Chapter -6

AUTOMATIC FREQUENCY
TUNING SYSTEM FOR
ENRICHMENT OF EFFICIENCY OF
WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER
SYSTEM FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE
CHARGING
CHAPTER 6

AUTOMATIC FREQUENCY TUNING SYSTEM

FOR ENRICHMENT OF EFFICIENCY OF
WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER SYSTEM FOR
ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING

After a comprehensive experimental investigation and simulation, it has been noticed

that the power transfer efficiency depreciates rapidly if the resonance based WPT

system is detuned from the driving resonance frequency for any misalignment

between the coils and presence of nearby metallic objects. But by allowing the

transmitting frequency to adapt with the position of the coils and metallic object, the

deteriorated power transfer efficiency can be improved further. Therefore, there is

need for designing an adaptive matching circuit with automated frequency agility to

maintain the optimum PTE of the resonance based WPT system for EV charging

under various usage scenarios.

In this chapter, an automatic frequency tuned wireless charging system is proposed

and successfully demonstrated to enhance the PTE for different vertical spacing,

horizontal offsets between the charging coils and the proximal metallic object. The

proposed system can be able to tune the operating frequency to the system resonant

frequency through which the power transfer efficiency has been improved. The

automatic frequency tuning solution will present better wireless power transfer

efficiency than the usual fixed frequency design.

 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

6.1. Experimental Demonstration of Automatic Frequency Tuning

Wireless Power Transfer System

The automatic frequency tuning process is illustrated schematically with block

diagram in Fig. 6.1. In order to evaluate the power transfer efficiency, the current and

voltage signals are screened at the input of the transmitter coil with the help of

voltage and current probes. At resonance, the obtained current will attain its

maximum value. A current to voltage (I-V) converter is used to convert the obtained

current signal to voltage signal and also to scale that voltage signal within the

dynamic range of the Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC). This signal along with the

signal from the voltage probe is fed to ADC. ADC converts the analog signals to

digital signals so that they can be processed by the Field Programmable Gate Array

(FPGA). FPGA controls the frequency of the transmitter signal. The phases of the

signals converted by the ADC are compared in the FPGA to check whether the

voltage signal and the current signal are in phase (as schematically represented in Fig.

6.2). If there is any phase difference between the signals, FPGA varies the frequency

of frequency synthesizer till the two signals are in phase. FPGA continuously

monitors the phase difference between the two signals and takes corrective action

whenever there is a variation. Thus this implementation ensures that the system is in

resonance irrespective of the environment in which the system operates. The power

amplifier amplifies the output of frequency synthesizer and the amplified output is

then given to the transmitting coil. The transmitted signal is received by the receiving

coil. The received signal is regulated before supplied to the battery. The battery state

of charge is also continuously monitored by the regulator.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

To EV Battery
Rectifier Filter Regulator

Rx coil

Tx coil
Current
and Power
voltage Amplifier
probe

I-V Frequency
ADC FPGA
Converter Synthesiser

Fig. 6.1: Schematic diagram of the process involved in the automatic frequency tuned system

for wireless battery charging of an electric vehicle.

Fig.6.2: Schematic representation of the in-phase wave form of the input current and voltage

signals at operating resonant frequency of the resonant WPT system.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

The method involved in the automatic frequency tuned wireless battery charging

system is explained through the flow chart as shown in Fig. 6.3.

Check for EV in
parking lot

Detect EV ID No

Yes

Initialize the
wireless charging
system with default
configuration

Is battery fully
charged

No

Sense real power

Is current
Yes
maximum

No

Tune frequency

Commence /
continue Charging

Fully charged ? No

Yes

Stop Charging

Fig.6.3: Flow chart of automatic frequency tuned system for wireless EV battery charging.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

The experimental setup of automatic frequency tuned resonant WPT system is

depicted in Fig. 6.4. The WPT system involves RF power source unit along with

frequency agile electronic circuits in the transmitter side, and receiving resonant coil

(Rx) along with the associated circuit. Both the transmitting coil (Tx) and receiving

coil (Rx) are of identical circular spiral structure having 24 number of turns with outer

radius of 15 cm, and 8 mm pitch. The strong magnetic field linking between the

resonating coils allows the power to be transferred efficiently at resonant frequency.

To demonstrate the proposed automatic tuning system in the presence of metallic

sheet, a metal copper sheet of (50 × 50 cm2) is used at a distance of 5 cm away from

the receiver system, as shown in Fig. 6.5.

Receiver coil

Transmitter coil

Frequency Agile Circuit

Load
with Power Source Unit

Fig.6.4: Experimental setup of automatic frequency tuning system for demonstration.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

Metal Sheet

Receiver coil

Transmitter coil

Load
Frequency Agile Circuit
with Power Source Unit

Fig.6.5: Demonstration of automatic frequency tuning system in presence of metallic sheet.

The proposed automatic frequency tuning system can be able to tune the operating

frequency so as to achieve maximum power transfer efficiency for different vertical

separation distance. The power transfer efficiency characteristics with respect to

vertical separation distance and the corresponding resonant frequency are illustrated in

Fig. 6.6. From the experiment, it has been observed that the operating resonant

frequency differs with different vertical spacing between the coils. It can be observed

that the power transfer efficiency is 88% for a fixed vertical separation distance of 12

cm with the corresponding resonant frequency 22.20 kHz while at the same operating

frequency at 10 cm vertical separation distance the power transfer efficiency reduces to

85.2%. But by tuning the frequency to its resonating frequency 21.57 kHz for 10 cm

vertical separation distance the power transfer efficiency is considerably improved

from 85.2% to 90% through the proposed automatic frequency tuning system. Hence

the proposed system can maintain an acceptable power transfer rate under non-ideal

wireless EV charging scenario having different ground clearances.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

100 100

Resonant frequency (kHz)

Power transfer efficiency (%)

80 80

60 60
Efficiency at resonance
Efficiency at 22.20 kHz
Tuned resonant frequency
40 40

20 20

4 8 12 16
Vertical spacing between coils (cm)

Fig.6.6: The power transfer efficiency characteristics with respect to vertical separation
distance and the corresponding resonant frequency.
Similarly, the proposed automatic frequency tuning system can be able to enhance the

power transfer efficiency for different horizontal offsets between the coils. The power

transfer efficiency characteristics corresponding to their resonant frequency with

horizontal offsets are shown in Fig. 6.7. It can be observed from the power transfer

efficiency that the power transfer efficiency is 88% for a fixed vertical distance of 12

cm with no offset (0 cm offset) and the corresponding resonant frequency is 22.20 kHz.

For a horizontal offset of 6 cm, the power transfer efficiency reduces to 70.16% for the

fixed operating frequency 22.20 kHz. But by tuning the frequency to its resonating

frequency of 25.10 kHz the power transfer efficiency is considerably improved from

70.16% to 78.2% through the proposed automatic frequency tuning system. Hence the

proposed automatic frequency tuning system can be able to mitigate the misalignment

effect between the coils leading to maximum power transfer efficiency under non-ideal

practical EV charging conditions.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

100 100
Power transfer efficiency (%)

Resonant frequency (kHz)

80 80

60 60

Efficiency at 22.20 kHz

Efficiency at resonance
40 Tuned Resonant frequency 40

20 20
0 4 8 12
Horizontal offset between coils (cm)

Fig.6.7: The power transfer efficiency characteristics corresponding to their resonant

frequency with horizontal offsets.

From the experiment, it has been observed that the operating resonant frequency varies

with the variation in physical spacing between the coils and also with the proximal

metallic sheet. The automatic frequency tunable system is implemented to

automatically tune the resonant frequency for which maximum efficiency can be

achieved. It is found that for a vertical spacing of 12 cm the efficiency reduces from 88%

to 64% at the operating resonant frequency 22.20 kHz in the presence of metal sheet

kept 5 cm away from the receiving coil. This result is represented in Fig. 6.8. Through

the proposed automated frequency tuning system the power transfer efficiency is

appreciably improved from 64% to 75.2% by tuning from the initial operating

frequency 22.20 kHz to the corresponding resonant frequency 23.10 kHz.

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 Chapter 6 Automatic Frequency Tuning System for Enrichment of Efficiency of
Wireless Power Transfer System for Electric Vehicle Charging

100 100

Operating frequency (kHz)

Power transfer efficiency (%)

80 80

60 Efficiency without metal sheet 60

Efficiency after tuning
Efficiency with metal sheet
Tuned resonant frequency
40 optimum operating frequency 40

20
20

0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Vertical spacing of coils (cm)
Fig.6.8: The power transfer efficiency characteristics corresponding to their resonant

frequency with the presence of metallic sheet.

6.2. Summary

In summary, an automatic frequency tuned wireless charging system is proposed and

successfully demonstrated to enhance the power transfer efficiency for different

vertical spacing between the charging coils in the presence of proximal metallic

object. The frequency characteristics of wireless power transfer efficiency have been

investigated through simulation and experimental measurements. It has been

observed that the resonance based wireless charging system is very sensitive to the

imperfect positioning of charging coils and nearby metallic object. Consequently, the

power transfer efficiency of the charging system reduces drastically. But by allowing

the transmitting frequency to adapt with the position of the coils and metallic object

through the automatic frequency tuned system, the deteriorated power transfer

efficiency is further improved.

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