Unplugged But Connected: Review of Contactless Energy Transfer Systems

The aim of this article is to review of power electronics-based CET systems. Various techniques are divided according to the medium used for energy transfer and are presented as (see Figure 1) acoustics-based CETs, light-based CETs, capacitive-based CETs, and the largest group, inductively coupled CETs. The basic principles and the latest developments in these techniques with a special focus on inductively coupled solutions are systematically described. The advantages and limitations are briefly examined, and the application field where each technique is particularly suited is indicated. Some oscillograms that illustrate properties of these discussed inductive CET techniques are shown.