Metal Object and Vehicle Position Detections Integrated With Near-Field Communication for Wireless EV Charging

Abstract

To commercialize wirelesselectric vehicle charging (WEVC), three critical issues must be resolved: communication between the vehicle assembly (VA) and the ground assembly (GA), metal object detection (MOD) on the GA coil, and position detection (PD) of the VA. This paper proposes a comprehensive system that integrates MOD and PD with VA-GA near-field communication (NFC). A common high-frequency aided carrier is used not only for NFC, but also for MOD and PD. In addition, an array of dual-purpose detection coils is proposed as a sensor for MOD and PD. As a result, the three functions listed above share numerous components and circuits, greatly simplifying the system structure. Furthermore, because the high-frequency aided carrier can operate with or without a power carrier, the preceding three functions are independent of system power status. The proposed method has been validated using a 3.3 kW WEVC prototype operating at 85 kHz. The experimental results show that the proposed system is capable of performing both online and offline NFC, MOD, and PD with high sensitivity while having no impact on wireless charging efficiency.