Delco Electronics Corporation

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Hughes Aircraft Company

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Sergio Ramos

George R Woody

Herbert J Tanzer

John T Hall

William Quon

Ray G Radys

Juventino Rosas

Victor O Asbury

James P Souther

Eugene M Steele

Rudy Severns

Eddie Yeow

Clint Conrady

Eddie Y Yeow

A distribution box for enclosing an electrical connection in an electrical wiring system includes a housing that is resistive to penetration by electromagnetic fields and a plurality of electrical conductors that form the electrical connection. A mirror plate is disposed within the housing and generates mirror currents to suppress electromagnetic fields generated by current flowing through the plurality of electrical conductors.

Self-shielding high voltage distribution box

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 sealed transformer for use in charging the batteries of an electric automobile includes a housing that contains the secondary windings, a core and a dielectric fluid. A removable primary winding coupler is inserted into the housing to complete a magnetic circuit. During operation of the magnetic circuit, heat is continuously generated by the primary and secondary windings and the core. The fluid undergoes a first phase change and boils as it absorbs the generated heat. The boiling fluid absorbs additional heat and undergoes a second phase change is it turns into a vapor. The heat of vaporization is released into thin windows formed in the transformer housing when the vapors contact the relatively cooler windows and re-condense into a liquid. A continuous cycle of boiling, vaporizing, and condensing occurs during operation of the transformer to cool the transformer and to improve the power density of the transformer.

Fully immersed magnetic transformer with multiple condensing surfaces and method

An oil cooled inductive coupler for use with an inductive charging system that charges propulsion batteries of an electric vehicle. The coupler is connected to a power source by way of a coaxial cable that has power conductors for coupling power to the coupler, and cooling channels for coupling high dielectric strength cooling fluid to and from the coupler. The coupler has a housing with a flood box formed therein having an open interior that forms a conductor termination area. The cooling channels are coupled to the flood box, and the power conductors are terminated in the termination area and are exposed to the cooling fluid that is pumped therethrough to cool them. A heat exchanger having a fluid flow path therethrough is coupled to the flood box and permits the cooling fluid to circulate therethrough. A primary winding is secured or bonded to the heat exchanger, a magnetic puck is disposed in an opening in the heat exchanger, and upper and lower primary winding covers enclose the heat exchanger. The cooling fluid is pumped through the coaxial cable, the flood box and the heat exchanger to cool the primary winding, the magnetic puck, and the power conductors, to permit high power levels to be transferred between the power source and the propulsion batteries of the electric vehicle.

Oil cooled high power inductive coupler

A charging system employing a liquid-cooled transmission cable for transferring power. The transmission cable has a central tube with an extruded member disposed therewithin for carrying coolant. A plurality of layers of coaxial tubular wire braid are disposed around the central tube that carry charging current and that are separated by a layers of dielectric material. An outer layer of wire braid is disposed around an outermost layer of dielectric material that is used for grounding and/or shielding. An outer jacket is disposed around the outer layer of wire braid for encasing the transmission cable. The extruded member may comprise a thermoplastic rubber extrusion, for example. The coolant path through the transmission cable is internally supported by means of the extruded member to assure uniform flexibility, maintain tangential magnetic flux, and eliminate kinking and collapse of the flow path. The transmission cable is designed for charging propulsion batteries of an electric vehicle at extremely high charge rates. The charging system includes an external power source and off-vehicle inverter for providing charging current to the propulsion batteries by way of a charge port and a rectification/filter circuit in the electric vehicle. The transmission cable is coupled between the charge port and the rectification/filter circuit. A cooling system is coupled to the transmission cable that has a radiator for cooling coolant, a manifold, a pump that pumps the coolant, and a reservoir for storing excess coolant. The coolant is pumped from the cooling system through the transmission cable to cool it. The transmission cable 20 is capable of transferring 120 kW @334 Amps RMS @75 KHz.

High power, high frequency, liquid-cooled transmission cable and

An inductive battery charging system that uses heat conducting heat exchangers that shape electromagnetic fields produced by the windings of the charging system. The field shaping provided by the heat exchangers of the present invention improves the power handling capacity of the system. The charging system includes a charge probe that includes a primary winding of a transformer and a charge port that includes secondary windings of the transformer. The heat exchangers are heat sinks that are inserted between or are disposed adjacent turns of the windings and are used to remove heat from windings. In the present invention, the heat exchangers are also used to shape the leakage flux near the edges of the windings in such a manner that AC losses in the windings are considerably reduced. The present invention may be used to increase the inductive charging capacity of an electric vehicle battery pack to on the order of 120 KW and beyond. The present invention eliminates overheating in the at the interface between the transformer windings at a 50 KW level or higher. The present invention may be used with almost any magnetic device, such as a transformer or inductor that uses foil windings or solid wire conductors.

Inductive charger field shaping using nonmagnetic metallic conductors

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

A transformer is used to charge the battery of an electric automobile. The primary of the transformer is connected to a fixed power supply and is separable from a secondary mounted in the automobile. The secondary is cooled by cooling structure mounted on the secondary, particularly a heat pipe.

Growing community of inventors

Wilmington, CA, United States of America

Sergio Ramos