High-voltage battery off-board chargers

• US 10,081,261 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2014
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Grimes, Jeffery R., Tabatowski-Bush, Benjamin A., Treharne, William David, Butcher, Jonathan Andrew, Link, Robert John, Sun, Xuemei
• Primary Examiner(s): Berhanu, Samuel
• Application Number:
  US14/503,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20160096438A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,455 Days
• Field of Search: 320109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/00 Electric devices on electrically-propelled vehicles for safety purposes; Monitoring operating variables, e.g. speed, deceleration or energy consumption methods or circuit arrangements for monitoring or controlling batteries or fuel cells B60L58/00
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/14 Conductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/18 Cables specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/66 Data transfer between charging stations and vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/14 Preventing excessive discharging
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 58/24 for controlling the temperature of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles

Abstract

A vehicle charging system includes a charger configured to receive power form an external power source and a connector. The connector is configured to receive power from the charger and transmit the received power to a vehicle via a high-voltage cable. The cable is configured to connect the connector to a vehicle battery. Each of the charger and the connector includes a high voltage interlock loop (HVIL) configured to cause the charger to cease power transfer upon recognizing a predetermined voltage difference at a pair of ports of the HVIL.

Claims

1. A vehicle off-board charger comprising:

a gateway configured to communicate with vehicle, to receive controller area network (CAN) information from a vehicle controller; and

a high-voltage connector having a high-voltage interlock loop (HVIL) configured to connect to the vehicle via a cable and a HVIL loop cable and configured to cease power transfer to the vehicle in response to a predetermined voltage difference at a pair of ports of the HVIL connector.

2. The charger of claim 1, further comprising an electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE) connector configured to receive AC power from an EVSE, wherein a charger component is configured to convert the received AC power to DC power.

3. The charger of claim 1, wherein the gateway is configured to receive the CAN information via an on-board diagnostic (OBD) cable configured to connect the gateway and the vehicle controller.

4. The charger of claim 1, further comprising a switch to power up the gateway and a charger component.

5. The charger of claim 4, further comprising a power supply port configured to receive power from an external power source upon activation of the switch.

6. The charger of claim 4, further comprising a fan to cool the charging component.

7. The charger of claim 1, further comprising a display configured to present information received from the gateway.

8. A vehicle charging system comprising:

a charger configured to receive power from an external power source; and

a connector configured to receive power from the charger and transmit the received power to a vehicle via a cable, wherein the cable is configured to connect the connector to a vehicle battery and wherein each of the charger and the connector includes a high voltage interlock loop (HVIL) configured to cause the charger to cease power transfer upon recognizing a predetermined voltage difference at a pair of ports of the HVIL connector.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the predetermined voltage difference indicates an un-seated connection.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a second high-voltage cable configured to transfer power from the connector to a vehicle battery at a vehicle connector, wherein the vehicle connector includes another HVIL.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein a recognition of a predetermined voltage difference at any one of the HVILs causes the charger to cease power transfer.