Design of Inductive Power Transfer System With a Behavior of Voltage Source in Open-Loop Considering Wide Mutual Inductance Variation

This article analyses the fundamental aspects of the principal resonant network topologies for inductive power transfer systems. From the analytical derivation, different features, such as the variation of the coupling factor or load changes, are studied. Based on this study, a resonant series-series topology is selected, which cancels the leakage inductance. Due to the specifications, the air gap distance and its tolerance (±12%) produce a wide variation of the coupling factor of the inductive link. Therefore, through fast three-dimensional simulations by finite elements, the inductive link is designed so that this variation is minimized. This maintains the resonance and the designed system, in turn, behaves like a voltage source regardless of power, and thus, evades the implementation of a control stage. A dc-dc converter is constructed where the distance between the primary and secondary side vary from 35 to 45 mm, and the power ranges from 0 to 5kW. The output voltage range goes from 38 to 55 V
_DC
. Experimental results for the dc-dc converter report an efficiency of over 94%.