Secondary-Side Power Control Method for
Double-side LCC Compensation Topology in
Wireless EV Charger Application
Bo Pang1,2, Junjun Deng1,2,*, Peng Liu1,2, Zhenpo Wang1,2
1 Collaborative Innovation Center of Electric Vehicles in Beijing
2 National Engineering Laboratory for Electric Vehicles, Beijing Institute of Technology
Beijing 100081, China
*E-mail: dengjunjun@bit.edu.cn
Abstract—Wireless electric vehicle (EV) charger has become
increasingly popular because of its improved convenience and
safety and its advantage of smaller green-house gas (GHG)
emissions. The power control method of the wireless power
transfer (WPT) system has great impact on the performance of the
charger. In order to simplify the power electronics converters and
improve the reliability of the system closed-loop control, a novel
secondary-side power control method by adding a pair of bi-
directional switches is presented for the wireless EV charger. The
proposed control method, which is applied on a double-side LCC
compensated wireless power transfer system, is analyzed based on
the fundamental harmonic approximation (FHA) approach. The
relationship between the controlled duty cycle of the secondary
switches and the output power is derived and discussed. The total
harmonic distortion (THD) of the input current is also calculated
to estimate the influence of the duty cycle on the primary side. A
prototype of the WPT system with the proposed control method
has been built and tested, and the confirmatory experiment is also
presented to validate the theoretical analysis.
Keywords—power control method; wireless power transfer
(WPT); double-side LCC compensation; electric vehicle (EV);
inductive power transfer (IPT)
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, the development of plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles (PHEVs) and pure electric vehicles (EVs) is rapid
because of the increase in green-house gas (GHG) emissions and
the pollution of fossils. Together with the renewable energy
sources, PHEVs and EVs have a smaller GHG footprint
compared to traditional vehicles. However, the traditional
conductive charging way is inconvenient and sometimes unsafe
for end users, which has been one of the major barriers to the
promotion and application of PHEVs and EVs. The wireless
power transfer (WPT) is recognized as a preferable technology
for the charging of electric vehicles lately by both of industry
and academia, to simplify the charging process and make it safer
by eliminating the unwieldy power cord and the manual
plugging operation [1]. In addition, automatic charging is
particularly attractive for public transportation EVs, where the
on-board battery capacity can be effectively downsized by
performing the frequent “opportunity charges” at bus stations [2].
l-)))
In this case, the EVs equipped with wireless chargers have better
performance in terms of energy consumption and carbon
emission in the total life cycle [3]. The research into wireless
charging system is mainly focused on three areas: coil design,
compensation topologies and control methods [4].
In an inductive based WPT charging system, a transmitting
coil as an energy transmitter and a pickup coil as an energy
receiver are coupled by a high frequency (HF) alternating
magnetic field across a relatively large air gap. The loosely
coupled coils are usually called the magnetic coupler. Different
kinds of the coil structure including circular, square, rectangular
and segmented rectangular (also called DD) pads have been
studied and the coil design methodologies are also proposed [5].
Different compensation topologies have been proposed and
implemented in a wide range of applications. The four basic
compensation topologies, including SS, SP, PS, and PP, where
S represents series and P represents parallel, have been well
researched and widely adopted [6]. However, the LCC
compensation topology proposed in [7] is validated as a better
choice because it acts as a primary-voltage-controlled current
source and achieves the unity power factor at resonance
regardless of load and coupling variation, which lead to
simplified control and high efficiency.
The control method of a WPT system is an important topic
closely related to power electronics converters. Many control
methods have been developed in order to achieve high system
efficiency, desired outputs and control stability [8]. For four
basic compensation topologies, control methods including
phase-shift control, PWM control, frequency control, extra
DC/DC converter in the primary or secondary side have been
proposed and their characteristics are analyzed as well [9].
However, for the LCC compensation topology, the control
method is usually by means of an extra DC/DC converter before
the primary side. The output current of the secondary side
changes with the variation of the input voltage of the primary
side in this method [10]. Nevertheless, to ensure the reliability
of the WPT system closed-loop control, it requires a high speed
wireless data transmission between the primary and secondary
sides to achieve better control effects.

 The aim of this paper is to eliminate the disadvantages of the II. CIRCUIT TOPOLOGY AND OPERATION PRINCIPLE
control method for the primary side and increase the stability and
robustness of the WPT system. In this paper, a novel power A. Circuit Topology
control method for the secondary side of a WPT system with the The circuit topology of the proposed secondary-side control
double-side LCC compensation topology is proposed by adding method is shown in Fig. 1. It is formed by a full-bridge converter,
a pair of bi-directional switches to simplify the power electronics a double-side LCC compensation network, a full-bridge rectifier
converters and improve the reliability of the system closed-loop and a pair of bi-directional switches. A voltage-fed, full-bridge
control. The proposed control method, which is applied on a converter is formed by MOSFETs ~ . and are the
double-side LCC compensated wireless power transfer system, self-inductances of the transmitting and pickup coils,
is analyzed based on the fundamental harmonic approximation respectively. , and are the primary side
(FHA) approach. The relationship between the controlled duty compensation inductor and capacitors. , and are
cycle of the secondary switches and the output power is derived the pickup side compensation components. is the mutual
and discussed. The total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input inductance between the two main coils. The backend rectifier is
current is also calculated to estimate the influence of the duty constructed by full-bridge diodes ~ and an output filter
cycle on the primary side. The circuit model based on . The bi-directional switches are comprised by two MOSFET
Matlab/Simulink is simulated to validate the calculation results. switches and connected back to back. The input is a
A prototype of the WPT system with the proposed control DC voltage , and is the voltage of the batteries.
method has been built and tested, and the confirmatory
experiment is also presented to validate the theoretical analysis.

iLf2
S1 S3 M Lo
iLf1  D1 D3
A + + a
Lf1 L Q1 Vout
+ C1 C2 + f2 CO
+ vAB Cf1 L1 L2 Cf2 vab
-
Vin
B Q2 b
i1 i2 D2 Ba tt e ri e
S2 S4 D4
Primary Side Secondary Side
Fig. 1. The circuit topology of proposed secondary-side control method

In the usual power control method of the WPT system using Mode II
LCC compensation topology, an extra DC/DC converter before
the converter of the primary side is necessary. Because in order Mode II operates from = ( − )/2 to = /2. In
to control the output current of the secondary side, it has to this mode, bi-directional switches and are turned on.
change the input voltage of the primary side in this method. The resonant current passes through and . The
Obviously, a high speed wireless data transmission between the output voltage is zero, and the batteries load is not charged
primary and secondary sides is essential to ensure the stability in this mode.
of the closed-loop control. In this paper, a secondary-side power Mode III
control method is proposed and analyzed using the bi-directional
switches. By means of regulating the conducting angle of Mode III operates from = /2 to = ( + )/2. In
and , the amount of current feeding the rectifier is adjusted. this mode, bi-directional switches and are turned on.
As a result, the output power is controllable. The resonant current still passes through and ,
while the direction of the current in this mode is opposite
B. Operation Principle
to that in mode II. The output voltage is zero, and the
The operating waveforms of the proposed secondary-side batteries load is not charged as well in this mode.
control method are shown in Fig. 2. The conducting angle of the
bi-directional switches and in each cycle is . As Mode IV
shown in Fig. 2, each operation cycle contains eight modes. The Mode IV operates from = ( + )/2 to = . In
current path of four modes in half cycle is shown in Fig.3 and this mode, bi-directional switches and are turned off.
the analysis of each mode is expressed as follow. The resonant current passes through diodes and .
Mode I The batteries load is charged in this mode. Because of the
batteries load, the output voltage is equal to .
Mode I operates from = 0 to = ( − )/2. In this
mode, bi-directional switches and are turned off. The As shown in Fig. 2, the waveform in an operation cycle is
resonant current passes through diodes and . The symmetrical. Therefore, the current path of mode V, VI, VII,
batteries load is charged in this mode. Because of the batteries VIII is the same as that of mode IV, III, II, I. After mode VIII, a
load, the output voltage is equal to . new cycle begins and the same operation principle is cyclic.


 vAB
iLf2
Lo
π/2 π 2π 3π 4π ½t
D1 D3
a
Q1 Vout
GQ1,Q2
α CO
vab

Q2 b
D2 Batteries
D4
½t
vab

(d)
½t Fig.3. The current path of four modes in half cycle; (a) Mode I; (b) Mode II;
(c) Mode III; (d) Mode IV

Mode I II III IV V VI VII VIII III. STEADY-STATE ANALYSIS

Fig. 2. The operating waveforms of proposed secondary-side control method A. FHA Analysis
The steady-state analysis is derived based on the circuit
iLf2 topology shown in Fig. 1. According to the FHA method with
Lo the parasitic parameters ignored, the equivalent circuit of the
D1 D3 investigated topology is shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen that the
a LCL-T resonant tanks are constructed on both sides with the
Q1 Vout
CO LCC networks compensated. The equivalent LCL-T resonant
vab network parameters are expressed as

Q2 b = − 1/( ) (1)
D2 Batteries
D4 = − 1/( ) (2)
where is the resonant angular frequency.

(a) Lf1 L1e L2e Lf2

ILf1 ICf2 ILf2

iLf2 ICf1
+ + + +
Lo VAB Cf1 -jω0MI2 + + jω MI
0 1 Cf2 Vab
D1 D3 -
- -
-
a I1
Q1 Vout I2
CO
vab
Fig.4. Equivalent circuit of LCC network
Q2 b According to equivalent circuit of LCC network shown in
D2 Batteries Fig.4, the input current of the primary side and the output
D4
current of the secondary side generated by the
fundamental harmonic of and can be derived through
the superposition theorem and the Kirchoff’s law as follows:
(b)

iLf2 = (3)
Lo
D1 D3 =− (4)
a
Q1 Vout
CO
vab In the investigated unidirectional topology, the output
current and output voltage are completely in phase under
Q2 b continuous conduction mode (CCM) condition. The phase angle
D2 Batteries of is supposed to be the same as here. Taking
D4
as the reference, the phase angle of is −90° according to
(4). Therefore, the phase angle of is −90° as well.
(c) As a result, the output power can be expressed as
follow:


 power _ of the high-order harmonics of
= (5)
calculated:
According to the waveform shown in Fig. 2. The voltage
and can be expressed by the Fourier series as follows: _ = _( ) _( ) (90°) = 0 (11)

4 where and is the root-mean-square

= (2 + 1) (6) _( ) _( )
(2 + 1) value of and .
_( ) _( )

4 2 +1 It is obvious that the waveform of is affected by the

= − ( − ) (2 high-order harmonics according to (10), and it is not a complete
(2 + 1) 2
sinusoid because of the phase difference of the fundamental
+ 1) (7) harmonic and high-order harmonics. However, the accuracy of
Substituting (6) and (7) into (5), the output power can the output power calculated with (8) can still be ensured
also be derived: because the output power _ of the high-order harmonics
is zero.
2 +1
8 (1 − ) C. Simuation Results
= 2 (8)
(2 + 1) The variation of output power along with the change
of the duty cycle is shown in Fig. 5 with the practical
where the duty cycle = / . parameters: = = 300 , = = 60 , =
B. Analysis on High-order Harmonics 100 , = = 400 , = 85 . Apparently, the
output power decreases with the increase of the duty cycle
To ensure the precision of control method, the accuracy of , which validates the effect of the proposed control method.
the relationship between the output power and the duty When = 1, which means the circuit between points and
cycle is vital. Thus, the high-order harmonics of is in Fig. 1 is a short circuit, there will be no output power under
taken into consideration to analyze the influence on the output this condition. Besides that, the output power changes
power . along with the duty cycle in a monotonous variation. This
kind of characteristic helps reduce the control difficulty and
strengthen the control stability. Moreover, when the duty cycle
is less than 0.5, the decrease of is slow with the
increase of , which means the control of output power can be
easier and precise in this situation.
A circuit model based on Matlab/Simulink is established and
simulated to verify the calculation results. The simulation results
are also shown in Fig. 6. Apparently, the output power of the
simulation results is basically the same as the calculation results.
Fig. 5. State of the equivalent circuit Besides that, the deviation exists because of the high order
harmonics as well. The waveforms of and are also
For the double-sided LCC compensated topology, the state
shown in Fig. 7 when the duty cycle = 0 and = 0.3. The
of equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 5. Considering that the
waveform of the output voltage is similar to the waveform
LCC compensated network from transmitting side to receiving
shown in Fig. 2.
side is a high order filter, the interaction between the primary
side and secondary side can be neglected. Therefore, the high
order current of can be roughly calculated by
(2 + 1) _( )
_( ) ≈ (9)
((2 + 1) − 1)
Therefore, the high-order harmonics of can be derived
as:

_( ) = (2 + 1) (10)
where
4√2 2 +1
= (1 − )
((2 + 1) − 1) 2
According to (7) and (10), the phase difference between
_( ) and _( ) is 90° , Therefore, the output Fig. 6. Variation of output power vs. the duty cycle


 vab The variation of THD along with the change of the duty
D=0
500 cycle is shown in Fig. 8. Along with the variation of the duty
cycle , the THD of the input current achieves the
maximum value when = 0 , which means the high order
0
½t harmonics of the input current generated by the output
-500 voltage have tiny impact on the primary side. Therefore,
iLf2 the proposed control method does almost not influence the
50
characteristics of the primary side. The similar waveforms of
simulation results when = 0 and = 0.3 shown in Fig. 9
0 π/2 3π/2 7π/2 9π/2 (a) and (b) validates the calculation results.
½t
-50
vAB
500
D=0
(a)

vab
D=0.3 0
½t
500
-500
iLf1
0
½t 20
10
-500
iLf2 π
0 2π 3π 4π ½t
50 -10
-20

0 π/2 3π/2 7π/2 9π/2 ½t

-50
(a)

vAB
(b) D=0.3
500
Fig. 7. Waveforms of simulation results, (a) when = 0; (b) when =
0.3
0
½t
IV. THD ANALYSIS OF THE INPUT CUTTENT
-500
The input current is affected by the output voltage iLf1
according to (3). Therefore, The THD of the input current 20
is calculated in order to find out the influence of the high order 10
harmonics of the output voltage on the input current . 0 π 2π 3π 4π ½t
-10
The THD of the input current can be derived as follows: -20

∑ _
(b)
= × 100%
_ Fig. 9. The waveforms of simulation results, (a) when = 0; (b) when =
0.3
1 2 +1
= (1 − ) (9) V. EXPERIMRNT RESULTS
(2 + 1) 2
Inverter
Rectifier &
Bi-direction Switches

Primary Side

Load

Compensated Capacitance
Secondary Side

Fig. 8. The variation of output power vs. the duty cycle (a)


 shows the normal waveforms of the WPT system with the
Ch1:vAB maximum output power when the duty cycle = 0. Fig. 10 (c)
Ch4:iLf1
and (d) show the experimental results of the waveforms and the
characteristics when the duty cycle = 0.5 . The result
validates the waveform shown in Fig. 2. When the duty cycle
= 0.5the output power P and the input current iLf1 .are less
than that when the duty cycle = 0, which demonstrates the
Ch2:vab Ch3:iLf2 power control method proposed in this paper
VI. CONCLUSIONS
A novel secondary-side power control method by adding a
pair of bi-directional switches is presented for the wireless EV
charger in this paper to simplify the power electronics converters
and improve the reliability of the system closed-loop control.
The proposed control method, which is applied on a double-side
X-axis: 4± s/div
LCC compensated wireless power transfer system, is analyzed
(b) based on the fundamental harmonic approximation (FHA)
approach. The relationship between the controlled duty cycle of
the secondary switches and the output power and the influence
Ch1:vAB Ch4:iLf1 of the duty cycle on the primary side are analyzed and derived,
and demonstrated by the simulation and experimental results. In
the further work, the zero voltage switching (ZVS) operation
conditions of the proposed control method will be discussed.
The control strategy of the proposed control method will also be
proposed and discussed as well. Besides that, more simulation
Ch3:iLf2 verification and experimental confirmation will also be
Ch2:vab presented in the future.
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(a). The values of the parameters are given before. Fig. 9 (b)