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Contactless Energy Transfer To A Moving Actuator
Contactless Energy Transfer To A Moving Actuator
Abstract— In this paper a new topology for contactless energy while small translations in height and small rotations remain
transfer is proposed and tested that can transfer energy to a possible. Magnetic bearings can also operate in vacuum.
moving actuator using inductive coupling. The proposed topology Parallel processing requires power on the platform to
provides long-stroke contactless energy transfer capability in
a plane and a short-stroke movement of a few millimeters drive the actuators on the platform. In order to remove as
perpendicular to the plane. In addition, it is tolerant to small much disturbances as possible, the power transfer needs to
rotations. The experimental setup consists of a platform with be contactless, i.e. without wires from the ground to the
one secondary coil, which is attached to a linear actuator and platform. A coil topology and geometry for a contactless
a 3-phase brushless electromotor. Underneath the platform is energy transfer system is proposed for energy transfer to
an array of primary coils, that are each connected to a half-
bridge square wave power supply. The energy transfer to the a planar moving platform. The platform is equipped with
electromotor is measured while the platform is moved over the permanent magnets and is levitated and propelled by a matrix
array of primary coils by the linear actuator. The secondary coil of coils, which are fixed to the ground. Such a planar actuator
moves with a stroke of 18 cm at speeds over 1 m/s, while up to is currently under investigation at Eindhoven University
33 W power is transferred with 90% efficiency. of Technology [13]. The aim of this research project is to
Index Terms— Contactless energy transfer, inductive coupling, transfer energy to the moving platform continuously and
moving load. at every position in order to enhance the functionality of
the platform, while maintaining the advantages of operating
without contact and cables slabs.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Most high-precision machines are positioning stages with When energy is transferred to a moving load (i.e. an
multiple degrees of freedom (DOF), which often consist electromotor) by means of inductive coupling, one has to deal
of cascaded long- and short-stroke linear actuators that with a changing coupling between a primary and secondary
are supported by mechanical or air bearings. Usually, the coil. The change in coupling results in a different characteristic
long stroke actuator has a micrometer accuracy, while the of the energy transfer capability of the system as is shown
submicron accuracy is achieved by the short-stroke actuator. in [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5]. Most of these systems can only
To build a high-precision machine, as much disturbances transfer energy at certain positions ([1], [2]) or they suffer
as possible should be eliminated. Common sources of from large changes in power transfer capability throughout
disturbances are vibrations, Coulomb and viscous friction in the range due to the changing coupling ([4], [5]).
bearings, crosstalk of multiple cascaded actuators and cable Another solution for transferring energy to a moving load is
slabs. using elongated primary coils in combination with elongated
cores [7]. This results in a stable energy transfer but the
A possibility to increase throughput, while maintaining stroke is limited by the size of the primary coil. If long
accuracy is to use parallel processing, i.e. movement and strokes are required, the system becomes heavy and bulky.
positioning in parallel with inspection, calibration, assembling, The topology proposed and tested in this paper provides long-
scanning, etc. To meet the design requirements of high accu- stroke contactless energy transfer (CET) in a plane with only
racy while improving performance, a new design approach small changes in power transfer capability.
is necessary, especially if vacuum operation is considered,
which will be required for the next generation of lithography II. CET T OPOLOGY
machines. A lot of disturbance sources can be eliminated by The design of the primary and secondary coil is optimized
integrating the cascaded long- and short-stroke actuator into to get a coupling that is as constant as possible for a
one actuator system. Since most long-stroke movements are sufficiently large area. This area should be large enough to
in a plane, this can be done by a contactless planar actuator. allow the secondary coil to move from one primary coil to
A contactless planar actuator or planar motor is supported by the next one without a large reduction in coupling. If this can
magnetic bearings that levitate the actuator platform, while be achieved, the power can be transferred by one primary coil
controlling all six DOF of the platform. Long-stroke linear that is closest to the secondary coil. When the secondary coil
movement in 2D is also provided by the magnetic bearing moves out of range the first primary coil is turned off and
the next one will be energized. To ensure a smooth energy
This research is sponsored by SenterNovem. SenterNovem is an agency of transfer to the moving load, the position dependence of the
the Dutch Ministry of Economical Affairs. coupling should be minimized, while keeping the coupling
J. de Boeij is with the Department of Electrical Engineering of the
Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; (e- high enough to get a high-efficiency energy transfer.
mail:j.d.boeij@tue.nl)
2
r2
r1
c h
c w
c t
c w
TABLE I
D IMENSIONS OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY COIL
Primary coil Secondary coil
Parameter Value Dimension Value Dimension
cw 60.0 mm 130.0 mm
ct 10.0 mm 30.0 mm
ch 10.0 mm 2.0 mm
r1 1.0 mm 1.0 mm
r2 11.0 mm 31.0 mm
Fig. 3. Secondary coil above a matrix of nine primary coils
Coupling [−]
0.3 0.3
for misalignment of the coils [8], [9]. However, to allow the 0.28 0.28
secondary coil to move from one primary coil to the next, 0.26 0.26
the tolerance for misalignments should be increased. In the 0.24 0.24
proposed system this is done by using a 3D geometry for 0.02 0.02
0.02 0.02
the primary coil. This results in a fairly constant B-field 0
−0.02
0 0
−0.02
0
y [m] −0.02 y [m] −0.02
around the primary coil, which accommodates good coupling x [m] x [m]
chosen:
C 1 R 1 R C 1
C2 =
2 2
(5)
ω02 L2
+ I I 1
V 1
L k L 2
R
1
- 1 2 L
C1 = 2 (6)
ω0 L1
This choice of the resonant capacitors ensures that the
impedance of the secondary circuit Z2 , the reflected
impedance of the secondary circuit to the primary circuit ZR
Fig. 5. Electric circuit of contactless energy transfer system and the impedance seen by the power supply Z1 are purely
resistive at ω = ω0 :
1
Z2 = R2 + RL + j(ω0 L2 − )
ω0 C2
= R2 + RL (7)
C R
1 1
ω02 M 2 ω02 k 2 L1 L2
ZR = = (8)
+ I + I Z2 R2 + RL
V 1
L V 1
Z
1
- 1 1
- 1 1
Z1 = R1 + j(ω0 L1 − ) + ZR
ω0 C1
ω 2 k 2 L1 L2
Z = R1 + 0 (9)
R
R2 + RL
a b By substituting Eq. 5 into Eq. 4 for ω = ω0 the relation
Fig. 6. Simplified electric circuit of contactless energy transfer system
between I1 and I2 becomes:
I2 = KI1 (10)
ω0 M
K = j (11)
R2 + RL
primary and the secondary coil. Moreover, due to the where |K| is a gain relating the current I2 to I1 . Eq. 11 shows
position dependent coupling, a series resonant capacitor is that I2 leads I1 by 90 degrees. Now the power transferred to
used for both coils to ensure that the resonant frequency of the load Pout , the power supplied by the power supply Pin
the circuit does not depend on the coupling as discussed in [6]. and the efficiency of the total system η are calculated:
Pin = I12 Z1 (12)
The electric circuit of the CET system is shown in Fig. 2 2
Pout = |K| I1 RL (13)
5, where V1 is the RMS voltage of the power supply, I1
the RMS current supplied by the power supply, I2 the RMS Pout |K|2 RL
η = = (14)
current induced in the secondary circuit. C1 and C2 are the Pin Z1
series resonant capacitors in the primary and secondary circuit, From Eq. 5 and 6 it is clear that the resonant frequency of
respectively, R1 the resistance of the primary coil, R2 is the circuit does not depend on the coupling, since the choice
the resistance of the secondary coil, L1 and L2 are the self of the resonant capacitors only depends on the inductance of
inductance of the primary and secondary coil, respectively, the coils. In reality the two series resonant capacitors will
k is the inductive coupling factor between the primary and not cancel the inductances of the primary and secondary coil
secondary coil and RL is the resistance of the load. The load completely. Therefore, the load seen by the power supply will
RL represents the rectifier and additional power electronics. not be purely resistive. The load seen by the power supply
Simplified versions of the circuit are shown in Fig. 6 a and b, Z1 does depend on the coupling. This implies that the power
where ZR is the reflected load of the secondary circuit on the transfer capability of the system depends on the coupling as
primary circuit and Z1 is the load seen by the power supply. well.
The equations for this system with an AC voltage source
with angular frequency ω [rad/s] are:
IV. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP
M = k L1 L2 (2) An experimental setup was built to test the CET design,
1 which consists of an array of three stationary primary coils
V1 = R1 I1 + j(ωL1 − )I1 − jωM I2 (3) that are fixed in a row on top of a ceramic structure. The
ωC1
1 ceramic structure is used to allow heat from the coils to be
jωM I1 = (R2 + RL )I2 + j(ωL2 − )I2 (4) conducted to the iron base frame and at the same time to
ωC2
prevent eddy current losses in the iron base frame.
where M is the mutual inductance of the primary and sec- The primary coils are made of litz wire. Each bundle of
ondary coil. To obtain the desired resonant frequency f0 = w0
2π litz wire consists of 60 strands of 71 µm and the strands are
[Hz], the resonant capacitors C2 and C1 must be suitably wrapped together with a layer of cotton. The strand size has
4
V DC bus
IN VB
__ HO
SD VS
VCC VCC
LO
COM L
O
IR 2104 A
D
Ground
TABLE II
E LECTRIC CIRCUIT PARAMETERS OF THE THREE PRIMARY CIRCUITS IN Fig. 9. CD electrical drive and rectifier connected to secondary coil
THE EXPERIMENTAL CET SETUP
V. R ESULTS
An electromotor of a CD drive that runs on 12 VDC
is connected to the rectifier. The voltage and current from
the DC bus supply as well as the voltage and current to
the CD drive are measured and shown in Fig. 10 and 11.
The secondary coil is moving over all three primary coils
following a sinusoidal position reference, which represents a
total displacement of 18 cm (i.e. the amplitude of the sine
wave is 9 cm). The frequency of the sinusoidal position
Fig. 8. Picture of experimental CET setup reference is 2 Hz, so in one second the secondary coil makes
5
TABLE III
Power supply voltage VALUES OF VOLTAGES , CURRENTS , POWER AND EFFICIENCY OF THE CET
52
TO A CD DRIVE ELECTROMOTOR
Voltage [V] 51
Variable RMS Value Dimension
50
VDCbus 51.1 [V]
49 IDCbus 76.6 [mA]
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time [s] Pin 3.84 [W]
Power supply current Vload 12.5 [V]
0.15 Iload 276 [mA]
Pout
Current [A]
3.44 [W]
0.1
η 89.4 [%]
0.05
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time [s] 0.4 4.5
Active Coil State Primary coil 1
0.3 4
4 Primary coil 2
Active Coil
0.2 3.5
3
0.1 3
Current [A]
Active coil
2 0 2.5
1 −0.1 2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time [s] −0.2 1.5
−0.3 1
−0.4 0.5
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
Time [s] Time [s]
Fig. 10. Measured voltage, current and active primary coil for the DC bus −4
x 10
−4
x 10
supply
Fig. 12. Plot of current in primary coil 1 and 2 during switching and the
active coil command.
Load voltage
14
Voltage [V]
3
2 The ripples visible in the voltage and current waveforms
1
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 from the DC bus power supply and to the CD drive are
Time [s]
related to the changing coupling. However, since the CD
drive does not represent a purely resistive load, the ripple is
Fig. 11. Measured voltage, current and active primary coil for the CD drive
somewhat smoothed by the inductance of the load. This effect
electromotor load is more visible when a purely resistive load will be connected
to the system. In addition, the CD drive does not need much
power to operate and a resistive load can be operated at
two cycles (one cycle implies moving from primary coil 1 higher power levels. Therefore, a 50 Ω resistive load is used
over primary coil 2 to primary coil 3 and back). The cycle is at a higher power level. The same trajectory is used for the
clearly visible from the Active Coil plot in Fig. 10 and 11, secondary coil. The measured voltage and current waveforms
which represents the state of the active coil multi-port switch. of the DC bus supply and the load are shown in Fig. 13
The secondary coil reaches a maximum speed of 1.1 m/s over and 14 respectively. The RMS values of voltage, current and
the second primary coil. Due to this speed the secondary coil power as well as the efficiency are shown in Table IV.
is in range of the second primary coil for only 60 ms.
The variation in coupling is now clearly visible in the
By calculating the RMS values of the voltages and currents current and voltage waveforms of the load. This suggests
the power from the DC bus supply Pin as well as the power that the power transfer can be further smoothed by measuring
to the CD drive load Pout and the efficiency η according to the coupling and changing the voltage of the DC bus supply
Eq. 14 can be calculated. This calculation includes losses in accordingly, as is discussed in [11]. The results are very similar
the power electronics. The values are listed in Table III. to the results of the CD drive. Higher power levels have not
been tested using the linear actuator, since the capacitors in
6
3
2
has been demonstrated The CET system was used to power
a 3-phase brushless electromotor of a CD drive and showed
1
0 0.2 0.4
Time [s]
0.6 0.8 1 stable power transfer of 3.44 W. The power was transferred at
approximately 90 % efficiency, while the secondary coil was
moving with speeds up to 1.1 m/s over the primary coils.
Fig. 13. Measured voltage, current and active primary coil for the DC bus
supply (resistive load) R EFERENCES
[1] G.A. Covic, G. Elliott, O.H. Stielau, R.M. Green, J.T. Boys, The
Design of a Contact-less Energy Transfer System for a People Mover
System, Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Power System
Technology, PowerCon 2000, Vol 1, December 2000, pp. 79-84.
Load voltage [2] H. Ayano, K. Yamamoto, N. Hino, I. Yamato, Highly-Efficient Contact-
50 less Electrical Energy Transmission System, 28th Annual Conference of
Voltage [V]
5034-5036.
0.5 [5] F. Sato, H. Matsuki, S. Kikuchi, T. Seto, T. Satoh, H. Osada, K. Seki:
A New Meander Type Contactless Power Transmission System - Active
0 Excitation with a Characteristics of Coil Shape, IEEE Transaction on
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time [s] Magnetics, Vol. 34, No. 4, July 1998, pp. 2069-2071.
Active Coil State [6] C. Wang, G.A. Covic, O.H. Stielau: Power Transfer Capability and
4 Bifurcation Phenomena of Loosely Coupled Inductive Power Transfer
Active Coil