Iet-Pel 2018 6206
Iet-Pel 2018 6206
Iet-Pel 2018 6206
E-mail: tarek.mostafa@kaust.edu.sa
Abstract: This paper proposes a capacitive power transfer (CPT) system with a step-down transformer on the secondary side
to reduce the circuit quality factor (Q), and thereby reduce the sensitivity to parameters variations, as well as the voltage stress
across the coupling interface. The system operating principle is analyzed mathematically, and the focus is given to understand
the effect of the leakage inductance (Llk) of the non-ideal transformer on the system performance. The analytical and simulation
results show that at a given constant output power, the voltage across the plates is significantly reduced, and the system
becomes less sensitive to the coupling variations by increasing the turns ratio of the step-down transformer. It is found that Llk
can be advantageously utilized as a tuning inductor (L) or part of it. The proposed method is verified by building a prototype
CPT system that delivered 25 W at an operation frequency of 1 MHz, and an efficiency of more than 70%. Simultaneously, the
voltage stress across the single pair of the coupling plates is reduced from 252 V of a conventional CPT system without a step-
down transformer, to 50.4 V using a high-frequency transformer with a turns ratio of 5.
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Fig. 4 Simplified structure for system analysis
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and
2nV D
vs1 = sin ωt = nvs1_conv, (6)
π
where Np_T2 and Ns_T2 are the turns number of the primary and the
secondary sides of the step-up transformer T2, respectively.
For analysis, Fig. 6 can also be simplified by using sinusoidal
approximation as shown in Fig. 7, i.e. the input voltage can be
given by
vs1
vin = = nvs1 (8)
nstepup
Fig. 6 CPT system with step-up and step-down transformer
Ideally, both previously mentioned ways will give the same
results in terms of system sensitivity and voltage stress across the
capacitive interface. However, by considering the switching losses
in the inverter and losses due to the parasitic components of the
step-up transformer, the results may differ. A comprehensive
comparison between the two cases has been introduced in [16]. In
this paper, the system with a step-up transformer is chosen for the
analysis and the experimental verification.
3 Mathematical analysis Fig. 7 Simplified structure of CPT system with step-up and step-down
3.1 System sensitivity transformers for system analysis
1 L 1 L Qconv
Q = = = (9)
R Cc n2RLoad Cc n2 Fig. 8 Frequency response of the load power at different turns ratios n
where Qconv is the quality factor of the conventional CPT system at different turns ratio, n. By increasing n, the output will have a
previously presented in Fig. 2. wider response which demonstrates lower Q and less system
Fig. 8 illustrates the frequency response of the output power at sensitivity to parameters changes.
the load that can be obtained from As mentioned before, the system ability to transfer power
becomes impenetrable to the large parametric variations with
(Cc2 Rload V in
2
n2) s2 attaining low Q. The capacitive coupling interface changes may
PL =
1 + 2 Cc Rload n2 s occur due to misalignment or existence of dust or water between
transmitting and receiving plates which change the dielectric value
+ 2 Cc2 L Rload n2 s3 (10) and accordingly the value of the effective capacitances. Fig. 9
+ Cc2 Rload
2
n4 + 2 L Cc s2 shows the output power as a function of the equivalent capacitance
Cc. For the conventional system, a 10% change in Cc of its original
+ (Cc2 L2)s4 value results in degradation of the amount of power delivered to
the load to almost 0 W that resonance frequency will vary by a
and great value due to the high Q. In contrast, by adding the step-down
transformer on the power receiving side, the system would be
n4 ω4 immune to parameters changes and the ability to transfer the power
PL = Cc2 Rload V in
2
2 ,
1 − 2 Cc L ω2 will increase even under extreme conditions. For the designed
(11) example, if step-down transformer with turns ratio n = 10 is used,
2
n4 Rload
2
ω2 the power can be still transferred with almost the same amount for
+Cc
+L2 ω4 any increase in the interface till quadruple the value of Cc. In
addition, decreasing the equivalent capacitance by half of its
2636 IET Power Electron., 2019, Vol. 12 Iss. 10, pp. 2634-2641
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019
load situations, unlike the case of no step-down transformer
addition where Q reaches >100 for some load values. Hence, the
need for optimum load tracking systems to achieve matched load
and low switching losses becomes less.
Cc V in
I = (12)
Cc Ls2 + Cc Rs + 1
which can be expressed as a function of the turns ratio (n) and the
interface current of the conventional system at the resonance
frequency as
Iconv
I = (13)
n
where Iconv is the current passing through the resonant circuit, i.e.
Fig. 10 Q tolerance with the change of Cc L, Cc1, and Cc2 for the conventional system.
The reduction in the current through the circuit will result in
less voltage stress Vc across the one pair of the coupling plates as
described in
I V in
Vc = = (14)
2 Cc s 2 Cc Ls2 + 2 Cc Rs + 2
V c_conv
Vc = (15)
n
Fig. 11 Q tolerance with the change of RL
where Vc_conv is the voltage across a single pair of the capacitive
coupling interface plates, e.g. Cc1, for the conventional system.
At low frequencies, the terms 2 Cc L ω2 and Cc2ω2 R2 + L2ω2
can be neglected and Vc can be presented as shown in
1
Vc ≃ V , (16)
2 in
Fig. 14 Simplified circuit for CPT system with non-ideal step-up and step- (Cc2Rload V in
2
n2) s2
down transformer PL =
1 + 2 Cc Rload n2 s
+ 2 Cc2 L + Llk Rload n2 s3 (18)
2 2 4 2
+ Cc Rloadn + 2 L + Llk Cc s
+(Cc2 L + Llk 2)s4
and
n4 ω4
PL = Cc2 Rload V in
2
2
1 − 2 Cc L + Llk ω2
(19)
n4 Rload
2
ω2
+Cc2
+ L + Llk 2 ω4
Fig. 15 Frequency response of the load power at different leakage
inductance Llk respectively.
It is clearly expectable that a shift in the resonance frequency
presented in Fig. 6 after introducing all the possible parasitic will occur by considering the leakage inductance; this shift will
components for the step-up and the step-down transformers, i.e. increase with the larger values of Llk as shown in Fig. 15 for the
same design example values in Table 1.
• Lp: leakage inductance in the primary side. In most of the systems that use transformers, the leakage
• Ls: leakage inductance in the secondary side inductance is usually considered as a disadvantage and a source of
• Cp: equivalent lumped capacitance at the primary side. concern. Based on the previously achieved results, leakage
inductance can be used for the own benefit of the system.
• Cs: equivalent lumped capacitance at the secondary side.
Combining Llk with the tuning inductance L can result in a
• Rp: DC winding resistance for the primary side winding. reduction of L size; or in some not extreme cases and with the
• Rs: DC winding resistance for the secondary side winding. precise design of the transformers, L can be totally eliminated as
• Cw: lumped winding-to-winding capacitance. shown in Fig. 16 where Llk only is used for full tuning of the
• Rc: equivalent core-loss shunt resistance. capacitive interface at the resonance frequency. Accordingly,
• Lm: magnetising inductance. introducing the transformers to the system will improve the overall
performance in terms of power and efficiency while the cost and
complexity maintenance is low. In the following section, a system
As the leakage inductance effect is the main focus of this
that depends only on the leakage inductance for tuning is
subsection, the complicated Fig. 13 can be simplified to a more
introduced for proving the concept.
accurate than ideal transformers case of Fig. 6 and less complicated
than the exact model of non-ideal transformers [17] as shown in
Fig. 14a. The magnetising inductance Lm can vary significantly 4 Experimental results
from one transformer to another due to material variations, The CPT system in Fig. 16 is implemented for verification as
temperature, and frequency. Lm is required to generate the shown in Fig. 17 with system parameters listed in Table 2. The
magnetic field, and it is desirable to make it as large as practically capacitive coupling interface is constructed by two pairs of 100
possible to reduce the magnetising current, therefore the power mm × 100 mm square copper pads covered by AL-37BLK tape
losses. Accordingly, the core and the number of turns should be from 3M (ɛr=2.4) as a dielectric material. Two identical
designed carefully to reduce its effect. In the proposed CPT system, transformers were made in-house (design guideline is given in
the magnetising inductance Lm of the transformer is made Appendix A) with measured leakage inductance ∼15 μH each and
2638 IET Power Electron., 2019, Vol. 12 Iss. 10, pp. 2634-2641
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Fig. 16 CPT system with no tuning inductance L
Fig. 20 Prototype frequency response of the voltage across the single pair
turns ratio equal to 5. For the system's Q and voltage stress across of the capacitive interface Cc1 (amplitude)
the interface investigation, the frequency was swiped from 0.2–1.5
MHz. Also, misalignment was applied to the interface for the
sensitivity test. common ground effect. Although the same amount of power (25
Fig. 18 shows the frequency response of the DC output power W) is delivered to the load, the voltage stress across the capacitive
and efficiency of the conventional CPT system (a series inductor interface is divided by n by introducing the step-down transformer
with value 25 μH was used for tuning) and the proposed system as derived in (14) from the mathematical analysis section. The
with the step-down transformer. Q of the proposed system is maximum voltage stress across the capacitive interface (Cc1) is
clearly reduced compared to the conventional system as predicted reduced to about 50.4 V at n = 5, corresponding to an output power
by the analysis. In addition, the proposed topology improved the of 25 W, while 252 V is measured for the no step-down
overall system efficiency (from DC to DC) with >30%, as well as, transformer used case. The values of the experimental results of Vc
it is the ability to maintain this efficiency over a wide range of is higher than the calculated ones due to the non-ideal components
operating frequency which confirms the system's high robustness. in the system which increase the losses and decrease the efficiency,
As proved in the analysis section, by reducing Q, the system's so a higher input voltage (VD = 39 V) is needed to deliver 25 W
tolerance to misalignment should improve. Accordingly, for resulting in higher voltage stress across the interface.
verification, the capacitive interface was changed to several values By using 39 V DC input voltage (VD), the system could deliver
higher and lower than the original value, and the equivalent 25 W of power at the n = 5 and operating frequency 1 MHz, while
capacitance was calculated and recorded. As shown in Fig. 19, the the efficiency reached slightly >70%. Fig. 21 shows the
output power and the overall efficiency of the system with step- experimental waveforms of output voltage Vs and output current Is
down transformer are much less affected by the interface of the inverter. The leaky fields from the unshielded capacitive
misalignment compared to the conventional CPT system topology. interface affect the current measurement probe, specifically the
Even with the reduction in the equivalent capacitance value to the inductance of the probe, which results in a distorted current
half, the power and the efficiency could be maintained with almost waveform in the measurements. Fig. 22 shows the measured VCc1
the same numbers of operation at the original design interface and VL.
value. By increasing the number of turns, the range of the operation
with the same output power and efficiency will be wider. However,
parasitic should be considered to adjust to which limit n can be 5 Conclusions
increased, as mentioned before. This paper proposes a CPT system with step-down transformer
Fig. 20 shows the amplitude of voltage stress measured across added on the power receiving side to reduce the system sensitivity
the single pair of the capacitive interface (Cc1). A floating and the voltage stress across the coupling plates. The proposed
oscilloscope was used for the measurement to eliminate the system drastically reduces the system's quality factor; therefore,
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Fig. 22 Experimental waveforms of the voltage across the capacitive
interface (Cc1) and the output voltage 7 Appendix A: transformer design guide
2640 IET Power Electron., 2019, Vol. 12 Iss. 10, pp. 2634-2641
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The secondary side value of leakage inductance is
Ls = n2 × Lp = 0.016 μH where x% is the percentage of the
flux, which follows a leakage path.
np2
Lm =
ℜ
IET Power Electron., 2019, Vol. 12 Iss. 10, pp. 2634-2641 2641
© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2019