Compact and Efficient Bipolar Coupler for Wireless Power Chargers: Design and Analysis

Compactness and efficiency are the two basic considerations of the wireless battery chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid EVs. The double-sided LCC compensation topology for wireless power transfer (WPT) has been proved to be one of the efficient solutions lately. However, with the increase of the numbers of compensation components, the volume of the system may become larger, which makes it less attractive. To improve the compactness, a bipolar coupler structure with a compensation-integrated feature is proposed. The inductors of the LCC compensation networks are designed as planar-type and attached to the power-transferring main coils. Extra space and magnetic cores for the compensated inductors outside of the coupler are saved. The cost is that extra couplings between the compensated coils (inductors) and the main coils are induced. To validate the feasibility, the proposed coupler is modeled and investigated by 3-D finite-element analysis tool first. The positioning of the compensated coils, the range of the extra couplings, and the tolerance to misalignment are studied. This is followed by the circuit modeling and characteristic analysis of the proposed WPT topology based on the fundamental harmonic approximation. At last, a 600 mm x 600 mm with a nominal 150-mm-gap wireless charger prototype, operated at a resonant frequency of 95 kHz and a rated power of 5.6 kW has been built and tested. A peak efficiency of 95.36% from a dc power source to the battery load is achieved at rated operation condition.