Using Overlapped Resonators in Wireless Power Transfer for Uniform Electromagnetic Field and Removing Blank Spots in Free Moving Applications

Summary

Wireless power transfer to a moving receiver can become unreliable when the receiver crosses the boundary between transmitter coils. At these positions, the magnetic field and received power can drop sharply, creating blank spots. The paper proposes two aligned arrays of four printed-circuit transmitter coils with a 50% overlap between arrays. The overlap compensates for the field reduction at adjacent-coil boundaries and makes power delivery more uniform along the receiver’s path.

The authors combine theoretical coil design, field and safety simulations, and a fabricated prototype. In the reported experiments, variation in delivered power was at most 10%, compared with approximately 50% for a non-overlapping arrangement. The prototype achieved 68% electrical power-transfer efficiency with the receiver 4 cm from the transmitter array. The design is relevant to moving loads, including biomedical research setups in which a tether or interrupted charging would be undesirable.

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Recommended citation: Saeideh Pahlavan, Mostafa Shooshtari, Mohammadreza Maleki, and Shahin Jafarabadi Ashtiani. "Using Overlapped Resonators in Wireless Power Transfer for Uniform Electromagnetic Field and Removing Blank Spots in Free Moving Applications." Electronics 11, no. 8: 1204, 2022.
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