942 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—II: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 64, NO.

8, AUGUST 2017

High-Efficiency Wireless Power Transfer System

for Electric Vehicle Applications
Yao-Ching Hsieh, Zhong-Rong Lin, Ming-Cheng Chen, Hsin-Che Hsieh, Yu-Chen Liu,
and Huang-Jen Chiu, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—In this brief, a high-efficiency wireless power trans-

fer (WPT) system for electric vehicle charging application is
studied and implemented. Series–series resonant topology with
RF feedback design is adopted as the WPT dc–dc stage due to
the advantages of circuit simplicity, easy analysis, and control.
A 500-W laboratory prototype is built and tested to verify the
feasibility of the proposed design. According to the experimen-
tal results, high wall-to-battery efficiency and unity power factor
can be achieved over an air gap of 15 cm and maximum sliding
distance of 10 cm under various power conditions and universal
input voltage from 90VAC to 264VAC.
Index Terms—Electric vehicle, series–series resonant topology,
synchronous rectification (SR), wireless power transfer (WPT).

I. I NTRODUCTION
IRELESS power transfer (WPT) technology has
W numerous inherent advantages over conventional
means of power transfer, thus has received much attention in
Fig. 1. (a) WPT coils modeled as coupled inductor. (b) Secondary side
impedance reflected to primary side. (c) WPT coils modeled as transformer
with leakage inductance.

the past decade and has been proposed to apply to a wide range
side, there are significant differences. Conventional trans-
of applications, ranging from low power biomedical implants
formers have very high (close to unity) coupling coefficients
(several watts) electrical vehicle charger (several kilowatts) to
between primary and secondary coils/windings, while WPT
railway vehicles (several megawatts) with efficiency up to 95%
systems have much lower (usually 0.05–0.2) coupling coeffi-
or higher in some prototype systems [1]–[4]. Electric power
cient between primary and secondary, which result in large
can be transferred across air with a verity of means, such
equivalent leakage inductance [5]–[9]. In order to transfer
as capacitive coupling, magnetic coupling, microwave, laser,
power effectively and efficiently, resonant compensation must
or ultrasound. However, resonant magnetic coupling seems to
be used to overcome the inherent low coupling and the
be the most practical and promising mean to date and most
resulting large leakage inductance [9]–[18]. Basic compen-
medium to high power WPT systems built to date are based on
sation topologies for resonant WPT system include series-
resonant magnetic coupling. In this brief, a wireless charging
series (SS), series-parallel, parallel-series, and parallel-parallel
system for lightweight electric vehicle is designed, built and
networks [6], [8], [9]–[11]. The loosely coupled primary and
tested.
secondary coils of WPT system can be modeled as coupled
Magnetic WPT systems rely on magnetic field coupling
inductors, as in Fig. 1(a) [5]–[9].
to transfer electric power between two or more magnetically
The coupling coefficient is in direct proportion with mutual
coupled coils across relatively large air gap. Though conven-
inductance between two coils
tional transformers also rely on the same principle (magnetic
coupling) to transfer power between primary and secondary M
k= √ . (1)
L1 L2
Manuscript received October 5, 2016, revised October 19, 2016; accepted Secondary side impedance can be reflected to primary side
October 21, 2016. Date of publication November 2, 2016; date of current
version July 31, 2017. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science to get Fig. 1(b). The reflected impedance is
and Technology of Taiwan under Grant NSC 103-2221-E-011-064-MY3. This
ω2 M 2
brief was recommended by Associate Editor F. Lau. Zr = . (2)
Y.-C. Hsieh, Z.-R. Lin, M.-C. Chen, H.-C. Hsieh, and H.-J. Chiu are Zs
with the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106,
Taiwan. WPT coils can also be modeled as transformer
Y.-C. Liu is with National Ilan University, Yi-Lan 260, Taiwan. with (relatively large) leakage inductance, as in
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Fig. 1(c) [9]–[11], [15]–[17]. These two models are electri-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TCSII.2016.2624272 cally and mathematically equivalent. The relationship between
1549-7747 c 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
HSIEH et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY WPT SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE APPLICATIONS 943

these two models is shown in (3)–(5) [10], [11], [17], [19]

M
Lm = (3)
n
M
Lkp = L1 − (4)
n
Lks = L2 − nM. (5)
According to [19], any real number n will satisfy (3)–(5)
mathematically. However, n is usually selected as the physical
turns ratio of transformer or WPT
√ coil [19]
n2 L2
n= =√ . (6) Fig. 2. Block diagram of the developed WPT charging system.
n1 L1
TABLE I
II. S YSTEM C ONFIGURATION C OIL AND S YSTEM PARAMETERS AT 15 cm A IR G AP
Fig. 2 gives the overview of developed WPT charging
system for electric vehicle applications. The primary and
secondary sides are controlled by two Texas Instruments
TMS320F28035 digital signal processor (DSP) chips. The
battery voltage and charging current are sensed to real-
ize constant-current (CC)/constant voltage (CV) charging
schemes. The wireless feedback communication from the sec-
ondary side to primary side is via a RF module. Output
voltage/ current control is done by frequency modulation of
WPT dc/dc stage. AC input voltage is converted to 400 Vdc by
bridgeless power factor correction (PFC) stage, then converted
to ac high-frequency square wave by full-bridge inverter and
fed into the primary resonant tank. In this brief, SS resonant
compensation topology is adopted due to circuit simplicity and
low component count. SS topology has the characteristic that
III. D ESIGN C ONSIDERATIONS
the voltage transfer ratio is constant, solely depends on the
turns ratio of WPT coils and independent of load if operates In an SS resonant WPT system, in order to transfer power
at resonant frequency of leakage inductance and compensation effectively at the presence of relatively large air gap and
capacitance. This is advantageous if constant output voltage is leakage inductance, capacitors at both sides are used to
desired. However, this may not hold true under misalignment cancel out leakage inductance and improve power transfer
condition since equivalent leakage inductance and magnetiz- efficiency. It is desirable to operate at or close to resonant
ing inductance may change significantly under misalignment frequency, as shown in (13), at which leakage inductance
condition. This can be compensated only to a limited extent and compensation capacitance cancel out each other com-
by varying the switching frequency. Variable frequency con- pletely, eliminating the effect of leakage inductance, and power
trol is incapable of maintaining constant output voltage if the transfer capability is unrestricted by leakage inductance. In
misalignment is too large. Figs. 3(a) and 4(a) show the equiva- other words, (14) and (15) hold true if operate at resonant
lent circuit and the voltage gain (Gv ) versus frequency curve of frequency [10], [11], [15]–[17], [20], [21]
SS resonant compensation topology that can be derived as (7). 1 1
ω=  =√ (13)
System parameters of the proposed WPT system are listed in Lkp Cp Lks Cs
Table I 1
vo jωLkp + =0 (14)
Gv = jωCp
vin
Xcs +X Lks +RL 1
·XLm jωLks + = 0. (15)
n2
Xcs +X Lks +RL jωCs
+X Lm RL
n2
= Xcs +X Lks +RL
·n· The equivalent circuit of SS compensation topology can
·XLm Xcs +X Lks +RL
2
XLkp +X cp + Xcs +XnLks +RL be simplified to Fig. 3(b) if operates at resonant frequency.
+X Lm Fig. 3(b) can be further simplified to Fig. 3(c) if load is
n2
(7) moved to primary side. In Fig. 3(c), both Lm and reflected
XLm = j2π fLm (8) load resistance (RL /n2 ) are fed by ac voltage source from pri-
mary switching circuit and will sink current. However, only
XLkp = j2π fLkp (9) reflected load resistance consumes real power and transfers
XLks = j2π fLks (10) power to load. Current flows into Lm contribute to reactive
1 power, increases the apparent power output of the ac source but
Xcp = (11)
j2π fCp does not transfer power to load. This reactive power increases
1 conduction and copper loss because it causes excessive current,
Xcs = . (12) and should be minimized. The current flow from an ac voltage
j2π fCs
944 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—II: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 64, NO. 8, AUGUST 2017

Fig. 3. (a) Equivalent circuit of SS topology. (b) Simplified equivalent circuit

at resonant frequency. (c) Load resistance reflected to primary side. Fig. 6. Secondary rectification circuits: (a) diode rectifier, (b) semi-SR,
and (c) full-SR.

Fig. 4. (a) (Gv /n) of proposed SS WPT. (b) Imagery part of input impedance
of proposed SS WPT.

Fig. 7. (a) Experimental setup, (b) primary, and (c) secondary PCBs of the
WPT charging system.

Fig. 5. Block diagram of wireless feedback design: (a) RF transmitter

and (b) RF receiver.

source into an inductor is in reverse proportion with frequency.

So in order to minimize reactive power caused by Lm , oper-
ation frequency should be as high as possible. However, as
frequency increases, skin effect loss and core loss increase as
well. The operating frequency range selected by the prototype
design of this brief is 175–200 kHz. The resonant frequency is
designed at 182 kHz, with corresponding voltage gain equals
to turns ratio, or (Gv /n) equals to unity.
It is well known that resonant converters must operate in
inductive region to achieve zero-voltage switching (ZVS). The
imagery part of the input impedance of the proposed WPT
resonant network shown in Fig. 4(b) is always positive, indi-
cating that the proposed resonant network is inductive in
the designed frequency range and load range, thus guaran-
teeing ZVS. In practical design, high-voltage polypropylene
film capacitors with low equivalent series resistance (ESR)
are usually adopted as the resonant capacitors to compen-
sate the primary and secondary coils. Multilayer ceramic
capacitor (MLCC) with low loss C0G/NP0 dielectric can
Fig. 8. Simulation waveforms for (a) primary and (b) secondary circuits at
full output power.
also be used in series/parallel array to achieve the neces-
sary high-voltage/high-current ratings and has the benefit of
much smaller footprint, which dramatically reduces the size
of printed circuit board (PCB). Fig. 5(a) and (b) shows the
detailed wireless feedback design used in the WPT charg-
ing system. Battery voltage and current are sensed and fed
back via a commercial ultralow power 2.4 GHz RF module
nRF24L01+ to realize the CC/CV battery charging by modu-
lating the operating frequency of the WPT dc–dc stage circuit.
The DSP and RF transmitter at secondary side are powered
HSIEH et al.: HIGH-EFFICIENCY WPT SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE APPLICATIONS 945

Fig. 10. Measured soft-switching waveforms on primary MOSFETs. (a) No

misalignment. (b) 10 cm misalignment.

Fig. 9. Measured primary resonant tank input voltage and current

at (a) 500 W and (b) 50 W and secondary voltage and current before rectifier
at (c) 500 W and (d) 50 W load conditions.

by a buck converter which takes power from the system’s

output. At secondary side of WPT system, high-frequency ac
current must be rectified to dc before fed to battery or load.
Conventional Schottky diode bridge rectifier has the advantage
of simplicity, low cost, and high reliability, while synchronous
rectification (SR) technique can be used to significantly reduce
conduction loss. The low output voltage and large output cur-
rent (10.4 A at full load) of proposed WPT charging system
make SR attractive. However, implementing a full bridge syn-
chronous rectifier is somehow troublesome because the source
of two high-side MOSFET switches are not grounded and
requires more sophisticated driving circuit. At first, the semi-
SR is implemented which only replaced two low side Schottky
diode with MOSFE and does not require floating gate driving
circuit. Later the full-SR is also implemented, which replace
all four diodes in the bridge rectifier with MOSFET switches.
The full-SR provides lower conduction loss and dissipation, Fig. 11. (a) DC–DC efficiency of proposed WPT system (b) wall-to-battery
efficiency of proposed WPT system at 120 Vac input (c) at 240 Vac input.
but requires more complicated gate driving circuit to drive the
two high-side MOSFETs. Fig. 6(a)–(c), respectively, shows the
Schottky diode bridge rectifier, semi-SR, and full-SR circuits.
the PFC stage to reduce switching losses and achieve high
In the prototype WPT system, SR controller TEA1791 by NXP
efficiency.
Semiconductors is adopted to sense the drain-source voltage
and drive the MOSFET switch. Two isolated dc to dc converter
modules are used to provide floating dc voltage necessary to IV. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENTAL V ERIFICATIONS
drive two high-side MOSFET switches. The efficiency of these In this brief, a 500-W laboratory prototype of wire-
three rectifier configurations are test and compared in this less charging system with specifications shown in Table I
brief. In a conventional boost PFC, the power loss on input is designed and implemented to verify the performance.
bridge rectifier reduces the overall efficiency. A bridgeless PFC Fig. 7(a) shows the experimental setup of the WPT charging
preregulator controlled by Texas Instruments UCC28070 con- system under test. The primary and secondary PCBs are shown
troller is adopted for the proposed WPT system to achieve in Fig. 7(b) and (c). It can be observed that MLCC with low
high-power factor and low input current harmonic distortion. ESR features are used for the resonant capacitors both at the
Gallium nitride FETs and silicon carbide diodes are used in primary and secondary sides of the prototype system to reduce
946 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS—II: EXPRESS BRIEFS, VOL. 64, NO. 8, AUGUST 2017
Fig. 12. (a) Input voltage and current waveforms and (b) measured THDi
at 120 Vac input.
PCB size and achieve higher power density. Simulation wave-
forms of primary and secondary side circuits at rated output
power condition are shown in Fig. 8(a) and (b), respectively. It
should be noted that both voltage and current across primary
resonant capacitor is very large so capacitors with high voltage
and current ratings must be used. Fig. 9 shows the measured
waveforms of primary and secondary voltage and current at
full load and light load conditions. The high-frequency ripple
on the primary current is likely to be caused by the parasitic
resonance of coil. The soft-switching waveforms on primary
MOSFETs are verified and shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 11(a) shows
the measured efficiency performance of the WPT dc–dc stage
circuit with SR design at 400 Vdc input and 48 Vdc output
condition. The peak efficiencies of the WPT dc–dc stage with
secondary Schottky diode bridge rectifier, semi-SR, and full-
SR are, respectively, 92%, 92.7%, and 93.2% under 15 cm
air gap. The wall to battery efficiency of the WPT charging
system under no misalignment and 10 cm misalignment are
measured and shown in Fig. 11(b) and (c). The wall-to-battery
efficiency can be up to 91.6% at 240 Vac input and 15 cm gap
between primary and secondary coils. The power consumed
by the control system (e.g., DSP and RF Tx/RX) is included
in these efficiency measurements. Fig. 12(a) shows the mea-
sured input voltage and current waveforms. At low-line and
rated power condition, the total harmonic distortion of ac input
current can be lower than 4%, as shown in Fig. 12(b).
V. C ONCLUSION
We studied and implemented a high-efficiency WPT system
for electric vehicle charging application. System configura-
tion and design considerations were analyzed and discussed
in details. A 500-W laboratory prototype was designed, built,
and tested to verify the circuit performance of the developed
WPT charging system. According to the experimental results,
the wall-to-battery efficiency can be higher than 90% with
15-cm air gap at 500-W rated power and 120-V input
conditions.
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