System, apparatus, and method for capacitive wireless charging

• US 10,461,566 B2
• Filed: 10/06/2017
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Incorporated (Toyota Motor Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Jae Seung, Shin, Jongwon
• Primary Examiner(s): Diao, M Baye
• Application Number:
  US15/726,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20190109481A1
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 320107
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/20 characterised by converters located in the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/322 the battery being on-board an electric or hybrid vehicle, e.g. vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G], power aggregation, use of the battery for network load balancing, coordinated or cooperative battery charging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/05 using capacitive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00712 the cycle being controlled or terminated in response to electric parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33584 Bidirectional converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/5387 in a bridge configuration
• 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 90/14 Plug-in electric vehicles

Abstract

A capacitive wireless charging system having a charging circuit and the operating characteristics of the charging circuit can be adjusted. The charging circuit includes two coupling capacitors formed by two electrode plates at least partially overlapping two other electrode plates, where the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors can be adjusted by moving at least one of the electrodes. When the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors reach a pre-determined threshold, the operating characteristics of the charging circuit can be adjusted to optimize the power transfer efficiency of the capacitive wireless charging system.

Claims

1. A capacitive wireless charging system, comprising:

a charging circuit having adjustable operating characteristics, and including two coupling capacitors formed by two transmitter electrode plates of a source device at least partially overlapping two receiver electrode plates of a user device; and

a positioning device configured to move at least one of the transmitter electrode plates in order to adjust coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors to reach a pre-determined threshold wherein the at least one transmitter electrode plate is configured to rotate around an axis that is geometrically off center of the at least one transmitter electrode plate and the coupling characteristics indicate a total coupling capacitance of the coupling capacitors.

2. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 1, wherein the charging circuit further includes a DC to AC inverter constructed using semiconductor switches.

3. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 2, wherein the adjustable operating characteristics of the charging circuit are determined by switching characteristics of the semiconductor switches.

4. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 1, further comprising:

a controller configured to adjust the operating characteristics of the charging circuit and to control the positioning device to move the at least one transmitter electrode plate in order to adjust the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors to reach the pre-determined threshold; and

a sensing device configured to detect and send the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors to the controller,

wherein the positioning device, the controller, and the sensing device are part of the source device or the user device and are configured to send or receive signals using wired or wireless communication.

5. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein at least one electrode plate of the transmitter electrode plates and the receiver electrode plates is configured to move along an axis perpendicular to the at least one electrode plate.

6. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein the positioning device includes at least a motor to move the at least one transmitter electrode plate.

7. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein the charging circuit is configured to have a bidirectional power flow, the source device is configured to charge the user device, the user device is configured to transmit power to the source device, and a direction of the bidirectional power flow is controlled by control signals from the controller.

8. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein the charging circuit is configured such that the source device charges the user device and the user device does not transmit power to the source device.

9. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein each transmitter electrode plate is configured to rotate around an axis that is geometrically off center of the respective transmitter electrode plate.

10. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 9, wherein the charging circuit further includes a DC to AC inverter constructed using semiconductor switches and the adjustable operating characteristic of the charging circuit are determined by switching characteristics of the semiconductor switches.

11. The capacitive wireless charging system of claim 4, wherein

when the coupling characteristics indicates that the total coupling capacitance of the coupling capacitors or an overlapping area of one of the coupling capacitors is less than the pre-determined threshold, the controller controls the positioning device to move the at least one transmitter electrode plate in order to adjust the coupling characteristics to reach the pre-determined threshold;

and

when the coupling characteristics reaches the pre-determined threshold, the controller adjusts the operating characteristics of the charging circuit.

12. A source device, comprising:

a power transmitter configured to transmit power to a user device and to have adjustable operating characteristics;

two transmitter electrode plates configured to form two coupling capacitors by at least partially overlapping with two receiver electrode plates of the user device; and

a positioning device configured to move at least one of the transmitter electrode plates in order to adjust coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors to reach a pre-determined threshold;

wherein the at least one transmitter electrode plate is configured to rotate around an axis that is geometrically off center of the at least one transmitter electrode plate and the coupling characteristics indicate a total coupling capacitance of the coupling capacitors.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

a controller configured to adjust the operating characteristics of the power transmitter and to control the positioning device to move the at least one transmitter electrode plate in order to adjust the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors; and

a sensing device configured to detect and send the coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors to the controller,

wherein the positioning device, the controller, and the sensing device are located on the source device.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the power transmitter includes a DC to AC inverter constructed using semiconductor switches.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the adjustable operating characteristic of the power transmitter is determined by switching characteristics of the semiconductor switches.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one transmitter electrode plate is configured to move along an axis perpendicular to the at least one transmitter electrode plate.

17. A method of charging a battery of a user device by a source device, comprising:

positioning the user device such that two transmitter electrode plates at least partially overlap two receiver electrode plates forming coupling capacitors;

detecting, by a sensing device, coupling characteristics of the coupling capacitors;

comparing, by a controller, at least one coupling characteristic of the coupling capacitors with a pre-determined threshold;

controlling a positioning device to adjust the at least one coupling characteristic of the coupling capacitors when the at least one coupling characteristic does not reach the pre-determined threshold;

controlling a charging circuit to adjust operating characteristics of the charging circuit when the at least one coupling characteristic has reached the pre-determined threshold; and

charging the battery when power transfer efficiency is optimized by adjusting the operating characteristics of the charging circuit, the sensing device, the controller, and the positioning device provided in one of the source device and the user device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein controlling the positioning device includes rotating at least one of the transmitter electrode plates around a geometrically off center axis of the at least one transmitter electrode plate.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein controlling the positioning device includes moving at least one of the transmitter electrode plates along an axis perpendicular to the at least one of transmitter electrode plates.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the charging circuit includes a DC to AC inverter constructed using semiconductor switches and adjusting the operating characteristics of the charging circuit includes controlling switching characteristics of the semiconductor switches.