A parallel topology for inductive power transfer power supplies

High power Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) systems operate at power levels of 100kW or more. Existing high power IPT power supplies are mostly designed to operate at only a single power level and are expensive to make. This paper presents a novel parallel topology for IPT power supplies. This topology can achieve high output power in a cost effective manner and requires no extra reactive component for the parallelization. It can also minimize uneven power sharing due to component tolerance and achieve maximal operating efficiency. The parallel power supply can continue to operate in the event of a switch failure in one of the parallel units, thus maximizing the availability of IPT systems. The parallel topology has been verified on a 6kW prototype parallel power supply consisting of three identical 2kW single supplies.