Contactless power supply device

• US 9,490,726 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2012
• Issued: 11/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Inventors: Tanaka, Kazufumi, Matsumoto, Sadayuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhang, Jue
• Application Number:
  US14/343,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20140198544A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,525 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/10 using inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/12 of the resonant type
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 50/90 involving detection or optimisation of position, e.g. alignment
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/01 Resonant DC/DC converters
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33538 of the forward type H02M3/3353, H02M3/33569 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 3/33573 Full-bridge at primary side of an isolation transformer
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/4815 Resonant converters H02M7/4811 and H02M7/4826 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/53871 with automatic control of output voltage or current
• CPC Class Codes: H02M 7/53873 with digital control
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/10 Technologies improving the efficiency by using switched-mode power supplies [SMPS], i.e. efficient power electronics conversion e.g. power factor correction or reduction of losses in power supplies or efficient standby modes

Abstract

In order to obtain a contactless power supply device which, even when a spatial gap between a primary winding and a secondary winding varies, is capable of not only accurately detecting whether or not the primary winding and the secondary winding come into the position opposite to each other, but also detecting how large the spatial gap between the primary winding and the secondary winding is created, the contactless power supply device is provided with a drive voltage detection unit which detects the drive voltage of an inverter circuit, a drive current detection unit which detects the drive current of the inverter circuit, and a primary component extraction unit which, from the drive voltage and the drive current, extracts a primary drive voltage and a primary drive current including the first order frequency-components having the same frequency as a drive frequency of the inverter circuit.

Claims

1. A contactless power supply device comprising:

an inverter circuit which outputs high-frequency power;

a control circuit which controls the inverter circuit;

a primary winding which is supplied with the high-frequency power from the inverter circuit, to transmit power through electromagnetic induction by resonating with a first capacitor;

a drive voltage detection unit which detects a drive voltage of the inverter circuit;

a drive current detection unit which detects a drive current of the inverter circuit; and

a primary component extraction unit which extracts, from the drive voltage and the drive current, a primary drive voltage and a primary drive current, that is, the first order frequency-components having the same frequency as a drive frequency of the inverter circuit,

wherein the primary winding transmits power to a secondary winding which comes into a position opposite to the primary winding through a spatial gap, and the control circuit calculates, on the basis of the primary drive voltage and the primary drive current, magnitude and phase of impedance of an inverter load, and

the control circuit detects how large the spatial gap is created between the primary winding and the secondary winding based on a stored relationship among the spatial gap and parameters of the measured magnitude and phase of impedance of the inverter load.

2. The contactless power supply device according to claim 1,

wherein the control circuit detects whether or not the primary winding and the secondary winding come into a position opposite to each other or detects the spatial gap between the primary winding and the secondary winding on the basis of the calculated magnitude and phase of impedance of the inverter load.

3. The contactless power supply device according to claim 2,

wherein the control circuit, when detecting the spatial gap between the primary winding and the secondary winding, determines, on the basis of the detection result, whether or not to supply the high-frequency power to the primary winding.

4. The contactless power supply device according to claim 2,

wherein the control circuit detects a short-circuit fault of a secondary circuit including the secondary winding on the basis of the calculated magnitude and phase of impedance of the inverter load.

5. The contactless power supply device according to claim 4,

wherein the control circuit includes a storage which stores as a map a relationship among the magnitude and the phase of impedance of the inverter load and the spatial gap between the primary and secondary windings and which stores in the map a combination of the magnitude and the phase of impedance of the inverter load that satisfies a condition where the spatial gap is larger than a predetermined value, as a combination in a drive-prohibited region;

and stops the high-frequency power supply to the primary winding when a combination of the calculated magnitude and phase of impedance of the inverter load is in the drive-prohibited region on the map.

6. The contactless power supply device according to claim 5,

wherein the control circuit defines as the map a two dimensional space whose horizontal axis represents the magnitude of the impedance and whose vertical axis represents the phase, to set in the two dimensional space the drive-prohibited region above a straight line having a predetermined gradient.

7. The contactless power supply device according to claim 4,

wherein the control circuit includes a storage which stores as a map a relationship among the magnitude and the phase of impedance of the inverter load and the spatial gap between the primary and secondary windings and which stores in the map a combination of the magnitude and the phase of impedance of the inverter load when a short-circuit fault occurs in the secondary circuit, as a combination in a short-circuit fault region;

and stops the high-frequency power supply to the primary winding when a combination of the calculated magnitude and phase of impedance of the inverter load is in the short-circuit fault region on the map.

8. The contactless power supply device according to claim 7,

wherein the control circuit defines as the map a two dimensional space whose horizontal axis represents the magnitude of the impedance and whose vertical axis represents the phase, to set as the short-circuit fault region in the two dimensional space a rectangular region where the magnitude of the impedance is smaller than a first predetermined positive value and the phase is larger than a second predetermined positive value.

9. The contactless power supply device according to claim 1,

wherein the primary component extraction unit extracts the primary drive voltage and the primary drive current from the drive voltage and the drive current in one cycle time interval of the drive frequency of the inverter circuit.