A Review On Wireless Power Transfer: Mohamed M. El Rayes, Gihan Nagib, Wahied G. Ali Abdelaal
A Review On Wireless Power Transfer: Mohamed M. El Rayes, Gihan Nagib, Wahied G. Ali Abdelaal
A Review On Wireless Power Transfer: Mohamed M. El Rayes, Gihan Nagib, Wahied G. Ali Abdelaal
Abstract— Wireless power is one of the new terms wireless power transmission, but the tower was not
that define this century. In the age of mobility, the completed due to lack of fund.
need for wireless power transfer (WPT) is growing
fast. There are several approaches for transferring
the electric power wirelessly. In this paper, different
methodologies for WPT are investigated as well as
advantages, disadvantages and possible applications
for each one. In addition, health safety and
economical aspects of each applicable approach are
discussed. A qualitative comparison between main
methods has been achieved based on separation
distance, transmitting power, cost, efficiency, and
safety. Qi wireless power transfer standard is
spreading in low power mobile devices up to 5 Watts
and showed great potential for charging high power
devices in the future.
not interact with most common materials. Power resonator, which is used in standard Qi transmitters,
transfer is nearly not affected by humans and can be increased by lowering the resistance and/or
common everyday objects such as wood, metals and capacitance [15] as illustrated by Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
electronic devices, when placed between the primary Resistance can be lowered by using high quality
and secondary coils even if the line of sight is wires for building coils or thicker wires. However,
completely obstructed [13]. However, they have a lowering the capacitance can lead to higher
noticeable effect when they are within few frequency in (1), which limits the current and in
centimeters from one of the two coils. Humans and turns the amount of power to be transferred due to
metals can just shift the resonant frequency, but that skin effect which causes the resistance of the coil
can be solved though feedback circuits. Other wire to be proportional to the frequency. Also, single
materials like wood can lower the Q factor of coils layer coils are preferable as multi-layer coil parasitic
when placed very close to either one of them, which capacitance increases the overall capacitance,
in turns decreases the efficiency of the power lowering Q.
transfer.
Tuning the transmitter and receiver to the same
resonant frequency ensures that the receiver has a
low impedance at the resonance and that leads to
optimal absorption of transmitted energy. At the
receiver side, the voltage gain is affected by the ratio
of the secondary coil inductance to the primary
inductance; as the voltage gain is proportional to that
ratio [8]. One primary coil can deliver electrical
power wirelessly to many receivers as long as they
are tuned to the same resonant frequency. One can
think that the closer the transmitting and the
receiving coils, the more efficient energy transfer,
but this is not the case. The highest reachable
efficiency can be achieved at a certain distance
between the two coils [14]. This distance depends on Fig. 5 Effect of coil resistance on Q factor.
the chosen resonant frequency and the coil sizes.
Increasing the Q factor of the LC circuit leads to
increasing the power transfer efficiency. The ratio of
the stored power in an LC circuit to dissipated power
is the figure of merit or the Q factor. Q factor
represents the selectivity of the tuned circuit for
resonant frequency.
Fig. 4 Series LC circuit In [16], researchers point out that the main
challenge is to adjust the lumped capacitances at the
1 terminals of the receivers when their position is
f (1) changed with respect to the transmitter coil and with
2 LC respect to each other.
1 L In [17], high efficiency switched-mode class-E
Q (2) power transmitter was used for achieving low power
R C loss via inductive coupling using planar air coils.
This WPT system was able to achieve a desirable
Where f is the resonant frequency, Q is the quality power-delivery response across a wide range of load
factor, L is the inductance, C is the capacitance of resistances without adding any control mechanism.
the tank circuit and R is the coil wire resistance. Advantages of magnetic resonance WPT [8]:
From (2), it is obvious that Q factor for series LC Higher efficiency
Longer distance compared to non-resonant rectenna, then they pass through a low pass filters, to
inductive coupling. finally produce DC power.
Allows the use of smaller single-layer For the microwave generator, devices that are
planer coils which can be implemented in called Microwave Vacuum Tubes are used to
MEMS circuits for portable and implanted generate microwaves and they have several types
devices. including klystron, magnetron, and the Travelling
Magnetic fields are not affected by Wave Tube (TWT). Magnetron is the most used
surrounding objects. They can wrap around device [18] which generates microwave by passing
or penetrate obstacles such as wood, electrons through magnetic field [19]. Travelling
plastics, glass, brick…, Etc. which are Wave Tubes are too expensive and power limited,
transparent to magnetic fields. making it unsuitable for practical implementation of
Safer for people, animal and environment power transfer systems [2]. Klystron is the best
as there is no electromagnetic radiation microwave generator for WPT applications, but it is
during energy transfer. somewhat expensive. Magnetrons are efficient and
cheap, but their output frequency is not precisely
Disadvantages of magnetic resonance WPT: controllable as TWT or klystron. Using small
Lower efficiency and increased heating magnetrons are advantageous because 300W to 1kW
compared to power transfer using wires. magnetrons are already mass produced for
Cannot be used in long range applications. microwave ovens [2]. 2.45GHz is proven practically
to be the most efficient frequency to be used in
microwave power transmission [18, 20]. For the
C. Wireless Power Transfer Using Microwaves transmitter antenna, micro strip patch, parabolic dish
antennas and slotted wave guide are usually used.
Microwave power transmission (MPT) is now the Due to its high efficiency, slotted wave guide is used
most efficient far-field technique which allows in high power applications.
power transmission for several kilometers in range Rectenna, which is used in microwave power
[5]. This method includes microwave frequencies receivers, stands for rectifying antenna. It was
from 1GHz up to 1000GHz [10]. In microwaves and invented by W.C. Brown in his work in WPT in the
optical power transmission systems, the reception 1960s [21, 22]. The rectenna is used to convert
area can be shaped. This can be achieved through microwave energy to DC power. The basic rectenna,
high directivity antennas in microwaves case and shown in Fig. 8, consists of a dipole antenna and RF
laser beams in optical systems case [5]. This is why diode connected between the dipoles [23]. The diode
they can be used to transfer electric power wirelessly rectifies the received high-power microwave signal
over long distances. and delivers the rectified current to later stages for
smoothing and controlling the output DC power
delivered to the connected load [10]. As mentioned
before, experiments showed that 2.45 GHz
frequency achieves the best efficiency for the
rectenna. Efficiency exceeding 95% has been
realized for modern rectennas [7]. Table I shows a
comparison of some types of printed rectennas.
TABLE I
EFFICIENCY OF DIFFERENT PRINTED RECTENNA
Fig. 7 Block diagram of microwaves power transfer [18]
system. Measured
Operating
Type of Peak
Frequency
Rectenna Conversion
Microwave power transfer begins with producing (GHz)
Efficiency (%)
the microwaves by using a microwave generator.
Generated radio waves then pass though Coax to Printed Diplomo 2.45 85
Waveguide adapter to the waveguide circulator to
isolate the microwaves generator and prevent Circular Patch 2.45 81
detuning its desired frequency. Then, a tuner and
directional coupler are used to separate the waves Printed Dual
5.6 78
according to their propagation direction [18]. Finally, Rhombic
microwaves are transmitted through antenna. At the
receiver terminal, microwaves are received by a Square Patch 8.51 66
E. Summary of WPT methods between two planer coils to transfer power form the
A comparison of different wireless power transfer transmitter and the receiver. The key advantage of
methods is shown in Table II. This comparison this standard is that it makes use of coils for control
highlights the strong and weak points for each data transmission from the receiver to the transmitter,
technique. so the communication is only one way from the
receivers to the base station [28].
TABLE II
COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT WPT METHODS
Distance between transmitter and receiver circuits
Inductive a few millimeters
Coupling
Magnetic a few meters
Resonance
Microwaves up to 100 kilometers
Laser a few meters but could be used for
longer distances by using high
intensity beam
Transmitted Power
Inductive Up to a few watts
Coupling
Magnetic Up to a few kilo watts
Resonance
Microwaves Up to hundreds of Megawatts
Laser Up to hundreds of Megawatts [26]
Efficiency Fig. 12 Basic Qi system overview [29]
Inductive Low Wireless power consortium added an
Coupling improvement to the Qi standard by including
Magnetic High magnetic resonance wireless charging. The charging
Resonance distance was increased to allow devices to be
Microwaves High charged from distance up to 40mm while keeping
Laser Low compatibility with Qi standard [28].
Cost
A. The Power Transmitter Under Wireless
Inductive Economical because the used Charging Standard
Coupling equipment are cheap and available
In this standard, the power transmitter design is
Magnetic Economical because the used
restricted to certain implementations to ensure
Resonance equipment are cheap and available
compatibility with different power receiver devices.
Microwaves Relatively expensive compared to The receiver presents itself to the transmitter as a
other methods compliant device and provides the required charging
Laser same economic conditions of configurations. The device can have fixed or moving
inductive coupling coil configurations. The transmitter operates in
Safety resonant mode with controllable duty cycle and
Inductive It is safe from biological point of frequency which can be changed between 100 and
Coupling view 205 kHz, depending on the power demands [29].
Magnetic It is safe from biological point of The input voltage ranges from 5 VDC to 19 VDC
Resonance view according to the transmitter type. The design of the
Microwaves Dangerous on health due to high transmitter is limited to three types: Guided
frequency rays (1 GHz to 1000 positioning, free positioning moving transmitter coil
GHz) and free positioning coil matrix [28].
Laser injurious to human health
III. QI STANDARD
In 2008, the Wireless Power Consortium was
founded and more than 220 international companies
are now members of it [27]. The first wireless power
standard was released by the consortium for low-
power mobile devices up to 5 Watts. The standard Fig. 13 Positioning of receiver coil with respect to
includes systems that uses inductive coupling the transmitter coil [28]
A power transmitter can serve only one power More flexibility for positioning devices to
receiver at a time, but a base station may contain be charged.
multiple power transmitters to serve several devices. Ability to charge up to 8 devices
simultaneously.
B. Received Power Under Wireless Charging
Use of Bluetooth for communication, which
Standard
exists in wide range of devices
The received voltage is full-wave rectified with C. Disadvantages of Rezence standard
efficiency equals about 70% for an output of 500mA Lower efficiency than Qi standard.
at 5VDC [28]. The power transfer is achieved by No compatibility with Qi standard, which is
magnetic coupling between the power transmitter implemented in large number of devices.
and receiver. But, uncoupled field lines do not
represent a loss as they rotate around the primary
coil, except if there is a parasitic load (e.g. eddy-
current loss in metals). Unlike to the power
transmitters, the design of power receivers is left
free to the device manufacturer [28].
A. Description
Rezence depends on magnetic resonance Fig. 14 Rezence WPT System
technology to transfer power between a power
transmitter and a power receiver. In contrary to Qi V. FEASIBILITY OF WPT
systems, Rezence systems relay on loose coupling The use of WPT is feasible for the following
between the power transmitter unit (PTU) and the advantages [4, 28]:
power receiver unit (PRU) [30]. This means that the A. Safety
system can operate efficiently with low coupling No electric shocks or short circuiting.
factor. As a result, the standard allows higher
Safe on humans and animals.
distance between the PTU and PRU compared to Qi
Sealed power sources and devices allow
systems (up to 50 mm) and the system is tolerant to
misalignment of the charging coils which increases more children protection.
flexibility. A system overview is represented by Fig. No corrosion can happen.
14. B. Durability
Another difference between Rezence and Qi No moving mechanical parts that require
standards is that the first operates at high frequency maintenance.
of 6.78 MHz and a single PTU can charge up to 8 Water proof and weather proof (for
PRUs at the same time at a maximum of 50 Watts in inductive coupling).
total. The communication between the PTU and Impervious to chemicals and dirt.
PRUs is carried over 2.4GHz Bluetooth links using Rugged and tough devices are possible.
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology which is Low-profile, does not occupy much space
available in most new Bluetooth-enabled devices. No wires to be cut or worn.
The PTU uses this BLE links for identification and Consistent and secure connections.
controlling power levels of valid loads and C. Ease of use
protection of non-compatible devices. No need for electrical plugs.
Unlike Qi standard, Rezence does not impose Data can be transmitted wirelessly at the
constrains in the design of PTUs nor PRUs. The same time of charging process.
loose coupled coils which allows spatial freedom Auto charging, so one cannot forget to
comes at the cost of efficiency. Qi standard provides plug-in.
higher power transfer efficiency than Rezence A universal charger can be designed.
standard at the same load and good coils alignment.
Easier implanted devices charging.
D. Aesthetics
B. Advantages of Rezence standard
Avoids unnecessary street clutter.
Perceive historic city aesthetics.
Higher maximum transmitter power up to
50 W. Maintain precious footpath area.