Design Considerations for Wireless Electric

Vehicle Charging
Matthew A. Bloom, Geng Niu, Mahesh Krishnamurthy
Electric Drives and Energy Conversion Lab,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60616, USA
EML: kmahesh@ece.iit.edu; URL: http://drives.ece.iit.edu

Abstract-This paper focuses on the design challenges in the design

of an efficient, wireless, Level-2 PHEV battery charger.
, (1)
Specifically, this work focuses on the challenges posed by the 8
coupling factor, AC resistance and Q-factor, equivalent load
impedance, and need for power electronics. It uses the
WiTricity system proposed by researchers as a sample system , (2)
for wireless automotive charging. In-depth study study shows
that the output could be modeled as a current source. This paper .
presents a novel AC/DC rectification and regulation scheme 0.4285 (3)
based on a modified boost converter and hysteresis controller. k(r,z)
Detailed simulation has been carried out for the system, which 1
5cm
shows that the system has 80% efficiency at full load. 0.9 10cm
15cm
Index Terms-Wireless Power transfer, PHEV, resonant-magnetic, 0.8
20cm
WiTricity. 0.7
25cm

Coupling coefficient "k"

30cm
0.6 35cm

I. INTRODUCTION 0.5

0.4
Over the past decade, vehicles have received considerable
0.3
attention with the need for developing sustainable solutions
technologies with minimal impact on the environment. This 0.2

has also led to a growth in research on hassle-free charging for 0.1

PHEVs. Researchers have begun developing methods and 0

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
systems for which high amounts of power can be wirelessly "z" distance away from coil (cm)

delivered across distances of 0.15-0.25 meters [1].
Researchers WiTricity have patented and marketed a
wireless, 3.3 kW charger for PHEV application, with
specifications similar to those found in this paper [2].
This WiTricity method suffers from various design
issues, including but not limited to: flux coupling and decay,
AC resistance in high frequency coils, Q-factor, and a need for
additional power electronics. This paper addresses the
challenges that each of these design issues present, as well as
methods to design an efficient, WiTricity-based, PHEV
charger.
A. Flux, Field, and Coupling
By assuming two identical, coaxial loops (same radius and
length), one of which is centered at the origin with the z-axis
as its central axis, the magnetic coupling between the two
loops can be derived (2) by taking the ratio of the B-field at a
distance, z, by the B-field at z = 0. Figure 1 plots k as a
function of both radius and distance. As expected from (2),
tight coupling occurs at large values of r and/or low values of
z. While equation (2) applies to ideal conditions, it does not
hold in real-world applications where wires have a finite
thickness and some appreciable space between them. In order
to properly calculate the coupling, a curve fitting model was
created from coils with dimensions specified later in this work
were simulated using Infolyticas MagNet software, and the
flux linkage was recorded over various distances.
978-1-4799-0148-7/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
Fig. 1. Coupling coefficient of two identical, coaxial loops as a function of
radius and distance
B. AC Resistance and Skin Effect
At DC, the resistance of a wire can be written as (4) [3].
However, when AC components are added to the current
through the wire, the current distribution throughout the wire
is no longer uniform, and instead, the electrons tend to flow
closer to the outside of the conductor due to eddy currents that
form within the conductor [13]. For good conductors, a
suitable approximation to the depth at which the current
density, J, has fallen to J / , can be written as (5) [4],
[5]. For a circular conductor with diameter much greater than
the skin depth, the conductor can be modeled as a hollow tube
with wall thickness and the equivalent resistance can be
written as (6).
(4)
2
(5)
(6)
 C. Resonance and Q-factor
Un-driven, 2nd order circuits follow the s-domain form: 0 (10)
0 s s / , both and Q can be extracted from 0
(7) and written as (8) and (9), respectively [3]. The time- 0
domain impulse response to this system can be solved by
applying the inverse Laplace transform and is typically written
as: I t I e sin 1 t u t , where
1/2Q. This Q-factor determines how damped the system
is (i.e. how quickly the transients decay), as well as how much
power is dissipated per cycle. When driving an RLC circuit at
its resonant frequency, a circuit with higher Q will resonate at
a higher amplitude [3].
1
0 Input Power
2000
1
0 (7)

Watts
1000

1 0
(8) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (meters)
Output Power
1
(9) 500

II. WITRICITY MODEL Watts

WiTricity overcomes these challenges by placing two 0

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
"resonant coils" between the driving and load coils (see Figure Distance (meters)
2) [6], [7]. While this does not improve the coupling between
the source and load coils, it significantly improves the Efficiency
100
efficiency [6], [7].
Each resonant coil is comprised of an air-core inductor and 50
%

a series capacitor, the values of which are set so that the

resonant frequency is tuned to the fundamental frequency of 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Vs. The reason for these additional coils is that, at resonance,
Distance (meters)
a large amount of energy can be stored in the inductor. Coil 2 Magnitude of Reflected Zin
acts as a flux amplifier, increasing the amount of flux 100
generated on the primary side by means of a free-wheeling
Ohms

current within coil 2. As a result, coil 3 receives more energy 50

from the primary side and a larger current is induced within
0
coil 3. This current is then fed to the load coil through 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
transformer action. Distance (meters)

Fig. 3a. Top to Bottom: Input Power, Output Power, Efficiency, Reflected
Load Impedance. Z 50

From (10), the current in each coil is easily calculated if all

Fig. 2. WiTricity setup showing source, load, and resonant coils [1]
A. Mathematical Model
In this research, all coils were assumed to be identical and
the system was symmetrical, meaning that z z , etc. By
looking at the KVL of the system [8], [9], [7], [10], a system
of linear equations can be written (10).
necessary system parameters are known. By multiplying I1 by
Vs the total input power can be calculated; likewise, the output
power can be written as . These two equations can
be rewritten so that they are functions of Vs, as (11) and (12)
respectively. Another important parameter of the system, the
equivalent load impedance, can be written as (13) and is
investigated later in this paper. For simplicity, equations (11)-
(13) are left in terms of , .
, (11)
, (12)
 1 is very large by means of low parasitic resistance, that a
(13) significant current can be induced within coil 3, and thus coil
,
4 due to coupling. This effect is illustrated in Figure 5.
B. Effect of Source Impedance
By lowering the source impedance, such that , two
advantages are encountered: high efficiency over longer range,
and higher levels of power transferred to the load; these two
advantages are apparent from (11), (12). Figures 3a and 3b
demonstrates the effects of lowering the source impedance to
0.5.
4 Input Power
x 10
4
Watts

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (meters)
4
x 10 Output Power
2
Watts

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (meters)
Fig. 4. Effect of z23 and rcoil on WiTricity system. Top: efficiency,
Efficiency Bottom: output power
100

50
%

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (meters)
Magnitude of Reflected Zin
100
Ohms

50

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Distance (meters)
Fig. 3b. Top to Bottom: Input Power, Output Power, Efficiency, Reflected
Load Impedance., 0.5 .
C. Effect of Coil Radius
Another important aspect of the system's efficiency is the
amount of coupling between coils. To illustrate the roles that
and coil radius play on the system, a parametric analysis
was performed to view the effect on Po and , see Figure 4.
For simplicity, equation (2) was used to equate k to and Fig. 5. Effect of Z23 and RAC on WiTricity system. Top: efficiency,
. Bottom: output power
D. Efficient Power Transfer Across Large Distance III. LOAD SIDE REGULATION
With this system, it is possible to achieve highly efficient
power transfer, even at large separation distances (z 1 ). Upon further analysis of the WiTricity system, an
As mentioned previously, voltage applied to a high-Q resonant interesting challenge was discovered. As seen from the KVL
system will result in a large current response. This implies that of the system (10), the voltage around coil-3s loop
in theory, lim , ; however, in practice, approximately equals zero because at resonance, the
imaginary components of the LC tank cancel, leaving a free-
Q is impossible, as some small amount of resistance will wheeling current circulating around the loop. The challenge
exist. This implication can be applied to the WiTricity posed by this free-wheeling current is that coil-3 can now be
system, in that, at large distances when k is very small, if Q viewed as a short-circuited current source, tightly coupled to
coil-4, and thus coil-4 can be viewed as a current source of
magnitude and phase proportional to coil-3s free-wheeling
current.
Initially, a classical rectifier (diode-bridge and smoothing
capacitor) was simulated in MATLAB Simulink as a means to
rectify the output of the WiTricity system. It was found that
this approach caused the output voltage to grow exponentially
out of control. This is due to the current-source characteristic
of the WiTricity output coil, which applies DC current to
the smoothing capacitor.
Fig. 6. Current chopper topology
A. Current-Chopper Circuit
Since conventional methods of AC/DC rectification [12]
were not feasible for this system, a different approach was
needed. In order to achieve current-fed AC/DC rectification
and regulation, a current-fed buck converter, or current- 0
Ii
Iin
chopper was designed, with topology similar to that which is -Ii

presented in [13]. This converter works on a similar principle

Ii
as a typical voltage-fed buck converter, where by sending Irect

pulses of positive voltage through a filter to the output, the 0

load sees only the average value of the pulse-train [12]. In this 1
Q1
circuit, rather than voltage pulses being sent, current pulses are 0
sent to the load and the output voltage is regulated via a shunt
capacitor and control loop. Figure 6 shows the topology of the Ii
I Sw1
current-chopper circuit and Figure 7 shows the important 0
waveforms. A description of the modes of operation for the
Ii
current-chopper circuit can be found later in this section. I D1

In order to control the output voltage of the circuit, 0

hysteresis control of the active switch was implemented [12]. Ii-Io

0 I C1
The concept of this control is that the load voltage grows until -Io

it reaches an upper threshold, at which point the switch

Vupper
changes states and the voltage decreases until it reaches a V C1
lower threshold, at which point the switch again changes states Vlower
Time
[12]. Since the charging period of the switching cycle is DT (1-D)T

dictated by 1/ i dt and the discharge period is dictated by T

the time constant, R C , the switching period can be
controlled by adjusting the values of C1 and Vpp , see
equation (14) for details. As shown by (14), high switching
frequencies are achieved with either low C1 or small Vpp
(where V V V ); the opposite is true for low
switching frequencies.
Mode 1 (t < 0): S1 = 0, allowing rectified current from the
AC current source to flow through D1 into capacitor C1. VC1
increases until a threshold of Vupper is achieved.
Mode 2 (0 t DT): S1 = 1, shorting out the input current
source through Sw1. Diode D1 prevents C1 from being short
circuited through Sw1; instead, C1 discharges through load
resistor R1 until VC1 reaches a threshold of Vlower.
Mode 3 (DT t T): S1 = 0, allowing rectified current
from the AC current source to flow through D1 into
capacitor C1. VC1 increases until a threshold of Vupper is
achieved. Repeat Modes 2 and 3.
Fig. 7. Waveforms of current chopper circuit. Top to bottom: Input
current, rectified input current, switching signal, switch current, diode
current, capacitor current, load voltage
For this converter, since the input is a time-varying AC
function while the output is DC, the symbol for input current
will be defined as , and output current will be Io. For
clarification, | | is the amplitude of , while | | is the
absolute value of .
As with all power electronics, it is useful to determine the
duty ratio of the pulses being sent to the active switch [12]. In
order to calculate this, the current-balance of C1 was
inspected; i.e. the average current through a capacitor in a
given switching period must equal zero. A small-ripple
assumption was made regarding the voltage across C1; solving
for D leads to (15). Two constraints exist on the system: one
being that | | 0, otherwise, the capacitor
voltage would never increase, the other being that
| | 0 to maintain the current-balance of C1.

1 | |
(14)
| |
 0 1 | | 20

-20
0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174
| |
(15) 20

| | 10
0
0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174
1
B. Concept Validation 0.5
0
In order to verify the current chopper concept, a simulation -0.5
0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174
model was built and tested in MATLAB Simulink. Parameters 20

of the simulation are listed in Table 1. Waveforms from the 10

0
simulation are presented in Figure 8, and show a high 0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174

correlation to the expected waveforms from Figure 7. There is 20

10
one significant difference between Figures 7 and 8, however, 0
0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174
which is easily explained. In Figure 8, VC1 does not increase 10

linearly, as is shown in Figure 7. This was caused by C1 0

experiencing large changes in its charging current level. As a -10

0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174
result, / is not constant, as expected from / . 355
350
Using values from Table 1, along with equations (14), (15), 345

the expected switching frequency and duty ratio were 0.0162 0.0164 0.0166 0.0168 0.017 0.0172 0.0174

calculated as 3056 , 0.21 . The values from

simulation were 3333 , 0.2 . The expected and Fig. 8. Simulated waveforms. Top to bottom: Ii, Irect, S1, ISw1, ID1, IC1, VC1
simulated values show a high correlation, within 10%, which
can be explained by the effects of the parasitic elements of the
semi-conductor devices (on-state resistance and voltage) in the
simulation.
Fig. 9. System block diagram

TABLE I
CURRENT CHOPPER SIMULATION PARAMETER
Parameter Value
20 2 10 3
C1 100 F
Rload 35
Vload 3501%

C. System Topology
A block diagram representation of the system is shown in
Figure 9. The topology of the complete system, see Figure 10,
can be broken into four sections, as described below:
PFC Boost converter:
o Draws current in-phase with 240V AC grid voltage
o Steps up voltage to 250V DC
Full-Bridge inverter:
o Creates 100 kHz waveform needed for WiTricity
system
WiTricity wireless energy transfer:
o Transfers energy from source-side to vehicle/load side
Current-chopper voltage regulator:
o Rectifies the AC current from WiTricity load coil,
and regulates the load voltage to specifications.
Fig. 10. System topology
IV. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
A. Efficiency Calculation
To ensure proper analysis, the output power levels were
calculated backwards, i.e. the load power level was set to 3.3
kW, and the necessary input power, based on the current
subsystem efficiency, was set as the output of the preceding
subsystem. Figure 11 shows the breakdown of subsystem
efficiencies, as well as the overall efficiency. It clearly
identifies the subsystem that lowers the overall efficiency. At
low power levels, the WiTricity subsystem has poor
efficiency due to the small equivalent load resistance
necessary seen by the load coil. This in turn leads to poor
power transfer as described in Section 3B. However, at high
power levels, the current choppers efficiency is poorest. This
is primarily due to the loss created by the on-state voltage
found in the diodes used in the passive rectifier and output
diode.

Fig. 11. Efficiency figures for individual subsystems and overall system
B. Parameter Design
By analyzing the data obtained from the WiTricity model,
and sensitivity analysis, distinct conclusions can be drawn
regarding the design of a wireless, high efficiency, Level-2,
PHEV charger.
Critical design choices need to be made on the parameters
of the WiTricity system, which are influenced by the
physical and electrical restrictions of the project. Table 2 lists
the design choices to ensure optimal performance. These
choices were determined after reviewing the data obtained in
the sensitivity analysis. Obviously, other limitations could
exist on the design of the WiTricity system, such as cost and
performance tolerance, which would impact the design
choices.
TABLE II
CRITICAL WITRICITYTM DESIGN CHOICE
Parameter Choice
Minimize
Minimize
Maximize
Minimize
No choice
, Maximize
Minimize
V. DISCUSSION
This research assumed perfect alignment of the source and
load coils, in order to simplify the mathematics and
simulation. Further investigation could be made, either in
simulation or hardware, on the effects that misalignment have
on the coupling between the coils. This misalignment would
directly impact the efficiency and power level of the
WiTricity system.
Another direction that future work could take is for further
investigation of the load regulation method. As the current
chopper circuit is very simple and seems to lower the overall
efficiency of the charging system, further research could be
done to find a better solution for regulation or soft-switching
technique (for the current chopper), in order to increase the
efficiency.
Because the WiTricity system is symmetric, and thus
bidirectional, different power electronic topologies could be
implemented to achieve vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operation. This
application would allow for energy stored in the vehicles
battery to be injected into the power grid, and could provide
ancillary services such as reactive power compensation, peak-
load shaving, as well as distributed generation for microgrid
applications.
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