J. of Electromagn. Waves and Appl., Vol.

23, 925934, 2009

SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT COUPLING MECHANISMS FOR THE WIRELESS ELECTRICITY TRANSFER X. C. Wei and E. P. Li Computational Electromagnetics and Electronic Division Institute of High Performance Computing 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis, Singapore 138632, Singapore Y. L. Guan and Y. H. Chong Nanyang Technological University 50 Nanyang Drive, Research Techno Plaza Level 4 Border X Block, Singapore 637553 AbstractWireless electricity transfer is an emerging technology for the future power supply system. In this paper, we simulate two dierent coupling mechanisms used in the wireless electricity transfer: the inductive coupling and resonant near-eld coupling. Equivalent circuits are extracted to simulate their transfer eciencies. To achieve the maximum transfer eciency, the optimized frequencies are derived for two mechanisms. There is good agreement between simulation results and measurement results. By comparing their transfer eciencies, it shows that the resonant near-eld coupling is usually more ecient than the inductive coupling for the middledistance electricity transfer.

1. INTRODUCTION The wireless electricity transfer is an emerging technology for the future power supply system. It has distinct advantages over traditional electricity transfer. It provides a convenient way to run electrical devices, where the power-connecting wires are troublesome or even impossible, such as implanted electrical devices. It also helps to reduce
Corresponding author: X. C. Wei (weixc@ihpc.a-star.edu.sg).

926

Wei et al.

the product cost, since it throws o the connecting wires and gives a maintenance-free solution for power supply. The wireless electricity transfer is an interesting research topic with a long history. Probably the most famous eort is the Solar Power Satellite introduced by NASA at 1968 [1]. In their proposed system, the solar energy is collected and converted to microwave power on the space satellite, and then this microwave radiation is transmitted to Earth where it would be captured by ground antenna and transformed to usable electricity. Some wireless electricity transfer technologies are also proposed for low-power applications. In [2], a contactless power delivery system is proposed for moving loads in mining applications. In [3], a contactless battery charger is designed for cellular phone. And in [4], the wireless technology is used to transfer power and information at the same time. All of above technologies are based on the inductive coupling. Because the inductive coupling decays quickly with the distance, the air-gap between the transmitter and receiver of published literatures is much small. Recently, Marin Soljacic of MIT and his team have demonstrated how a 60 Watt light bulb could be wirelessly powered up from a distance of 2 meters [5]. In their experiment, the resonant coupling instead of inductive coupling is used. The major dierence between inductive coupling and resonant coupling is that: in the inductive coupling, only the static magnetic eld contributes to the energy coupling, while in the resonant coupling, both the electric and magnetic elds contribute to the energy coupling. At the same time, the working frequency of the resonant coupling is higher than the working frequency of the inductive coupling. However, for the resonant coupling, there are still some technical challenges, such as the low eciency and safety issue. In this paper, we focus on the middle-distance (within few meters) applications. The eciency of inductive coupling and resonant coupling is simulated and compared. An equivalent network model is proposed for inductive coupling and resonant coupling. To achieve the maximum transfer eciency, we derive their optimized frequencies. This can serve as the guideline for the design of wireless electricity transfer system. Finally, simulations results are veried with the measurement results.

Dierent coupling mechanisms for wireless electricity transfer

927

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 1. (a) Before and (b) after insertion of the transceiver network, and (c) the equivalent source. 2. COMPARISON OF INDUCTIVE AND RESONANT COUPLING 2.1. Equivalent Network of the Power Transceiver and Its Eciency Denition There are two dierent mechanisms which can be used for wireless electricity transfer: the inductive coupling and resonant coupling. They dominate at low and high frequency bands. For both mechanisms, the transceiver can be equivalent to a two-port network. Figs. 1(a) and 1(b) show the source and load before and after the insertion of the transceiver network respectively. Zg and ZL are the source internal impedance and load impedance respectively. We dene the power transfer eciency of the transceiver as = PLa /PLb (1)

where PLb is the received powers by the load before the insertion of the transceiver(i.e., the traditional power supply system), while PLa is the received powers by the load after the insertion of the transceiver. The cascade matrix of the transceiver network is dened as A B V1 = I1 C D V2 I2 (2)

with V1 , V2 , I1 , and I2 dened in Fig. 1(b). By using this cascade matrix, the transfer eciency can be written as = |Zg + ZL |2 / |AZL + B + CZg ZL + DZg |2 (3)

The source together with the transceiver is equal to a new equivalent source as shown in Fig. 1(c). V is the equivalent voltage with V = V /(Zg C + A). Zg is the equivalent internal impedance with

928

Wei et al.

Zg = (Zg D + B)/(Zg C + A). When the load appears as the complex conjugate of the equivalent internal impedance as ZL = Zg , the load will receive the maximum power PLa,A (the available power of the equivalent source). It should be noted that the conjugate match for maximum received power does not necessarily results in the maximum power transfer eciency. also can be written by using the [S] matrix of the transceivers network as = |S21 (1 L g )|2 / |(1 S11 g )(1 L out )|2 (4) where g is the source reection coecient with g = (Zg Z0 )/(Zg + Z0 ), L is the load reection coecient with L = (ZL Z0 )/(ZL +Z0 ), out is the transferred source reection coecient with out = S22 + S12 S21 g /(1 S11 g ), and Z0 is the reference impedance. When the transceiver is lossless, [S]+ [S] = [U ], where + denotes the conjugate transpose and [U ] is the 2 by 2 unit matrix. Substituting this condition into (4), we can prove that the available power of the equivalent source of Fig. 1(c) is equal to the available power of the original source. Therefore, PLa,A = |V |2 /Re(Zg )/4. In the following, the optimized frequencies for the maximum eciency are derived for inductive coupling and resonant coupling. 2.2. Eciency of Inductive Coupling At the low frequency, where the size of transmitter and receiver and their distance are much smaller than the working wavelength, they can be equivalent to the self and mutual inductors shown in Fig. 2 by using the quasi-static approximation. Its cascade matrix is 1 A B L1 j(L1 L2 M 2 ) = C D L2 M 1/j (5)

Figure 2. Equivalent transceiver network for the inductive coupling.

Dierent coupling mechanisms for wireless electricity transfer

929

Substituting (5) into (3), the power transfer eciency can be obtained as = M (Zg + ZL ) L1 ZL + L2 Zg + j [(L1 L2 M 2 ) Zg ZL /]
2

(6)

In many applications the source internal impedance Zg and load impedance ZL can be taken as pure resistances. Now for the given transmitter, receiver, source, and load, we need nd the optimized frequency , at which achieves its maximum value. Let L1 , L2 , M , Zg , and ZL be constants in (6), by minimizing the imaginary part of the denominator of (6), we get the optimized frequency as = Zg ZL L1 L2 (1 2 ) (7)

with = M/ L1 L2 . At this optimized frequency, gets its maximum value as m = [(Zg + ZL )M/(L1 ZL + L2 Zg )]2 2.3. Eciency of Resonant Near-eld Coupling It is well-known that two objects with the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy eciently, and energy exchanging between o-resonant objects is much weaker. Based on this mechanism, we can use a power transmitter to ll the space around it (near-eld region) with an evanescent electromagnetic eld, and then the receivers specially designed to have the same resonant frequency will eciently pick up this energy. For the high transfer eciency and safety issue, the power transmitter should be an antenna with a small radiation resistance. This is just dierent from the traditional antennas used in radio communications, where the ecient radiation is required. The derivation of the eciency of the resonant near-eld coupling is not as straightforward as that of the inductive coupling, because the electromagnetic eld distribution is very complex at high frequencies. We can not use the simple equivalent circuits of Fig. 2 to model the high-frequency coupling. Instead, the method of moments developed by authors [69] are used to simulate the transfer eciency. The transfer eciency achieves its maximum values at the resonant frequencies of the transceiver. For the classic geometry, such as the coil and helix shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 5, the resonant frequencies can be analytically derived. We take that coil/helix as two conductors with their ends shorted. Therefore, it is equivalent to a transmission (8)

930

Wei et al.

line with the length r, where r is the radius of the coil/helix. This transmission line is series resonant when its length is equal to the multiple of half working wavelength. Accordingly, for a given coil/helix, its series resonant frequencies are calculated as fn = n c/(N 2 r) with n = 1, 2, 3, . . . where c is the speed of light and N is the turns of the coil/helix. 3. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS In this section, the coil and helix are used to study the wireless electricity transfer eciency. The reason to use such structures is that they are the non-ecient antenna, so that the power loss due to the radiation is reduced and hence much power can be transferred between the transceiver. In the following measurement, signal generator and spectrum analyzer are used as the source and load respectively, so that Zg = ZL = Z0 = 50 Ohm. Substituting these into (4), we get = |S21 |2 . Therefore, the measured S21 is used to validate the simulation results of the eciency. In order to avoid the unwanted emission, the connecting cables are not used and the signal generator and spectrum analyzer are directly connected to the coils/helices. The rst example is two coaxial copper coils as shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 4, the S21 parameter is measured and compared with those from the derived quasi-static formula (6) and the method of moments. For the quasi-static formula, the self and mutual inductors are [10] L1,2 = 0 r(ln (r/a) + 0.32944) M = 0 r[(2/k k)K(k) 2/kE(k)] (10) (11) (9)

where K and E are complete elliptic integrals of the rst and second kinds, k = 2r/ d2 + 4r 2 , r and a are the radius of the coil and copper wire respectively, and d is the distance between two coils.

Figure 3. Two coaxial copper coils (Unit: Meter).

Dierent coupling mechanisms for wireless electricity transfer

Induct ive Coupling
0

931

Resonant Coupling

130.5MHz
-20

|S21| (dB )

-40

3.16MHz

-60

-80 1

Measurement Full-Wave Quasi-Static

10 100 1000

Frequency (MHz)

Figure 4. Magnitude of S21 for two coaxial coils.

Figure 5. Two caxial copper helices (Unit: Meter). Wire radius of small and large helix are 0.25 mm and 2 mm respectively. Turns of small and large helices are 45 and 5 respectively. From Fig. 4, we can see that the whole frequencies are divided into the low and high bands. The inductive coupling and resonant neareld coupling is dominant at dierent band. There is good agreement between the measurement, the method of moments, and the quasistatic method (only for low frequency band). By using (7) and (9), we can exactly estimate the optimized frequencies at low-frequency band and the 1st resonant frequency at the high frequency band, which are also plotted in Fig. 4. The second example is two coaxial copper helices as shown in Fig. 5. These two helices are designed to have the same resonant frequencies. Fig. 6 shows the magnitude of S21 obtained by the

932

Wei et al.

Measurement Full-Wave Quasi-Static

29.1MHz

|S21| (dB)

-40

-80

0.22MHz
-120 0.1

10

100

1000

Frequency (MHz)

Figure 6. Magnitude of S21 for two coaxial copper helices.

0

-20

|S21| (dB)

Inducti ve Coupling Resonant Coupling

-40

-60 0.01

0.1

Distance between two coils (Meter)

Figure 7. Eciency comparison between the inductive coupling and resonant coupling for coils shown in Fig. 3. measurement, quasi-static formula and method of moments. Good agreement can be observed. The optimized frequencies at lowfrequency band and the 1st resonant frequency of the bigger helix are also plotted. Figure 7 plots the change of the maximum |S21 | with the distance between the transmitter and receiver for the inductive coupling and resonant coupling. The |S21 | of the inductive coupling is calculated by using (8). The |S21 | of the resonant coupling is calculated at the

Dierent coupling mechanisms for wireless electricity transfer

933

1st resonant frequencies shown in Fig. 4. This gure reveals that the resonant near-eld coupling can give a higher eciency than the inductive coupling. And the inductive coupling of two coils drops more quickly than the resonant coupling when the distance increases. Until now, the inductive coupling nds more applications than the resonant coupling. But all of these applications are limited to the very short distance [24]. The resonant coupling provides a more ecient way for the middle distance power transfer. 4. CONCLUSION In this paper, the eciency of the wireless electricity transfer is simulated and compared with the measurement results. People had successfully used wireless technology to transfer information for centuries [11, 12]. However, the usage of wireless technology to transfer power for long distance still faces some challenges. One of the challenges is the low transfer eciency. Fortunately, due to the technology advancement, nowadays the trend of the power consumption of electrical product is ever decreasing from Watt to milli-Watt and even lower. This makes it feasible to use the wireless technology to transfer the power to such electrical devices in the coming future. REFERENCES 1. Dudenhoefer, J. E. and P. J. George, Space solar power satellite technology development at the Glenn research center-an overview, NASA Report, NASA/TM-2000-210210, 2000. 2. Klontz, K. W., D. M. Divan, D. W. Novotny, and R. D. Lorenz, Contactless power delivery system for mining applications, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., Vol. 31, No. 1, 2735, 1995. 3. Kim, C. G., D. H. Seo, J. S. You, J. H. Park, and B. H. Cho, Design of a contactless battery charger for cellular phone, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., Vol. 48, No. 6, 12381247, 2001. 4. Hirai, J., T. W. Kim, and A. Kawamura, Wireless transmission of power and information and information for cableless linear motor drive, IEEE Trans. Power Electron., Vol. 15, No. 1, 2127, 2000. 5. Kurs, A., A. Karalis, R. Moatt, J. D. Joannopoulos, P. Fisher, and M. Soljai, Wireless power transfer via strongly coupled cc magnetic resonances, Science, Vol. 37, 8386, July 2007. 6. Wei, X. C., E. P. Li, E. X. Liu, and R. Vahldieck, Ecient simulation of power distribution network by using integral

934

Wei et al.

7.

8.

9.

10. 11.

12.

equation and modal decoupling technology, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 56, No. 10, 22772285, 2008. Wei, X. C., E. P. Li, and Y. J. Zhang, Application of the improved nite element-fast multipole method on large scattering problems, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 47, 49 60, 2004. Zhang, Y. J., X. C. Wei, and E. P. Li, Electromagnetic scattering from three-dimensional bianisotropic objects using hybrid nite element-boundary integral method, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 18, No. 11, 5491563, 2004. Wei, X. C., E. P. Li, and C. H. Liang, Fast solution for large scale electromagnetic scattering problems using wavelet transform and its precondition, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 17, No. 4, 611613, 2003. Balanis, C. A., Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 2nd edition, Wiley, New York, 1997. Zheng, W., Z. Zhao, and Z. Nie, Application of TRM in the UWB through wall radar, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 87, 279296, 2008. Zhang, G. H. and M. Y. Xia, Time domain integral equation approach for analysis of transient responses by metallic-dielectric composite bodies, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 87, 114, 2008.