Mid-range Wireless Power Transfer System Research Articles

Precise Modeling and Design of Self-Resonant for High-Efficiency Mid-Range Wireless Power Transfer System

Transfer power and efficiency of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems are limited by the quality factor and coupling coefficient of the transmitting (Tx) coil and receiving (Rx) coil. Getting rid of compensation circuits, self-resonant coils have simple structure, high system reliability, high quality factor and high power level, making it a promising candidate for WPT applications. In modeling and computation of self-resonant coils, the results derived from the transmission line theory have obvious errors, and the finite element simulation takes a long computing time. For obtaining accurate results and achieving fast computation, a partial-element equivalent circuit (PEEC) method is applied to calculate the self-resonant frequency (SRF) and the current distribution of helical coils. To validate the accuracy of the proposed model, some prototypes were simulated and measured. The theoretical calculation predications are in great agreements with the simulation and measurement results. The magnetic coupling model between Tx and Rx is also established using PEEC method and a novel design guideline of self-resonant helical coils is proposed. Furthermore, a WPT system with 6.78MHz selfresonant helical coils was designed, fabricated and tested for a high-efficiency mid-range energy transfer. It was used to drive a 5W load wirelessly as a demonstration to validate the feasibility of the proposed system in practical applications.

A mid-range wireless power transfer system for portable electronic devices using beam forming

A mid-range wireless power transfer system for portable electronic devices using beam forming

Reconfigurable Coil Array for Near-Field Beamforming to Compensate for Misalignment in WPT Systems

This work develops a reconfigurable coil array that compensates for the misalignment between coils in magnetic resonance coupled wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. By tuning the magnitude of the currents induced in the coil array with the variable capacitors that load them, the effect of reconfiguring the size and/or shape of the coil can be achieved. Therefore, the near field can be steered in a certain direction to overcome the notorious misalignment problem in WPT systems. For experimental demonstration, a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2\times 1$ </tex-math></inline-formula> array is designed and fabricated for a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$60\times 60$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> coil. For a vertical distance between Tx and Rx coils of 10 mm, which is 16.7% of the largest coil dimension, the transfer efficiency maintains more than 40% and up to 141.6% misalignment. This is more than an 81% increase over the conventional coil. For a vertical distance of 30 mm or 50%, the minimum transfer efficiency is 37.1% up to 100% misalignment, which is almost 5.5 times that of the conventional counterpart. The results suggest that the demonstrated technology successfully overcomes the notorious misalignment problem in both short-range and midrange WPT systems and even in asymmetric systems where the reconfigurable coil array technique is applied only on the Rx.

Analysis and Optimal Design of Mid-Range WPT System Based on Multiple Repeaters

In this article, an optimal design for mid-range wireless power transfer system based on multiple repeaters is proposed, which aims at powering high-voltage side sense module in HVdc applications. The mathematical model of the system is established. The characteristics of current distribution and impedance angle are analyzed under equally spaced situations. To further optimize the system, the optimized spaced structure with different distances is investigated, which can improve transferring efficiency under same distance requirement. The effect of load is also analyzed. A 1.5 m prototype with eight repeaters is built and the experimental results verify the feasibility of optimized coil arrangement, which can effectively improve efficiency, especially under light load situations.

Analysis and Design of Asymmetric Mid-Range Wireless Power Transfer System with Metamaterials

In a wireless power transfer (WPT) system, the power transfer efficiency (PTE) decreases sharply with the increase in transfer distance. Metamaterials (MMs) have shown great potential to enhance PTE in mid-range WPT systems. In this paper, we propose two MM slabs of a 3 × 3 array to enhance the magnetic coupling. The MM unit cell was designed by using square spiral patterns on a thin printed circuit board (PCB). Moreover, the asymmetric four-coil WPT system was designed and built based on the practical application scenario of wireless charging for unmanned devices. The simulation and experimental results show that two MM slabs can enhance power transmission capability better than one MM slab. By optimizing the position and spacing of two MM slabs, the PTE was significantly improved at a mid-range distance. The measured PTEs of a system with two MM slabs can reach 72.05%, 64.33% and 49.63% at transfer distances of 80, 100 and 120 cm. When the transfer distance is 100 cm, the PTE of a system with MMs is 33.83% higher than that without MMs. Furthermore, the receiving and load coils were integrated, and the effect of coil offset on PTE was studied.

Mid-Range Wireless Power Transfer System for Various Types of Multiple Receivers Using Power Customized Resonator

This paper presents a high-efficiency wireless power transfer (WPT) system that can charge multiple receivers (Rx's) of various types. For system analysis, the transmitted power and received power levels are derived using the parameters of the resonators based on electro-magnetic (EM) resonance. Using the analysis results, the power customized resonator (PCR) not only for deriving sufficient output power from the transmitter (Tx) but also for appropriately distributing the received power to the various and multiple Rx's is proposed. In addition to the PCR, the Tx unit is designed to work as a load-dependent voltage source using a differential Class-E power amplifier (PA) through a wide range of load impedances. Therefore, the Tx can naturally adapt to the required Tx power levels with a high efficiency corresponding to various Rx configurations without additional tunable circuits or adaptive control schemes. The WPT system, including the load-dependent voltage source for the Tx, full-bridge rectifiers for the Rx's, and the proposed PCR, was designed for the 6.78 MHz frequency band. The proposed system is validated for use with multiple mobile devices by conducting experiments with nine charging cases using three types of Rx's. For all cases, high system efficiencies of 70.7-85.5% were maintained over received power levels of 8.6-45.7 W at a charging distance of 30 mm, and each of the three types of Rx's were experimentally verified to receive sufficient power.

Stacked-Coil Technology for Compensation of Lateral Misalignment in Nonradiative Wireless Power Transfer Systems

A stacked-coil technology is demonstrated that realizes size-adjustable coil systems to compensate the notorious problem of lateral misalignment in nonradiative wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. The proposed system has a simple structure that consists of multiple layers of coils with various sizes. Depending on the misalignment, the coil pair that provides the best transfer efficiency is switched on. Thus, not only the transfer null is removed, but also a very high transfer efficiency is maintained even with extreme misalignment. Experimental results at 6.78 MHz show the effectiveness of the stacked coil for both short- and mid-range wireless power transfer systems. The transfer efficiency maintains abovementioned 80% up to 87% and 65% lateral misalignment when the separation between Tx and Rx coils are 10% and 50%, respectively, relative to the largest dimension of the coil. The three-layer short-range system successfully removes the transfer null to maintain a minimum transfer efficiency of 39.7% up to 126% misalignment. The two-layer mid-range system maintains transfer efficiency abovementioned 50% up to 103% misalignment. Furthermore, the performance is virtually the same even in an asymmetric WPT system, i.e., when the technique is applied to only one of the two coils. A detailed design procedure is also provided.

Maximum Power Transfer versus Efficiency in Mid-Range Wireless Power Transfer Systems

The condition for maximum power transfer of 2-coils wireless power transfer (WPT) system is derived from circuit analysis and discussed together with the respective WPT system efficiency (η). In the sequence, it is shown that a 4-coils WPT system (which can be divided in source, two communication and load circuits) without power losses at the two communication circuits (ideal 4-coils WPT system) presents, from maximum power transfer and efficiency point of view, a performance similar to those of a 2-coils WPT system. The exception is the influence of coupling coefficient (k): in 2-coils system η increases as k approaches one, while in ideal 4-coils WPT system η increases as k between the two communication coils approaches zero. In addition, realistic 4-coils WPT systems (with power losses at the two communication circuits) are also analyzed showing, for instance, that η presents a maximum as a function of k of the communication coils. In order to validate the presented theory, 4 coils were built, and a setup to perform 2-coils and 4-coils WPT systems has been carried out. Practical results show good agreement with the developed theory.

A Fast Method for Generating Time-Varying Magnetic Field Patterns of Mid-Range Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Visualizing the magnetic flux paths for wireless power transfer systems enables researchers and engineers to understand the operations and design the geometrical dimensions of the practical systems. However, time-domain transient simulations of 3-D electromagnetic fields of complex wireless power transfer systems with multiple coil-resonators are extremely time-consuming. This paper describes a fast hybrid approach that combines the time-domain coupled circuit modeling and the magnetostatic analysis to form a fast time-domain analytical tool for studying complex wireless power transfer systems. The proposed methodology has been successfully applied to several wireless domino-resonator systems. For the first time, the time-varying magnetic flux variations of wireless power domino-resonator systems can be visualized in computer simulations.