Flexible screen-printed coils for wireless power transfer using low-frequency magnetic fields

Abstract

We report the fabrication and testing of a multilayer flexible screen-printed coil that can be used to generate low-frequency (<1 kHz) magnetic fields for applications such as electrodynamic wireless power transmission (EWPT). Compared to traditional coil-forming methods, screen printing enables rapid fabrication of thin, light weight, conformable, and flexible structures. The flexibility is demonstrated by repeated bending of a stack of up to three layers for a curvature (inverse bending radius) of 53.2 . We also demonstrate wireless power transmission of 1 mW of power at a distance of 4 cm between the flexible receiver and transmitter. The effect of the flexibility is observed through a 32% power increase when the receiver is bent concavely and a 20% output power decrease when the stack is bent convexly. It is also seen that the insertion of a 0.2 mm-thick soft-magnetic material sheet increased the magnetic field by 41% from its original value. Mechanical cycling was also performed for the stack. After 10 000 bending cycles, a 16.4% increase in the coil resistance was measured for a 0.33 Hz frequency and 78% increase for a 1 Hz cycling frequency, respectively. Screen printed 3D flexible transmitter coils can enable the incorporation of EWPT for wireless charging in applications such as healthcare and consumer-based electronics.