In consideration of the environment, attention has recently been given to a hybrid vehicle, an electric vehicle and the like that use electric power from a battery and the like to drive driving wheels.
Particularly in recent years, attention also has been given to wireless charging, by which the above-mentioned battery mounted in an electrically powered vehicle can be charged in a contactless manner without using a plug and the like. Furthermore, various types of charging schemes are also recently proposed as a contactless charging scheme.
The power transfer system using a contactless charging scheme is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-070048 (PTD 1), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-252583 (PTD 2), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-294385 (PTD 3), Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-004512 (PTD 4), and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-076513 (PTD 5).
In these power transfer systems, a power transmission device and a power reception device each are configured to have a surface facing the other device through which electromagnetic waves can pass, and to have the other surfaces not facing the other device that are covered by a shield member. For example, a contactless power feeding system disclosed in PTD 1 employs a shield box having a cubic shape and configured to have a surface facing the other device so as to allow electromagnetic waves to pass therethrough, and to have other five surfaces each provided with a shield member so as to reflect the electromagnetic waves (near field).
The shield box should be sized such that a power feeding unit (a power transmission unit) and the shield member housed within the shield box are arranged at a certain distance or more from each other. Consequently, it is feared that the power feeding unit (power transmission unit) may be increased in size, particularly, increased in height.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds