Blind-Zone-Free Metal Object Detection for Wireless EV Chargers Employing DD Coils by Passive Electromagnetic Sensing

Metal object detection (MOD) is crucial for the safe operation of ground-assembled wireless electric vehicle charging (WEVC) systems. Electromagnetic sensing by passive coils is a reliable MOD method for high-power applications, such as WEVC. Previous designs of sensing coils are mainly targeted at the systems with unpolarized coils (e.g., circular coils). However, they are not suitable for those with DD-coil-coupling engaged due to the fundamentally different field pattern. To fix this problem, in this article, a field-oriented design of sensing coils is proposed, which mainly aims at blind-zone elimination while maintaining high sensitivity and cost-effectiveness. The blind zone arising from axial symmetry of the field is removed by size-modulated C-shape coil units. And removing the central blind spot relies on an extra patch coil by utilizing the characteristic of parallel magnetic flux generated by DD coils. Tested by 13 positions (central blind spot excluded) where MOs might exist using a 3-kW WEVC prototype, the optimized sensing coils completely remove the axial blind zones when 50 mV is set as the threshold voltage. Moreover, for the central blind spot, the proposed patch coil can stably identify MO intrusion no matter if the prototype operates in light-load or heavy-load conditions.