Multi-modular capacitive wireless power transfer circuit and related techniques

Patent · Tue Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2022

OSTI ID:1986828

Afridi, Khurram K.; Regensburger, Brandon; Sinha, Sreyam; Kumar, Ashish; Popovic, Zoya

A high performance kilowatt-scale large air-gap multi-modular capacitive wireless power transfer (WPT) system is provided for electric vehicle (EV) charging. In one particular implementation, the multi-modular system achieves high power transfer while maintaining fringing electric fields within prescribed safety limits. The fringing fields are reduced using near-field phased-array field-focusing techniques, wherein the adjacent modules of the multi-modular system are out-phased with respect to one another. The inter-module interactions in this multi-modular system can be modeled, and an approach to eliminate these interactions in a practical EV charging environment is provided. To illustrate one example implementation, a prototype 1.2-kW 6.78-MHz 12-cm air-gap multi-modular capacitive WPT system comprising two 600-W modules is provided. This prototype system achieves 21.2 kW/m2 power transfer density and a peak efficiency of 89.8%. This multi-modular system also achieves a fringing field reduction of 50% compared to its individual modules.

• Research Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)
• DOE Contract Number: AR0000618
• Assignee: The Regents of the University of Colorado (Denver, CO)
• Patent Number(s): 11,502,542
• Application Number: 16/636,211
• OSTI ID: 1986828
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English