Microchip releases EV charger reference designs

Microchip Technology Inc. has released three scalable EV charger reference designs including a single-phase AC residential, a three-phase AC commercial with Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) and system-on-chip (SoC) and a three-phase AC commercial with OCPP and display. For streamlining the integration process and shortening design cycles, most of the active components for these EV charger reference designs are available from Microchip, including the microcontroller (MCU), analog front-end, memory, connectivity and power conversion.

(Source: Microchip Technology Inc.)

Microchip said the EV charger reference designs enable manufacturers to scale and meet the needs of residential and commercial charging applications. Reference designs include complete hardware design files and source code with software stacks that are tested and compliant to communication protocols, including OCPP. This standard protocol enables communication between the charge point or charging station and a central system and interoperability of the charging applications regardless of the network or vendor.

EV charger reference designs

The single-phase AC residential EV charger reference design targets home charging, where a single-phase supply is used. Safety protection features include protective Earth neutral (PEN) fault detection and residual current device (RCD) detection. The on-board energy metering device with automatic calibration simplifies the production process, Microchip said.
The three-phase AC commercial with OCPP and Wi-Fi SoC EV charger reference design for high-end residential and commercial charging stations features OCPP 1.6 stack integration for communication with charging networks and Wi-Fi SoC for remote management.

The three-phase AC commercial with OCPP and display EV charger reference design for commercial and public charging stations focuses on robust operation including a completed architecture review according to UL 2231. It supports up to 22 kW with bidirectional charging capabilities and a modular architecture. Other features include a graphical user interface (GUI) with a thin-film transistor (TFT) screen and touch input designed to withstand harsh environments.

The EV reference designs are supported by Microchip’s MPLAB X integrated development environment (IDE),  MPLAB Harmony v3 software development framework for MCUs and MPLAB code configurator.