Near-Field Analysis and Design of Inductively-Coupled Wireless Power Transfer System in FEKO

Inductively-coupled wireless power transfer (WPT) system is broadly adopted for charging batteries of mobile devices and electric vehicles. The performance of the WPT system is sensitively dependent on the strength of electromagnetic coupling between the coils, compensating topologies, loads and airgap variation. This paper aims to present a comprehensive characteristic analysis for the design of the WPT system with a numerical simulation tool. The electromagnetic field solver FEKO is mainly used for studying high-frequency devices. However, the computational tool is also applicable for not only the analysis of the electromagnetic characteristic but also the identification of the electrical parameters in the WPT system operating in the nearfield. In this paper, the self and mutual inductance of the wireless transfer windings over the various airgaps were inferred from the simulated S-parameter. Then, the formation of the magnetic coupling and the distribution of the magnetic fields between the coils in the seriesparallel model were examined through the near-field analysis for recognizing the efficient performance of the WPT system. Lastly, it was clarified that the FEKO simulation results showed good agreement with the practical measurements. When the input voltage of 10 V was supplied into the transmitting unit of the prototype, the power of 5.31 W is delivered with the transferring efficiency of 97.79% in FEKO. The actual measurements indicated 95.68% transferring efficiency. The electrical parameters; in , out, in , , in , and out, had a fair agreement with the FEKO results, and they are under 8.4% of error

Active gate drivers for high-frequency application of SiC MOSFETs

The trend in the development of power converters is focused on efficient systems with high power density, reliability and low cost. The challenges to cover the new power converters requirements are mainly concentered on the use of new switching-device technologies such as silicon carbide MOSFETs (SiC). SiC MOSFETs have better characteristics than their silicon counterparts; they have low conduction resistance, can work at higher switching speeds and can operate at higher temperature and voltage levels. Despite the advantages of SiC transistors, operating at high switching frequencies, with these devices, reveal new challenges. The fast switching speeds of SiC MOSFETs can cause over-voltages and over-currents that lead to electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems. For this reason, gate drivers (GD) development is a fundamental stage in SiC MOSFETs circuitry design. The reduction of the problems at high switching frequencies, thus increasing their performance, will allow to take advantage of these devices and achieve more efficient and high power density systems. This Thesis consists of a study, design and development of active gate drivers (AGDs) aimed to improve the switching performance of SiC MOSFETs applied to high-frequency power converters. Every developed stage regarding the GDs is validated through tests and experimental studies. In addition, the developed GDs are applied to converters for wireless charging systems of electric vehicle batteries. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed GDs and their viability in power converters based on SiC MOSFET devices.La tendencia en el diseño y desarrollo de convertidores de potencia está enfocada en realizar sistemas eficientes con alta densidad de potencia, fiabilidad y bajo costo. Los retos para cubrir esta tendencia están centrados principalmente en el uso de nuevas tecnologías de dispositivos de conmutación tales como, MOSFETs de carburo de silicio (SiC). Los MOSFETs de SiC presentan mejores características que sus homólogos de silicio; tienen baja resistencia de conducción, pueden trabajar a mayores velocidades de conmutación y pueden operar a mayores niveles de temperatura y tensión. A pesar de las ventajas de los transistores de SiC, existen problemas que se manifiestan cuando estos dispositivos operan a altas frecuencias de conmutación. Las rápidas velocidades de conmutación de los MOSFETs de SiC pueden provocar sobre-voltajes y sobre-corrientes que conllevan a problemas de interferencia electromagnética (EMI). Por tal motivo, el desarrollo de controladores de puertas es una etapa fundamental en los MOSFETs de SiC para eliminar los problemas a altas frecuencias de conmutación y aumentar su rendimiento. En consecuencia, aprovechar las ventajas de estos dispositivos y lograr sistemas más eficientes y con alta densidad de potencia. En esta tesis, se realiza un estudio, diseño y desarrollo de controladores activos de puerta para mejorar el rendimiento de conmutación de los MOSFETs de SiC aplicados a convertidores de potencia de alta frecuencia. Los controladores son validados a través de pruebas y estudios experimentales. Además, los controladores de puerta desarrollados son aplicados en convertidores para sistemas de carga inalámbrica de baterías de vehículos eléctricos. Los resultados muestran la importancia de los controladores de compuerta propuestos y su viabilidad en convertidores de potencia basados en carburo de silicio

Improved Design of Wireless Electrical Energy Transfer System for Various Power Applications

This thesis introduces a state-of-the-art review of existing wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies with a detailed comparison and presents the limitations of the inductive power transfer system through simulation and practical analyses. This thesis also presents the expanded use of the high-frequency analysis tool, known as FEKO, and the novel application of frequency response analyser (FRA) with various simulations and practical demonstrations for enhancing the design and maintenance of WPT systems

Wireless Power Transfer System for Battery-Less Body Implantable Devices

Department of Electrical EngineeringAs the life expectancy is increased and the welfare is promoted, researches on the body implantable medical devices (BIMD) are actively being carried out, and products providing more various functions are being released. On the other hand, due to these various functions, the power consumption of the BIMD is also increased, so that the primary battery alone cannot provide sufficient power for the devices. The limited capacity and life time of batteries force patients to make an additional payment and suffering for the power supply of the BIMD. Wireless power transfer technology is the technology which has been making remarkable progress mainly in wireless charging for personal portable devices and electric vehicles. Convergence of wireless power transfer technology (WPT) and rechargeable battery can extend the life time of the BIMD and reduce the suffering and the cost for battery replacements. Furthermore, WPT enables the devices which do not need to operate consistently such as body implantable sensor devices to be used without batteries. In this dissertation, techniques to support WPT for BIMD are introduced and proposed. First, basic researches on magnetic coupled WPT are presented. The basics which are important factors to analyze power transmission are introduced. In addition, circuits that make up the WPT system are described. There are three common technical challenges in WPT. Those are efficiency degradation on coil geometry, voltage gain variation with coil geometry, and power losses in WPT. The common challenges are discussed in chapter II. Moreover, additional challenges which are arisen in WPT for BIMD and approaches to resolve the challenges are addressed in chapter II. Then, efficiency improvement techniques and control techniques in WPT are presented in chapter III. The presented techniques to improve efficiency are applied in coil parts and circuit parts. In coil parts, efficiency enhancement technique by geometric variation is proposed. In circuit parts, instantaneous power consuming technique for step-down converter is suggested. Li-ion battery charger is also discussed in chapter III. Additionally, the wireless controlled constant current / constant voltage charging mode and the proposed step charging method are described. After that, WPT system for BIMD is discussed one by one with the proposed techniques for each part in chapter IV. A load transformation is suggested to improve efficiency in weak coupling, and suppress voltage gain variation under coil displacement. Power conversion efficiency improvement techniques for rectifier and converter are also proposed. By using the proposed technique for the converter, we can remove the bootstrap capacitors, and reduce the overall size of power circuits. In conclusion, techniques in coil parts and circuit parts to handle challenges in WPT for BIMD are fully investigated in this thesis in addition to the efficiency improvement and control techniques in common WPT. All the techniques are verified through simulations or experiments. The approaches realized in the thesis can be applied to other applications employing the WPT.clos