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Common Mode Voltage Mitigation in Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles
Journal article

Common Mode Voltage Mitigation in Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles

Elias Nadi, Javad Chevinly, Ali Hasan and Nagarajan Kandasamy
2026 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference & Expo (ITEC) & Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium (EATS) (ITEC+EATS), pp 1-6
2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ITECEATS66641.2026.11592842
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Abstract

This paper investigates common-mode voltage (CMV) and leakage current in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems for electric vehicle (EV) charging and proposes modulation-based mitigation strategies using a high-frequency gallium nitride (GaN)-based multilevel inverter. Although wireless charging offers enhanced convenience, high dv/dt switching transitions combined with parasitic capacitances introduce significant CMV and leakage currents, raising concerns regarding safety and electromagnetic interference (EMI). The main contribution of this work is the development of CMV mitigation strategies for three-level and five-level inverter topologies, implemented and validated on a practical GaN-based hardware platform. A comprehensive system-level model is developed that incorporates parasitic capacitances associated with the DC link, compensation network, coils, battery, chassis, and ground paths. Various modulation schemes are systematically analyzed to generate the required high-frequency excitation for WPT while minimizing CMV amplitude. Furthermore, selective harmonic elimination (SHE) is employed to suppress low-order harmonics, specifically the 3rd and 5th components, in the differential output voltage. The proposed approach effectively reduces CMV and leakage current without degrading power transfer performance. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is validated through LTspice simulations of three-level and five-level inverters operating with an 800 V DC link at an 85 kHz switching frequency. Additionally, a GaN-based prototype is developed to supply high-frequency power to the WPT system, and experimental results at two operating conditions (85 V/ 512 W and 140 V / 970 W) confirm the effectiveness of the proposed modulation strategies and demonstrate reliable system performance.

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