Lateral Misalignment Tolerance Enhancement by using

Electromagnet Based Flux Gate in Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Jaehyoung Park, Karam Hwang, Dongwook Kim and Seungyoung Ahn, Member, IEEE
ces Graduate School for Green Transportation, KAIST, Daejeon, Korea, jaehyoung.park@kaist.ac.kr

Abstract -A method of placing an electromagnet between the
source and load coil of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system to
increase lateral misalignment tolerance have been proposed. By
implementing an electromagnet, the flow of magnetic flux can be
controlled, thus allowing larger power magnitude and tolerance
even with increased misalignment compared to conventional WPT
systems. The proposed method has been verified using 3-D
simulation analysis.
Index Terms wireless power transfer (WPT),
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), electromagnetic field
(EMF), electromagnetic shielding, magnetic flux guiding.
Therefore, in this paper, we have conducted additional
analysis showing that the flux gate can also provide a larger
lateral misalignment tolerance as weIl. In this paper, the
concept of flux gate is explained in Section 11, the simulation
setup and results in Section III, followed by the conclusion in
Section IV.
11. CONCEPT OF THE FLUX GATE WPT SYSTEM
A. Top%gy ofthe flux gate WPT system.

I. INTRODUCTTON Showing slight differences compared to the general

Nowadays, conswner demands for convenient portable
devices and charging methods are increasing due to the
limitation ofbatteries such as heavy weight, long charging time,
and inconvenience of charging cables. In addition, these
demands are a strong driving force to adapt the wireless
inductive power transfer system in portable devices. To transfer
power wirelessly, a magnetic field is generated through the
source coil, which is received by the load coil.
The generation of the magnetic field from WPT system can
significantly affect human bodies and/or other electric devices.
The magnetic field induces the current at the human body [1] ,
which can stimulate the nerve and muscles as weil as the central
nervous system. Therefore, the international commission on
Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) introduced a
regulation to electromagnetic field (EMF) in 1988 which is
generally accepted in many countries [2].
To satisfy the ICNIRP regulations, various magnetic field
leakage shielding methods using magnetic material [3] ,
conductive material [4] , [5] and active cancelation [6] has been
proposed. However, the adoption of such methods also has a
negative effect on the system ' s power transfer efficiency. In
addition, the shielding performance ofthe mentioned methods
will decrease significantly with increased misalignment as weil
[7].
Therefore in [8] , a method has been proposed where a flux
gate is generated. The flux gate is a pathway for the magnetic
flux that goes through the ferrite core, which was achieved by
placing a magnet at the ferrite core. Through this method, high
shielding performance can be achieved while not deteriorating
its power transfer performance. However, there were no
analysis presented in how the flux gate method performs
against lateral misalignment
configuration of WPT systems, the flux gate WPT system has a
ferrite placed in between the source coil and load coil. In
addition, instead of placing standard magnets as shown in [8] ,
a method has been proposed where an electromagnet is placed
at the center of the load coil as shown in Fig. 1. The use of
electromagnet allows controlling the saturation level of the
ferrite without having to place additional magnets, which
provides an advantage of not having to increase the physical
dimensions, weight, and especially cost due to the magnets.
B. Ferrite saturation contral using electramagnet
The high nonlinearity and low saturation magnetic field
ferrite is used at the top of the source coil. The magnetic flux
flows from the source coil following the ferrite which is located
E1ectromagnet
000 ®®® Load Coil
---IIIIII!!II!!II!!II!------!II!!II!~---.
000 ®®® SourceCoil Ferrite
Fig. 1. Topology of electromagnet WPT system
B (T)
clcclromagnct
region
R- ll curve w/
Magnctic F iel d. H (Alm)
Fig. 2. B-R curve offerrite with and without electromagnet

978-1-4673-7986-1116/$31.00 ©20161EEE

(a)
Elcclromagnct
Sam ra ted Ferrite
(b)
Unsmuratcd ferrite
(e)
Fig. 3. Cross-seetional view of magnetie fi eld (a) w/o ferrite and
eleetromagnet, (b) w/ ferrite and w/o eleetromagnet and (e) w/ ferrite
and eleetromagnet
top of source coil during the unsaturated region . At the
unsaturated region, the ferrite has high permeability where
f.J > > 1. When the electromagnet is on, the ferrite is quickly
switched into the saturation region . The saturation region, the
ferrite has low permeability where f.J ;::: 1 [8]. From this, the
magnetic flux from the source coil penetrates the ferrite and can
be captured by load coil when the ferrite is saturated. When the
saturation of ferrite is partial, the other parts of ferrite are
unsaturated and they operate as a shield. Using the
electromagnet, we can control the saturation level offerrite. By
controlling the strength of electromagnet, we control the
amount of magnetic flux which penetrates the ferrite . Therefore,
shielding performance and charging efficiency can be remained
in high level.
Fig. 2 shows the B-R curve of the ferrite . When the
electromagnet exists, the saturated region of ferrite relocates
based on the amount of DC bias magnetic field . Hsc represents
the magnetic field which is generated from the source coil.
Without the electromagnet, Hsc is located at the unsaturated
region where the ferrite operates as a magnetic flux guide. In
30 tl"n Eleclromagnel
Load Coil
.ii"~~~~~§;;;~~~~~~:::
1 Sourcc Co ilFerrite
100 rum
Fig. 4. An overall setup for simulation
JO
15
'--''''''''<::';''='''---'- I .g
- 0.5 S.
\ 0
\ 0 ~
\ ~j ~
\
\ ~=+~~---T-+ -J ~
\, I \ --1.5
~---c!-----;~---c~-~-'F
'-_ '_ --;---+-----t------t--'--;,10--,
5
Time lusl
Fig. 5. The relation between input eurrent and mutual induetanee of
souree and load eoil.
case of the electromagnet located at the load coil, the ferrite
switches into the saturated region . The electromagnet saturates
the ferrite and makes the permeability offerrite same as air. The
DC bias magnetic field doesn't influence on induced power of
load coil and has an indirect effect on transfer efficiency by
saturating the ferrite .
Therefore, the magnetic field generated by source coil (Hsc)
is shown in (1) where the saturation magnetic field of ferrite is
H SAT:
(1)
To open the flux gate the DC magnetic field (REM) which is
generated by electromagnet is represented as:
(2)
Fig. 3 (a) shows the magnetic field generated by source coil.
As shown in Fig. 3 (b), the unsaturated ferrite guides the
magnetic field following it. In this case, the ferrite operates as
the shielding material to reduce the leakage magnetic field. The
saturated ferrite performs as a flux gate where the magnetic flux
penetrates the ferrite, since the saturated ferrite has the low
permeability (f.J ;::: 1) as shown in Fig. 3 (c). The strength of
electromagnet can control the saturation level offerrite and area
of saturated ferrite.
III. SIMULA nON
A. Simulation setup
In the simulation the operation frequency is 100 kHz, and the
target transfer power is lO-W for charging battery. To confirm
the EMF around the coil system, the commercial EM solver
ANSYS Maxwell is used. The simulation setup is shown in Fig.
4. The source coil has 50-turn, the load coil has 30-turn and the
source and load coil are round coil. The source coil was
 Souree Coil Center
I

..........
I
I 20 Olm MisaJignment.
Rx poi~nt~s_~:-:::~:::r................J=:;=~:.....

•--,~~t::~;;;;:~~~~:~~iFerrite lOOmm
So uree Coil

Fig. 9. The simulation setup for 20 mm misalignment condition.

25

'J - ,,/ c1cdrom'""CI I

Fig. 6. Magnetic flux density of WPT system (a) w/o electromagnet, -- w/o electrouwgnd
(b) w/ electromagnet. 0

/ Elec Lromagn el
20 nun r..,.·1isal ignmc nt _

5
0 ~, 0 Load Coil
Ferrite
c:::::J lr::::::::J Sourcc Coil
-1 00 -50 0 50 100 150
Fig. 7. Magnetic flux density with lateral misalignment (a) w/o ferrite MisaliglUllent [mm]
and electromagnet, (b) w/ ferrite and electromagnet.
Fig. 10. The induced power oftwo systems with lateral misalignment.

- w l eleclromagnet
- - \\" 0 cJcC(fOmagn~1
---------_ .. ------- ...
......- ........................ ...
--------------------
°0~--~5~---J10~---1~5----2LO----~25-----3~0-------~-~~~~-~--~--~-~40
Misalignment [null]
Fig. 8. The induced power oftwo systems with lateral misalignment.
attached to a current source which held the source current at lA
through the simulation. And the shunt resistance of 2.5 Ohms
was used for assuming 2A and 5V battery charging. The
magnitude of DC magnetic field is 20mT. To generate the DC
magnetic field, the electromagnet has 50 turn/rn and the current
tlows following the coil is 0.2A with material which has
permeability 100 (;J = 100).
B. Simulation result
The variation of mutual inductance of source and load coil
following the saturation level of ferrite is shown in Fig. 5. As
the input current is increased, the magnetic field from the
source coil is increased. The ferrite is saturated and the tlux gate
is open. Therefore, the mutual inductance of source and load
coil also increased (the permeability of saturated ferrite is same
as air (;J ;::; 1)). The DC bias magnetic field generated by
electromagnet open the tlux gate while the source coil current
is low where time 0 ~ Is shown in Fig. 5. The mutual inductance
of source and load coil which affect transfer efficiency can be
maintained in high state by controlling the current at
electromagnet.
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 show the magnetic tlux density comparison
of a WPT system with/without a tlux gate during perfect
alignment and lateral misalignment, respectively. The source
and load coil are represented with black line and the magnitude
values of the total magnetic field are also shown in Fig. 6 and
Fig. 7. The magnetic field generated from the system without
tlux gate was spread more widely than the system with tlux gate.
It means that the electromagnet reduces the leakage magnetic
field . The tlux gate is represented by circ1e in Fig. 6 (b) and Fig.
7(b).
1) The magnetic field generated by source coil tlows along
the ferrite located between the source and load coil.
2) The electromagnet saturates the ferrite partly.
3) The tlux gate is opened and the magnetic tlux penetrates
the ferrite through the tlux gate due to the saturated ferrite
has permeability same as air (jl ;::; 1).
4) The output power of WPT system is increased due to more
magnetic tlux can be captured by load coil.
Fig. 8 shows the power transfer comparison results between
the systems with/without tlux gate. Based on Fig. 8, power
drops to half at 25 rum and to 38 rum lateral misalignment for
the system without and with tlux gate, respectively. Also, the
system with tlux gate also achieved higher power delivery
magnitude as weil.
For general WPT systems, it can be expected that transfer
efficiency decreases significantly with increased misalignment.
However, in the case of the system with the tlux gate, the
transfer efficiency can be maintained significantly longer, even
with increased misalignment. This is because the magnetic field
is being guided along the ferrite and then through the tlux gate.
Fig. 10 shows the magnetic field density at Rx points shown
in Fig. 9. The load coil is placed 20 rum away from the center
of the source coil. Without the electromagnet system, the
magnetic field level is low because the magnetic field
magnitude from the source coil alone is not enough to penetrate
through the ferrite . With the electromagnet system, a DC
magnetic field is generated which penetrates the ferrite, thus
creating a flux gate located 20 rum away from the source coil
center as shown in Fig. 10. From the simulation results, it
verifies that the electromagnet saturates the ferrite and creates
a flux gate for the AC magnetic field to guide through .

IV. CONCLUS ION

In this paper, a method ofplacing an electromagnet between
source and load coil has been proposed to have higher tolerance
enhancement to lateral misalignment. The use of the
electromagnet allows adjusting the DC bias magnet, thus
providing the ability to control the saturation level ofthe ferrite
to allow magnetic flux to penetrate through. The simulation
results verified the analysis, where the system with flux gate
had less magnetic field leakage, higher power delivery, and
higher lateral misalignment tolerance compared to the system
without flux gate.

ACKNOWLEOGEMENT

This research was supported in part by Basic Science

Research Program through the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT &
Future Planning (NRF-2014RIAIAI038285) and in part by
Railroad Specialized Graduate School of Korea Ministry of
Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT).

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