Transmitter Coils Selection Method for Wireless Power Transfer System with Multiple Transmitter Coils and Single Receiver Coil

Abstract

This article proposes transmitter coils selection method for maximum power transfer efficiency in the wireless power transfer (WPT) system with multiple transmitter coils and a single receiver coil (MTSR). The proposed method is divided into two main steps. First, transmitter coil selection criteria that can achieve maximum efficiency are derived by analyzing the relative magnitude of the coupling coefficient between each coil. Next, a method for calculating the relative coupling coefficients used for the criteria only with the input current value is presented. This method differs from previous studies in that it can be applied when some transmission coils are deactivated. Therefore, it is possible to select the optimal transmitter coil combination in consideration of the characteristics of the receiver coil using the proposed method without information on the receiver coil. By the proposed transmitter coils selection criteria, the power transfer efficiency has an average of 96.5 ± 0.5% when the output power is 300 W, even with the position change of the receiver coil. In addition, it is confirmed that the proposed coupling coefficient extraction method has a slight error of 2.5% compared to the measured value by a vector network analyzer.