Microchip, a US manufacturer of microcontrollers, memory and analog semiconductors, has announced the launch of a new electric vehicle charger reference design, which is advertised as a flexible and scalable reference design to meet the different electric vehicle charging needs in various regions.
Microchip's three scalable electric vehicle charger reference designs include a single-phase AC home charger, a three-phase AC commercial charger supporting the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and a system-on-chip (SoC), and a three-phase AC commercial charger supporting the Open Charge Point Protocol with a display.
Microchip provides most of the active components of this reference design, including microcontrollers (MCUs), analog front ends, memory, connectivity, and power conversion components. This simplifies the design integration process and enables manufacturers to accelerate time to market for new charging solutions.
Depending on the target market, the reference designs launched this time provide complete hardware design documents and open source code. They also include a tested and compliant software stack for communication protocols, including the Open Charge Point Protocol, to achieve interoperability in corresponding charging applications.
The reference design features are as follows:
The single-phase AC home electric vehicle charger reference design meets the charging needs of homes using single-phase power. It features a built-in high-performance energy meter with auto-calibration and integrated safety protection features, including protective earthed neutral (PEN) fault detection and residual current device (RCD) detection.
A three-phase AC commercial electric vehicle charger reference design supporting the Open ChargePoint Protocol and a Wi-Fi SoC is suitable for advanced residential and commercial charging stations. It integrates the OCPP 1.6 protocol stack for communicating with the charging network and a Wi-Fi SoC for remote management.
The three-phase AC commercial electric vehicle charger reference design supports the open charge point protocol and a display. It is suitable for commercial and public charging stations and complies with UL 2231 and has completed architectural review. It supports bidirectional charging capabilities up to 22kW and a modular architecture. It is operated using a graphical interface, touch-enabled, and harsh-environment resistant TFT display.
