Series-Series/Series Compensated Inductive Power Transmission System with Symmetrical Half-Bridge Resonant Converter: Design, Analysis, and Experimental Assessment

In order to compensate the large leakage inductance and improve the power transmission capacity, capacitors are widely used in inductive power transfer (IPT) systems, which results in high voltage or current stresses in the resonant tanks and limits higher volt-ampere (VA) rating of the transfer power, especially in medium and low frequency applications. This paper presents a symmetrical half-bridge resonant converter (SHRC) for series-series/series compensated IPT systems with detailed analysis and design. It operates at a relatively low frequency of 12.5 kHz, suitable for IGBT applications. The theoretical analysis shows that, compared with full-bridge resonant converter (FRC) for IPT, the symmetrical half-bridge resonant converter achieves a higher efficiency. Simulation and a prototype of 1500 W power output were built to verify the theoretical analysis. The experimental results show that the power loss of SHRC is 39.7 W while that of FRC is 79.4 W, which is consistent with the theoretical analysis. The global efficiency of the IPT based on the proposed converter is 91.6%.