An injection-locked wireless power transfer transmitter with automatic maximum efficiency tracking

Abstract

This article presents a closed-loop transmitter for wireless power transfer with automatic resonance frequency tracking to maintain high power transfer efficiency in the over-coupled region. The transmitter consists of a source oscillator, power amplifier (PA), PA driver, matching network, and feedback circuitry. By injecting the resonant output of coupled antenna coils into a source oscillator to form a positive feedback loop, the source oscillator is injection-locked and the closed-loop transmitter functions as a power oscillator with the oscillation frequency determined by the resonance of the coupled coils. The proposed resonant frequency tracking minimizes the change in the input impedance presented to the PA, and hence mitigates mismatch that causes a sharp drop in the PA efficiency of conventional transmitters. Implemented in 0.13 μm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) technology, the prototype maintains PA efficiency above 60% even at highly over-coupled spacings (10 mm), which is significantly below the critical coupling spacing (40 mm). Compared to a transmitter without feedback (i.e., running in open loop), the transfer efficiency at a coupling distance of 10 mm is improved by 6.6 times and the charging range with power transfer efficiency over 50% is also doubled.