2024 R&D 100 Award for Polyphase Electromagnetic Couplers for Extreme Fast Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles

  • Onar, Omer (Recipient), Mohammad, Mostak (Recipient), Aydin, Emrullah (Recipient), Su, Gui-Jia (Recipient), Wilkins, Johnathan (Recipient), Seiber, Larry (Recipient), White, Cliff (Recipient), Hickey, Clayton (Recipient), Galigekere, Veda Prakash (Recipient), Ozpineci, Burak (Recipient), Davies, Rich (Recipient), Mainka, Hendrik (Recipient), Kusch, Ruediger (Recipient), Foote, Andrew (Recipient), Gould, Kenneth (Recipient) & Chabaan, Rakan (Recipient)

Prize: Honorary award

Description

Polyphase electromagnetic wireless charging includes the most compact and lightweight coils possible to achieve the highest-power transfer levels to electric vehicles, or EVs. This process is similar to the wireless charging of small consumer devices, but the unique geometry and design of the polyphase coils enable the transfer of extremely high-power levels using rotating magnetic fields generated by the coil phase windings to boost the power.

ORNL’s research team demonstrated a 100-kilowatt wireless power transfer to a Hyundai Kona EV and a 270-kW wireless power transfer to a Porsche Taycan EV – both world records for light-duty passenger vehicles. This technology also achieved power densities 8 to 10 times higher than existing systems. Power density is important in wireless charging because it indicates how much power the system can handle relative to its size. The goal is to achieve higher densities from smaller, more compact systems to improve overall efficiency and performance. These charging durations and power densities bring electric vehicles much closer to the conventional gas station refueling experience.

The research was funded by DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

The technology was developed by ORNL scientists Omer Onar, Mostak Mohammad, Emrullah Aydin, Gui-Jia Su, Jonathan Wilkins, Larry Seiber, Cliff White, Clayton Hickey, Veda Galigekere, Burak Ozpineci and Rich Davies; Hendrik Mainka, Ruediger Kusch and Andrew Foote of Volkswagen Group; Kenneth Gould of Porsche Cars North America; and Rakan Chabaan of Hyundai-Kia America.
Awarded date2024

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