CONTACTLESS POWER TRANSFER SYSTEM

• US 20120025758A1
• Filed: 07/28/2010
• Published: 02/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Bohori, Adnan Kutubuddin, Bray, James William, Ramachandrapanicker, Somakumar, Chakraborty, Jay, Bhat, Suma Memana Narayana, Srivastava, Kumar Vaibhav, R, Neelmegh.
• Application Number:
  US12/845,133
• Publication Number:
  US 20120025758A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 320/108
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/122 Circuits or methods for driving the primary coil, e.g. supplying electric power to the coil
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/34 Plug-like or socket-like devices specially adapted for contactless inductive charging of electric vehicles positioning means for charging devices using inductive energy transfer B60L53/38
• 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

Abstract

A contactless charging system is presented. The contactless charging system includes an electrical outlet coupled to a power source and comprising a primary coil. An inlet on a vehicle comprising a dielectric region is disposed within a cavity. A secondary coil is disposed within the cavity and coupled to a storage module. A field focusing element is disposed proximate the dielectric region and configured to focus a magnetic field.

Claims

1. A contactless charging system comprising:

an electrical outlet coupled to a power source and comprising a primary coil;

an inlet on a vehicle comprising a dielectric region disposed within a cavity;

a secondary coil disposed within the cavity and coupled to a storage module; and

a field focusing element disposed proximate the dielectric region and configured to focus a magnetic field.

2. The contactless charging system of claim 1, wherein the primary coil is disposed within a housing comprising at least one of a non-magnetic and non-conducting material.

3. The contactless charging system of claim 1, wherein the electrical outlet comprises a projection and the primary coil is disposed around the projection.

4. The contactless charging system of claim 3, wherein the electrical outlet, the housing of the cavity, and the projection comprise a ferromagnetic material.

5. The contactless charging system of claim 1 further comprising a high frequency converter coupled between the primary coil and the power source to convert power frequency of the power source to high frequency.

6. The contactless charging system of claim 1 further configured for bi-directional power or power and data flow between the storage module and the power source.

7. The contactless charging system of claim 1, wherein the storage module is coupled to an electric motor.

8. The contactless charging system of claim 7, wherein the electric motor is coupled to a drive shaft of the vehicle.

9. The contactless charging system of claim 1, wherein the inlet is further configured to receive liquid fuel.

10. The contactless charging system of claim 1 further comprising a power-flow measuring module coupled to the primary coil.

11. The contactless charging system of claim 10, wherein the power-flow measuring module further comprises an alarm device.

12. The contactless charging system of claim 1, wherein the storage module comprises at least one battery.

13. The contactless charging system of claim 12, wherein the at least one battery is coupled to a battery management system.

14. The contactless charging system of claim 13, wherein the battery management system is configured to control power flow from the electrical outlet.

15. An intelligent charging system comprising:

a contactless power transfer system comprising at least two coils and a field focusing element and configured for providing bi-directional power transfer between a power source and a storage module on a vehicle;

a battery management system coupled to the storage module and configured to control a power flow to and from the storage module;

a processor coupled to the power source and configured to communicate with an external control station.

16. The intelligent charging system of claim 15, wherein the external control station comprises at least one of a utility based power distribution unit or a distributed power generation unit.

17. The intelligent charging system of claim 15 further comprising an inverter coupled to the power source.

18. The intelligent charging system of claim 17, wherein the battery management system is configured to transfer data to the processor via the contactless power transfer system.

19. The intelligent charging system of claim 15, wherein the processor is further configured to communicate power flow data and load data to the external control station.

20. The intelligent charging system of claim 15, wherein the field-focusing element comprises resonators configured to operate in at least two unique resonant frequencies.

21. A vehicle comprising:

a charging receptacle comprising an inlet comprising a dielectric region disposed within a cavity;

a secondary coil disposed within the cavity and coupled to a storage module; and

a field focusing element disposed proximate the dielectric region and configured to focus a magnetic field;

wherein the charging receptacle is configured for receiving a charging handle comprising a primary coil coupled to a power source.