Vehicle wireless charging system including an inverter to control a voltage input to a vehicle power converter

• US 10,112,495 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2015
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Ford Global Technologies, LLC (Ford Motor Company)
• Inventors: Elshaer, Mohamed, Malek, Hadi, Kautz, Richard William, Altunyurt, Nevin, Bell, Christopher W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Nguyen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mata, Monica
• Application Number:
  US14/810,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20170028853A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,191 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/12 Inductive energy transfer
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/126 Methods for pairing a vehicle and a charging station, e.g. establishing a one-to-one relation between a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power receiver
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/62 in response to charging parameters, e.g. current, voltage or electrical charge
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/0058 by employing soft switching techniques, i.e. commutation of transistors when applied voltage is zero or when current flow is zero using an auxiliary actively switched resonant commutation circuit connected to an intermediate DC voltage or between two push-pull branches of an inverter bridge H02M7/4811; in resonant inverters H02M7/4815; in inverters operating from a resonant DC source H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 1/007 Plural converter units in cascade push-pull DC/DC converters with pre-regulator H02M3/3374; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC stage including a high frequency transformer H02M7/4807; DC-AC converters following a DC-DC conversion stage generating periodically varying voltages H02M7/4826
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/3376 with automatic control of output voltage or current
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 10/72 Electric energy management in electromobility
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/92 Energy efficient charging or discharging systems for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors specially adapted for vehicles
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]

Abstract

A wireless vehicle charging system includes at least one controller configured to operate an inverter to control a voltage input to a power converter in a vehicle to drive an impedance phase angle at an output of the inverter toward a predetermined angle and achieve a power demand at an output of the vehicle power converter. The at least one controller is further configured to operate the vehicle power converter to achieve the power demand. The at least one controller may control a frequency output of the inverter to adjust the voltage input to the power converter based on a rate of change of an objective function that is configured to reduce an output power error of the power converter and an impedance phase angle error at the output of the inverter.

Claims

1. A vehicle wireless charging system comprising:

an inverter; and

at least one controller programmed to change a frequency output of the inverter to control a voltage input to a vehicle power converter to drive an impedance phase angle at an output of the inverter toward a predetermined angle and achieve a power demand at an output of the vehicle power converter according to an error between the voltage input and a voltage reference that is based on the power demand, a power output of the vehicle power converter, the impedance phase angle, and the predetermined angle and change the frequency output based on a rate of change of a weighted objective function configured to reduce an output power error of the vehicle power converter and an impedance phase angle error at an inverter output.

2. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 1 wherein the predetermined angle is configured to achieve zero voltage switching of the inverter.

3. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 1 wherein the impedance phase angle is a phase angle difference between a voltage at the output of the inverter and a current at the output of the inverter.

4. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 1 wherein the voltage reference is based on (i) a rate of change of a weighted sum of a first term using the output power error and a second term using the impedance phase angle error, and (ii) a rate of change of the voltage reference.

5. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 1 wherein the at least one controller is further programmed to operate the vehicle power converter by adjusting a duty cycle for a switching device for coupling the voltage input to a load based on a current input reference and the current input to the vehicle power converter.

6. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 5 wherein the current input reference is derived from a voltage reference that is based on (i) a rate of change of a weighted sum of a first term using the output power error and a second term using the impedance phase angle error, and (ii) a rate of change of the voltage reference.

7. A vehicle wireless charging system comprising:

an inverter configured to inductively couple to a vehicle power converter; and

at least one controller programmed to control a frequency output of the inverter to adjust a voltage input to the vehicle power converter based on a rate of change of a weighted objective function configured to reduce an output power error of the vehicle power converter and an impedance phase angle error at an inverter output.

8. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 7 wherein the at least one controller is further programmed to control the frequency output based on a rate of change of the voltage input.

9. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 7 wherein the at least one controller is further programmed to change a duty cycle for switching the vehicle power converter based on a power demand of a load coupled to the vehicle power converter.

10. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 7 wherein the output power error is a difference between a power demand at a vehicle power converter output and a power output at the vehicle power converter output, and the impedance phase angle error is a difference between a reference impedance phase angle and a measured impedance phase angle at the inverter output.

11. The vehicle wireless charging system of claim 7 wherein the weighted objective function is such that a first weighting value associated with the output power error is greater than a second weighting value associated with the impedance phase angle error.

12. A method of controlling vehicle charging comprising:

changing, by at least one controller, a frequency at an output of an inverter that is configured to generate a voltage input to an inductively coupled power converter to drive an impedance phase angle at an output of the inverter toward a predetermined angle and achieve a power demand at an output of the power converter according to an error between the voltage input and a voltage reference that is based on the Dower demand, a power output of the power converter, the impedance phase angle, and the predetermined angle and changing the frequency based on a rate of change of a weighted objective function that includes an output power error of the power converter and an impedance phase angle error at the output of the inverter.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising changing, by the at least one controller, a duty cycle for switching the power converter based on a current reference for an input current to the power converter derived from the voltage input and a power demand of a load coupled to the power converter.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising changing, by the at least one controller, the duty cycle to reduce an error between the current reference and a current input to the power converter.

15. The method of claim 12 further comprising changing, by the at least one controller, the frequency to reduce the error between the voltage input and the voltage reference that is further based on the rate of change of the weighted objective function.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising changing, by the at least one controller, the frequency based on a rate of change of the voltage reference.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising incrementing, by the at least one controller, the voltage reference by a predetermined amount in response to a sign of the rate of change of the weighted objective function being different than a sign of the rate of change of the voltage reference.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising decrementing, by the at least one controller, the voltage reference by a predetermined amount in response to a sign of the rate of change of the weighted objective function being identical to a sign of the rate of change of the voltage reference.