Inductive power transfer (IPT) based wireless
chargers are becoming a popular choice to power/charge many consumer electronic
(CE) devices such as mobile phones, smart watches, laptops, etc. Unfortunately,
IPT technologies developed to-date for CE applications suffer from significant loss
of efficiency and/or power throughput when the receiver is not well aligned
with the transmitter. This range limitation has somewhat hindered the
widespread use of IPT technology in CE products. As a solution, currently,
additional power regulation stages and complex circuit topologies are often
employed to improve the tolerance of wireless chargers to an acceptable level. At
the expense of increased system cost and size, these technologies usually offer
acceptable performance within about a +/- 30% lateral and longitudinal
misalignment with respect to the dimensions of the coils.
This project intends to investigate the
feasibility of using a polarised coil structure together with a hybrid tuning
technology to develop a low cost IPT system with improved tolerance to
misalignment between the transmitter and receiver coils. It has been previously
shown that by compensating the two coils of a polarised pad with complementary
type tuning networks, such as series and LC, helps improving the power
throughput and efficiency when coils are misaligned in electric vehicle (EV)
charging applications. Therefore, the first stage of this project will
investigate the applicability of this technology in CE applications, while
taking in to account the freedom of orientation and extended power transfer
range. During this stage, the students will develop suitable polarised
transmitter and receiver coil structures. The performance of these coils will
be first investigated using an FEM tool and then validated using experimental
results. During the second stage of the project students will develop
appropriate compensation networks and power converters. After validating the system
operation through PLECS simulations students will develop a 24 V, 100 W
prototype system for experimental validation. Results gathered from this
prototype will be compared with an equivalent traditional circular coil system,
in the final stage of this project to investigate the applicability of hybrid
tuning technology in CE applications.
Undergraduate
Enrolled in EE734 and preferably in EE735.
Lab allocations have not been finalised