Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Charging for Electric vehicles - A Review

Considering a future scenario in which a driverless Electric Vehicle (EV) needs an automatic charging system without human intervention. In this regard, there is a requirement for a fully automatable, fast, safe, cost-effective, and reliable charging infrastructure that provides a profitable business model and fast adoption in the electrified transportation systems. These qualities can be comprehended through wireless charging systems. Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is a futuristic technology with the advantage of flexibility, convenience, safety, and the capability of becoming fully automated. In WPT methods resonant inductive wireless charging has to gain more attention compared to other wireless power transfer methods due to high efficiency and easy maintenance. This literature presents a review of the status of Resonant Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Charging technology also highlighting the present status and its future of the wireless EV market. First, the paper delivers a brief history throw lights on wireless charging methods, highlighting the pros and cons. Then, the paper aids a comparative review of different type’s inductive pads, rails, and compensations technologies done so far. The static and dynamic charging techniques and their characteristics are also illustrated. The role and importance of power electronics and converter types used in various applications are discussed. The batteries and their management systems as well as various problems involved in WPT are also addressed. Different trades like cyber security economic effects, health and safety, foreign object detection, and the effect and impact on the distribution grid are explored. Prospects and challenges involved in wireless charging systems are also highlighting in this work. We believe that this work could help further the research and development of WPT systems.publishedVersio

Design and control of a bidirectional wireless charging system using GaN devices

Most of the existing wireless power transfer system works in unidirectional with one-direction control signals. This paper presents a bidirectional wireless charging system with duplex communication method, which is not only able to achieve the two-way wireless power transmission, but also transfer control signals bi-directionally. The power circuit operation mode is actively controlled by using the wireless transceiver module which can duplex communication to deliver measured signals remotely. The operational principle is analytically studied in details and is verified by simulation. Finally, a prototype of the bidirectional charging system using GaN devices has been successfully designed and tested. In addition, the measured feedback signals are effectively transmitted to validate the control algorithm

Challenges and Barriers of Wireless Charging Technologies for Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles could be a significant aid in lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Even though extensive study has been done on the features and traits of electric vehicles and the nature of their charging infrastructure, network modeling for electric vehicle manufacturing has been limited and unchanging. The necessity of wireless electric vehicle charging, based on magnetic resonance coupling, drove the primary aims for this review work. Herein, we examined the basic theoretical framework for wireless power transmission systems for EV charging and performed a software-in-the-loop analysis, in addition to carrying out a performance analysis of an EV charging system based on magnetic resonance. This study also covered power pad designs and created workable remedies for the following issues: (i) how power pad positioning affected the function of wireless charging systems and (ii) how to develop strategies to keep power efficiency at its highest level. Moreover, safety features of wireless charging systems, owing to interruption from foreign objects and/or living objects, were analyzed, and solutions were proposed to ensure such systems would operate as safely and optimally as possible

Sensorless control of the charging process of a dynamic inductive power transfer system with interleaved nine-phase boost converter

The paper proposes a technique for the control of the charging process in a dynamic inductive power transfer system for automotive applications. This technique is based on an impedance control loop on the receiver side. The proposed control allows to carry out the different phases of the charging process in absence of a communication link between ground and vehicle side. The charging process starts with a sensorless procedure for the identification of the actual presence of the vehicle over the receiver. The same control technique introduces several advantages in terms of interoperability between systems having different requirements in terms of power demand. A 11 kW prototype has been implemented based on a transmitter 1.5 meters long as compromise solution between the long track coil and the lumped one. The power management of the receiver side is provided by a nine-phase interleaved boost converter. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed control together with a good matching with the developed theoretical equations set for the system description

Fast hardware protection for a series-series compensated inductive power transfer system for electric vehicles

The paper proposes a simple solution to a safety problem encountered during the development of a series-series compensated IPT system for electric vehicles. This problem is related to the equivalent current source behavior of the receiver side in presence of an unpredicted load disconnection. A pure analog hardware system able to manage this fault protecting the filtering elements of the system is proposed. The system is investigated by means of a circuit simulation then its physical implementation is presented. The effectiveness of the proposed solution is experimentally proven

High Power Capacitive Power Transfer for Electric Vehicle Charging Applications

Capacitive power transfer (CPT) technology is an effective way to charge electric vehicles, in which electric fields between metal plates are used to transfer power. Compared to the conventional inductive power transfer (IPT) system, a CPT system has three advantages: it does not generate eddy-current loss in nearby metal objects; it can reduce the system weight and cost; it has better misalignment performance. However, the coupling capacitance in a CPT system is usually in the pF range, which limits the CPT system power and efficiency. Through overcoming the limitation of small capacitance in a CPT system, this dissertation has achieved three breakthroughs in CPT technology: the system power is increased from several tens of watts to several kW; the transfer distance is increased from less than 1 mm to hundreds of mm; the transfer efficiency is increased from about 30% to over 90%. A double-sided LCLC compensation circuit has been proposed to realize high-power and long-distance capacitive power transfer. The compensation circuit provides resonances with the coupling capacitance, and increases the voltages on metal plates to kV level to achieve kW power transfer. A prototype has been constructed and validates the proposed circuit. Experimental results show that the prototype realizes 2.4 kW power transfer across an air-gap distance of 150 mm with a dc-dc efficiency of 90.8%. The experiments also show that the CPT system has better misalignment performance than the conventional IPT system. An IPT-CPT combined system has also been proposed to integrate the IPT and CPT technology together. The combination can increase the efficiency of the CPT system, and improve the misalignment performance of the IPT system. A prototype has been constructed to validate the combined idea. Experimental results show that the prototype realizes 2.84 kW power transfer across an air-gap distance of 150 mm with a dc-dc efficiency of 94.4%. Using the designed LCLC compensation circuit, a dynamic CPT system has been proposed to realize power transfer to receivers in moving status. A long-track coupler structure is used to reduce the pulsation of received power. A prototype has been constructed to validate dynamic charging. Experimental results show that the prototype realizes 154W power transfer across an air-gap distance of 50 mm with a dc-dc efficiency of 85.4%. Considering practical applications, the safety issues and foreign object influence have been studied in this dissertation. The high voltage issue can be solved by reliable insulation, and the electric field emissions can be reduced through capacitive coupler structure design. The foreign object, either metallic or dielectric, can influence the coupling capacitances in a CPT system depends on the position and size. The CPT system can also influence the voltage and power loss in the foreign object. To sum up, this dissertation has demonstrated that the CPT technology is a good solution to realize the charging of electric vehicles. In future work, the power density and efficiency of the CPT system will be further improved to make it more competitive with the inductive and conductive charging technology.PHDElectrical Engineering: SystemsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138493/1/feilu_1.pd

A High Frequency Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging Using Multi-layer Non-uniform Self-resonant Coil

Wireless EV (Electric Vehicle) charging is an emerging technology with rapid development in the past decade. Compared to wired EV chargers, wireless power transfer (WPT) enables safe and unobtrusive charging for EVs. This work proposes high frequency wireless charging using a self-resonant (SR) coil at several megahertz. A multi-layer self-resonant coil structure is proposed, allowing high quality factor coils to be fabricated from layers of inexpensive copper foil and dielectric film. Additionally, the self-resonant coil utilizes its interlayer capacitance for resonance, eliminating the external compensation capacitor and shrinking the overall volume of passive component to increase the power density. Comparing to other self-resonant coils in the literature, it exhibits the characteristics of achieving high quality factor and high inductance simultaneously. Prototype coils with 200 mm radius are fabricated and tested, achieving quality factor over 450 at 3 MHz. The fabricated air-core coil structure is low-cost and lightweight, with 200 mm radius, 3 mm thickness and only 2 oz copper traces. The power stages, including GaN (Gallium Nitride) transistor based inverter and SiC (Silicon Carbide) diode based rectifier, are designed with emphasis on reduction of PCB (Printed Circuit Board) layout parasitics. Experimental tests show 95.2% dc-dc efficiency with 6.6 kW power transferred across a 100 mm coil-to-coil distance. The power density is 52.5 kW/m2, without need for any external compensation components. This work validates the concept of high frequency compact WPT system for EV. Practical shielding design is proposed for the WPT system with self-resonant coils, considering the high frequency parallel resonance effect. Complete coil pads are fabricated and assembled, incorporating the ferrite cores, PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) spacer, and aluminum plate. The system is validated with shielded SR coils, achieving 92.3% DC-DC efficiency and 7.1 kW/dm3 volumetric power density. This work demonstrates the first 6.6-kW WPT system using compact self-resonant coils with practical shielding implementation. The concept of proposed multi-layer self-resonant coil is extended to other possible structures. Different multi-layer self-resonant coil structures are compared and analyzed, giving design guidelines for their capabilities at different system operating frequencies

Challenges of Inductive Electric Vehicle Charging Systems in both Stationary and Dynamic Modes

Inductive power transfer as an emerging technology has become applicable in wide power ranges including Electric Vehicle, Electric Aircraft, wheelchair, cellphone, scooter and so on. Among them, inductive Electric Vehicle (EV) charging has gained great interest in the last decade due to many merits namely contactless technology, more convenience, full automotive charging process. However, inductive EV charging systems could bring about so many issues and concerns which are addressed in this dissertation. One of the critical challenges addressed in this dissertation is a virtual inertia based IPT controller to prevent the undesirable dynamics imposed by the EVs increasing number in the grid. Another adverse issue solved in this dissertation is detecting any metal object intrusions into the charging zone to the Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems before leading to heat generation on the metal or risk of fire. Moreover, in this dissertation, a new self-controlled multi-power level IPT controller is developed that enables EV charging level regulation in a wide range of power; suitable for different applications from golf-cart charging system (light duty EV) to truck (heavy duty EV). The proposed controller has many merits including easy to be implemented, cons-effective, and the least complexities compared to conventional PWM methods. Additionally, in this dissertation, the online estimation of IPT parameters using primary measurement including coupling factor, battery current and battery voltage is introduced; the developed method can find immediate applications for the development of adaptive controllers for static and dynamic inductive charging systems. Finally, the last objective of this research is physics-based design optimization techniques for the magnetic structures of inductive EV charging systems for dynamic application (getting charged while in motion). New configuration of IPT transmitting couplers with objective of high-power density, low power loss, low cost and less electromagnetic emission are designed and developed in the lab

Emerging Works on Wireless Inductive Power Transfer: AUV Charging from Constant Current Distribution and Analysis of Controls in EV Dynamic Charging

Wireless power transfer through inductive coupling, termed as inductive power transfer (IPT), is one of the important technologies in power electronics that enable transfer of power between entities without physical connections. While it has seen significant growth in the areas such as electric vehicle charging, phone charging and biomedical implants, its emerging applications include charging of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and dynamic charging of electric vehicles from the roadway. This dissertation addresses a few key challenges in these areas of IPT applications, paving the way for future developments. For the WPT for AUV, the recently developing sea-bed installed marine systems are targeted, which typically gets power from on-shore sources through constant dc low-current distribution. As the present underwater IPT topologies are not suitable for such applications, this dissertation proposes underwater IPT topologies to interface directly with such constant current distribution and provide a constant voltage output supply to the on-board systems inside the AUVs. The considerations for seawater losses and the small-signal models for control purposes are also addressed. Analysis and experimental results are provided for validations of the analytical designs and models. In the area of electric vehicle dynamic wireless power transfer (EV DWPT), the comparison of control performances of different coupler, compensation topologies and control implementations are addressed. The effect of communication latency on control bandwidth are also addressed. The outcomes are presented through analysis and simulations, and based on that future research recommendations are made to pave way for future commercial developments of well regulated and interoperable EV DWPT systems