An Active-Rectifier-Based Maximum Efficiency Tracking Method Using an Additional Measurement Coil for Wireless Power Transfer

The efficiency of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems is highly dependent on the load, which may change in a wide range in field applications. Besides, the detuning of WPT systems caused by the component tolerance and aging of inductors and capacitors can also decrease the system efficiency. In order to track the maximum system efficiency under varied loads and detuning conditions in real time, an active single-phase rectifier (ASPR) with an auxiliary measurement coil (AMC) and its corresponding control method are proposed in this paper. Both the equivalent load impedance and the output voltage can be regulated by the ASPR and the inverter, separately. First, the fundamental harmonic analysis model is established to analyze the influence of the load and the detuning on the system efficiency. Second, the soft-switching conditions and the equivalent input impedance of ASPR with different phase shifts and pulse widths are investigated in detail. Then, the analysis of the AMC and the maximum efficiency control strategy are provided in detail. Finally, an 800-W prototype is set up to validate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that with 10% tolerance of the resonant capacitor in the receiver side, the system efficiency with the proposed approach reaches 91.7% at rated 800-W load and 91.1% at 300-W light load, which has an improvement by 2% and 10% separately compared with the traditional diode rectifier.