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A power line communication (PLC) solution to provide a data link between two or more dc–dc power converters is proposed. The approach does not require additional analog circuitry or high-sample-rate analog-to-digital converters to be added on top of the original system. A modulation and signal injection method for the transmitter, and a sampling and demodulation strategy for the receiver are developed. The PLC frequency band is placed between the control loop cutoff frequency and the power electronics circuit cutoff frequency, in a region that we identify as the “intermediate frequency band”. The transmitter modulates the converter voltage or current output by injecting perturbations into the control loop at the input to the PWM unit. To tolerate unsynchronized transmitter and receiver clocks, a virtual zero-crossing location algorithm is combined with long/short pulse identification to achieve demodulation at the receiver. The solution is verified experimentally and achieves reliable bidirectional PLC communication at 2 kb/s with an 8 kHz receiver sampling frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a subharmonics switching technique named bifrequency pulse train (BF-PT) control for wireless battery charging system with tapped transmitter (Tx) winding is proposed to regulate the output power against the variation of load and coupling coefficient. The tapped Tx winding is spilt into two subwindings: subwinding I is connected to the inverter while subwinding II is in open circuit. The charging current and charging voltage can be acquired by measuring the induced current of subwinding I and the induced voltage of subwinding II, respectively, without dual-side communication. BF-PT control, which contains high- and low-frequency pulse trains, can achieve zero voltage switching over a wide operating range. The high- and low-frequency pulse trains are uniformly distributed to suppress the winding current oscillation and to minimize the output voltage ripple. When the coupling becomes weaker and/or light-load conditions, the switches are operated at the subharmonics frequency to further reduce the average switching frequency of the system. To verify the validity of the proposed method, a wireless charging system with 72 V/3 A output is fabricated. The experimental results confirmed that the proposed method is able to maintain constant current and constant voltage output regardless of the load and coupling variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a free-positioning omnidirectional wireless power transfer (WPT) system with a reticulated planar transmitter, which enables multiple receivers to be powered simultaneously in arbitrary positions and orientations. The reticulated planar transmitter is equipped with four interleaved and overlapped meander coils, thus, a three-dimensional (3-D) rotating magnetic field is generated with the designed excitation current. Therefore, only a planar single-coil (such as a loop-type coil) is required to realize free-positioning omnidirectional WPT. According to the theoretical modeling of the magnetic field, the excitation current that can generate a 3-D rotating magnetic field is given. To obtain a uniform and strong magnetic field distribution, the transmitter grid width is optimized. Furthermore, an excitation current modulation strategy based on phase-shift control is presented to regulate the amplitude of the excitation current. The experimental results show that the output power is greater than 13.1 W no matter how the center of the receiver moves or rotates freely within 400 × 400 mm. When five receivers are powered simultaneously in different positions and orientations, 82.5 W total output power and 55.6% efficiency can be achieved. The experimental results demonstrate that free-positioning omnidirectional WPT can be realized with only planar single-coil receivers by using the proposed reticulated planar transmitter and its excitation current modulation strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, an optimized design for a dual-coupled inductor–capacitor–capacitor-series (LCC-S)-compensated wireless power transfer (WPT) system with zero-phase angle (ZPA) input condition and load-independent constant current (CC) output is presented. To this end, based on the misalignment characteristics of the reversed-series compensation coil structure, a novel design method for determination of the compensation parameters is proposed. By introducing a stability factor, any restriction on the variation correlation of the mutual inductances between the transmitter and receiver coils, and between the compensation and receiver coils within the range of misalignment tolerant design, is eliminated, thereby increasing the degree of freedom in the coil structure. According to a predetermined misalignment tolerant range, the proposed method can limit the fluctuation of the output current within a certain range and maintain the ZPA input condition. A 200-W/85.3-kHz prototype based on the proposed method is implemented and its performance is experimentally validated. The system can operate in ZPA input and load-independent CC output with a misalignment tolerance factor of 4, as the load varies from 5 to 20 $\Omega$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, a design of bipolar nonsalient pole (BNSP) transmitter, which originates from motor theory, for high-power EV dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) system is proposed. To analyze and evaluate BNSP transmitter in aspect of principle, characteristic, and performance, the existing I-type, S-type, and N-type transmitters in DWPT application are classified as bipolar salient pole (BSP) transmitter, which establishes a reference for comparing. The design parameters and other contrast conditions of BNSP and BSP transmitters are given. Coupling flux and leakage flux of BNSP transmitter are analyzed by comparing the magnetic models and the finite-element models of BNSP and BSP transmitters. Based on the modular design in practical application, the sensitivity of coupling performance to the module gap in BNSP and BSP transmitters is analyzed and compared in simulation. All theoretical results are verified by contrast experiments. The maximum effective mutual inductance of BNSP transmitter is about 31.0% larger than that of BSP transmitter, and the efficiency of the system with output power of 10 kW is 93.5% with BNSP transmitter, about 2.4% higher than that with BSP transmitter. Besides, BNSP transmitter needs 5.9% shorter Litz wire and 53.1% smaller volume of cores, which makes it smaller in size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose an amplitude-shift keying (ASK) modulation technique for Class-E power transmitters used in the inductive power and data transfer links. The proposed modulation circuit consists of a capacitor and a transistor, which switch the load network of the Class-E transmitter between two states; in one state, the drain waveform of the Class-E transistor satisfies both zero-voltage switching (ZVS) and zero-voltage-derivative switching conditions, while in the other one, the waveform approximately satisfies the ZVS condition. Therefore, at both states, the dc-to-ac power conversion efficiency is high, but the transmitted power is different, which allows the implementation of ASK data modulation in the transmitter. We also present an analytical procedure to design the circuit for the desired output power and data modulation index (MI). We have verified the design procedure in both simulation and measurement. The implemented inductive link consists of a 2.4- $\mu$ H transmitter coil and a 1.1- $\mu$ H receiver coil, separated by a 10-mm air gap. With a carrier frequency of 10 MHz, the power transfer efficiency and the power delivered to load were measured to be 64.6% and 35 mW, respectively. With MI = 10%, the bit error rate for the data rates of 1 and 2 Mb/s was measured to be less than 10–8 and 10–6, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A step-down wireless power transfer converter with center-tapped pickup windings is proposed in this article. The pickup winding is split into two sections and only one is connected to the load. This topology is more suitable for low-voltage level applications, such as consumer electronic products. Like the conventional series–parallel compensation technique, the circuit does not induce high circulation current at the transmitter coil under light load operation. The loosely coupled coils are analyzed with mutual inductance model; in addition, the input impedance and voltage gain are derived. The input impedance is proportional to the load impedance, and the voltage gain is less sensitive to the load variation. The proposed topology performs better than the conventional one at higher load conditions, especially when the coupling is poor. The efficiency of a laboratory circuit reaches 88.8% at best condition and it is higher than 63% ranging from 10- to 100-W load at 10- or 60-mm coil separation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces an adaptive self-tuned controller IC for resonant wireless power transfer (RWPT) transmitters. The controller IC comprises an on-the-fly very-high-frequency tracking hardware with high resolution and an independent high-resolution digital pulsewidth modulator (PWM)-based (HR-DPWM) current programmed control. These facilitate precise frequency generation as well as adaptive tuning of the reactive components in the matching network, which translate into tight current/power regulation capabilities while retaining optimized power transfer conditions on the transmitting side. The controller IC enables to effectively disengage the power-delivery capabilities from the variations of the resonators, electrical circuits, and wireless medium. The controller core is based on a fully synthesizable digital architecture that has been realized through HDL tools, and several key building blocks have been developed and described in detail: a delay-line-based phase detector, high-resolution digital frequency synthesizer, and HR-DPWM. To fully exploit the benefits of digital electronics, reduce power consumption, and save area, the digital core of the controller has been designed completely through asynchronous architecture, eliminating the need of high-speed clock and its related hardware. The mixed-signal controller IC has been designed, implemented, and fabricated in 0.18-μm 5-V CMOS process, resulting in effective silicon area of 0.6 mm2. To demonstrate the mixed-signal controller IC in closed-loop operation of a wireless power system, an experimental 20-W resonant capacitive-based WTP system has been designed and validated. The effectiveness of the controller is well demonstrated and evaluated at the MHz range up to 200 mm misalignment, meeting the strict requirements of resonant-based WPT systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, an omnidirectional wireless power transfer (WPT) has attracted attention as a solution to the limitations of free-positioning and mobility of conventional WPT. However, the efficiency of the omnidirectional WPT is reduced due to the low mutual inductance relative to the transmitter size. Therefore, this article proposed an optimal magnetic structure to improve efficiency without increasing the size of the transmitter. Four magnetic structure candidates (spherical, cubical, crossed bar, three-orthogonal plane core) are presented and their performances are compared using finite element analysis software. A Pareto optimal set is selected using a multiobjective optimization design, and the optimal magnetic structure is determined considering the weight of the objective variable and the Tchebycheff distance. The optimal magnetic structure and omnidirectional WPT prototype are built for performance verification. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation results and demonstrate that the optimal magnetic structure improves the efficiency in the three-dimensional space. When the power transmission distance is 150 mm, the system efficiency is improved up to 18.6%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-power inductive power transfer system with overlapped transmitters driven by a multi-inverter topology is proposed in this article. Each inverter drives an independent primary coil to transfer energy to the common secondary coil. A phase-shifted control strategy at inverter-level is proposed to regulate the output of the system. A dynamic model based on virtual resonant loop is proposed to describe the system with the phase-shift angle and the output voltage as the input and output variables, respectively. With the introduction of virtual resonant loop, n practical resonant loops at the primary side can be expressed by two equations, which greatly reduce the scale and order of the model. A PI controller is developed to evaluate the system regulating performance. A laboratory prototype driven by three inverters connected in parallel was built to verify the theoretical analysis. Experiments have shown that the setting times were within 13 ms under load resistance and reference disturbances, which verified the validity of the model and the controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The closed-loop control of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems requires a communication link between the power transmitter and the power receiver for dual-side cooperation. Near-field communication techniques that utilize the power link are preferred for this purpose due to high reliability and security. In this letter, we propose a frequency-modulated phase shift keying (FMPSK) communication technique for the closed-loop maximum efficiency point tracking (MEPT) control of WPT. The technique uses very shallow phase modulation depth to minimize the disturbance on power flow and reduce the efficiency drop caused by the PSK. Meanwhile, it ensures the signal accuracy and precision by multiple methods and precise frequency modulation and demodulation. In experiment, we obtained 82%–85% system efficiency with a 25–125 W load over a distance equal to the coil diameter, and 93% efficiency over a distance equal to the coil radius. The efficiency drop caused by FMPSK was less than 1%. The dynamic processes of voltage regulation and MEPT took only about 1 ms and 10 ms, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, omnidirectional wireless power transfer (WPT) systems have been studied intensely, due to their improved flexibility as compared to their planar counterparts. The LCCL-LC resonant converter topology is selected due to its current source characteristics in this article. The system frequency is pushed to megahertz (MHz) to increase the spatial charging freedom. In a megahertz WPT system, the reactance of the full bridge rectifier can no longer be neglected; therefore, an analytical model of the full bridge rectifier input impedance is built. Furthermore, zero-voltage switching (ZVS) of the switching devices is essential in reducing the switching loss and noise in a megahertz system. A design methodology of the LCCL-LC circuit is proposed to achieve the ZVS operation in the case of one transmitter and one receiver. Then, the ZVS analysis is extended to the scenario of multiple transmitter coils and one receiver coil. Finally, a 6.78-MHz wireless charging system is built according to the proposed design methodology. Experimental results validate the accuracy of the ZVS analysis, and the ZVS operation is well achieved under different coupling and load conditions. The peak system efficiency of 82% at 5-W output power is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voltage stress of compensation capacitors in the wireless charging system could be up to several kilovolts. Things get worse for the dynamic operating condition because the resonant current gets fluctuating with the rigid variations of the coupling condition. In this article, a constant resistance (CR) control scheme on a boost converter is proposed to mitigate receiver current stress, i.e., the peak currents in the resonant tank and the boost chopper inductor. The receiver-side dynamic wireless charging (DWC) system with a postregulated boost converter is introduced by the static operating waveforms. To investigate how speed affects current stress, a receiver-side current analytical model is established based on the closed-loop input admittance of boost and the dc circuit model of resonant tanks. The modeling results illustrate that the overstress problem is prone to occur at high-speed condition under constant current charging control. CR control, which shapes boost input current and voltage in phase, is adopted to address this problem. Comparative studies for full-range speeds and nonideal coupling conditions, conducted by the DWC simulator, show that uniform low-stress performance is obtained under CR control with the same amount of energy transferred. Maximum stress improvement on the receiver resonant current is 29% for ideal condition and 44% for a nonsinusoidal condition when driving at 80 km/h. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes and implements a selective wireless power transfer (WPT) system based on magnetic field editing technology. Compared with the traditional WPT without control of power regions, the proposed system can deliver the energy with higher safety, flexibility, selectivity, and can be applied to multiple receivers. The algorithms for current calculation and synchronized control strategies are given to construct the desired magnetic field effectively. The optimization process based on the receiver configuration and voltage threshold is also demonstrated. Both simulation and experimental results validate that the magnetic field distribution can be arbitrarily edited through the proposed current control strategy, and realize the selectivity of the powering area. A prototype of the proposed system with five transmitters is constructed and tested, which can successfully deliver wireless power of 14 W over the distance of three times larger than the radius of the receiver coil with the transmission efficiency over 79%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While detection of foreign or unintended metallic objects is an important topic for wireless power transfer (WPT), operation of WPT systems with intended metallic objects is largely an unchartered territory. This article presents a methodology for analyzing the effects of intended metallic object on a WPT system through the study of the magnetic field distribution and the use of a reduced-order equivalent model of the systems for comparing the WPT system with and without the metallic object. The methodology is applied to a metallic corona ring of low resistance used with a WPT system. The analysis quantifies how an intended metallic object could change the magnetic coupling between the transmitter and receiver coils, and alter the equivalent resonant tank parameters of the WPT system. Recompensation of the resonant tank can only enhance the power transfer capability but not the energy efficiency. The theory and practical verification of a new performance-enhancement method based on a combination of recompensating the resonant tanks and maximizing the equivalent mutual inductance of the Tx and Rx coils is presented. Such methodology provides a general approach to analyze WPT systems with or without relay resonators in the presence of intended metallic objects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compensation capacitors are important components of any resonant wireless power transfer (RWPT) systems and significantly affect the output power, operating frequency, and efficiency. Depending on the compensation network, these capacitors can be placed in series or parallel with the coils. The physical capacitor reduces reliability and increases the size and cost of RWPT systems. Self-resonant RWPT systems have been proposed to remove the physical capacitor, but have to work with high frequency, several megahertz, as reported in existing literatures. In this article, a new planar coil that utilizes parallel-connected multilayer Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) to generate large parasitic capacitance is proposed for RWPT. Both transmitter and receiver coils are made using PCB coils and a spiral winding layout is used to achieve the required inductance and capacitance. Benefit from large parasitic capacitance, the resonant frequency of the proposed RWPT system is reduced to below 200 kHz. Meanwhile, because of the elimination of physical capacitance, the proposed RWPT system has a compact structure, improved reliability, and reduced size, weight, and cost. A coil prototype is designed, constructed, and tested. Simulation and experimental investigations validate the effectiveness of the proposed design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops a new method of data-driven modeling for a class of multiple-transmitter single-receiver wireless power transfer (WPT) systems. A continuous-time multiple-input single-output (MISO) model with pure time delays is used to characterize the input–output behavior of the system, where the transfer functions associated with each input channel are not constrained to have the same denominator. Moreover, the time delays are allowed to be a fraction of the sampling interval in order to account for the delay effects that stem from circuit components and wireless communication, which are, by nature, often a fraction of the sampling interval. An optimal refined instrumental variable method is proposed to estimate the parameters and time delays of the MISO model based on sampled input–output data. In contrast to the conventional circuit-theory-based modeling methods that rely on circuit parameters and result in models which are often complex, the proposed data-based method yields parsimonious models, whose parameters are directly estimated from input–output data. Due to the easy availability of sampled data in control engineering applications, the proposed method is clearly more user-friendly, having a broad prospect for efficient operation of WPT systems, such as prediction, optimization, and control. Numerical and experimental results are presented to validate the effectiveness and merit of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a maximum efficiency tracking for a multiple-transmitter system that optimizes both the current ratios of transmitter (Tx) coils and the effective Rx load. It is found that unlike the single-Tx case, the optimal load impedance of multiple-Tx system depends on the current ratios among Tx coils. Meanwhile, the Tx current ratios should be controlled to be the same with magnetic coupling ratios between each Tx and Rx. Hence, we propose a two-step tracking method that first optimizes the Tx current ratios and then optimizes the Rx load impedance. To match the Tx current ratio with the magnetic coupling ratio, it is analyzed that the reflected resistances at every Tx become identical to each other when the Tx coil current ratios are equal to the magnetic coupling ratios. It is also revealed that the reflected resistance at specific Tx is reduced (increased) when its Tx current is increased (reduced) relative to other Tx currents. The proposed feedback equalizes all reflected resistances based on this property. The second step of the proposed tracking is to optimize the Rx load while fixing the Tx current ratios by globally scaling up or down the strengths of whole Tx currents. Maximum of 478 W is delivered at 79% efficiency. The algorithm does not have a limit on the number of Txs except the small standby power consumption. The proposed theoretic analysis and control method enable the first-ever maximum efficiency tracking for multiple-Tx system, where the first step optimizes the relative Tx current ratios and the second step optimizes the load impedance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expandable and flexible wireless power transfer (WPT) systems have been in demand in numerous industry applications, especially for dynamic chargers in electric vehicles. Those systems, however, bring about certain technical issues such as modulation technique and topology of the transmitter side, and transferred power profile of the transmitters. In this article, a new converter topology to drive closely spaced segmented dynamic wireless power transfer (DWPT) systems is proposed. The proposed converter can be expanded to cater for different number of transmitters, and it can provide a uniform transferred power profile throughout the path of transmitter coils, known as track. Furthermore, this article focuses on analyzing the operation of the converter and the effect of closely spaced transmitters over its operation. To show the effectiveness of the proposed topology and its modulation technique, the converter is simulated and experimentally tested using a laboratory prototype. The results are compared and analyzed, and their close agreement shows the validity of the proposed technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In high-power electric vehicle wireless charging systems, the charging distance is short, and the coupling is strong in order to increase the power density and reduce the coil size and the system cost. With a strong coupling, the receiver-side compensation can be eliminated, and a high efficiency can still be obtained. The inductor-capacitor-inductor-none (LCL-N) topology is formed with the LCL compensation on the primary side. The phase difference between the transmitter and receiver currents is larger than 90°, leading to the magnetic flux cancelation in the ferrites. Thus, the required ferrite thickness of the LCL-N topology is smaller than the fully-compensated topologies. Therefore, a compact, lightweight, and low-cost receiver structure is achieved with the omitted compensation and thinner ferrite. Moreover, the LCL-N topology can achieve zero voltage switching for all loading conditions, withstand open-circuit and short-circuit faults, and is suitable for constant-current and constant-voltage charging due to the fact that it has neither a CC nor a CV output characteristic. A 100-kW system is designed and simulated. A downscaled 1-kW system is implemented. The simulations and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a gallium nitride (GaN)-based single-inductor multiple-output (SIMO) dc–ac inverter, which generates multiple frequencies at the ac outputs, is introduced. The proposed time-multiplexed switching sequences enable the SIMO inverter to simultaneously generate sinusoidal-like outputs with different frequencies. In the absence of a parasitic body diode in the GaN transistor and with correct bias voltage, the proposed inverter requires no additional blocking diodes and/or cascaded power switches while still ensuring unidirectional flow of the inductor current for proper circuit operation. Compared with its silicon counterpart, this GaN-based inverter achieves a simplified circuit structure, reduced component count, small form factor, increased power density, and high efficiency. A practical application of this inverter is to act as a single wireless power transmitter which concurrently drives multiple transmitter coils at different frequencies for multi-standard wireless power transfer. A hardware prototype of a single-inductor three-output inverter producing three distinct resonant frequencies, namely, 100, 200, and 300 kHz, is constructed. The effectiveness of the proposed switching sequences and control method for this inverter is experimentally verified. No cross regulation is observed across the three individual ac outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A single-stage 6.78 MHz transmitter is proposed, which directly converts a utility ac input to a regulated, high-frequency (6.78 MHz) ac output for wireless power transmission. The topology integrates a totem-pole rectifier operating in a discontinuous conduction mode and an asymmetrical voltage cancellation controlled full-bridge inverter. Compared with the traditional cascaded multistage transmitters, this single-stage approach achieves high power efficiency over the full load range, utilizes fewer fast-switching devices, and shrinks the size of the converter. Constant current behavior at the output of the transmitter enables a fast response to a sudden load change. The operation and theoretical analysis of the single-stage transmitter is verified using a 100 W, GaN-based prototype. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of the converter to provide high power factor, low total harmonic distortion of the input current, and high conversion efficiency over the whole power range. The resulting prototype is suitable for implementation in wireless power systems where multiple consumer electronics loads are charged from a single transmitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter proposes a novel capacitive coupler array with free-positioning feature for mobile tablet applications. The capacitive coupler consists of three printed circuit boards, two of which constitute the transmitter and the third one is the receiver. The coupler is vertically arranged to make the charging system compact and feasible for mobile tablet applications. By applying a repetitive structure on the transmitter side and properly designing the receiver, free-positioning capacitive charging is realized and the coil-to-coil charging efficiency is not affected by the variation of the receiver position. Only two series inductances are utilized for compensation purposes, which makes the system more compact and easy to be fabricated. This proposed capacitive coupler is studied via finite-element analysis and verified by the experimental results at 1, 2.17, and 3.45 MHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visible light communication (VLC) has gained relevance during the last few years. It consists in using high-brightness LEDs (HB-LEDs) both for lighting and transmitting information by changing the light intensity rapidly. However, there are some bottlenecks that are slowing down the deployment of this technology. One of the most important problems is that the HB-LED drivers proposed for addressing high data rates in VLC achieve poor power efficiency. Since these HB-LED drivers must be able to reproduce fast current waveforms, the use of linear power amplifiers has been adopted, which clearly damages the power efficiency of HB-LED lighting. In order to alleviate this problem, an HB-LED driver made up of two DC–DC power converters is presented in this work. One of them is responsible for performing the communication functionality by operating at high switching frequency (10 MHz), whereas the second converter fulfills the illumination functionality by ensuring a certain biasing point. The split of the power allows us to minimize the power delivered by the fast-response DC–DC power converter, which suffers from high switching losses. Thus, the overall efficiency can be maximized for each particular communication scenario and for scenarios with changing conditions (i.e., mobile transmitter and/or receiver, presence of mobile obstacles, etc.). In this sense, how the lighting level and the communication signal power affect both the power efficiency and the communication efficiency is deeply analyzed in the experimental section. The implemented prototype achieves an overall efficiency around 90%. In addition, the proposed VLC transmitter is able to reproduce a wide range of digital modulation schemes, including the preferred one for wireless communications: orthogonal frequency division multiplexing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper proposes optimal driving conditions of two transmitters (TXs) in magnetic wireless power transfer, where the couplings from each TX to an RX are not identical. First, for the case of identical TX coil currents, a criterion for deactivating a specific TX element is proposed. Specifically, one TX element among the two TXs often has weaker coupling coefficient than the other TX element. It is found that the TX element with weaker coupling should be deactivated if its coupling coefficient is less than 0.414 times of the stronger coupling. Second, for the case of adjustable TX coil currents, the optimal current ratio between the two TX coils is proposed. It is found that the TX coil current ratio should be equal to the coupling coefficient ratio, e.g., the TX coil with twice coupling with an RX should carry twice current. The results are widely applicable regardless of absolute coupling strength and load condition because it turns out that the results only depend on the ratio of couplings. Finally, it is discussed that the required component values of an LCC inverter should be adjusted based on the current ratios and coupling between adjacent TXs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new wireless power transfer (WPT) system based on ball-joint structure is presented in this paper. A ball-joint WPT system consists of a ball structure with a mechanical rod attached to the ball and a ball socket that accommodates the ball structure. This ball-joint structure comprises at least one winding in the ball structure and at least one winding in the ball socket structure. The ball structure can be flexibly rotated over a wide range of angle inside the ball socket, while wireless power can still be transferred from the transmitter winding to the receiver winding through magnetic resonance. The magnetic coupling coefficient between the transmitter and receiver coil over a wide rotating angular range has been analyzed and experimentally checked. Experimental results confirm that an energy efficiency of up to 81% can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is well-known that the power transfer efficiency and the power transmitted over a wireless inductive link are significantly affected by the strength of the magnetic coupling and the spatial displacement between the transmitting and receiving coils. Misalignment between the transmitting and receiving coils is practically unavoidable. In order to control and regulate the receiver-side power, on-the-spot measurement of electrical quantities and establishment of communication link between the transmitter and receiver are typically required. This paper will present an investigation into the use of the transmitter-side electrical information to estimate the mutual inductance and regulate the power consumption of the receiver side. The nonlinear input voltage–current characteristics of the diode-bridge rectifier, which causes current distortions in the system, are taken into account in the mathematical formulations. The proposed technique is successfully implemented on a 4-W wireless-powered LED driver prototype. Experimental results reveal that the LED power can be regulated within ±25% spatial misalignment over the operating zone. The estimated mutual inductance is also found to be in close agreement with the theoretical predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a wireless power transfer (WPT) transmitter that can concurrently operate at 200 kHz and 6.78 MHz in order to simultaneously power two receivers operating with different frequency standards. Unlike a dual-resonant single-coil design, the use of two separate coils decouples the design for one frequency from the other, enabling independent selection of inductance and Q-factor to simultaneously maximize efficiency at both frequencies. The two coils then support separate coil drivers, enabling concurrent multistandard operation. Dual-band operation is achieved in the same area as an equivalent single-band design by placing a low-frequency coil within the geometry of a high-frequency coil, where the outer diameter of inner coil is sacrificed only by 1.2 cm in a 12.5 × 8.9-cm2 design. Circuit analysis is presented to identify the eddy current between the two Tx coils and its associated loss, after which an eddy-current filter design is proposed. To validate the proposed design, a dual-mode transmitter, along with two receivers designed at 6.78 MHz and 200 kHz, respectively, have been fabricated. At 25-mm separation, the system is able to simultaneously deliver 9 and 7.4 W with efficiencies of 78% and 70.6% at 6.78 MHz and 200 kHz, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the basic control principles of omnidirectional wireless power transfer (WPT) based on the current amplitude control. The principles involve 1) an “omnidirectional” scanning process for detecting the power requirements in a 3-D space and 2) a “directional” power flow control for focusing the wireless power toward the targeted areas. Such principles apply to any WPT system comprising three orthogonal transmitter coils and multiple receivers with coil resonators. A current amplitude control method capable of generating a magnetic vector at a set of points evenly distributed on a spherical surface is explained. Based on the voltage and the current information in the transmitter circuit, the power involved in each vector over the spherical surface can be obtained. By scanning the vector over the spherical surface, the collective power flow requirements for the targeted loads can be determined. Based on the power requirements for the vectors over the spherical surface, a weighted time-sharing scheme is adopted to focus the wireless power toward the targeted areas. This method has been successfully applied to a hardware prototype. Both theoretical and experimental results are included to confirm these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the effect of power combining and delivering in multiinput and multioutput wireless energy transmission systems, which consist of more than one transmitter antennas as sources and more than one receiver antennas as loads and repeaters. Theoretical expressions were developed to model the system operation that can be in a large-scale wireless energy network architecture. System characteristics, such as power transfer between antennas, power losses induced in each antenna, wireless efficiency, coil misalignment, and power fluctuation due to the loss of frequency synchronization were examined by theory and verified with experiments. Measurement results matched well with the theory demonstrating the feasibility of combining and delivering power with high efficiencies in large-scale wireless energy transmission systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the methodology to create multiple frequency modes in a multiresonator system of one transmitter and multiple receivers based on the circuit theory. The multiple frequencies from natural responses of magnetic couplings could be obtained by determining the eigenvalues of a matrix equation. This potentially allows us to diversify transmissions to and from devices. Theoretical calculations and experiments show similar results of the multiple frequencies at given coupling conditions. Models of two, three, and four coils in straight line demonstrate the splitting mode in the spectral domain, which are validated by envelopes of signals. In measurements, three frequencies of 525, 625, and 695 kHz, and four frequencies of 495, 590, 670, and 755 kHz are achieved at the receiver for three- and four-coil models, respectively, when coils are equally distanced by 2 cm. When coupling coefficient of every adjacent coil in three-coil model is 0.2, aggregating the peak power at two and three splitting modes result in 28% and 71%, respectively, more power than that at resonance frequency. Similarly, with two, three, and four modes in four-coil model, the increases are 43%, 23%, and 33% with two, three, and four modes, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an efficient method is proposed to eliminate frequency splitting in nonradiative wireless power transfer via magnetic resonance coupling. In this method, two nonidentical resonant coils (NIRCs) are used as wireless power transmitter and receiver, respectively. According to the elliptic integral term in the analytical expression, the pole of the mutual inductance function with respect to transfer distance can be eliminated by using the two NIRCs, and hence overcoupling between transmitter and receiver with close transfer distance is avoided. Therefore, frequency splitting caused by overcoupling can be suppressed and stable output power can be achieved. The NIRCs are analytically calculated, numerically simulated and finally, fabricated and tested to verify the theory. All the calculated and experimental results show that frequency splitting is completely eliminated and uniform voltage across the load is achieved. Furthermore, lateral misalignment between the NIRCs barely introduces frequency splitting, and the suppression level of frequency splitting can also be controlled freely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is sometimes unavoidable to use loosely coupled coils in applications, like biomedical devices, for transferring electric energy wirelessly. However, coil misalignment causes degradation of the power transfer efficiency. It is well known that the power transfer efficiency of classical parallel coils is primarily determined by the quality factors of the coils and the coupling coefficient between the coils, and is maximized by choosing an optimal turns-ratio between the coils. Changing the number of turns of the coils cannot effectively overcome such misalignment effect. This paper presents a structure that comprises two orthogonally placed windings for lessening the variation of the coupling coefficient due to the coil misalignment. An output current summing technique that keeps the windings concurrently energized and combines the output currents of the windings will be studied. A canonical model will also be derived to describe the interactions between the coils. An experimental prototype has been built and evaluated on a test bed, which allows different degrees of lateral and angular misalignments. Results reveal that the proposed structure can effectively increase the minimum efficiency zone, allowing more lateral and angular misalignments. These investigations lay the foundation for future understanding more complex loosely coupled winding structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Envelope tracking (ET) is one of the most promising transmitter architectures proposed to increase the efficiency of modern wireless communication system. An ET transmitter consists of a linear RF power amplifier and a high-efficiency envelope amplifier, which is always a switched-mode power converter. The envelope amplifier provides a varying drain (collector) bias voltage, which tracks the envelope of the RF input signal, for the RF power amplifier. Thus, the RF power amplifier keeps working in high-efficiency region of most of the time. Therefore, the overall efficiency of the transmitter is increased. This paper proposes a multistage noise-shaping-technique-controlled multilevel power converter to perform as the envelope amplifier in an ET transmitter. Experimental results show that the proposed power converter can reproduce any envelope signals with the maximum spectrum component of 300 kHz and give maximum instantaneous power of 20 W. Compared with pulsewidth modulation, the noise-shaping technique can shape the ripple into noise and the noise will be attenuated by the low-pass filter, which results a better performance, while maintaining high efficiency as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]