Page 51 - PEN eBook July 2023
P. 51
SEMICONDUCTORS
SiC Devices for EV
Chargers
By George Hariman, systems architect at Rohm Semiconductor Americas
The widespread adoption of electric vehicles has depended largely on successfully augmenting their
practical range beyond the bounds of city driving. This has been achieved by steadily increasing
the capacity of the battery pack along with the efficiency of the associated power electronics. In
parallel, consumers have demanded ever shorter charging cycles and more convenient charging
methods within a broad network of physical locations. These two trends are in direct competition
and have ultimately spurred the advancement of EV charging stations themselves.
As shown in Figure 1, battery capacities have more than doubled in the last five years, and charging
station power capacity has nearly tripled. This has been made possible by technological leaps in
chemistry and construction on the battery side and by circuit topology and components on the
charger side.
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