Basic study of improving efficiency of wireless power transfer via magnetic resonance coupling based on impedance matching

Wireless power transfer is essential for the spread of Electric Vehicle(EV) usage as it provides a safe and convenient way to charge the EVs. Recently, a highly efficient mid-range wireless power transfer technology using electromagnetic resonance coupling, WiTricity, was proposed. Studies show that the resonant frequencies of the two antennas change according to the air gap in between the antennas. To achieve maximum efficiency using this system, the resonance frequencies of the antennas and the frequency of the system has to be matched. However, when this technology is applied in the MHz range (which allows small sized antennas), the usable frequency is bounded by the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical(ISM) band. Hence a method to fix the resonance frequency within the ISM band is required. In this paper, the possibility of using impedance matching (IM) networks to adjust the resonance frequency of a pair of antennas at a certain distance to 13.56MHz is studied. We studied the electrical characteristics of the antenna with equivalent circuits, electromagnetic analysis and experiments. The equivalent circuits are used as reference to calculate the parameters of the IM circuits. The simulations and experiments shows that the IM circuits can change the resonance frequency to 13.56MHz for different air gaps, thus improving the power transfer efficiency.