Study on Soft Start-Up and Shut-Down Methods for Wireless Power Transfer Systems for the Charging of Electric Vehicles

The increase in popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) and the pursuit of user convenience makes wireless power transfer (WPT) an attractive technology for the charging of batteries. The usage of WPT in e-transportation is not straightforward because the current standardization limits the allowed operating frequency range and magnitude of the irradiated magnetic field. Although, to safeguard the zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the intrinsic inverter switches, their operating frequency needs to be slightly adapted at all time such that the circuit functions in the equivalent inductive region of the passive network. Besides the semiconductors’ soft switching, another control objective is limiting the inverter current to restrain the irradiated magnetic field. The start-up of the WPT system can be particularly challenging because uncertainties on the loading condition and coils’ misalignment can complicate these control objectives. This paper benchmarks three start-up modulation strategies for the H-bridge inverter which aim to reduce the amplitude of the transient currents and to ensure ZVS operation for the S-S compensation and double-sided LCC compensation. In addition two soft shut-down strategies are compared for the S-S compensation. The results show that the symmetrical phase-shift (SPS) control with self-oscillating feedback control, also known as Dual Control gives the best performance for S-S compensation at start-up and shut-down. The combination of frequency and SPS control starting below resonance gives the best results for the soft start-up of the double-sided LCC compensation.