CAREER: Toward a wireless power transfer system: high-frequency power electronics

现代电子系统正在迅速转型，以实现自动化，例如工厂或仓库的自动化以及自动驾驶汽车。随着自动化需求的增长，人工智能、控制和智能充电系统等使能技术变得有益。然而，虽然其他技术已经发生了相当大的变革，但开发智能高效的自动化收费系统的努力却没有。电力电子技术是充电系统中的一项关键技术，它将电能转换成不同的电平或类型，并将其传递给电力负载，如电池。因此，它必须解决阻碍我们获得智能、紧凑和高效的充电系统的关键挑战。为了克服这一挑战，人们探索了无线能量传输技术，以减少充电误差，消除人工干预来给电池充电。可消除因灰尘、污垢等环境因素造成的电线电缆、连接器、电源插头等粗大故障。此外，自动驾驶技术使这项技术变得有益，因为他们可以在电池耗尽时去充电站。然而，由于现有的技术和设计，目前用于无线电力传输的功率转换器在最大限度地提高性能方面受到限制。本研究旨在开发一种高频功率转换器，以有效地小型化无线电力传输系统，并研究电池供电车辆的开创性充电方法。这项研究将通过改进电池充电方法，加速交通电气化和可再生能源技术等各种应用的进步。更广泛的变革性影响也预计从拟议的研究到本科和研究生课程，本科生和代表性不足的学生参与研究。此外，将向K-12学生和当地工业推广无线电力传输和电力电子电路，并确保研究活动的广泛变革影响。该项目旨在研究新的设计技术，以提高功率密度和电力电子设备的性能，同时研究提高WPT系统充电能力的创新方法。这项研究将通过相互交织的推力进行，涉及：1)设计并实现一种采用磁谐振耦合线圈的高频谐振变换器，有效提高功率密度；2)研究一种采用自同步整流与控制系统的双向无线电力传输系统，提供车对电网的能力；3)探索车对车、动态充电等先进的无线电力传输充电方式，通过多样化充电方式缩短充电时间。电路性能与开关器件、磁设计、栅极驱动电路和补偿网络拓扑的关系将被详细探讨。PI将在多物理场软件中模拟所提出的系统，以评估由于高频高功率操作导致的人体暴露于电磁场。此外，还将研究多线圈结构，以减少泄漏场，减少昂贵和损耗的屏蔽。预计项目的成功完成将扩大使用新型充电方法的无线电力传输系统的电力电子电路的工作范围和功率水平。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The modern electronic systems have been transforming rapidly to realize automation, such as automation in factories or warehouses and autonomous vehicles. As demand for automation grows, enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, control, and smart charging systems become beneficial. However, while other technologies have been considerably revolutionized, the effort to develop a smart and efficient charging system for automation has not. Power electronics is a critical technology in the charging system to convert electric energy into a different level or type to deliver it to an electric load, such as batteries. Therefore, it must tackle the key challenges that prevent us from obtaining a smart, compact, and efficient charging system. As an effort to overcome the challenges, wireless power transfer technology has been explored to reduce the charging error and remove manual intervention to charge their batteries. It can eliminate heavy wire cables, connectors, and power plug failure resulting from dust, dirt, and other environmental factors. Moreover, the autonomous driving technology makes this technology beneficial because they can go to the charging station when their batteries run out. However, current power converters for wireless power transfer are limited in maximizing performance because of the available technologies and designs. This proposed research aims to develop a high-frequency power converter to miniaturize a wireless power transfer system efficiently and investigate pioneering charging methodologies for battery-powered vehicles. This research will accelerate advances in various applications such as transportation electrification and renewable energy technologies by improving the battery charging methodology. Broader transformative impacts are also anticipated from the proposed research into undergraduate and graduate curricula and the involvement of undergraduate and underrepresented students in research. Also, outreach to K-12 students and local industries will be pursued to introduce wireless power transfer and power-electronic circuits and ensure the broad transformative impact of the research activities.This project aims to investigate new design techniques to improve power density and performance of power electronics while studying innovative approaches that enhance the charging ability in the WPT system. The research will be performed through the intertwined thrusts that involve: i) designing and implementing a high-frequency resonant converter with magnetic resonant coupling coils to increase power density efficiently, ii) investigating a bidirectional wireless power transfer system using self-synchronous rectification and control system to provide Vehicle-to-Grid capability, and iii) exploring advanced wireless power transfer charging approaches such as vehicle-to-vehicle and dynamic charging to reduce the charging time by diversifying the charging methods. The dependence of the circuit performance on the switching devices, magnetic designs, gate drive circuitry, and compensation network topology will be explored in detail. The PI will simulate the proposed system in the multiphysics software to evaluate human exposure to electromagnetic fields due to high-power operation at high frequencies. Also, multiple coil structure will be studied to reduce the leakage fields and minimize the expensive and lossy shields. Successful project completion is anticipated to expand the operating range and power level of power-electronic circuits for wireless power transfer systems using novel charging approaches.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.