JP2016048979A - Non-contact power supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a non-contact power supply device which inhibits the power transmission efficiency from being deteriorated by an obstacle.SOLUTION: The non-contact power supply device radiates an electromagnetic wave serving as an energy propagation medium to electronic devices disposed in a vehicle to supply power to the electronic devices. The non-contact power supply device includes a transmission antenna having an emission surface from which the electromagnetic wave is emitted. The transmission antenna is disposed along an engine room side surface in an engine hood of the vehicle. The emission surface is disposed so as to be oriented to an engine unit having the electronic devices which are housed in an engine room and are power supply objects.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a non-contact power supply apparatus that performs non-contact power supply to an electronic device disposed in a vehicle.

  In communication between devices in a vehicle, by replacing a part that has been conventionally wired communication with wireless communication, the weight and cost of the harness and the like are reduced, and thus the weight and cost of the entire vehicle are being reduced. Regarding the supply of electric power, Patent Document 1 proposes a system that supplies power to a moving body (vehicle) in a non-contact manner from the outside of the vehicle using a microwave.

JP 2008-92703 A

  However, the non-contact power feeding system according to Patent Document 1 is based on the premise that there is no obstacle in the microwave propagation path between the electromagnetic wave generating device that generates the microwave and the vehicle that is the power feeding target. If there is an obstacle in the propagation path of the microwave, the power transmission efficiency is significantly reduced due to the attenuation and diffusion of the microwave. For example, in a closed system in a vehicle, when power is supplied from an electromagnetic wave generation device in the vehicle to an electronic device arranged in the vehicle, other members arranged in the vehicle become obstacles, There is a possibility that the transmission efficiency of electric power is lowered.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a non-contact power feeding device that suppresses a decrease in power transmission efficiency due to an obstacle.

  The invention disclosed herein employs the following technical means to achieve the above object. Note that the reference numerals in parentheses described in the claims and in this section indicate a corresponding relationship with specific means described in the embodiments described later as one aspect, and limit the technical scope of the invention. Not what you want.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a non-contact power feeding device that feeds power to an electronic device by irradiating the electronic device (210) disposed in the vehicle with an electromagnetic wave as an energy propagation medium. The power transmission antenna (10) having an emission surface (12) from which electromagnetic waves are emitted is disposed along one surface of the vehicle hood (320) side of the engine room (300), and the emission surface is It is characterized by being arranged so as to face an engine unit (200) that is housed in an engine room and has an electronic device as a power supply target.

  By the way, when power is supplied to an electronic device provided in the engine unit, a member constituting the engine unit exists between the emission surface of the power transmission antenna and the electronic device. And this member becomes an obstacle of the progress of electromagnetic waves as an energy propagation medium.

  According to the above invention, when power is supplied to the electronic device provided in the engine unit, the power transmission antenna is interposed between the emission surface and the electronic device as compared with, for example, the case where the power transmission antenna is disposed on the front fender. Since the amount of obstacles can be suppressed, a reduction in power transmission efficiency due to the obstacles can be suppressed.

  Alternatively, another invention is a non-contact power feeding device that feeds power to an electronic device by irradiating the electronic device disposed in the vehicle with an electromagnetic wave as an energy propagation medium, and outputs the electromagnetic wave. A power transmission antenna (10) having a surface (12) is provided, the power transmission antenna is disposed along one surface along the outer edge of the interior space of the vehicle interior (330) in the vehicle, and the output surface is disposed so as to face the vehicle interior. It is characterized by being.

  According to this, since the amount of obstacles interposed between the emission surface and the electronic device can be suppressed with respect to the electronic device arranged in the vehicle, the power transmission efficiency is reduced by the obstacle. Can be suppressed.

It is sectional drawing of the vehicle front part by which the non-contact electric power feeder which concerns on 1st Embodiment is arrange | positioned. It is a top view of a vehicle front part. It is a perspective view which shows schematic structure of a power transmission antenna. It is a block diagram which shows schematic structure of a sensor. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement flow which a control part performs. It is a top view of the vehicle center part in which the non-contact electric power feeder which concerns on 1st Embodiment is arrange | positioned.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the same or equivalent parts.

(First embodiment)
Initially, with reference to FIGS. 1-4, schematic structure of the non-contact electric power feeder which concerns on this embodiment is demonstrated.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the non-contact power feeding device 100 is a device that supplies electric power to an engine unit 200 stored in an engine room 300 separated from a vehicle compartment by a bulkhead 310. In the engine unit 200, various sensors 210 such as an air flow meter, a vehicle speed sensor, and a temperature sensor are arranged as electronic devices. The non-contact power supply apparatus 100 supplies power to these sensors 210 in a non-contact manner.

  The non-contact power supply apparatus 100 includes a plurality of power transmission antennas 10 for propagating microwaves to an external space, a microwave oscillator 20 for oscillating microwaves, a battery 30 for supplying power to the microwave oscillators 20, And a control unit 40 for controlling them.

  The power transmission antenna 10 is a plate-like planar antenna such as a microstrip antenna. The power transmission antenna 10 in this embodiment is arrange | positioned along with the one surface which faces the engine room 300 of the bonnet 320 which separates the engine room 300 and the exterior as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the power transmission antenna 10 transmits energy to the emission surface 12 through the emission surface 12 formed of a copper foil on the dielectric substrate 11, the microwave oscillator 20, and the emission surface 12. And a switch 14 for controlling on / off of the emission of the microwave from the emission surface 12.

  A microwave as an energy propagation medium is emitted from the emission surface 12. The emission direction of the microwave is a substantially normal direction of the emission surface 12. For this reason, the power transmission antenna 10 is arranged so that the emission surface 12 faces the engine room 300, and by extension, is arranged so as to face the engine unit 200 stored in the engine room 300. The switch 14 is turned on / off based on a control signal from the control unit 40 and controls whether or not the microwave is emitted from the emission surface 12.

  The microwave oscillator 20 is a device that oscillates an electromagnetic wave having a frequency of about 300 MHz to 3 THz, for example, and a generally known magnetron can be employed. The microwave generated by the microwave oscillator 20 is transmitted to the emission surface 12 through the microstrip line 13.

  The battery 30 supplies power to the microwave oscillator 20. The battery 30 can employ a generally known secondary battery.

  The control unit 40 controls the microwave oscillation by the microwave oscillator 20 based on information such as the remaining amount of power in the battery 30. The control unit 40 has a receiver (not shown) for wireless communication, and can receive information transmitted from the sensor 210. Details of the control will be described later.

  The engine unit 200 refers to the entire mechanism stored in the engine room 300 including an engine, a motor, a radiator, and the like. The engine unit 200 includes various sensors 210 that detect the state of devices included in the engine unit 200 in addition to an electronic control unit (ECU).

  As shown in FIG. 4, the sensor 210 receives power from the detection unit 211 that detects the state of the device included in the engine unit 200, the power reception antenna 212 that receives the microwave emitted from the power transmission antenna 10, and the power reception antenna 212. A sensor battery 213 that accumulates electric power and a transmitter 214 that transmits information such as the state of the device detected by the detection unit 211 and the remaining amount of electric power of the sensor battery 213 to the control unit 40 are included. The power received by the power receiving antenna 212 is rectified to DC power by, for example, a full-wave rectifier, etc., supplied to the driving power of the sensor 210, and stored in the sensor battery 213.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 5, the operation flow of the non-contact power feeding apparatus 100 in the present embodiment will be described.

  First, the control part 40 performs step S1. Step S <b> 1 is a step in which the control unit 40 receives information regarding the remaining amount of power of the battery 30 from the battery 30.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes step S2. Step S <b> 2 is a step in which the control unit 40 calculates the amount of power that can be output from the power transmission antenna 10 based on the remaining amount of power of the battery 30 detected in step S <b> 1. In this step, the upper limit of the amount of energy emitted from the power transmission antenna 10 as a microwave is determined.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes Step S3. Step S <b> 3 is a step in which the control unit 40 determines energy (power amount) emitted from the power transmission antenna 10 as a microwave. The microwave energy determined in this step is set so as not to exceed the upper limit of the energy calculated in step S2.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes step S4. In step S4, the microwave oscillator 20 oscillates the microwave so that the electric energy determined in step S3 is obtained, and the control unit 40 sets the switch 14 of one power transmission antenna 10 among the plurality of power transmission antennas 10. This is the step to turn on. By this step, a microwave is emitted from the emission surface 12 of one power transmission antenna 10 toward the engine unit 200.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes Step S5. In step S5, each sensor 210 measures the amount of power received by the emitted microwave (hereinafter referred to as the amount of received power), and information on the amount of received power is transmitted from the transmitter 214 to the receiver of the control unit 40. It is a step to transmit. The control unit 40 records the amount of power received by each sensor 210 by the microwave emitted from the single power transmission antenna 10 selected in step S4.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes Step S6. Step S <b> 6 is a step in which the control unit 40 determines whether the power reception amount of each sensor 210 has been recorded for all the power transmission antennas 10. If the determination result in step S6 is NO, the operation flow returns to step S4. That is, the control unit 40 switches the power transmitting antenna 10 that is turned on in step S4 to a power transmitting antenna 10 that is different from the power transmitting antenna 10 that was turned on immediately before step S6, and executes steps S4 and S5. The control unit 40 repeats this, and the determination result of step S6 becomes YES determination because the received power amount of each sensor 210 is recorded for all the power transmission antennas 10. If the determination result in step S6 is YES, the process proceeds to step S7. When the determination in step S6 is YES, the control unit 40 lists each power transmitting antenna 10 and the power received by the sensor 210 for each power transmitting antenna 10 (hereinafter referred to as a power received amount list). ). The control unit 40 can determine the power transmission antenna 10 for maximizing the power reception amount of a certain sensor 210 by referring to the power reception amount list.

  Step S <b> 7 is a step in which the control unit 40 receives information regarding the remaining amount of power of the battery 30 from the battery 30, as in step S <b> 1.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes Step S8 as in Step S2. Step S8 is a step in which the control unit 40 calculates the amount of power that can be output from the power transmitting antenna 10 based on the remaining amount of power of the battery 30 detected in step S7.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes step S9. Step S9 is a step in which the control unit 40 selects the power transmission antenna 10 that emits microwaves from all the power transmission antennas 10 and determines the amount of power emitted as microwaves. The total amount of microwave power determined in this step is set so as not to exceed the upper limit of energy calculated in step S8.

  In step S9, various conditions can be arbitrarily set for selection of the power transmission antenna from which the microwaves are emitted. For example, the following conditions may be set.

<When determining power transmission antenna 10 based on the amount of power received by each sensor 210>
For example, the control unit 40 refers to the power reception amount list described above, and uses the power transmission antenna 10 corresponding to the sensor 210 whose power reception amount is greater than or equal to a preset power amount as the power transmission antenna 10 that emits microwaves. select. And the total electric energy of the microwave radiate | emitted from the selected power transmission antenna 10 is set so that it may not exceed the upper limit of the energy calculated in step S8.

  Alternatively, the control unit 40 may select the upper power transmission antenna 10 by arranging the power reception amounts in descending order with reference to the power reception amount list described above. In this case, the number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected, that is, the number of power transmission antennas to be selected can be arbitrarily set.

<When determining power transmission antenna 10 based on the remaining amount of power of battery 30>
For example, the control unit 40 refers to the above-described received power amount list and selects the power transmitting antenna 10 that is arranged in descending order with respect to the received power amount. Then, when determining the number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected, the control unit 40 acquires information on the remaining amount of power of the battery 30. The control unit 40 determines the number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected based on the remaining amount. For example, when the battery 30 is sufficiently charged, the number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected can be set to be relatively large. Conversely, when the battery 30 is not sufficiently charged, the selection is made. A relatively small number of power transmission antennas 10 are set.

  Under the two conditions described above, the charge state of the sensor battery 213 included in the sensor 210 may be reflected in the received power amount list. When the remaining amount of power of the sensor battery 213 is small, the amount of power required by the corresponding sensor 210 is increased. The control unit 40 records the amount of power required by each sensor 210 in the received power list. Then, the priority of the power transmission antenna 10 that can supply sufficient power to the sensor 210 that receives a relatively large amount of power and that requires a relatively large amount of power is set high.

  Based on the set priority, the control unit 40 selects the power transmission antenna 10 that emits microwaves. The number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected, that is, the number of the top power transmission antennas to be selected can be arbitrarily set, or the number of power transmission antennas 10 to be selected is determined based on the remaining power of the battery 30. You can also

  After the end of step S9, the control unit 40 executes step S10. In step S10, the microwave oscillator 20 oscillates microwaves so that the amount of power determined in step S9 is obtained, and the control unit 40 among all the power transmission antennas 10 selects the power transmission antenna 10 selected in step S9. This is a step of turning on the switch 14. Through this step, microwaves are emitted from the emission surface 12 of the selected power transmission antenna 10 toward the engine unit 200.

  Next, the control unit 40 executes Step S11. Step S <b> 11 is a step in which each sensor 210 measures the amount of power received by the emitted microwave and transmits information on the amount of power received from the transmitter 214 to the receiver of the control unit 40. As a result, the received power amount list is updated.

  After the end of step S11, the control unit 40 executes step S12. Step S12 is a step in which the control unit 40 determines whether or not power transmission by the power transmission antenna 10, that is, power transmission can be performed. For example, if the ignition switch is turned off at the time of step S12, power transmission from the power transmission antenna 10 is impossible, so a YES determination is made, and the process ends. On the other hand, if the power can be transmitted continuously, the determination is NO.

  In the case of NO determination in step S12, the control unit 40 returns the operation flow to step S7, repeats step S7 to step S11, and supplies power to the sensor 210.

  Note that after step S12 is completed, the operation flow may be returned to step S1 instead of step S7, and steps S1 to S11 may be circulated. However, it is rare that the remaining power of the battery 30 and the sensor battery 213 and the state of the obstacle with respect to the microwave in the engine room 300 significantly change during one run. Therefore, the flow of steps S1 to S6 may be executed only when the ignition switch of the vehicle is turned on, and steps S7 to S11 may be repeated during traveling.

  Next, the effect of the non-contact electric power feeder 100 in this embodiment is demonstrated.

  The engine room 300 is generally a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, and the engine unit 200 stored in the engine room 300 is also a substantially rectangular parallelepiped. And the engine unit 200 is arrange | positioned so that two surfaces with the largest area among rectangular solids may become a ceiling. In other words, one of the two largest surfaces of the rectangular parallelepiped faces the bonnet 320. In the contactless power supply device 100 according to the present embodiment, the power transmission antenna 10 is disposed on one surface of the bonnet 320 facing the engine room 300, and the emission surface 12 faces the engine unit 200. In other words, the emission surface 12 is substantially opposed to a substantially rectangular parallelepiped top that is regarded as the engine unit 200.

  In such an arrangement, the length of the microwave emitted from the emission surface 12 through the engine unit 200 can be shortened as compared with the case where the power transmission antenna 10 is arranged, for example, in a fender. For this reason, since the amount of obstacles interposed between the emission surface 12 and the sensor 210 can be suppressed with respect to the sensor 210 as an electronic device arranged in the engine room 300, electric power generated by the obstacle can be reduced. A reduction in transmission efficiency can be suppressed.

  In addition, since the non-contact power feeding apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of power transmission antennas 10, a plurality of power transmission antennas 10 for power feeding can be assigned to one sensor 210. For this reason, compared with the structure with the single power transmission antenna 10, large electric power can be transmitted. In other words, the time for supplying power to one sensor 210 can be shortened.

  Furthermore, the non-contact power feeding apparatus 100 in the present embodiment turns on only the necessary power transmission antennas 10 in Step 9 of the operation flow shown in FIG. In other words, the power transmission antenna 10 with low energy transmission efficiency and the power transmission antenna 10 in charge of feeding power to the sufficiently charged sensor 210 are turned off. Thereby, power saving can be realized as compared with a configuration in which all the power transmission antennas 10 are turned on.

(Second Embodiment)
1st Embodiment demonstrated the example in which the power transmission antenna 10 is arrange | positioned at a bonnet. On the other hand, this embodiment demonstrates the example arrange | positioned in the site | part which faces the vehicle interior in the power transmission antenna 10. FIG. In addition, the non-contact electric power feeder 100 in this embodiment has the arrangement place changed with respect to 1st Embodiment, and the structure and operation | movement flow are the same as that of 1st Embodiment. Further, the power supply target of the non-contact power supply apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is not an electronic device disposed in the engine unit 200 but a vehicle interior temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, and an accelerator pedal rotation angle sensor disposed in the vehicle interior 330. Furthermore, it is an electronic device such as a tablet terminal such as a mobile phone or a smartphone owned by the passenger.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in the non-contact power feeding device 100 according to the present embodiment, the power transmission antenna 10 is disposed on the door 340, the roof 350, the front pillar 360, and the rear pillar 370 in the vehicle. It is designed to face the passenger compartment. Parts such as the door 340, the roof 350, the front pillar 360, and the rear pillar 370 are formed along the outer edge of the passenger compartment 330, and a thin metal layer or other thin heat insulating layer between the passenger compartment 330 and the like. There are only obstacles. Therefore, for example, as in the first embodiment, the obstacle interposed between the emission surface 12 and the sensor as compared with the case where power is supplied to the electronic device in the passenger compartment 330 by the power transmission antenna 10 disposed in the hood 320. Therefore, it is possible to suppress a reduction in power transmission efficiency due to an obstacle.

(Other embodiments)
The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

  In the operation flow of each embodiment described above, as a method for selecting the power transmission antenna 10 in step S9, the case where the power transmission antenna 10 is determined based on the amount of power received by each sensor 210 and the power transmission based on the remaining power of the battery 30 are transmitted. Although two examples in the case of determining the antenna 10 have been described, the present invention is not limited to these examples. Power saving can be realized by selecting the power transmitting antennas 10 that meet the conditions from all the power transmitting antennas 10 according to a predetermined rule and emitting microwaves.

  Moreover, although the microwave has been described as an example of the energy propagation medium for power transmission, the frequency of the electromagnetic wave serving as the medium is arbitrary.

  Further, although the microstrip antenna is described as an example of the power transmission antenna 10, the type of the antenna is not limited, and the present invention can be applied if the power transmission antenna 10 is a plate-like planar antenna.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Power transmission antenna, 20 ... Microwave oscillator, 30 ... Battery, 40 ... Control part, 200 ... Engine unit, 210 ... Electronic device (sensor), 300 ... Engine room, 320 ... Bonnet

Claims (7)

A non-contact power feeding device that feeds power to the electronic device by irradiating the electronic device (210) disposed in the vehicle with an electromagnetic wave as an energy propagation medium,
A power transmission antenna (10) having an emission surface (12) from which the electromagnetic wave is emitted;
The power transmission antenna is disposed along one surface of the hood (320) of the vehicle on the engine room (300) side,
The non-contact power feeding device, wherein the emission surface is disposed so as to face an engine unit (200) that is housed in the engine room and includes the electronic device as a power feeding target. A non-contact power feeding device that feeds power to the electronic device by irradiating an electromagnetic wave as an energy propagation medium to the electronic device disposed in the vehicle,
A power transmission antenna (10) having an emission surface (12) from which the electromagnetic wave is emitted;
The power transmission antenna is disposed along one surface along the outer edge of the internal space of the passenger compartment (330) in the vehicle,
The non-contact power feeding device according to claim 1, wherein the emission surface is arranged to face the vehicle compartment. A plurality of the power transmission antennas;
A control unit (40) for controlling the emission of the electromagnetic wave in the power transmission antenna,
The non-contact power feeding apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit selects the power transmission antenna that emits the electromagnetic wave based on a power reception amount of the electronic device with respect to each power transmission antenna.   The said control part selects the said power transmission antenna with which the electric power feeding amount with respect to the said electronic device is larger than a predetermined threshold among the said power transmission antennas, The said electromagnetic waves are radiate | emitted from the selected said power transmission antenna. The non-contact power feeding device according to 3. A plurality of the power transmission antennas;
A control unit (40) for controlling emission of the electromagnetic wave in the power transmission antenna;
A battery (30) for supplying power to the power transmission antenna,
The contactless power supply device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control unit selects the power transmission antenna that emits the electromagnetic wave based on a remaining amount of power in the battery. The control unit determines the priority of the power transmission antenna to emit the electromagnetic wave based on the amount of power required by the electronic device and the amount of power received by the electronic device,
6. The non-contact power feeding according to claim 5, wherein the power transmission antennas are selected in descending order of priority based on a remaining amount of power in the battery, and the electromagnetic waves are emitted from the selected power transmission antennas. apparatus.   The said control part updates the list | wrist which matched each power transmission antenna with the power reception amount of the said electronic device with respect to this power transmission antenna about the said power transmission antenna at a predetermined | prescribed timing. The non-contact electric power feeder of any one of Claims.

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