Hybrid foreign-object detection and positioning system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10944300-B2
Application number	US-201816052445-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 1, 2018
Priority date	Sep 18, 2017
Publication date	Mar 9, 2021
Grant date	Mar 9, 2021

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for a hybrid foreign-object detection and position system. In an example aspect, a foreign object detection (FOD) system of the base power-transfer system detects a passive beacon of an electric vehicle power-transfer system based on a beacon loop of the passive beacon overlapping an array of FOD sense loops effective to cause a change in impedance or admittance of one or more of the FOD sense loops. In aspects, the impedance reflects a modulation signal from the passive beacon. A position detection system integrated with the FOD system determines a passive beacon response in the input data based on the modulation frequency from the passive beacon. Then, a position of the beacon loop is determined relative to the array of FOD sense loops using a result of the passive beacon response canceled from input data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wireless-power receiver apparatus, comprising:
a wireless-power receive circuit comprising an inductive power-transfer coil configured to wirelessly couple power via a magnetic field generated by a transmitter coil, the wireless-power receive circuit configured to provide the wirelessly coupled power to power or charge a load; and
a passive beacon circuit comprising a beacon loop electrically connected in series to a capacitor to form a resonant circuit, the resonant circuit electrically connected to a transistor configured to modulate an impedance state of the passive beacon circuit in response to a modulation control signal, the impedance state of the passive beacon circuit configured to be modulated based on the modulation control signal in a manner to cause a predetermined response at a foreign object detection (FOD) system that is characteristic of the passive beacon circuit.

2. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a body-diode of the transistor is configured to act as a rectifier in a presence of the magnetic field generated by the transmitter coil.

3. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transistor includes an output capacitance in a range of approximately 1.0-4.0 pF.

4. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a resonant frequency of the resonant circuit is tuned to approximately a center of a frequency band of a signal used to drive FOD sense loops of the FOD system.

5. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the resonant circuit is configured to be tuned to a center of a FOD frequency band of the FOD system.

6. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the beacon loop is positioned or oriented to be magnetically decoupled from the inductive power-transfer coil.

7. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the inductive power-transfer coil is configured in a double-D configuration; and
the passive beacon loop is positioned within a center of the double-D configuration.

8. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the impedance state corresponds to a resonant state and a non-resonant state that correspond to whether the passive beacon circuit is resonant within a frequency band of the FOD system; and
the passive beacon circuit is configured to be modulated between the resonant state and the non-resonant state.

9. The wireless-power receiver apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the passive beacon circuit is configured to be modulated at a modulation frequency that reduces interference with the FOD system.

10. A method for providing positioning signaling using a hybrid foreign-object detection and positioning system, the method comprising:
activating a passive beacon of a vehicle power-transfer system of an electric vehicle, the passive beacon comprising a resonant circuit including a beacon loop;
magnetically coupling the beacon loop of the passive beacon with one or more foreign object detection (FOD) sense loops of a FOD system in a base power-transfer system, the resonant circuit configured to resonate based on a magnetic field generated by each of the one or more FOD sense loops; and
modulating a resonance of the resonant circuit at a modulation frequency to provide a passive beacon signal that is detectable by the FOD system.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the modulating is performed by a passive modulation switch that toggles the resonance of the resonant circuit on and off at the modulation frequency.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the passive beacon signal is configured to induce an impedance change or an admittance change in the one or more FOD sense loops of the FOD system to enable detection of the beacon loop as a metal object with distinctive properties.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising using a body-diode of a transistor in the passive beacon to enable the passive beacon to act as a rectifier in a presence of a magnetic field generated by a transmitter coil of the base power-transfer system for transferring power.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising tuning a resonant frequency of the resonant circuit of the beacon loop to a center of a FOD frequency band of the FOD system.

15. A power-transfer system comprising:
a foreign object detection (FOD) system configured to detect both foreign objects and a passive beacon of an electric vehicle power-transfer system, the FOD system configured to detect the passive beacon based on characteristic changes in impedance or admittance of one or more of an array of FOD sense loops in response to a modulation of the passive beacon; and
a position detection system integrated with the FOD system, the position detection system configured to:
determine a passive beacon response in input data of the FOD system based on a modulation frequency of the modulation of the passive beacon;
cancel the passive beacon response from the input data, the FOD system configured to detect whether the foreign objects are present based on the input data with the passive beacon response canceled; and
determine a position of a beacon loop of the passive beacon relative to the array of FOD sense loops based on the passive beacon response.

16. The power-transfer system of claim 15 , wherein the position detection system is configured to cancel out the passive beacon response based on a c 0 /c 1 ratio of a Fourier series, where c 0 corresponds to a direct current (DC) component and c 1 corresponds to a fundamental magnitude of a passive beacon modulation pulse train signal.

17. The power-transfer system of claim 16 , wherein the c 0 /c 1 ratio is a constant value given by hardware of the passive beacon and is derivable based on a fixed duty cycle.

18. The power-transfer system of claim 16 , wherein the position detection system is configured to dynamically determine the c 0 /c 1 ratio for each FOD sense loop to automatically cancel out the passive beacon response, the c 0 /c 1 ratio dynamically determined based on a ratio of an absolute value of a measured time differential FOD step response over an absolute value of a time differential passive beacon magnitude.

19. The power-transfer system of claim 15 , further comprising determining a time differential passive beacon step response by applying a gain factor, a rotation, and a compensation signal.

20. The power-transfer system of claim 19 , wherein the gain factor comprises a c 0 /c 1 ratio of a Fourier series, where c 0 corresponds to a direct current (DC) component and c 1 corresponds to a fundamental magnitude of a passive beacon modulation pulse train signal.

21. The power-transfer system of claim 15 , wherein the position detection system is configured to:
calculate a dynamic threshold using a magnitude of each of the FOD sense loops in the array of FOD sense loops, the dynamic threshold based on a predefined parameter;
determine a location within a subset of the FOD sense loops based on a passive beacon magnitude of each FOD sense loop of the subset of FOD sense loops that exceeds the dynamic threshold; and
use the location within the subset of the FOD sense loops to determine the position of the beacon loop relative to the array of FOD sense loops.

22. The power-transfer system of claim 15 , wherein the position detection system further comprises a first peak cancellation filter configured to filter the impedance or admittance and coupled to a second peak cancellation filter confi

Assignees

• Witricity Corp

Inventors

• Sieber Lukas
• Widmer Hans Peter
• Daetwyler Andreas

Classifications

• H02J2105/37

  exchanging power with electric vehicles [EV] or with hybrid electric vehicles [HEV] · CPC title

• H02J50/12

  of the resonant type · CPC title

• H02J50/402

  the two or more transmitting or the two or more receiving devices being integrated in the same unit, e.g. power mats with several coils or antennas with several sub-antennas · CPC title

• H02J50/80

  involving the exchange of data, concerning supply or distribution of electric power, between transmitting devices and receiving devices · CPC title

• Y02T90/14

  Plug-in electric vehicles · CPC title