2020 IEEE PELS Workshop on Emerging Technologies: Wireless Power Transfer (WoW)

November 15 - 19, 2020, Seoul, Korea

Rotary Capacitive Power Transfer with Class-E

Inverter And Balun Circuit

Suziana Ahmad Aam Muharam Reiji Hattori

Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Graduate School of
Engineering Sciences Engineering Sciences Engineering Sciences
Kyushu University Kyushu University Kyushu University
Kasuga, Japan Kasuga, Japan Kasuga, Japan
binti.ahmad.suziana.748@s.kyushu- aam.muharam.101@s.kyushu-u.ac.jp hattori@gic.kyushu-u.ac.jp
u.ac.jp
Research Center for Electrical Power
Faculty of Electrical and Electronic and Mechatronics
Engineering Technology, Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI)
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract—Capacitive power transfer (CPT) becomes
attention among researchers in wireless power transfer
technology field. A CPT system consists of a coupler between the
primary and secondary unit for transferring power. This work
purposes to simulate, develop and design a CPT system for
rotating application by using Class-E inverter and Ruthroff
balun to minimize the scale and the weight of the circuit in the
secondary module. The proposed CPT topology is designed and
implemented in two plate couplers with switching frequency of
6.78 MHz. The efficiency of the proposed CPT system is
obtained, and experimental results demonstrates the suitability
of the proposed CPT system in transferring power for rotating
application.
Keywords—capacitive power transfer, Class-E inverter, balun
(key words)
I. INTRODUCTION
The capacitive power transfer (CPT) technology has
become an attention among researchers in wireless power
transfer field. It gives advantages of low cost, low weight, and
low eddy-current loss [1] in transferring electric energy
system. The CPT system had been studied and introduced for
many applications such as wireless vehicle charging ,
unmanned aerial vehicle [5], machine [6], variable machine
sign [7] and others.
Many topologies of capacitive power transfer systems had
been introduced, including non-resonant topology, PWM
converter topology, resonant topology, power amplifier based
topology, and bridge inverter topology [1]. The non-resonant
topology usually uses the PWM converter with an
intermediate capacitor as a capacitor coupler and its working
principle is like a regular PWM converter. The resonant
topology can be realized by high-frequency power amplifier
or a full bridge inverter with auxiliary component [1].
In CPT topologies, a half bridge or a full bridge [8] with
Class-E inverter [9], [10] had been used as an AC power
source. The Class-E inverter in CPT system has several
advantages because it can achieve zero voltage switching
(ZVS) and zero dv/dt switching (ZDS). As a result, it can
eliminate the loss due to parasitic device capacitance [11]. In
additional, only one active component is needed in Class-E
inverter and it reduces control and driver circuit complexity
[12]. Theoretical Class-E inverter efficiency approaches to
100% [10]. However, another type of inverter in the CPT
system also gives advantages with the different system. Each
system shows advantages and disadvantages in the
performance [1].
Several studies on rotating capacitor had been introduced
with different design of capacitive coupler including in
machine [6], [13] and rotary capacitor system [9]. In these
systems, power transfers between stationary parts to rotating
part by using capacitive coupler.
The rotating part in the CPT system includes receiver
coupler, rectifier circuit and load while stationary part
includes DC supply, inverter, resonance circuit and
transmitter coupler. In order to get the high speed, more power
is needed when the weight is heavy. Therefore, the weight in
a rotating part needs to be considered in designing the CPT
system. Thus, this work introduces CPT design for rotary
application with weight consideration in rotating part. The
introduces system has suitability to apply in wide range rotary
application such as motor, the joint in autonomous systems
and others.
II. CAPACITIVE POWER TRANSFER
This paper introduces CPT system with Class-E inverter
and Ruthroff balun for rotary devices. Taking advantage of
high efficiency of Class-E the power delivered from primary
side should be optimized. The CPT system is using 6.78 MHz
as operating frequency and Ruthroff balun 1:1. Ruthroff balun
divides power into two out-of-phase units and using bifilar
winding or coaxial cable as transmission line [14]. This work
used a Ruthroff balun to divide power into two units and by
connecting it to the shield plate, ground level at the shield plate
can be stabilized [15]. The proposed topology is as in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. : A CPT system with Class-E inverter and Ruthroff balun.

978-1-7281-3746-9/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE 330

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on March 28,2023 at 03:42:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig. 1 shows the proposed system with DC supply, Class- Hardware experimental using the Class-E and Ruthroff
E inverter with balun and couplers between the transmitter and balun with operating frequency of 6.78 MHz is implemented
receiver sides. The transmitter side is stationary while the in hardware setup as in Fig.2 to get the output voltage, V1 and
receiver side is rotating. The weight of receiver side needs to V2 at balun. The output is measured by using an oscilloscope
be considered due to the rotation speed and torque effected by and the obtained output voltage is presented in Fig. 4.
the weight. Therefore, the less weight of the receiver side is
needed.
Vo1
A. Class-E inverter - balun topology
Class-E inverter converts DC voltage to AC voltage and
connected between DC supply and balun. The MOSFET is
used as a controlled device with the duty cycle of 0.5 and the
frequency of 6.78 MHz. Frequency response and insertion loss
of the balun depend on the length of the transmission line, Vo2
characteristic impedance and terminated impedance [14].
The 1:1 balun is used in transmission of 50-Ω system.
Thus, the transformer should be matched for 50-Ω
characteristic impedance and terminated impedance [15]. The
simplified topology of Class-E inverter and balun are shown
in Fig. 2. The balun circuit divides the voltage from Class-E
output into two with out-of-phase units. Fig. 4. Output voltage Class-E-Ruthroff balun

From the Fig.4, it shows that V1 and V2 give the output

Fig. 2. A topology of Class-E-balun
Based on [16], the output voltage at nod, Vo1 and Vo2 can
be obtained by following equations,
ܸ݅
ܸ‫ ͳ݋‬ൌ ሺͳሻ
ʹ
voltage of 59.2 V and 51.2 V, respectively. The voltages are
both out of phase to each other’s. The voltage V1, V2 is used
as a reference input voltage for CPT system.
III. CPT SYSTEM WITH BALUN DESIGN
A CPT system is proposed in a rotary application with
operating frequency of 6.78 MHz. The primary and secondary
units are in static and rotating conditions, respectively. The
secondary unit is designed to reach the weight as minimum as
possible because the secondary unit is rotating. It is crucial to
reduce the rotating unit to avoid the overload weight in
rotating unit. Thus, this work proposed the CPT system as
Fig. 5.

ܸ݅
െ ܸ‫݋‬ሺʹሻ
ܸ‫ ʹ݋‬ൌ
ʹ
where Vi and Vo are balun input and output voltage
respectively.
Fig. 3 shows Ruthroff balun 1:1 from the balance to Fig. 5. A proposed CPT unit for rotating device
unbalance in the circuit and a hardware implementation. The
ferrite core material FT14, coaxial and enamel wire are used The proposed topology with the value of resonance
for making the Ruthroff balun. The balun has 12 turns wire inductor L1, L2 and capacitor C1, C2 are obtained from the
and connected to BNC cable in which the Ruthroff balun is switching frequency of 6.78MHz by using the equation as in:
connected to Class-E inverter. The balun is connected to
shield plate to obtain stability of the ground level at the plate.
ͳ
ʹߨ݂ ൌ ሺ͵ሻ
ξ‫ܥܮ‬

However, the coupling capacitors, Cc1, Cc2, need to take into

consideration in the calculation because it is affected by the
resonance value. Table 1 shows the parameter value for the
proposed CPT topology.
Fig. 3. Ruthroff balun .

331
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on March 28,2023 at 03:42:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 TABLE I. CIRCUIT PARAMETERS

Parameter Value
Frequency f 6.78 MHz

Inductor L1, L2 6.8 uH

Shield Capacitor C1, C2 75 pF

Coupling Capacitor Cc1, Cc2 5.8 pF

Load RO2 10Ω- 100Ω

Fig. 8. Implementation of a proposed CPT system

Output Power and Effieciency at Various loads

100% 25
80% 20 Power ( Watt)
Efficiency, %

60% 15
40% 10
20% 5
0% 0
10 30 50 70 90 100
Load (Ohm)

Power out efficiency

Fig. 6. Output power and efficiency at various loads Fig. 9. Hardware experimental

The simulation of the proposed topology with the reference
voltage of V1, V2 has been carried out in LTspice
successfully. The voltage at difference load from 10 Ω to
100 Ω for the system are presented in Fig 6. It shows the
output power increasing when the load is increased. Efficiency
is increased by increasing the load due to current become
smaller when the load is increased.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
The proposed topology is implemented in hardware set up
to get the best analysis. A capacitive coupler is designed for
rotating application purpose by using printed circuit board
(PCB) with the material of FR4. The design of capacitor
coupler is as in Fig. 7.
Fig.9 shows the arrangement of the Class E, Ruthroff balun,
inductor, couplers and load in hardware experimentation to
measure the voltage at VL and Vload. The connection
between the main components use Litz wire and the results are
presented in result and discussion section.
V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In the initial stage of the work, Class-E inverter with
Ruthroff balun had been implemented with 6.78MHz as an
operating frequency and the measured voltage V1, and V2 is
59.2 V and 51.2 V respectively. The proposed CPT system is
developed with hardware set up and the results are presented
in Fig. 10, Fig. 11, Fig. 12 and Fig. 13. The output voltage is
measured at inductor, VL and load, Vload with the value load
of 10 Ω, 50 Ω, 100 Ω and 200 Ω.

VL

Vload

Fig. 7. A coupler design

A coupler is designed in the same pattern for both

transmitter receiver sides for transferring power. The coupler
is implemented in the proposed CPT system as in Fig.8 and
Fig. 10. Output voltage with 10 Ω load
with the distance between primary and secondary plate is
5mm while the shield plate to the primary plate is 1.6mm. Fig.
8 shows the implementation of a proposed CPT system and
the measurement point VL and Vload.

332
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on March 28,2023 at 03:42:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

VL
Vload
Fig. 11. Output voltage with 50 Ω load
VL
VL
Vload Vload
VL
Fig. 12. Output voltage with 100 Ω load
VL
Vload
Fig. 13. Output voltage with 200 Ω load
Figs. 10, 11 ,12 and 13 show the voltage output at 10 Ω,
50 Ω, 100 Ω and 200 Ω with the value of 1.88 V, 12.8 V, 16.4
V and 43.2 V respectively. The results show that the output
voltage is increased with increasing the load resistance.
Besides, the values of inductor and capacitor in the matching
circuit are decided by the input and output impedances to
transfer power. Voltage at inductor, VL is an unideal
sinusoidal waveform may due to the mismatch impedance
between load and input. However, the results show that the
proposed topology can be used in rotary CPT system for
rotating application with the minimum weight at rotating side.
333
Authorized licensed use limited to: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka-UTEM. Downloaded on March 28,2023 at 03:42:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
VI. CONCLUSION
A proposed CPT topology is simulated, developed and
designed successfully both in LTspice simulation and
hardware experimental. The results show the proposed CPT
with Class-E-Ruthroff balun is suitable for transferring power
with reduced component and weight for rotating application.
REFERENCES
[1] F. Lu, H. Zhang, and C. Mi, “A review on the recent development of
capacitive wireless power transfer technology,” Energies, vol. 10, no.
11, 2017, doi: 10.3390/en10111752.
[2] A. Ahmad, M. S. Alam, and R. Chabaan, “A Comprehensive Review
of Wireless Charging Technologies for Electric Vehicles,” IEEE Trans.
Transp. Electrif., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 38–63, 2017, doi:
10.1109/TTE.2017.2771619.
[3] [H. Zhang, F. Lu, H. Hofmann, W. Liu, and C. C. Mi, “Six-Plate
Capacitive Coupler to Reduce Electric Field Emission in Large Air-
Gap Capacitive Power Transfer,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol.
33, no. 1, pp. 665–675, 2018, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2017.2662583.
[4] [H. Zhang, F. Lu, H. Hofmann, W. Liu, and C. C. Mi, “A Four-Plate
Compact Capacitive Coupler Design and LCL-Compensated Topology
for Capacitive Power Transfer in Electric Vehicle Charging
Application,” IEEE Trans. Power Electron., vol. 31, no. 12, pp. 8541–
8551, 2016, doi: 10.1109/TPEL.2016.2520963.
[5] T. M. Mostafa, A. Muharam, and R. Hattori, “Wireless battery
charging system for drones via capacitive power transfer,” 2017 IEEE
PELS Work. Emerg. Technol. Wirel. Power Transf. WoW 2017, 2017,
doi: 10.1109/WoW.2017.7959357.
[6] D. C. Ludois, J. K. Reed, and K. Hanson, “Capacitive power transfer
for rotor field current in synchronous machines,” IEEE Trans. Power
Electron., vol. 27, no. 11, pp. 4638–4645, 2012, doi:
10.1109/TPEL.2012.2191160.
[7] L. J. Zou and A. P. Hu, “A Contactless Single-Wire CPT (Capacitive
Power Transfer) Power Supply for Driving a Variable Message Sign,”
2018 IEEE PELS Work. Emerg. Technol. Wirel. Power Transf. Wow
2018, pp. 1–5, 2018, doi: 10.1109/WoW.2018.8450894.
[8] E. Abramov, I. Zeltser, and M. M. Peretz, “A Network-Based
Approach for Modeling Resonant Capacitive Wireless Power Transfer
Systems,” CPSS Trans. Power Electron. Appl., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 19–
29, 2019, doi: 10.24295/cpsstpea.2019.00003.
[9] Y. Yusop, S. Saat, Z. Ghani, H. Husin, A. M.K, and S. Kiong Nguang,
“Cascaded Boost-Class-E for rotary capacitive power transfer system,”
J. Eng., vol. 2019, no. 17, pp. 3742–3748, 2019, doi:
10.1049/joe.2018.8016.
[10] Y. Yusop, S. Saat, S. K. Nguang, H. Husin, and Z. Ghani, “Design of
Capacitive Power Transfer Using a Class-E Resonant Inverter,” J.
Power Electron., vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1678–1688, 2016, doi:
10.6113/jpe.2016.16.5.1678.
[11] K. Peng and E. Santi, “Class e resonant inverter optimized design for
high frequency (MHz) operation using eGaN HEMTs,” Conf. Proc. -
IEEE Appl. Power Electron. Conf. Expo. - APEC, vol. 2015-May, no.
May, pp. 2469–2473, 2015, doi: 10.1109/APEC.2015.7104695.
[12] A. Ekbote and D. S. Zinger, “Comparison of class e and half bridge
inverters for use in electronic ballasts,” Conf. Rec. - IAS Annu. Meet.
(IEEE Ind. Appl. Soc., vol. 5, no. c, pp. 2198–2201, 2006, doi:
10.1109/IAS.2006.256847.
[13] J. Dai, S. Hagen, D. C. Ludois, and I. P. Brown, “Synchronous
Generator Brushless Field Excitation and Voltage Regulation via
Capacitive Coupling Through Journal Bearings,” IEEE Trans. Ind.
Appl., vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 3317–3326, 2017, doi:
10.1109/TIA.2017.2681621.
[14] H. Y. Chung, H. K. Chiou, Y. C. Hsu, T. Y. Yang, and C. L. Chang,
“Design of step-down broadband and low-loss ruthroff-type baluns
using IPD technology,” IEEE Trans. Components, Packag. Manuf.
Technol., vol. 4, no. 6, pp. 967–974, 2014, doi:
10.1109/TCPMT.2014.2311662.
[15] A. Muharam, S. Ahmad, and A. Hapid, “An Improved Ground Stability
in Shielded Capacitive Wireless Power Transfer,” pp. 2–6.
[16] J. Sevick, “A Simplified Analysis of the Broadband Transmission Line
Transformer,” High Freq. Electron., no. February, pp. 50–53, 2004.