Hughes Aircraft Company

Delco Electronics Corporation

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

John T Hall

Herbert J Tanzer

George R Woody

Sergio Ramos

William Quon

Ray G Radys

Stephen W Raiser

Rudy Severns

An inductor that includes end core pieces and a plurality of center block core pieces between the end core pieces that define a plurality of gaps. The end core pieces are made of an amorphous alloy to provide good magnetic field properties and the center core pieces are stamped magnetic sheets forming a laminate structure to provide ease of manufacturability. In one non-limiting embodiment, the end core pieces are an amorphous iron alloy and the center core pieces are stamped silicon-iron.

DC-DC converter for fuel cell application using hybrid inductor core material

An inductive charging apparatus for use in charging batteries of an electric vehicle. The apparatus has a power source, cooling fluid pumping and cooling apparatus, and a charge port disposed in the electric vehicle. An inductive charging coupler that is insertable into the charge port comprises a housing, a ferrite puck, and an insulated, liquid-cooled, current-carrying conductive tubular transformer coil disposed around the puck. A liquid-cooled, liquid-carrying tubular transmission cable is coupled to the power source, to the cooling fluid pumping and cooling apparatus, and to the transformer coil. The transmission cable couples current from the power source to the transformer coil, and couples cooling fluid between the cooling fluid pumping and cooling apparatus and the transformer coil. The transformer coil may be a multilevel helix, spiral fluid-cooled transformer coil such as an eight turn (although n turns are possible), two level helix, four turn spiral winding. The transformer coil comprises an insulated tube high current carrying capacity conductor that optimizes AC and high frequency losses while providing a heat exchanger for the apparatus.

Inductive charging system employing a fluid-cooled transformer coil and transmission cable

A battery charging system for charging a battery of an electric vehicle that is coupled to a charge probe by way of a diode bridge and a fourth element capacitor. The system includes a voltage source and a plurality of battery chargers connected in parallel across the voltage source that each includes a series tank circuit and an isolation transformer. The charge probe is coupled to the isolation transformers of the parallel plurality of battery chargers. A distributed fourth element capacitor is coupled across the isolation transformers of each of the parallel plurality of battery chargers.

Battery charging system that controls charging power using fourth

An inductive charging coupler for use in an inductive charging system that minimizes damage thereto caused by shock. The charging coupler comprises a housing, and a magnetic core disposed in the housing that is comprised of a plurality of sections. A primary winding is disposed around the magnetic core, A current conductor is coupled to the primary winding for coupling current thereto. By employing smaller sections of ferrite material to form the magnetic core, there is less potential for encountering broad differences in the crystal structure of the ferrite material. These structural differences can cause the ferrite material to be more prone to crack or shatter under stress conditions, such as if the coupler is dropped during use. Also smaller ferrite pieces are lighter than a single piece of ferrite material, which causes lower distributed loads due to a shock. In addition, smaller ferrite pieces allow more surface area contact with housing components or adhesives used to secure the core in the coupler and help dampen shock loads.

Sectional ferrite core construction for mechanical stress relief in

An inductive battery charging system comprising a charge probe and a charge port that employs multi-turn spiral and helical windings in the charge probe to provide improved thermal management of the power produced by the charging system. The thermal management provided by the multi-turn windings of the present invention improves the power handling capacity of the system and reduces AC proximity losses. Numerous flat helical coil and spiral transformer windings are disclosed that provide for differing thermal management schemes. The present invention may be used to increase the inductive charging capacity of electric vehicle propulsion batteries to on the order of 120 KW. The present invention may be used with almost any transformer or inductor that uses foil windings.

Thermal management using a hybrid spiral/helical winding geometry

An inductive charging coupler for use in inductive charging apparatus for charging a battery. The charging coupler is insertable into a charge port that is coupled to the battery. The charge port comprises a housing, an opening into which the charging coupler is inserted, and a secondary core surrounded by secondary windings. The charging coupler comprises a housing, a primary core, a primary winding having an even number of primary turns disposed around the core, and a hollow coolant conducting heat exchanger symmetrically disposed between the primary turns of the primary winding. The heat exchanger is typically them tally bonded to the primary turns of the primary winding by means of heat conducting adhesive or epoxy. The coolant flow passages of the heat exchanger may be configured in several ways. One approach is to construct thin, flat, self-contained flexible bladders made of metal, such as copper. Adjacent turns of the primary winding are bonded directly to the heat exchanger in order to provide good thermal contact, a large heat transfer area, and a very thin profile. Inlet and outlet coolant passages transition from a very thin rectangular cross sectional shape under the turns to a round tube shape, for attachment to a coolant lines within a flexible hose. The metallic heat exchanger is located at the center of a magnetic field created by the windings, which produces no extra loss in the heat exchanger due to induced eddy currents. The present invention is specifically designed for rapid, high rate charging of electric vehicle batteries.

Liquid cooled metallic inductive probe for high power charging

Heat exchanger that are also outer turns of secondary windings of a transformer for use in a charge port of battery charging apparatus. The outer turns may have any shape or thickness, may be air or liquid cooled, or may be vapor changers (heat pipes). Other turns of the secondary windings cannot be used in this manner because they cause excessive energy dissipation, due to proximity losses. When used to a liquid cooled turn, the present invention comprises porting liquid coolant from a cooling system including a pump, a compact heat exchanger, and a fan through the outer windings. Heat dissipation from the secondary windings of the transformer is efficiently removed by providing an internal coolant flow passage or passages formed or integrated at the center of the outer windings comprising the heat exchangers. The internal passages may be configured in several ways. One approach is to construct thin, flat, self-contained flexible coolant bladders made of metal, such as copper. When applied to an air cooled turn, the present invention directs air from the fan through finned heat exchangers. The of the inner turns secondary windings are bonded directly to the finned heat exchanger turn in order to provide good thermal contact and a large heat transfer area.

Air/liquid cooled metallic turn for high frequency high power charging

The inductive charge coupler carrying the transformer primary is supplied with coolant fluid. The inductive charge receptacle mounted on the automobile has interior cooling fluid passages and there is a duct to transfer the cooling fluid from the inductive charge coupler to the cooling fluid passages in the inductive charge receptacle.

Ducted air-cooled secondary of automobile battery charging transformer

An inductive charge probe having a composite magnetic core for use in inductive battery charging apparatus for charging a battery. The charge probe is insertable into a charge port of the battery charging apparatus that is coupled to the battery. The charge probe comprises the composite magnetic core and a primary winding. The composite magnetic core includes first and second magnetic core halves comprising a high loss magnetic material that are disposed adjacent to each other and that contact each other at predetermined surfaces. First and second thermally conducting members are disposed through the first and second magnetic core halves and a gap is formed between adjacent proximal ends thereof. First and second magnetic center posts comprising low loss magnetic material abut the first and second magnetic core halves. The first and second thermal conducting members are disposed through the first and second magnetic core halves and center posts, respectively. The thermal conducting members are coupled to external heat exchangers. A gap is formed between adjacent proximal ends of the thermal conducting members and the magnetic center posts. The heat exchangers are thermally secured to peripheries of the respective magnetic center posts, and adjacent surfaces thereof are separated from each other. First and second insulators are disposed between the heat exchangers and the magnetic core halves. A magnetic disk comprising low loss magnetic material is disposed between the first and second magnetic center posts and thermally conducting members. The primary winding disposed around the magnetic disk.

Composite core designed for inductive coupled transformer probes

An inductive charging coupler for use in an inductive charging system comprising a charge port into which the coupler is inserted that minimizes damage to its magnetic core. The charging coupler comprises a housing, and a magnetic core disposed in the housing. A primary winding is disposed around the magnetic core. A current conductor is coupled to the primary winding for coupling current thereto. The magnetic core has plastic-ferrite covers disposed on opposite sides thereof. The plastic-ferrite covers are typically bonded to exterior flat surfaces of the magnetic core. The plastic-ferrite covers protect the ferrite core while preserving the magnetic properties of the coupler when it is inserted in the charge port. The plastic-ferrite material exhibits both plastic and ferrite properties and covers and protects the magnetic core in the coupler.

Plastic powder iron protection cover over ferrite for an inductively

The primary windings and part of the magnetic circuit of an automobile battery charging transformer are mounted in a separable multiple panel inductive charge coupler which is insertable into and removable from corresponding inductive charge receptacle slots in the automobile adjacent the transformer secondary windings and magnetic structure. The use of thin primary and secondary coils decreases the resistance losses in the coils. When the inductive charge coupler is in place and is energized, the primary winding energizes the secondary winding to permit charging of the batteries on the automobile.

Multilayer separate windings of inductive charge coupler for automobile

An inductively-coupled transformer charging apparatus comprising a charging port having a nonmoving secondary core and a charging coupler that is insertable therein. The charging coupler comprises a primary winding disposed around a primary core. The charging port comprises a fixed secondary core comprising two secondary core halves and two secondary windings, and includes an opening into which the charging coupler is inserted. Heat transfer media in the charging port remove heat during charging. The opening and coupler are sized such that a gap is provided between the secondary core halves and the coupler to provide for a slip fit therebetween. The close fitting relationship between the coupler and the charge port acts to remove dirt build-up present on the coupler as it is inserted into the charging port. The basic requirements of the present invention are that the secondary core has a fixed, nonmoving configuration, that the coupler be insertable into the secondary core, and that the center magnetic core of the coupler form part of a complete magnetic circuit in conjunction with the secondary core. The advantages of the present invention are simplicity and reliability. The present invention does not require moving parts to open and close the primary core halves. The gap provided between the secondary core halves and the inserted coupler is designed so that the respective cores are separated by a minimum, predefined distance, both of which are important parameters of the electrical design of the charging apparatus. Also, there are fewer problems due to dirt buildup due to the wiping action provided by the charging port when the coupler is inserted therein.

Fixed core inductive charger

A wide field imaging system having high precision and resolution is disclosed herein. The wide field of regard imaging system 10 of the present invention is operative to provide a composite digital representation of a scene within a field of regard. The system 10 of the present invention includes a sensor arrangement 12 for generating first and second digital representations of first and second framed regions within the field of regard. A scene correlator 18 processes the first and second digital representations to generate offset parameters indicative of the relative locations of the first and second framed regions within the field of regard. The offset parameters are used to combine the first and second digital representations within a frame store memory 20 to synthesize the composite digital representation of the scene.

Imaging apparatus for providing a composite digital representation of a

A series resonant converter comprising an actively-controlled third element, or actively-controlled resonant preload. The actively-controlled third element is controlled by logic that makes it operative only when it is required by load conditions, and thus the desired characteristics of the third element are only employed when needed. The present invention incorporates the actively-controlled reactive preload and which operates on demand, and results in a converter output that is able to regulate from no load to full load. The third element is operated on demand and only at low power levels, and there is no penalty of higher RMS current in the power chain. The present invention is particularly applicable for use in charging batteries used in electrical vehicles. With the features provided by the present invention, an induction battery charger is able to use a high efficient resonant power supply, incorporating very low volume and weight coupling transformers, and which operates at high frequency and high power. The present invention may be used with all multi-element resonant converters that utilize more than two elements. The present invention improves on all resonant converters and provides for a more desirable operating characteristics, particularly in the case of load regulation.

Growing community of inventors

Woodland Hills, CA, United States of America

John T Hall