Miniature Wireless Power Transfer System for Charging Vertically Oriented Receivers

Abstract

Development of compact wireless power transfer (WPT) systems for charging miniature randomly oriented electronic devices is quite a challenge. Traditionally, WPT systems based on resonant magnetic coupling utilize face-to-face aligned transmitter and receiver coils providing sufficient efficiency at relatively large distances. However, with the presence of angular receiver misalignment in a such system, the mutual coupling decreases resulting in a low power transfer efficiency. Here we develop a compact WPT system for wireless charging of miniature receivers vertically oriented with respect to the transmitter. As a transmitter, we employ a butterfly coil that provides a strong tangential component of the magnetic field. Thus, a vertically oriented receiver located in the magnetic field can be charged wirelessly. We perform numerical and experimental studies of the WPT system power transfer efficiency as a function of the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. The misalignment and rotation dependencies of power transfer efficiency are also experimentally studied. We demonstrate the power transfer efficiency of 60 % within transfer distance of 4 mm for a vertically oriented receiver with an overall dimension of 20 mm X 14 mm at the frequency of 6.78 MHz.