A Switchable Inductively Coupled Connector for IPT Roadway Applications

An inductive power transfer (IPT) system usually consists of four parts: an AC-DC power factor correction (PFC) converter, a high frequency DC-AC inverter, a compensation network comprising a loosely coupled transformer (LCT) and the resonant capacitors, and a rectification output circuit. Due to the relative large air gap, the magnetic coupling coefficient of the IPT system is poor, different from the closely-coupled IPT systems. As a result, the efficiency of the IPT system is always a main concern for different applications. To ensure high power transfer efficiency, these IPT systems should have high tolerance for different gap variation and horizontal misalignment conditions. In this paper, some design considerations to reduce gap and misalignment effects for the IPT system is proposed. By using finite element analysis (FEA) simulation method, the performance of different transmitter and receiver coil dimensions are compared. In order to validate the performance of the proposed design considerations, a hardware prototype is built and the corresponding experiments are carried out. The experimental results shows that the LCT prototype could maintain coupling coefficient between 0.237∼0.212 within 40 mm horizontal misalignment.

This paper presents the hardware design of a novel and reliable data link for charging electric vehicles by an inductive power transfer (IPT) system. The simultaneous transmission uses the contactless near field of one common pair of coils. The data link can amongst others exchange the status information between the vehicle and the charging station. Due to its structure, most existing systems can be upgraded by this highly integrated data link without significant changes. One key component for the data link is the frequency separating filter (FSF). Its structure and design as part of the communication system as well as the interaction with the IPT system will be presented.

Depletion of fossil fuels and growing concerns about climate change have resulted in an increasing trend towards the use of sustainable technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs). As a result, effective means of charging EVs and managing EVs has become one of the most researched topics in the past few years. Among the many solutions proposed, inductive power transfer (IPT) systems, especially bi-directional IPT systems, are gaining popularity as an effective method to wirelessly interface EVs with the utility grid for charging as well as dynamic demand management. To enable wide spread use of bi-directional IPT technology for interfacing EVs with the gird essentially requires low cost and efficient magnetic couplers. As such, this paper investigates three new low cost magnetic designs, as alternatives to commonly used circular couplers. The proposed designs along with a standard circular coupler with similar ratings are modeled and simulated on JMAG studio to compare the performance. Based on the simulation data and experimental results gathered from a prototype implementation, the most effective design that yields a good coupling for the lowest cost has been identified as a possible solution for magnetic couplers used in bi-directional IPT systems.

This article studies magnetic forces between transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) coils in an inductive power transfer (IPT) system aiming to use those forces to align the coils and, consequently, improve power transfer. Due to its popularity, the analysis is conducted on a series–series compensated IPT system with planar spiral coils. The proposed method utilizes the bifurcation operation mode of the system and unloaded resonating receiver to maximize attractive force between magnetic couplers. Three-dimensional finite-element method simulations indicate that high-power IPT systems can develop enough attractive force to align coils even under nominal current. Regardless of the coil shape, e.g., spiral or Double-D (DD), the attractive forces tend to align the coils. Hence, a smart charging station can be devised based on self-aligning capability. Furthermore, this article proposes a mechanical structure to facilitate the attractive lateral force for the alignment of high power applications, i.e., wireless fast-charging stations. The forces are analyzed, modeled, and simulated for a 100-kW IPT system with an operating frequency of 20 kHz, while the self-aligning capability is experimentally verified on a downscale 11-kW prototype.

This paper proposes a self-tuning controller for a multi-level inductive Electric Vehicle (EV) battery charger application. By controlling the energy injection frequency of the Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) system, multiple charging levels (4 in number) are achieved. Maximum performance is leveraged by the proposed IPT system using its capability of self-tuning the switching operations to the natural resonant frequency of the IPT system, thereby benefiting from soft-switching operations (zero-current switching).Either a digital or analog control circuit can be used to implement the proposed controller. The results are shown by simulating the proposed controller with different charging levels using MATLAB/Simulink. These results show that the proposed controller effectively enables IPT-based contactless EV charging at multiple charging levels, with soft-switching operations. This self-tuning capability is specifically useful in IPT systems that have variable resonance frequency.

Although the demand for high-power inductive power transfer (IPT) systems is on the rise, implementation of such IPT systems using low-cost semiconductor devices has been a challenge. This study presents a new IPT topology that facilitates easy integration of multiple IPT modules, which are made of low cost and freely available semiconductor components, to cater for high-power applications. An intermediate circuit, comprising an inductor-capacitor-inductor resonant network, serves as a contactless interface through which the modules of primary and secondary (pick-up) systems can be either series or parallel integrated. Inductor coils of the intermediate circuit and both primary and pick-up systems are magnetically coupled to allow for contactless power transfer. The proposed topology is parallel compensated to minimise its var requirement, and both the direction and amount of power flow are controlled by phase and/or magnitude modulation of voltages generated by primary and pick-up side converters. Theoretical analysis, together with simulations and experimental evidence of integrating four prototype bi-directional IPT systems to cater for 1.8 kW demand, is presented to show that the proposed new IPT topology is suitable for high-power applications, and flexible for both bi-directional and uni-directional contactless power transfer.

In this paper, a new Modular differential-mode Class-D Power Amplifier (PA) is analyzed and designed for Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems that are compatible with the A4WP standard. Multiple receivers IPT systems need more power, especially with integrating more receivers, and an ultra-wide range of power processing. The modular structure of the proposed PA offers flexibility, higher reliability, and inherent power scalability. The transmitted power range can be optimized and scaled to any power level making the PA design effectively suitable for multiple receivers’ IPT systems. Also, independent control for Class-D PA is proposed to increase efficiency and enhance overall performance. The proposed control has a feature of disabling needless legs in low power range which happened at activating a low number of utilized receivers. GaN power transistors are used in the proposed modular PA to enhance the performance at high frequency and provide high efficiency while achieving zero voltage switching (ZVS) operation. Detailed mathematical analysis along with simulation results are provided to validate the performance features of the proposed modular PA.

To improve misalignment tolerance for an inductive power transfer (IPT) system, a third-coil is employed to reversely connect with the primary coil of the loosely coupled transformer (LCT) in series. The LCT with a third-coil (LCT-TC) not only can improve the misalignment performance in x - and y -directions, but also does not affect the inherent output characteristics (such as constant current or voltage output) of original compensation topologies. In addition, the proposed approach can keep the IPT system operating with relatively high efficiency against misalignment. Then, a detailed design method of LCT-TC is presented. Finally, a double-side LCC-compensated IPT system is chosen as an example to verify the feasibility of proposed LCT-TC. A 3.4-kW prototype is constructed, and experimental results show that the proposed method has a good misalignment performance. The LCC-LCC IPT system with LCT-TC can retain 96% of the well-aligned power at 40% misalignment, and the end-to-end (dc–dc) overall system efficiency is at least 92%. Besides, the fluctuation of the output current is [–2%, 5%] while the load varies from 15 to 34 Ω within 40% misalignment.

The output characteristics and the transfer efficiencies of inductive power transfer (IPT) systems are affected by (but not limited to) the variation of parameters such as, variable load, misalignment between the primary and secondary coils, and resonance frequency detuning. This paper first analyzes the resonant conditions of all voltage-fed compensation topologies in IPT systems to achieve the load-independent voltage transfer characteristic at load-independent zero phase angle frequency. With these conditions, the parameters sensitivity to the key performance factors of the S-SP, LCC-S, LCC-P, and double-sided LCC compensated IPT systems are systematically investigated when considering the losses in coils and compensation networks. Comparisons of the quantitative sensitivity analysis and experimental results for all IPT systems are made in terms of the voltage transfer ratio and efficiency. These analyses can provide guidance for the selection of superior compensation networks to minimize the additional converter effort and simplify the control algorithm of closed-loop IPT systems.

Electric vehicle (EV) technology has proven to be a propulsion technology of the future but urgently needs to address challenges such as lower-priced, reasonably sized EV for higher market penetration, higher life cycle efficiency, and increased power density. Range extension, in particular, in urban scenarios is critical. Inductive power transfer (IPT) technology solves simultaneously the electric hazard risks of conventional power cord battery chargers, but specially EV limited autonomy and related anxiety and even security. In this context, this chapter presents the past, current, and future research areas of IPT systems. A review of the main resonant compensation networks and prominent geometries of magnetic couplers is presented. Then, future research areas namely dynamic IPT and in-wheel IPT solutions are introduced along with their main challenges.

The efficiency of an inductive power transfer (IPT) system is greatly affected by lateral misalignment between the transmitter and receiver coils. This study proposes a hexagonal arrangement of multi-coil configuration IPT system to improve misalignment tolerance while maintaining the transfer efficiency. Key parameters including equivalent self and mutual inductance of various coil connections are examined. The magnetic characteristics including flux distribution and density, and mutual inductance are simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software package. Experimental results of the proposed multi-coil IPT system are given and compared with the conventional two-coil IPT system. Simulation and experimental results have shown that the proposed multi-transmitter coil configuration can increase misalignment tolerance compared with conventional system.

Stable power transmission is one of the key factors in the inductive power transfer (IPT) system. However, misalignment between the primary and secondary sides is almost inevitable in practice, affecting the system performance due to the coupling variation. With the widespread use of IPT technology, it is desired to transfer power from the primary side to the secondary side with a wide misalignment range as large as possible. To address this issue, the design method of the detuned circuit is widely applied in the IPT system. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the transfer power of the detuned series–series (S-S) topology with frequency variations and proposes a maintaining stable power transfer method versus wide coupling variation by adopting two discrete frequencies. Further, a design step is given to obtain the system parameters. Theoretical and experimental results are provided to demonstrate the misalignment performance of the proposed method. The results show that the coupling range is extended from [0.115-0.2] to [0.115-0.27] with the 5.6% fluctuation of the output power, and the corresponding efficiency varies from 91.46% to 95.52%.

This paper presents a method for finding the optimum load resistance that maximizes the power efficiency of a tuned-resonant inductive power transfer (IPT) system. In this method, the equivalent AC circuit of the IPT system is transformed to match the topology of a reference ladder prototype. This simplifies the design problem, because the ladder prototype offers intuitive and accurate closed-form approximations for the optimum load resistance and maximum power efficiency. The process is graphical in the sense that manipulations and transformations are made directly on the circuit diagram. Compared to traditional circuit analysis, the ladder prototype approach does not entail complicated systems of equations or matrix manipulations. We show the utility of our method by designing a practical IPT system.

Inductive power transfer (IPT) is an important technology in the design of roadway and underwater vehicle charging systems. For underwater IPT (UWIPT) systems, especially for the ones with small coils and higher operating frequencies, it is important to get estimate of the seawater eddy current losses, which exponentially increase with coil size and frequency. This paper proposes an analytical approach to achieve it in terms of the coil eddy loss resistance for the widely used spiral coils made of litz wire. It also presents a method to optimize a UWIPT system using the analytical equations, so that time-consuming optimization through electromagnetic simulation can be avoided. Comparison between calculated, finite element simulation and experimental results of eddy loss resistance is used to validate the analysis. The optimization is presented through the example of a 1 kW system capable of achieving 96% magnetic coupling efficiency with 8 mm seawater gap. The design is validated through experiments with a dc voltage-input 1 kW IPT system, with 48 V input and 48 V output; achieving a magnetic coupling efficiency of 96.4%.

The paper deals with the dynamic charging of the electric vehicles by an inductive power transfer (IPT) system with a segmented track. The reflexive properties of the IPT system is studied by evaluating the reactance of a transmitting coil when coupled with a pick-up with respect to uncoupled conditions. Different topologies for the pick-up circuit are evaluated, some of them introduced in this paper, with the aim of finding out the topology that offers the best reflexive properties. The impact of the different topologies on the IPT system efficiency performance is also argued.