A High-Efficiency/Output Power and Low-Noise Megahertz Wireless Power Transfer System Over a Wide Range of Mutual Inductance

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems working at several megahertz (MHz) are widely considered as a promising solution for a mid-range transfer of a medium amount of power. The soft-switching-based Class E power amplifier (PA) and rectifier are known to be suitable for high-frequency applications, which may potentially improve the performance of the MHz WPT systems. Meanwhile, the efficiency and output power of the Class E PA are sensitive to its loading condition, particularly when there is variation in the relative position of the coupling coils, namely a changed mutual inductance between the coils. Thus the purpose of this paper is to propose and discuss circuit and design improvements that maintain a high efficiency and output power of the MHz WPT systems over a wide range of mutual inductance, when the Class E PA and the Class E rectifier are employed. Besides, the suppression of the harmonic contents, i.e., the electromagnetic interference problem, is also considered in the circuit design. Both the simulation and experimental results show that the newly added and optimally designed π matching network obviously improves the drops of the efficiency and output power of the Class E PA and the overall WPT system when the mutual inductance varies. The reduction of the total harmonic distortion in the input voltage of the coupling coils is also significant, from the original 52.9% to 9.6%. The circuit and design improvements discussed in this paper could serve as a general and practical solution for building high-performance MHz WPT systems.