Soft Switching for Strongly Coupled Wireless Power Transfer System With 90° Dual-Side Phase Shift

To increase the power density of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system, the coupling of coils can be strong. However, in a strongly coupled series-series WPT system with a diode rectifier, currents can be distorted and discontinuous, and first harmonic approximation is no longer valid. The inverter is likely to work in hard switching, leading to extra noise, decreased efficiency, and a potential hazard for a safe operation. Through time-domain analysis, this article reveals that with a dual-side 90 degrees phase shift, the hard switching of the inverter can be avoided, the power level can be enhanced, and the discontinuous conduction mode can be avoided to eliminate noises. The factors impacting the soft switching operations of the inverter and the rectifier are analyzed. To achieve 90 degrees dual-side phase shift, the conventional approach of using the receiver voltage/current, which can be distorted and discontinuous in strongly coupled WPT systems, for phase synchronization is no longer suitable. A new set of coils, namely driving coils, is used for phase synchronization so that dual-side phase shift can be implemented independent from power transfer. Experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the analysis.

Automated summary

This article investigates the soft switching operations of the inverter and rectifier in a strongly coupled series-series wireless power transfer system. Through time-domain analysis, it is found that a dual-side 90 degrees phase shift can avoid the hard switching of the inverter, enhance power level, and eliminate noise.