A Moving Field Inductive Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicles

Electrical Vehicles (EVs) powered along their way are an attractive option since they are safe, lightweight, and have unlimited cruising range. In this work a novel moving field inductive power transfer (MFIPT) system for on the road powering of electric vehicles is presented. The MFIPT system is based on stationary primary coils linearly arranged along one or several tracks of a roadway and a secondary coil in each EV. In this arrangement only the primary coils in the roadway under the vehicles are activated. The active primary coil acts as a switched resonant converter. When switching from one primary coil to the subsequent primary coil on the track, in order to follow the moving vehicle, the electric and magnetic energies stored in the coils and capacitors are passed on to the subsequent coils and capacitors in order to avoid loss of the stored energy.