
    • Aerospace & Defence
    • Antenna
    • Applications
    • Automotive
    • Capacitors
    • Circuit Protection Devices
    • electro-mechanical news
    • Filters
    • Fuses
    • Inductors
    • Industrial
    • Integrated Passives
    • inter-connect news
    • Market & Supply Chain
    • Market Insights
    • Medical
    • Modelling and Simulation
    • New Materials & Supply
    • New Technologies
    • Non-linear Passives
    • Oscillators
    • Passive Sensors News
    • Resistors
    • RF & Microwave
    • Telecommunication
    • Weekly Digest

    Common Mistakes in Flyback Transformer Specs

    Vishay Releases Miniature SMD Trimmers for Harsh Environments

    Würth Elektronik Releases Push-Button and Main Switches

    Littelfuse Unveils High-Precision TMR Angle Magnetic Sensors

    Stackpole Extends Voltage of High Temp Chip Resistors

    High Voltage MLCCs Meeting the Growing Demand for Efficiency in Power Conversion

    Bourns Releases High Power High Ripple Chokes

    KYOCERA AVX Releases Hermaphroditic WTW and WTB Connectors

    Radiation Tolerance of Tantalum and Ceramic Capacitors

    Trending Tags

    • Ripple Current
    • RF
    • Leakage Current
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
    • Snubber
    • Low ESR
    • Feedthrough
    • Derating
    • Dielectric Constant
    • New Products
    • Market Reports
  • VideoFilter
    • All
    • Antenna videos
    • Capacitor videos
    • Circuit Protection Video
    • Filter videos
    • Fuse videos
    • Inductor videos
    • Inter-Connect Video
    • Non-linear passives videos
    • Oscillator videos
    • Passive sensors videos
    • Resistor videos

    Percolation Phenomenon and Reliability of Molded Power Inductors in DC/DC converters

    Root Causes and Effects of DC Bias and AC in Ceramic Capacitors

    How to Calculate the Output Capacitor for a Switching Power Supply

    Switched Capacitor Converter Explained

    Understanding Inductor Dot Markings and Their Application in LTspice

    Accelerating Full Bridge LLC Resonant Converter Design with Frenetic AI

    Understanding Switched Capacitor Converters

    Coupled Inductors Circuit Model and Examples of its Applications

    Inductor Resonances and its Impact to EMI

    Trending Tags

    • Capacitors explained
    • Inductors explained
    • Resistors explained
    • Filters explained
    • Application Video Guidelines
    • EMC
    • New Products
    • Ripple Current
    • Simulation
    • Tantalum vs Ceramic
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Suppliers
    • Who is Who
  • Events
No Result
View All Result
Passive Components Blog
No Result
View All Result

Design Challenges with Bidirectional EV Charging

10.5.2023
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

Knowles Precision Devices released white paper on why bidirectional EV charging requires special attention to design.

As interest and adoption increase in the electric vehicle (EV) arena, associated technologies are advancing quickly.

RelatedPosts

Knowles Unveils High-Performance Safety-Certified MLCC Capacitors

Knowles Releases Inductors for Mission-Critical RF Applications

Learn How Supercapacitors Enhance Power System in Knowles eBook

Batteries are becoming more powerful and charging infrastructure is increasingly robust and efficient. With all these advancements, EV batteries are good for more than powering cars on the road.

Bidirectional charging capabilities are the next big perk for EV owners. Perfecting this technology means EV batteries can fuel vehicles and private homes or local grids. Right now, OEMs are part of a huge push to make bidirectional chargers resilient and reliable.

How Does Bidirectional Charging Work?

When an EV is charging, alternating current (AC) from the grid is converted into direct current (DC) electricity, which can be used by the vehicle. This conversion can be performed by the vehicle’s converter, or a converter located inside the charging apparatus.

During this process, semiconductors located inside the converter switch at high speeds to create a waveform that mimics DC electricity. In a unidirectional charging scenario, diodes continue sending current forward in one direction—towards the vehicle.

Bidirectional converters (right) are the same as unidirectional converters (left), but the second phase uses active switches to achieve bidirectionality. Credit: Yole

Replacing diodes with semiconductors, see Figure 1, allows waveforms to be made on the primary and secondary sides of the converter, so current can flow in either direction—towards the vehicle or towards the grid. Since semiconductor switching creates so much electrical noise, and there are so many more of them in bidirectional chargers, smoothing and filtering ceramic capacitors, like snubber capacitors, are implemented to smooth and reduce all of that noise. 

Why Use Bidirectional Charging in the First Place?

Even with all the excitement, battery economics is a central concern with more devices and systems on the grid. What happens when the grid gets overloaded? Experts believe that vehicle-to-grid charging is one way to manage demand-response capabilities.

Bidirectional chargers regulate the flow of electricity in both directions, which allows EV batteries to charge from the grid and discharge electricity back into the grid to power a home, office, or appliance during an outage. In other words, vehicles can pick up the slack when grids inevitably fail due to factors like weather or overload.

What are the Greatest Design Challenges Associated with Bidirectional EV Charging?

To serve their critical function, bidirectional chargers need to comply with local grid requirements, which vary across localities. Designers are tasked with ensuring communication devices and circuits can accommodate different voltages (e.g., 230V vs. 110V) and frequencies (e.g., 50Hz vs. 60Hz) depending on where the driver lives and travels to ensure safe, reliable charging and discharging.

Since bidirectional chargers send current in two different directions using one circuit, their components will experience more wear. Wear leads to overheating, voltage spikes, and current surges that could pose safety concerns. Each component in the system must be designed for longer device life and a higher number of charge/discharge cycles. Along the same lines, efficiency becomes a more critical constraint because these chargers experience a higher number of power conversion cycles than unidirectional chargers.

Adding active switches to the secondary side of the converter for bidirectional charging adds complexity to the overall design. Components must be carefully selected to handle high power without compromising safety or reliability.

For more information on bidirectional EV charging, see Knowles white paper, Making Electric Vehicle Wireless Charging a Reality. 

Related

Source: Knowles

Recent Posts

Littelfuse Unveils High-Precision TMR Angle Magnetic Sensors

13.8.2025
4

Stackpole Extends Voltage of High Temp Chip Resistors

13.8.2025
6

High Voltage MLCCs Meeting the Growing Demand for Efficiency in Power Conversion

12.8.2025
44

Radiation Tolerance of Tantalum and Ceramic Capacitors

8.8.2025
60

TDK Releases Compact Polypropylene Film Capacitors for Resonant Topologies

7.8.2025
31

Root Causes and Effects of DC Bias and AC in Ceramic Capacitors

6.8.2025
47

Knowles Unveils High-Performance Safety-Certified MLCC Capacitors

6.8.2025
39

Vishay Releases High Saturation 180C Automotive Inductors

6.8.2025
21

How to Calculate the Output Capacitor for a Switching Power Supply

6.8.2025
40

Evaluation and Modeling of Supercapacitors for Reliability of Lifetime Predictions

4.8.2025
31

Upcoming Events

Aug 27
17:00 - 18:00 CEST

Capacitor Assemblies for High-Power Circuit Designs

Sep 3
15:30 - 17:30 CEST

How to Choose Your Magnetic Supplier

Sep 22
September 22 @ 13:00 - September 25 @ 15:15 EDT

Pre Cap Visual Inspection per Mil-Std-883 (TM 2017)

Sep 30
September 30 @ 12:00 - October 2 @ 14:00 EDT

MIL-Std-883 TM 2010

Oct 17
12:00 - 14:00 EDT

External Visual Inspection per MIL-STD-883 TM 2009

View Calendar

Popular Posts

  • Buck Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Boost Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Flyback Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • LLC Resonant Converter Design and Calculation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What is a Dielectric Constant and DF of Plastic Materials?

    4 shares
    Share 4 Tweet 0
  • Ripple Current and its Effects on the Performance of Capacitors

    3 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 0
  • Dual Active Bridge (DAB) Topology Explained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • How to Design an Inductor

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • MLCC Case Sizes Standards Explained

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • MLCC and Ceramic Capacitors

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter Subscription

 

Passive Components Blog

© EPCI - Leading Passive Components Educational and Information Site

  • Home
  • Privacy Policy
  • EPCI Membership & Advertisement
  • About

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Knowledge Blog
  • Premium Suppliers

© EPCI - Leading Passive Components Educational and Information Site

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
Go to mobile version