2015

SWEAT - Sleeping
Wireless Energy-transfer
And Trickle charging
Building a coupled inductor
system for powering biomedical implants

S.L.J. Fondse
TU Delft
6/8/2015

Table of contents

Table of contents ...................................................................................................................................... i

Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... iv
1

Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1

1.1.1

The power demands of ExG circuits ................................................................................ 2

1.1.2

The problems of energy storage ..................................................................................... 3

1.1.3

The problems with energy transfer ................................................................................. 3

1.2

Problems with powering ExG circuits ...................................................................................... 2

Existing methods of wirelessly powering implants ................................................................. 4

1.2.1

Mechanical energy transfer............................................................................................. 4

1.2.2

EM field transfer .............................................................................................................. 5

1.3

The evaluated scenario ........................................................................................................... 6

1.4

Research goals ......................................................................................................................... 8

1.5

Thesis outline........................................................................................................................... 8

Analysis of the efficiency of EM-field and acoustic field energy transfer ..................................... 10
2.1

Defining the energy transfer methods .................................................................................. 10

2.2

Analysis of wave efficiency of EM-field and acoustic field energy transfer .......................... 10

2.2.1

Waves in a loss-free Medium ........................................................................................ 11

2.2.2

Reflections at media interfaces ..................................................................................... 13

2.2.3

Attenuation ................................................................................................................... 19

2.2.4

Absorption ..................................................................................................................... 22

2.2.5

Conclusions on wave-field efficiency ............................................................................ 23

2.3

Further thoughts on energy transfer efficiency .................................................................... 26

2.4

Narrowing down the energy transfer options....................................................................... 26

Circuit analysis of a magnetic transfer system .............................................................................. 28

3.1

Determining the coupling factor using the law of Biot-Savart .............................................. 28

3.2

Circuit analysis of two magnetically coupled inductors ........................................................ 33

3.2.1

Introduction ................................................................................................................... 33

3.2.2

A resistive load .............................................................................................................. 34

3.2.3

A capacitive load............................................................................................................ 37

3.2.4

The importance of resonance ....................................................................................... 37

3.2.5

The quality factor .......................................................................................................... 42

3.3

3.3.1

Comparing the two systems with respect to their power efficiency ............................ 47

3.3.2

Comparing the two systems with respect to output power ......................................... 50

3.4
4

Analysing the use of two extra resonators............................................................................ 47

Conclusions on coupled inductor circuit topology ................................................................ 53

The prototype circuit of two coupled inductors ........................................................................... 54

4.1

The secondary inductor ......................................................................................................... 54

4.2

The primary inductor ............................................................................................................. 56

4.3

Measurements of the coupled inductor system ................................................................... 57

4.4

Verification of the coupling factor equation ......................................................................... 60

4.5

Safety limits on the input power ........................................................................................... 62

4.6

The power limit of the prototype .......................................................................................... 63

The RF-Rectifier ............................................................................................................................. 66

5.1

Analysis of RF-boost rectifiers .............................................................................................. 66

5.1.1

The junction diode rectifier ........................................................................................... 67

5.1.2

Diode current analysis ................................................................................................... 69

5.1.3

Power analysis of a diode boost rectifier ...................................................................... 75

5.1.4

Possible alternatives to the use of a junction diode ..................................................... 77

5.2

A discrete rectifier realization ............................................................................................... 79

5.2.1

Topology questions ....................................................................................................... 79

5.2.2

The circuit layout ........................................................................................................... 82

5.3

Measurements and simulation results .................................................................................. 85

5.4

Conclusions on the analysis of RF-rectifiers .......................................................................... 91

Integration of the rectifier and coupled inductors........................................................................ 92

6.1

Matching the impedance of the rectifier with the inductors................................................ 92

6.2

Full system measurements .................................................................................................... 95

6.2.1

Measurement setup ...................................................................................................... 96

6.2.2

Final measurement results ............................................................................................ 96

Conclusions and recommendations ............................................................................................ 101

7.1

Conclusions.......................................................................................................................... 101

7.2

Scientific contributions ........................................................................................................ 103

7.3

Recommendations for future research ............................................................................... 104

Lists of figures, tables and equations .......................................................................................... 106

a.

List of figures ........................................................................................................................... 106

b.

List of tables............................................................................................................................. 109

ii

Bibliography................................................................................................................................. 110

10

List of symbols ......................................................................................................................... 116

11

Appendices .............................................................................................................................. 118

A.

Appendix A Derivation of the Magnetic field vectors in Section 2.2........................................ 118

B.

Appendix B - Used Matlab-Scripts Chapter 2 .............................................................................. 120

C.

Appendix C Used Matlab-Scripts Chapter 3 ............................................................................. 123

D.

Appendix D Verification of Figures used in Chapter 3 .............................................................. 129

Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................. 137

iii

Abstract
In a world of improving health care, some diseases are still very hard to diagnose. The most common
reasons for this problem is the fact that those diseases are non-symptomatic. To gain better
diagnoses of such illnesses long term ExG by using bio-medical implants is a good option. These
implants have to be powered by a wireless power link. This thesis analyses the possibilities for the
development of a wireless transfer system that can transfer at least 360 Wh of energy within six
hours through the air and into tissue tissue. After analysis of the influence of the environment on the
wave efficiency it is proven that resonant magnetic transfer is the best option for the given scenario.
13.56 MHz is chosen as operating frequency. Energy for the implant is needed at DC level, therefore
a rectifier layout is analysed, designed and built out of discrete parts. With the use of discrete
components and hand-made inductors, the final operating frequency became 17.50 MHz. The
laboratory equipment used restricted the maximum input voltage amplitude to 4.56 V. The final
result of this thesis is a prototype wireless energy transfer system that generates a maximum of 75.9
W of power continuously at a power efficiency of 10.1 percent at a distance of 15 mm. At a distance
of 75 mm, the maximum output power was still equal to 2 W. The power efficiency at 75 mm
distance is equal to 0.29 percent, which means that to generate 360 Wh within six hours the input
power must be at least 25.9 mW, a value that can easily be reached without causing damage to
human tissue or the system itself. This proves that magnetically coupled inductor systems can be
used for the future development of autonomous ExG implants.

iv

1 Introduction
In the past 50 years enormous advances in the medical science have increased the life expectancy of
men and women in large parts of the world. Examples are given in Figure 1-1.
90
80
70
60
Average
life expectency
(years)

1960

50

1980
40

2000

30

2011

20
10
0
Netherlands United States

India

Angola

Figure 1-1 - Average life expectancy of example countries from five continents.

Bolivia

Data gathered by [1].

One condition for long life is to be able to prevent and cure illness. However, to be able to cure a
patient, first it has to be known for sure that the patient is ill. Diagnosis of certain types of illness is
difficult, especially without special equipment. For example, certain types of heart arrhythmias can
happen without the patient feeling anything. These are called asymptomatic arrhythmias. Also some
types of brain illnesses have these problems as [2] claims that for some types of syncope, short
episodes of blackouts or fainting, 10 to 26 percent of the patients is never diagnosed. In most of the
cases, you will have to be able to see an episode of heart disease or the syncope itself happening in
order to know that the patient has that disease instead of a common case of the flue.
One way to properly diagnose patients with these types of illnesses, which also include strokes,
certain forms of epilepsy and other complaints linked to brain or nerve disorders, is to use a long
term ExG. ExG is the common name for the measurement of electrical fields inside the human body.
This means, that several electrodes are placed on the patient and the read-out is examined by a
doctor to determine the condition of the patient. Long term stands for a period up to several weeks.
As stated above, some illnesses occur sporadically and have to be caught in the act in order to
diagnose. Because at the moment many forms of ExG have to be made in hospitals, there is a
significant chance that during the measurement no illness pops up, and a patient can be declared
healthy, while in fact he is not. One way to prevent such a false negative is to monitor a patient for
longer periods of time. Researchers have been working to build implantable ExG circuits that can be
used for remote monitoring.

One condition for the use of implantable ExG, is that these circuits need to be powered. This chapter
will go further in the explanation of the power needs of such circuits, describe the scenario used in
this thesis as well as to describe the outline of this thesis.

1.1 Problems with powering ExG circuits

Research has gone a long way since the use of bloodletting to cure everything from headaches to
fevers. Depending on where the electrodes of ExG measurements are placed and the way in which
the signals are analyzed, it can be used to monitor things like the patients heart rate or the electrical
activity in the brain. This section will demonstrate the most important issues with powering such
circuits.
1.1.1

The power demands of ExG circuits

In order for the circuits to work properly the implants require a source of power. ExG implants
usually consist of three components. First there is the electrode for the measurement itself. Most of
these electrodes are passive, which means that they do not consume power. Secondly comes the
data processing and storage. These stages usually contain one or several ADCs as well as several
signal processors, for example to check brain activity for epileptic seizures. Many circuits are being
developed for all versions of ExG measurements. Examples can be found among others in [3], [4] and
[5]. What is also clear is that these circuits can be made to be low or ultra-low power with a
continuous power consumptions between 1 and 15 W. The third component of a ExG implant is a
transmitter that can send information to a base station in order to be examined by a physician. A
recent low power example can be found in [6]. These transmitters have the largest power
consumption of an ExG implant with power consumptions in the order of 1 to 10 mW during
transmission. A possibility to reduce the overall power consumption of an ExG implant is to either
use a very low duty cycle for the data transmission, or to use an event driven transmitter which is
only active if an episode of suspicious results is present. That way, the overall power usage of the
implant can be reduced. If the transmitter would be active less than one percent of the time, the
overall power consumption of the implant could be approximated by 15 W for this thesis. For a full
day of 24 hours, this would add up to a power demand of 360 Wh.

1.1.2

The problems of energy storage

In most cases, energy storage for implants is realized by a non-rechargeable battery. This method has
the main advantage that once the device has been implanted in the human body, the device is fully
autonomous. That means that there are no steps that have to be taken by the patient or doctors in
order to keep the device working. The biggest downfall of this type of device, is that once the battery
is depleted, the device stops working and in order to get it functioning again, the battery has to be
replaced. This requires curriery, because in order to keep the devices as small as possible, it is
necessary to replace not only the battery, but the entire device. This is the common practice with
pacemakers that combat heart arrhythmias [7].
Lately, improvements in energy storage technology have made it possible to reduce the size of the
energy storage of an implantable device. Those advances include the use of carbon nanotubes and
lithium to create high energy density (1116 mAh/cm-3) rechargeable batteries, being developed by
[8] or the development of super capacitors with high capacity per weight (196 F/g) and the ability to
be stretched and folded by [9]. These two examples show that there are still advances being made.
According to a report by [10], new nano energy storage materials will be a driving force for a growing
market in consumer goods, fabrication, as well as bio-medical products. In the case of low power
circuits, where the total energy reserve needs to be less than 1 mWh, the size of such a battery is not
the limiting factor in the development of biomedical ExG implants.

1.1.3

The problems with energy transfer

Energy for the implants can be transferred in many ways. The most efficient manner to transport
electrical energy from a source to the implant is to use a power cord. The only losses occurring in this
method are those from the impedance of the wires. This method is not viable for bio-medical
implants as it requires that the patient is hooked to a power source, which means that the patients
freedom of movement is impaired. An even bigger issue is that there must be a connection between
the electrical wires inside the human body and the outside. This means that there will be an open
wound where the wires will exit the skin. Not only would it be uncomfortable for the patient, it also
would increase the risk of infection. An infection could even cause the patient more harm than the
illness, especially if the ExG would result in a negative diagnosis.
Ideally the implant would be implanted with a minimally invasive procedure that would leave no
wounds or scars in the mid to long term. This means that the power needed to power the device for
its entire life span either needs to be integrated into the device, like in Section 1.1.2 , or the power
needs to be transferred wirelessly to the implant. This means that there will be losses due to the
distance between the patient and the transmitter. Also, because the implant is beneath the skin and
there could be other tissues between the skin and the implant, there will be attenuation of the signal
as well as reflections at the boundaries between the different tissues and the air.

The efficiency of energy transfer via a wireless connection is in the best case linear with distance. As
Section 2.2.1 will show, acoustic waves decay in a linear fashion as long as they are in a loss-free
medium. All other forms of wireless energy transfer have an inversely quadratic or even inversely
cubic relation with distance. Many forms of energy transfer require a surface area as large as
possible. In-vivo, the volume and area that can be used is limited.
So concluding this paragraph: The biggest issue in powering implantable ExG circuits lies not in the
power demands, nor the batteries, but in the transfer of power from a transmitter to the circuit. That
is why this thesis will concentrate on the analysis, design and built of a wireless energy transfer
system.

1.2 Existing methods of wirelessly powering implants

Scientist have developed several ways to power implants without the use of electrical wiring. This
section will present several examples of research into wireless energy transfer where the distinction
will be made between mechanical energy transfer and the use of electromagnetic waves.
1.2.1

Mechanical energy transfer

In the case of mechanical energy transfer, energy emitted from the transmitter is absorbed by
particles in the medium between transmitter and receiver. This energy is then transferred along the
particles of the medium in the form of motion energy until the motion energy reaches the receiver.
A good example of such methods of energy transfer is the use of ultrasound or in other words,
acoustic transfer. In this case a transducer is introducing vibrations in the molecules that contact it.
This energy then travels as a sound wave to the receiver transducer which transforms the vibration
energy back into electrical energy. Many researchers have already performed details studies on the
subject of acoustic transfer.
One big advantage claimed for acoustic energy is that the attenuation of sound waves through
tissues is low. As an example of a fully functioning prototype, [11] developed an oxygen generator
that can be used to shrink some types of tumors and is completely powered by a 2.15 MHz ultrasonic
system. After measurements both in a tissue surrogate water with predetermined conduction
levels as well as in real tissue, the resulting power efficiency was found to be around 0.1 percent at
tissue thicknesses of 10 centimeters. This can make this system useable for low power energy
transfer. However, in the example by [11] the transmitter was directly in contact with the tissue
surface. The effect of a possible air-gap is not mentioned.

1.2.2

EM field transfer

The counterpart of mechanical energy transfer is the use of an electromagnetic or EM wave. In this
section the different version of EM field transfer are discussed.
1.2.2.1 Basic principles

As stated, with EM field transfer, the energy is transferred via an electromagnetic wave. Every
current produces two types of electromagnetic energy, an electromagnetic field that is wrapped
around the source and a wave of energy that travels in a medium. EM field transfer can be broken
up into three sub-factions depending on the frequency of the EM field and the distance between the
transmitter and transmitter.

Radiating far-field transfer

With these types of energy transfer the energy carrier is a wave of energy consisting out of an
electric and magnetic field that are perpendicular to each other and to the waves direction of travel.
Several examples of this type of energy transfer are radio waves, infrared light, ultraviolet light and
radioactive gamma radiation.

Reactive near-field magnetic transfer

For this type of transfer the energy is stored in a magnetic field that is formed around any type of
material that carries an electrical current. It is essentially an electromagnetic wave that travels along
the conductor instead of radiating into space. This type of transfer has the advantage that at close
distances this method is very power efficient. Even the introduction of skin would not degrade the
performance by much, as [12] demonstrates with a system that can transfer 102 milliwatt of power
across a sample of skin at a total power efficiency of 50 percent. The receiver inductor was only 9,5
millimeters in diameter, although the precise distance between receiver and transmitter was not
specified.

Reactive near-field capacitive transfer

In this type of transfer there are two conductive surfaces facing each other. When charge is placed or
removed on one surface, the electrical field can attract or repel charge on the other surface. This
method is very effective at very close range. For example, [13] analyzes and builds a system that can
transfer 25 watts of power at a power efficiency higher than 80 percent. Again, the precise distance
is not specified, but according to the figures of [13], the distance can be assumed to be smaller than
one centimeter. At longer distances, the efficiency drops quite rapidly, because the capacitance
becomes smaller with distance.
More details on the efficiency and the losses occurring because of media properties and media
boundaries will be in Chapter 2.

1.2.2.2 RFID standards

Not every RF operating frequency is available for use in power transfer. This is because those
frequencies are used by, for example radio, avionics, mobile phone signals or security systems. There
are several frequency bands open for use, each given by so called standards.
The standard used in this thesis is the RFID standard. RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification.
[14] gives a summary of the frequencies that according to ISO can be used for EM energy transfer.

135 kHz
13.56 MHz
860-930 MHz
2.45 GHz
8.5 GHz

This means that for this thesis, one of those five frequency or frequency bands have to be used for
the energy transfer. The exact operating frequency can only be chosen, once the scenario for the
transfer of power is analyzed, which will be done in the next Section.

1.3 The evaluated scenario

If the amount of power that a wireless link can transfer between transmitter and receiver in a set
amount of time is limited, the only way to transfer large amounts of energy is to keep the link active
for a long amount of time. The boundary between a wireless power link and energy scavenging
becomes blurred. For a system to be effective, ideally the environment should remain constant
during the operating period. This would mean that the patient would have to remain almost
stationary for a period of several hours. This restricts the freedom of movement of the patient.
One possible way to have both a long charging period and a large amount of freedom for the patient
is to charge while the patient is asleep. Every living person should have at least between six and eight
hours of sleep a day. A system that would transfer energy from a transmitter into the implanted
device during the night hours would consist of a transmitter that is mounted close to or in the bed of
the patient. For example, in the case of a inductive link, the primary inductor coil can be integrated in
the matrass of the patients bed, just like in Figure 1-2.

Figure 1-2 - An example of how energy transmitters can be installed in a matrass.

Because the exact position of the patient relative to the primary inductor changes over night it is to
be assumed that people move during their sleep the use of multiple primary inductors could be the
best option. Even so, the chance will still be present that there is a so called air gap between the
transmitter and the skin surface of the patient. Secondly, the implant will be implanted beneath the
patients skin, and therefore, the energy will have to not only enter the skin it has to enter the tissue
beneath the skin as well.
For this thesis a model will be used in which the air gap will be equal to 5 cm. This can be a realistic
value if the transmitter would be in the center of the matrass. The effects of the matrass on the
energy transfer are neglected. After traveling through the air, the energy will have to pass through
the skin, the thickness of which will be set at 5 millimeters and finally the energy will have to pass
through the tissue beneath the skin, which for the example in this thesis will be two centimeters of
muscle tissue. The total distance of transmitter to receiver will be set at 75 millimeters.
As to the size restrictions for the receiving antenna, inductor or transducer; In several reports, for
example in [15] , it is reasoned that the receiver should not be larger than a 2-euro coin. This would
mean a radius not larger than 23 millimeters. The thickness should be no larger than three stacked
coins, which would mean a maximum thickness of 5 millimeters.
Also, because of the cost and time needed to fabricate the prototype circuit in CMOS, the prototype
of this thesis will be build using only discrete components. Because of parasitic impedances in these
components as well as in printed circuits boards, if we would use the Standards given in Section
1.2.2.2, the used frequency for a EM system is preferably 13.56 MHz. The consequences of using this
frequency will be presented in Chapters 4 and 5.

1.4 Research goals

This Thesis will focus on the design of a wireless power connection between two connections from
theoretical conception until realization of a prototype. After the method of wireless power transfer
is chosen, the thesis will analyze and design a prototype of both the power link itself and the rectifier
circuit needed to convert the transferred power to DC. Finally the link and the rectifier are integrated
to achieve a working prototype circuit. The main question will be if it is possible to transfer a given
amount of energy of 360 Wh within a set time period of six hours from the transmitter to the
transmitter given the conditions of section 1.3. This thesis will not address the creation of the input
signal. To summarize, in this thesis we will

Determine if the use of an acoustic transfer system is a viable option for the given
environment constraints.
Examine the effect of air and different tissues on magnetic and acoustic waves.
Combine the effects of media, free space losses, attenuation and absorption to get an
equation for the wave field efficiency.
Analyze a system of two coupled inductors at the system and circuit level.
Analyze the diode RF rectifier at the system and circuit level.
Construct a prototype of both a coupled inductor system as well as a diode rectifier to verify
equations made in the system analysis while only using discrete components.
Combine the rectifier and coupled inductors to construct a working wireless power transfer
system.
Measure the performance of the build prototype.

1.5 Thesis outline

With the goals of this thesis known, this section will illustrate the further outline and setup of this
thesis. First, in Chapter 2 the method of powering the implant will be determined by the comparison
of the wave efficiency of EM fields and acoustic fields. In order to do so, several aspects of the
design scenario will be addressed, including free-space losses, attenuation and the effect of media
boundaries. It will be determined that a system of magnetically coupled inductors is most efficient.
In Chapter 3 the system chosen in Chapter 2 will be analyzed at system and circuit level. The
efficiency of the system will be determined as a function of the components used as well as the ideal
position of those components. Furthermore, the use of additional resonators to achieve higher
efficiency and output power, will be analyzed.
Chapter 4 will introduce the construction of two inductors as well as the additional components to
verify equations made for the system efficiency and finally the most efficient set-up for the
prototype will be determined. The effect of the simplification in the inductor design as well as
component mismatch will be addressed, to explain the difference in performance between an ideal
system and the built prototype.

As the power from an inductive link is not at DC level, a rectifier circuit is needed to convert the
power from the inductive link to DC. Chapter 5 presents a circuit analysis of a diode RF rectifier. After
the initial analysis, a prototype is build using discrete components. The prototype rectifier is then
analyzed to determine the overall efficiency and output power at given input voltages.
Chapter 6 will illustrate the steps needed to integrate the rectifier from Chapter 5 with the system of
coupled inductors from Chapter 4 . Once the integration of both circuits is made, final measurements
will determine the performances of the prototype made for this thesis as well as the answering the
question whether the goals of the thesis are reached as well as the reason why.
Finally in Chapter 7 the final conclusions are drawn and discussed as well as the scientific
contributions made by this thesis and the recommendations for further investigations in wireless
energy transfer.

2 Analysis of the efficiency of EM-field and acoustic

field energy transfer
The goal of this thesis is to design a system that is capable of transmitting power from a transmitter
to a receiver over a set distance. A good place to start the creation of a wireless power transfer
system is to discuss the feasibility of such a system. In order to do this, this chapter discusses the
differences of several energy transfer methods, and using wave field analysis, an estimation of the
efficiency of such a system is made.

2.1 Defining the energy transfer methods

Before any conclusions can be made about the feasibility of a wireless energy transfer system, some
clear distinctions have to be made about the method that is used to transmit the power from charge
point to receiver. In the case of this thesis only two types of energy transfer will be discussed.
Electromagnetic field transfer and acoustic field transfer. Wired forms of transferring energy are not
discussed, because they require the existence of a connection between the transmitter and receiver,
limiting the movement options of any patient who would have such a system. Also, wires that need
to enter the body of the patient increase the risk of infections, because there will always be a hole in
the skin of the patient for the wire. Energy transfer methods that use optics or ionizing radiation are
still in this analysis, because they are all forms of EM-field transfer.
In this chapter a distinction is made between acoustic and EM-field transfer, as the method of energy
transfer is very different. With EM-field photons or a wave are moved from transmitter to receiver,
whereas with acoustics, a mechanical wave of energy is moved from transmitter to receiver using the
kinetic energy of the media particles.
In the analysis a spherical coordinate system is used. This is because most wireless energy systems
radiate in all directions and in that case, when there is no directivity, at a set distance r the total
amount of energy radiated by the source is independent of the angles with respect of the X, Y and ZAxis. This is because the energy is radiated equally in all directions. In the case the directivity is not
equal to zero, the received power will be dependent on the angles and . Appendix A will give
information about the coordinate transformation between the Carthesian and spherical coordinate
system.

2.2 Analysis of wave efficiency of EM-field and acoustic field energy

transfer
This section will be used to give an approximation of the field efficiency of both EM and acoustic
fields. In other words, how much of the field intensity reach the receiving end of the system,
compared to that being transmitted on the transmitting side. This approximation will include the
effects of free-space loss, material attenuation and boundaries between materials.

10

2.2.1

Waves in a loss-free Medium

In this section we want to discuss the physics behind both types of waves in a media that has no
losses. In the case of an EM-wave we will look at vacuum and in the case of sound waves I chose a
loss-free medium (a gas with no sound wave attenuation). In this paragraph we will only consider at
the wave-propagation itself without looking at the mediums the wave will be propagating through.
The effects of the medium will be addressed in the next sections. The transmitter and receiver will be
ideal and the distance between transmitter and receiver will be 7.5 centimetres, as discussed in
Section 1.3.
EM-Field
In this section the equations for the EM Field in a loss-free environment are given. For the
electromagnetic versions of energy transfer we could consider a magnetically coupled system
working at a frequency between 10 kHz and 1 GHz. This covers all of the most likely frequencies at
which this system will be made to work, as it will use a frequency given by the RFID standards.
Looking at the standards for RFID, there are several frequencies and frequency bands that can be
used, for example 135 kHz, 13.56 MHz and 860-930 MHz [14]. There are two other frequencies
available for RFID at 2.45 and 5.8 GHz respectively, but because the realization will be in discrete
parts, these frequencies will be considered to be too high.

With the help of [16] it is possible to calculate the different electric and magnetic field components
for an inductor with radius equal to a, a current running through the inductor equal to , at a
distance away from the centre of the inductor and being the wave number, further explained in
Equation (7). The derivations for the six components, being radial (Er, Hr), (E, H) ,and (E,H),
can be found in Appendix A. The six components can be found as the underlying equations.

1+

(1)

11

=
!

1+

1+

(2)
1

(3)

! =0
(4)
=
0

In Equations (1)-(4), is the complex characteristic impedance of the material, defined as Equation
(5), with % being the radial frequency of the EM-wave, the magnetic permeability, '( the electrical
permittivity and ) the conductivity of the medium.
,

%*
(5)
=
) + %+(
Now the following assumptions are taken: the receiver is in direct alignment with the transmitter,
such that equals zero, and the conductivity of the material is considered to be very small. This has
as a consequence that both and ! vanish and only
remains with

4
= - = 102 = 14,635 6 7
+
8.854

(6)

for = 10 kHz we use Equation (143) from Appendix A to get Equation (7).
:
, = 2,10 10 < = 7 ,
(7)
89 = 2 10 ;4 8.854 10

To get the value of

,

Because

<< 1, Equation (2) simplifies to Equation (8).

=

(8)

Which gives a field that is inversely cubic with distance. For a frequency of 1 GHz it is a different
story. Again applying Equation (143) we have
@
, = 2,10 = 7 ,
(9)
, 89 = 2 10 ;4 8.854 10

Now kr >> 1, so now Equation (2) can be approximated by Equation (10)

=

(10)

Equation (10) states that the field in this region is inversely quadratic with distance. What is
important to see, is this factor . In the case of Equation (8), << 1, which means that the field is
cubic. The factor k determines the ratio between radiating and reactive field strength.

12

Sound waves
Because sound cannot exist in vacuum, the equation cannot be as simple as for EM waves. The sound
wave source is depicted by a moving piston in an infinite plane as shown in Figure 2-1.

In [17] this is used to model the pressure ABC at a distance from the piston on a surface dS as
Equation (11).
%A F GH
(11)
DAEC =
2
Here p0 is the density of the medium, F is the peak value of the speed of the wave and is the
angular velocity just like with the EM-field. In order to get the pressure across a surface I Equation
(11) has to be integrated across this surface, which gives Equation (12).
Figure 2-1- a sketch of the piston and integrating surface.

%A F
A =
2

GH

NO

[17]

JJ

K DK D L

In Equation (12) the value of r is given by Equation (13).

= P

+Q +2

(12)

(13)

Comparison
When comparing Equation (2) with Equation (12) giving the magnetic and pressure field strength it
can be concluded that the sound wave system has lower free-space losses. This means the EM-wave
in free space will fade away faster than a sound wave would in a loss free medium.
2.2.2

Reflections at media interfaces

The way from the transmitter to the receiver is not homogeneous nor loss-free. It consist of several
different materials each having their own electrical conductance, permeability and acoustic
impedance. Not only do the waves react differently in each medium, it is also known that at the
boundary of each medium a part of the energy is not transmitted into the next medium but is
reflected or absorbed. To estimate the wave efficiency, first the transmission coefficient has to be
calculated.
,
R =1Q =1S
(14)
S
,+
As Equation (14) shows, the transmission coefficient is defined as 1 minus the reflection coefficient.
The reflection coefficient is defined as the absolute value of the difference between the impedance
of the two media divided by their sum. Equation (14) is the same for each type of traveling wave.

13

Because sound is a type of pressure wave this is also a wave and the equation holds. It does not
matter if Z1,Z2 is specific, characteristic or the magnitude of an impedance, as long as both Z1 and Z2
have the same unit, such that R and T are dimensionless.

Air at atmospheric pressure

T = 25 C

5 cm

Dry skin
T = 37 C

Muscle
T = 37 C

0,5 cm

2 cm

Figure 2-2 - A simple model to determine the attenuation and transmission values.

5 cm
0,5 cm
2 cm
7,5 cm

xair
xskin
xmuscle
R
Table 2-1 - Distance information for the example

In Figure 2-2

When traveling across 2 media for example according to Figure 2-2 with distances according to Table
2-1 and assuming that all the reflected waves from air to skin vanish the total transmissioncoefficient can be calculated by Equation (15).
RNT

(VKWXY

= RNT

K TZ

RK

TZ(VKWXY

[ QKZ TZ(VKWXY QKZ TZNT

Z

(15)

In a first order approximation of Equation (15) the total transmission-coefficient from air to muscle
simplifies to Equation (16).
(16)
RNT (VKWXY = RNT K TZ RK TZ(VKWXY (1 + QK TZ(VKWXY QK TZNT )
Sound waves

In this thesis the value of the specific acoustic impedance will be used, because of the fact that it can
be easily calculated by using Equation (17).
(17)
= A K\VZ]

The specific acoustic impedance is nothing else than the medium density multiplied by the sound
wave velocity through the medium. In the case of air at 25 C the density equals 1,18 kgm-3 and the
speed of sound equals 346 ms-1 which gives a specific acoustic impedance of 4,00x103 N/sm2.
Important to see is the change of unit from kg to N via the gravitational constant g. In this thesis a
value of 9,81 is used.
In Appendix A from [18] , which itself is combined from work done by [19], [20], [21], [22] and [23] ,
H. Azari gives a nice overview of the sound properties of living tissues. These measurements are an
approximation of the real values, but can be used in a simple comparison. The article refers to
articles about ultrasound (frequencies above 20 kHz) and looking into the dependency of the
attenuation as compared to the frequency we can assume that for frequencies between 15 and 50
kHz these values hold. For higher frequencies this may not be the case.

14

The information is displayed in Table 2-2. It is important to see that the values are in kg/(sec*m2), so
this has to be multiplied by the gravitational constant g in order to get N/(sec*m2). This calculation is
also shown in the table. This shows the values from the tissues that are most likely to seen by the
wireless transfer system. Another important assumption in [18] is that the specific acoustic
impedance of tissues is assumed to be independent of the frequency of the sound wave.
Tissue

Specific Acoustic impedance Specific

Acoustic
2
2
(kg/(sec*m )
impedance(N/(sec*m )
Water
1,48*106
1,47*107
6
Blood
1,66*10
1,63*107
Fat
1,39*106
1.36*107
Liver
1,69*106
1,66*107
6
Kidney
1,65*10
1,62*107
Muscle (along the fibers)
1,68*106
1,65*107
Muscle (across the fibers)
1,69*106
1,66*107
6
Skin
1,99*10
1,95*107
Bone axial (longitudinal waves) 7,75*106
7,60*107
6
Bone axial (sheer waves)
5,32*10
5,20*107
Table 2-2 - specific acoustic impedances of several types of tissue,

[18]

When evaluating the values of the impedances of the 3 mediums and inserting them into Equations
(14) and (16), the values for the transmission coefficient for sound waves is found as shown in Table
2-3.
Tair->skin
4,10*10-4

Tskin->muscle
0,910

Tair->muscle, see Eq. (16)

4,07*10-4

Table 2-3 - transmission-coefficients between air and skin and between skin an muscle.

When looking at the properties of the three media given in my example it is clear that the transition
from skin to muscle tissue the transmission-coefficient is about 91 %. This is really good and shows
that acoustic energy transfers through the body quite efficiently. The transition from air to skin
however shows big problems. This is because of the fact that the acoustic impedance of air is in the
order of 103 whereas the acoustic impedance of tissues is in the order of 107. This resulting large
difference gives a transmission coefficient in the order of 10-4. This makes it much more difficult to
create a system that transfers energy efficiently.
EM waves the radiating field.
As Equation (2) shows, the magnetic field of a loop antenna has both a radiating and a reactive
component. The radiating component suffers from reflection at the media boundaries. The reactive
component has a strength that is linear with the magnetic permeability. According to [24] living
tissue has approximately the same magnetic permeability as vacuum, as shown in Equation (18).
tissue = 0 = 4*10-7 Am-1 or 4*10-9 Acm-1

(18)

This means that the reactive field component of a magnetic field can be assumed to have a transfer
coefficient of 1. For the radiating field component this is not the case, and the full impedance has to
be calculated. According to [25], in air the value of ) ranges from 0,295 to 0,8*10-16 Scm-1. This
means that Equation (5) for the characteristic impedance simplifies to Equation (19).

15

*
= - = 367,8 6
'

(19)

By using information found in [26] M. van Dongen created a Matlab script to estimate the values of
relative permittivity and conductivity for tissues. This Matlab-script can be found in Appendix B and
was kindly provided by M. van Dongen . These values are given in Figure 2-3, Figure 2-4 and Figure
2-5. Notice the difference between dry and wet skin. For the example given in the text the values of
wet skin will be used. Wet skin can be seen as a slightly sweaty skin.

Figure 2-3 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of muscle tissue.

16

Figure 2-4 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of dry skin.

Figure 2-5 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of wet skin.

With the values of relative permittivity and conductivity it is possible to estimate the characteristic
impedance of tissues. The Matlab script used for this is given in Appendix B. Because the
characteristic impedance is a complex value, for the use in reflection and transmission coefficients,
the magnitude of the impedance is used. Figure 2-6 shows the magnitude of the characteristic
impedances of muscle tissue, dry and wet skin, as a function of frequency.

17

Figure 2-6 - Magnitude of Z0 for different tissue types.

With the information of Figure 2-6 and Equations (14) and (16) it becomes possible to estimate the
radiating EM-field transfer coefficient from air into skin, with a given skin thickness of 5 mm. The
result is shown in Figure 2-7.

Figure 2-7 - transfer coefficient from air through dry skin to muscle tissue with d_skin = 5 mm and without considering
losses through attenuation inside the skin.

18

What Figure 2-7 shows is that the transmission coefficient for radiating EM waves becomes better as
the frequency increases and has a maximum around 3.7 GHz. What can be concluded is that this type
of EM transmission from air through the skin is minimal at low frequencies but becomes possible at
higher frequencies. If these results are compared with those from Table 2-3, it is seen that the
radiating efficiency of EM fields are higher than those from acoustic fields, and with the assumption
that the reactive component does not suffer from reflections we can conclude that EM fields perform
much better in this respect. Instead of the H-field analysis done in this thesis, it is also possible to do
a power vector S analysis. The results of such an analysis can be found in [27] for example. The
results are in line with the results of this thesis.

2.2.3

Attenuation

Attenuation is a term that stands for the total loss of a wave propagating through a medium. This
can be represented by an attenuation coefficient _. For each wave Equation (20) holds
(20)
`\ (a) = `T bc
Where ` is the wave at a point x cm away and `T is the incoming wave. This is valid for both sound
as EM-waves. In this paper we will represent the attenuation of a wave inside a medium as Equation
(21).
` (a)
(21)
d(Y]TV( (_, a) =
= befghiec
` (0)
It needs to be mentioned that the medium not only modulates the amplitude of the wave, but it also
induces a phase shift in the wave. For this simple model this phase shift will not be taken into
account, as the only interest is in the amplitude.
EM-fields
Again, a reactive field does not suffer from attenuation, because of the fact that it is not a moving
wave. It does suffer from absorption though. This will be addressed in the next paragraph. For now,
only the radiating component of the magnetic field in the form of the EM wave is analysed. For an
EM wave the value of can be determined by Equation (22).
_ = %P

*+(
)
)
j-1 + k l 1m =
j-1 + k l 1m
2
+(
+(
2

(22)

In the case of air, the low value of which is in the order of 10-16 cm, resulting in Equation (23) for
dry air and Equation (24) for humid air.
(23)
= 2 p 5,58 10 ,< 7 ,
,:
,
(24)
= 2 p 1,51 10 7
The use of Equation (23) results in an attenuation factor of 3,49*10-5 cm-1 at 1GHz.
The attenuation coefficients of tissue can be determined by using information from [26] . By altering
the Matlab script originally made by M. van Dongen, the following attenuation factors can be
determined, as displayed in Figure 2-7 to Figure 2-9. The scripts can again be found in Appendix B.

19

Figure 2-8 EM attenuation of muscle-tissue

Figure 2-9 EM attenuation of dry skin

20

Figure 2-10 EM-Attenuation of wet skin

Sound waves
Sound waves have a similar attenuation factor. As the value has a strong non-linear dependency on
frequency. When looking at the international standard ISO 9613-1 found in [28], it becomes apparent
that the equation for the calculation of the attenuation factor is a complex computation involving
frequency, barometric pressure, temperature and humidity. This makes sense, because the amount
at which a sound wave gets absorbed or scattered is dependent on the amount of particles it will
come across when traveling through a medium. All of the named factors have a relation on that
amount. The investigations of [29] do not only show the dependency of the attenuation factor on
humidity and temperature. A part of Figure 3 in [29] show the dependency of the attenuation factor
on temperature at different humidity levels at 50 kHz and 1 MHz, respectively.
When the values of the pressure, temperature and humidity are given, it becomes possible to
calculate the attenuation factor of air, shown in Table 2-4.

Air attenuation
Air attenuation factor

at = 10 kHz [30]
190 dBkm = 1.9*10-3 dBcm
4.37*10-4 cm-1

at = 1 MHz [30]
163 dBm = 1,63 dBcm =1,46 cm-1

Table 2-4 - Sound attenuation factor of air.

The model that [18] uses to represent the sound attenuation factor in tissues is given by Equation
(25).
Dr
(25)
_ = ` pq
7 su

21

Important to see is that the values in the Appendix of [18] have to be converted to a numerical value.
Also, it is assumed that, if the values of A and B are not specified, the value of the attenuation factor
is linear with frequency. These values are therefore converted to the values in Table 2-5.
at = 10 kHz
at = 1 MHz
at = 1 GHz
Muscle (across the fibers)
1.35*10-5 cm-1
1.35*10-3 cm-1
1.35 cm-1
Muscle (along the fibers)
2.14*10-5 cm-1
2.14*10-3 cm-1
2.14 cm-1
-5
-1
-3
-1
Skin
1.66*10 cm
1.66*10 cm
1.66 cm-1
Table 2-5 - calculated sound attenuation factors of muscle and skin.

2.2.4

Absorption

Instead of attenuation, a reactive electro-magnetic field suffers from absorption. At the media
interfaces of different media and also inside the media themselves, the magnetic field induces
currents inside the media, which induce heating and because of the preservation of energy, the wave
itself becomes weaker. The amount of energy that is absorbed into a material and transformed into
heat is called the Specific Absorption Rate. This SAR is a function of media properties as well as the
square of the field intensity. For higher frequencies, above 300 MHz, [31] derived approximation
Equation (26) for the SAR that occurs at the boundary between two different lossy media.

)
*%
(1 + W\ Q, )
v ) + ' %
Where the correction factor is given by Equation (27).
I`Q =

(26)

Q, D
(27)
l
2 0.08 w
Equation (26) has been tested for frequencies of 300 MHz and higher and has been proven to be
reliable and quite accurate with errors less than 3 dB. What is interesting about this equation is its
dependency on the right angle magnetic field Hr, or better, its dependency on the square of this
value. This means that for very weak magnetic fields, the SAR becomes very small.
W\

Measurements presented in [32] show the SAR of several body organs at a frequency of 64 MHz with
a current of 1 A running through their power coil. The average SAR over the whole body is taken to
be 0.14 W/kg. [32] also concludes that in the frequency range between 64 and 170 MHz have an
almost linear dependency on frequency. In the case of an RFID frequency of 13.56 MHz this would
mean that the value of SAR would be around 0,030 W/kg. If we assume that the SAR will still have a
quadratic dependency on field strength this means that if we would have a field strength of 1 A/m =
0.01 A/cm close to the coil, at a distance of 5 cm, we would be left with a field of only 8.0*10-5 A/cm.
Under the assumption that Equation (26) would still be reasonably accurate, it is possible to replace
Hr at a distance d by Hr0/d3. If this replacement is made, the SAR takes on the form of the underlying
equation.
)
*%
(D)
I`Q(D) = (D)
(D) (1 + W\ Q, )
v
) + ' %
)
*%
= (D)
(D) (1 + W\ Q, ) x y z
v
D
) + ' %

(28)

22

What can be concluded from Equation (28), is that at the system proposed for this thesis with a low
power output, far below 1 W, the SAR values quickly become negligible. Because of this, to a first
approximation we neglect the loss from absorption in the reactive field.

2.2.5

Conclusions on wave-field efficiency

With all the values of the different loss effects that have been computed in Sub-Sections 2.2.1 to
2.2.4 it is possible to make an approximation of the efficiency of the wireless transfer systems. By
combining Equations (2), (12), (14) and (21) and expanding Equation (16) for the damping of the
reflecting signal inside the skin, it is possible to get Equation (29).
{ =

= k

r YWYT|Y
rH }ZK(THHY

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

= k

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

Z
[ dKZ TZ QNT
Z,

l dNT RN

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

l dNT RNT

dK

TZ

K TZ

+ dK

l dNT dK
1 + dK

= k

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

TZ

TZ

TZ

,
K TZ

RK

QNT

RNT

QNT

K TZ

RK

TZ(VKWXY

,
QKZ TZ(VKWXY

TZ(VKWXY
K

1
d(VKWXY
TZ QK TZ(VKWXY
2 aK( TZ

K TZ

K TZ

l dNT dK

1
d(VKWXY
2 aK( TZ

RK

QK
TZ

TZ(VKWXY

TZ(VKWXY

{H

NZY

(29)

1
d(VKWXY
2 aK( TZ

d(VKWXY

For simplicity, in this thesis, the distance KYZ]Y from which the field will be compared to for
efficiency, will be set to 1. The distance YWYT|Y is equal to the total distance between the middle of
the wave source and the receiving point. Furthermore In this Equation 7 is equal to the factor that
determines the dependency of the loss-free wave on distance. For a sound wave the factor is 1, for a
radiating EM wave this factor is 2, and for the reactive EM-wave this factor is equal to 3.
Magnetic transfer
Because of the fact that sound waves behave differently than magnetic fields both get a different
equation for their wave efficiency. In the case of EM fields it is assumed that the magnetic field
consists of both a radiating and a reactive component, where the radiating component is times
larger than the reactive component. For the value of , see Equation (142) on page 119. If it is then
taken into account that our system is linear it is assumed that both signals are independent of each
other and that means that the efficiencies of both types of fields can be combine and Equation (30)
can be used for an estimation of the magnetic field efficiency.
{(NZYHTW = k

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

l dNT dK

TZ {H

NZY

d(VKWXY + k

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

(30)

23

Together with all the gathered information from Table 2-1 as well as the previous sections, this
equation can be plotted with respect to the operating frequency. This is shown in Figure 2-11.

Figure 2-11 - Magnetic field efficiency as a function of frequency.

What can be seen, is that at roughly at frequencies below 100 MHz, the wave efficiency is
approximately equal to 0,0024. Only at higher frequencies we see the influence of the radiating field
components. Also, we have not taken into account the effect of SAR at high frequencies, because the
exact field strengths are still unknown. Table 2-6 is a summation of the different effects that
influence the wave efficiency. Again, the wave efficiency does not seem to be frequency dependent
because of the very low efficiency for radiating EM-waves.
EM field transfer
Frequency
10 kHz
1 GHz
air
3.51*10-10 cm-1
3.51*10-5 cm-1
qair
1.000
1.000
|Zair|
377
377
|Zskin|
1.99
56.7
|Zmuscle|
4.81 m
0.90
-5
Tair->skin
1.27*10
4.76*10-3
dryskin
7,12*10-5 cm-1
4,72*10-3 cm-1
qdryskin
1,00
0,997
Tskin->muscle
4,82*10-4
0,0313
-4
transfer
1,45*10
5.03*10-3
muscle
2.91*10-3 cm-1
4.93*10-3 cm-1
qmuscle
0,994
0.990
reactive
.00237
radiant
1,26*10-6
8,28*10-5

0.00237
0.00238
Table 2-6 - Summation of the efficiencies of a proposed EM-based wireless energy system.

24

Acoustic transfer
A similar summary can be made for acoustic field transfer. Equation (12) shows that the free space
loss is linear with distance. This means that Equation (29) transforms into Equation (31). Again,
KYZ]Y will be considered to be 1Because of the large acoustic damping of air at high frequencies
and the resulting low dNT , 1 MHz will be used as the highest frequency instead of 1 GHz. It will be
assumed that the sound-waves travel perpendicular to the skin surface and that the muscles are
running parallel underneath the skin. This means that the sound wave has to propagate across the
muscle fibres.
{NW\VKHTW =

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

dNT dK

TZ

{H

NZY

d(VKWXY

(31)

So by using information from Table 2-3, Table 2-4 and Table 2-5 as well as Equation (31), Table 2-7
can be derived.
acoustic field transfer
Frequency
10 kHz
1 MHz
air
4.37*10-4 cm-1
1,46 cm-1
qair
0.998
6.76*10-4
|Zair|
4.00*103
|Zskin|
1.95*107
|Zmuscle|
1.66*107
Tair->skin
4.10*10-4
skin
1.66*10-5 cm-1
1.66*10-3 cm-1
qskin
1.000
0.999
Tskin->muscle
0.91
transfer
4.07*10-4
4.07*10-4
muscle (across the fibres)
1.35*10-5 cm-1
1.35*10-3 cm-1
qmuscle
1.000
.997

0.133

4.06*10-4

3.65*10-8

Table 2-7 - Summation of the efficiency of a proposed sound based wireless energy system.

When looking at Table 2-7 the feasibility of a wire-less system using sound to propagate energy is
very low. At the lower frequencies the low transfer of sound waves from air to tissue is the biggest
problem. For the very high frequencies, the attenuation of the air becomes too large.
Concluding, from Table 2-6 and Table 2-7 it is impossible to construct either an EM-field or sound
propagation system with the dimensions of Figure 2-2 that is able to have an efficiency that is higher
than 0,5%. In order to get higher efficiencies it is essential that some problems are overcome. What
can be concluded is that for a system to transfer the energy from point A to B an acoustic system is
performing the best at low frequencies (10-30 kHz range). The only problem for this system is the
transfer between the air and the skin. When we would be able to create a system that would transfer
energy from the air to the skin at an efficiency of 50% it would already give a total theoretical
efficiency of 6,7%. Because the creation of such a transducer would fall outside the scope of
expertize for this thesis, a magnetically coupled system would be the better system to use.

25

2.3 Further thoughts on energy transfer efficiency

Equation (29) considers the effect of field attenuation, transmission at both interfaces and the effect
of radial distance for each field. Of course this is still an optimistic approximation of the efficiency,
because in this reasoning it is assumed that both the transmitter and receiver are ideal and
transform 100% of all their input energy into either EM field or electrical power.
In real life those conversions are not lossfree, which means that Equation (29) can be expanded
further with the efficiency of the transmitter and receiver.
{ k

KYZ]Y

YWYT|Y

l dNT dK

TZ

{H

NZY

d(VKWXY {KYZ]Y {

YWYT|Y

(32)

Equation (32) shows a possibility to include a non-perfect transmitter and receiver to the
transmission system. Except for the efficiencies of the transmitter and transmitter it also considered
what the total effect of misalignment is. Not only does it affect the propagation of the energy in a
loss-free medium, it also has an effect on the transmission coefficient because there can be further
scattering at the media interfaces. It has to be said that the problem of misalignment can be
overcome by using multiple transmitters that would create more of a line source instead of a point
source. This can be investigated further.

2.4 Narrowing down the energy transfer options

What can be concluded from Section 2.2 is that an acoustic system is not a viable option for the
system that is being developed in this thesis. The reason is that there is too much loss at the
boundary between skin and air.
So the option that remains is EM field transfer. There are many different methods of transferring
energy, which all use the principles of EM field. There is near- and far-field magnetically coupled
systems, there are capacitively coupled systems. Also, optical links can be used for transferring
power, as well as ionizing radiation. This section will narrow down the options for the system that
will be used in the rest of this thesis.
Why is capacitive coupling not a practical option for the transmission of energy over a distance of
several centimeters? The reason lies in the way that the capacitive link behaves in a circuit. A
capacitive link behaves like a capacitor between the input and output, where the input and output
plate are the plates of the equivalent capacitor. In the case of a full link and a small load, the
equivalent input impedance of the circuit is the series connection of two capacitors, each capacitor
having a capacitance equal to Equation (33) where ` is the surface area of the plates in m2, D is the
distance between the plates in m, and ' is the electrical permeability of the material between the
plates, which in the case of air can be presumed to be equal to 0.

`
(33)
D
In the case of a link where the surface area of the plates is equal to 2,5 cm2, the distance between
the plates is 7,5 cm and the medium between the plates is air, the equivalent capacitance is equal to
29,5 fF. The impedance that a signal through this capacitance sees is equal to 1 2 , where is
the operating frequency.
= '

26

For an operating frequency of 13,56 MHz the equivalent impedance of a single capacitance would be
equal to 398 k. Because in a capacitive link there are 2 capacitors in series when the system is seen
as a current loop, the impedance of the link would be double the calculated value, so 796 k. If we
would now have a load resistance of 100 k, the voltage across the load resistance would be equal to
Equation (34), and the output power can be estimated by Equation (35).
QX\N]
XTZ + QX\N]
X\N]
=
QX\N]

X\N] = TZ
X\N]

(34)
(35)

If the input voltage were 5 volt, the maximum output power would be equal to 3,1 W. In the case of
optimal load which has both its real and imaginary parts matched, the output power would be equal
to 7,85 W. What needs to be mentioned is that the estimation if the capacitance gives an
overestimation of the true value. If the value of EM field efficiency of the proposed system is
calculated in more detail, it can be seen that the capacitance could be a much as a factor 100 smaller
than the value calculated by Equation (33). This is because the real capacitors would not consist of
two perfectly flat surfaces. The material between the plates was considered as lossfree, whereas
Sub-Sections 2.2.3 and 2.2.4 have shown that even normal air gives attenuation and absorption.
Lastly, there can be other materials between the plates, for example skin. This could lead to field
reflections as well as absorption. If the capacitance would drop by a factor of 100, the output power
would reduce by a factor of 100 as well. This means that this system is not effective for a medium
range power transfer system .
A system using ionizing radiation, optics or an infrared/ultraviolet light have other disadvantages. As
shown in Section 2.2.5 about EM-field analysis, the efficiency of a radiating system can be larger than
that of a near-field reactive system. The disadvantages of such a system are the fact that for higher
frequencies the absorption by the skin is increasing. Because of this, the amount of power that such
a system can transfer is limited by safety restrictions, because ionizing radiation damages tissue. In
the case of visible light, the skin and tissue provide a barrier that will not pass the light . Because the
human body reflects visible light, this is also not an option for an energy transfer system. Ultra-violet
radiation damages the skin and infra-red radiation may be an option, but higher radiation intensity
would again damage the human body. The two options that are left from EM-field transfer are those
of the magnetically coupled system. This can either be in the near-field or the far-field regime. In the
next chapter the system topology will be analyzed to see which of those two options will be chosen.

27

3 Circuit analysis of a magnetic transfer system

After looking at the transfer of the electromagnetic field as well as an acoustic field between the
transmitter and receiver of a wireless energy transfer system, it is concluded in section 2.4 that
acoustic energy transfer cannot be an replacement for a EM-field transfer system, and that a
magnetically coupled system is the best option. Now that the choice has been made, we need to
determine the efficiency of such a system. First an introduction to the coupling factor is made
followed by an analysis of a system consisting out of 2 coupled coils. Finally, a comparison is made
between a system with 2 and 4 coupled coils.

3.1 Determining the coupling factor using the law of Biot-Savart

When an actual inductive system is described, people do not use an equation like (29). Instead when
analysing the efficiency of an inductive system they use the factors mutual inductance and the
coupling factor [33]. When analysing a circuit of two coupled inductances there are two factors that
influence the efficiency of a system. Mutual inductance is a quasi-inductance that describes the
influence of the current in the sending coil on the voltage of the receiving coil and the current
drawn from the input by the relation shown in Equation (36).

K
(36)
=
+s

The mutual inductance is dependent on the coupling factor , and both of these quantities are linked
via the relation shown in (37), where instead of lettering receiving and sending coils, they are simply
called coil 1 and 2.
s,
M, = , ;, , =
(37)
;,
The factor 12 describes the amount of flux that is coupled between the coils 1 and 2, and is a
function of both the inductances and the distance between the two coils. In Paragraph 2.2.5 an
equation was presented for the efficiency of the field traveling from the first to the second coil.
Equation (29) can be seen as a part of the equation for determining the coupling of 2 coils in the case
the medium is not considered loss-free. What is missing is the relation between the field and the
effect of the amount of turns as well as the size of the coil. Research by [34] as well as others into the
coupling factor has led to Equation (38) for 2 aligned identical circular coils in a loss-free medium.
There the factor is the cross-section radius of the coils, is equal to the radius of the coils and D is
the distance between them.
=

M/

(2

1)

(38)
(8 / )D + 4
;1 4
/(D + 4 )
The equation that describes the coupling factor can become very complicated if the coils are not of
the same size, shape or if the coils are not perfectly aligned. In this section an equation that will be
modelled. What is important is to see that the coupling of two coils is clearly inversely proportional
to the square of the distance between them. Also important to see, is that this equation uses a lossfree medium and therefore does not consider attenuation by the medium as well as the scattering at
the media boundaries. In order to model this, the coupling factor Equation (38) needs to be
expanded, in a same way as Equation (29). Additional factors smaller or equal to 1 can be multiplied
with to get a more accurate approximation of the coupling factor.

28

In order to analytically calculate the coupling factor we must first know the field at the location of the
second inductor. The two field components at a point p at a distance away at an angle from a
loop of wire with radius Q and a current of , can be calculated using the law of Biot-Savart [35]. In
Equation (39) is the current flowing through ring s, where E is the unit vector of the current ring and
E is the directional vector towards the point p.
E =
Dr

* DE DE
4

Figure 3-1 - The spherical coordinate system with the ring S.

(39)

[36] veranderen ?

In the case of a wire loop, it is needed to integrate the contribution of each length D to the total
field at point p. In the case of a spherical system, with a coordinate transformation like Equations
(137)-(139) on page 118, with a setup as in Figure 3-1 the equations for the radial and perpendicular
magnetic fields take on the form of Equations (40) and (41) . In these equations , is the number of
turns of the current ring I. If the point A were an inductor coil the only field that would produce
current would be the field perpendicular to the surface, which in this case is r .
* , Q
r =
4

r! =

* , Q
J
4

(Q +

(Q +

2 Q

i Q
2 Q

) D

?
)

(40)

(41)

29

The magnetic field inside a ring

In the case that there is not a point A at which the field needs to be measured but instead of that
there is a receiving ring of wire Cs with radius Q , it means that the field has to be integrated around
the ring Cs, like in Figure 3-2. We need to transform the coordinates from the middle point p to the
spherical coordinates of a point A on the receiving ring at the angle of .

Figure 3-2 - The coordinates and -transformation of a point p to a ring Cs.

First we calculate the angle _ with the use of Equation (42) and then the coordinates and are
given by Equations (43) and (44) where s is the angular position along the circle.

_=
"

"

= + _

(42)

(43)
(44)

With these coordinates in place it is possible to calculate the two field components on the receiving
ring of wire Cs at a distance from the origin and an angle of compared to middle of the sending
coil of wire with the use of Equations (45) and (46).
r (Q, ", , ")
=

* Q

( +_
4

)
M

* Q
r! (Q, ", , ") =
J
4

xQ +

xQ +

"

"

2 "Q
_

2 "Q
_
_

( +_

( +_

( "+_

) D

30

(45)

(46)

Now an approximation of the net magnetic field can be made. This is the field that is perpendicular
to the surface of the ring Cs. In order to get to this point, it is a simple sum of the perpendicular
components of r and r! . To get an average of the field on the surface of the ring rZYH_Y , Equation
(47) is integrated over the edge of ring Cs to arrive at Equation (48) .
rZYH = r

rZYH_Y =

_ + r!
M

1
J rZYH D
2

(47)
(48)

Determining the coupling factor

Now that we have an approximation of the field inside the receiver coil from Equation (48), we can
calculate the mutual inductance s and coupling factor .
In order to get the mutual inductance, we need the know the magnetic flux component 21, which is
found in Equation (49),
,

= - rZYH_Y D`

YWYT|Y

rZYH_Y R

(49)

Once the value of the flux component has been calculated, we know the mutual inductance as
Equation (50),

s =

(50)

where is the amount of turns in the receiving coil. Because of the fact that Equations (40) and (41)
and with that Equation (48) are linearly dependent on current I1, the current term I1 falls out of the
equation for mutual inductance and this proves that the mutual inductance is independent on the
current in the primary coil, which means that the coupling between two inductors is independent on
the amount of power being transferred. This is to be expected, because the system of two coupled
inductors is linear. With the value s now known, the coupling factor can be calculated using
Equation (51). This Equation will be used and verified in Section 4.4.

;,

(51)

In Equation (51) L1 and L2 are the inductances of the sending and receiving coil respectively. Those
values can be measured by an impedance probe or calculated from the inductor properties with
Equation (52), in which is the number of turns in the coil, ` the surface area of the coil and D the
thickness of the coil, respectively.

*`
=
D

(52)

Interestingly, increasing the value of the second inductors by increasing the number of turns
would improve the coupling factor, because both the inductance as s are linearly dependent on
the number of turns, so increasing them a factor times, the coupling will improve a factor of .
31

What has to be considered is that increasing the number of turns in the inductor will increase its
thickness, which reduces the inductance again. Concluding, with the help of computer calculations it
is possible to determine the coupling factor of two coil inductors.
One of the claims made by [15] is that the coupling factor at a distance further away than the radius
of the transmitter will be better if the ratio between the radius of the transmitter and that of the
receiver is larger than one, given that at closer distances, the coupling of larger ratios is worse. If this
claim is true, Equation (51) should follow this assumption. If we take a couple of assumptions given
in Table 3-1 , Figure 3-3 confirms the claim made by [15].
Rreceiver
Distance
dreceiver
dtransmitter
Ntransmitter
Nreceiver

1 cm
.5 < x < 10 cm
.5 cm
1 cm
5 turns
50 turns

Table 3-1 - Given variables for the calculation of coupling factor vs radius ratios.

Figure 3-3 - The coupling factor as a function of the ratio between the radius of the transmitter and that of the receiver.

32

3.2 Circuit analysis of two magnetically coupled inductors

Now that the value of the coupling factor can be calculated, it is time to analyse the circuit of two
coupled inductors. In this section the topology of these circuits are discussed and it is decided which
topology gives the highest transfer gain for a given coupling factor.
3.2.1

Introduction

Figure 3-4 - an electrical circuit of two coupled coils.

Figure 3-4 shows an electrical circuit of 2 loosely coupled coils. When this system is operated with a
sinusoidal voltage source at a set frequency p, the KVL gives us Equations (53)and (54) for , and
respectively.
K + , , + %, , %s = 0
% %s , +
=0

(53)
(54)

, where the mutual inductance s is defined as in Equation (37). If we then insert Equation (54) into
(53), we arrive at an equation for , and given by Equations (55) , (56) and (57).
,

+ %, +

+ %L, +

% s
+ %

%s
+ %

% s
+ %

(55)

%s
+ %

(56)

(57)

With the currents now determined, we now assume that the load is represented as
complex power delivered to the load is then given by Equation (58).
I =

. The total

(58)

33

The unit I is a complex power vector with the unit of VA. A common name for this unit is apparent
power. Apparent power is the amount of energy the source has to deliver to the system, whereas the
real power P is the energy that we can actually use. When we want to know the real power that is
delivered to the load in watts, we need to take the real part of this complex power vector, see
Equation (59).
= Q (I) = Q (

(59)

There are several ways to calculate the efficiency of a system. One way of determining the overall
efficiency of the system would be to calculate the percentage of this output power to the total power
delivered by the source like in Equation (60). Another possibility would be to look at the percentage
of real power being delivered to the load, like in Equation (61).

I\VH

100% =
100%
ITZ
K ,
\VH
Q ( 2 2 )
=
100% =
100%
TZ
Q (K , )

{H\HNX =
YNX

(60)
(61)

For this thesis Equation (61) will be used and the efficiency will be known as . The reason for this, is
the fact that the imaginary part of S, the reactive power cannot be used to perform any action.

3.2.2

A resistive load

Figure 3-5 - an electrical circuit of two coupled coils with only resistors.

In order to analyse the most efficient topology of the circuit the first step is to define a load, as well
as to define the other resistances in the circuit. In this chapter the different resistances in the circuit
are defined as well as their influence on the output power and the power efficiency. For this first
example given in Figure 3-5, the load is purely resistive, and is in this case equal to 50 . The voltage
source is also not ideal and for this example it also has a series resistance of 50 . This is however
still assuming that both the inductors , and are ideal. In reality this is not the case due to
material resistance and there is also a phenomenon called radiation resistance. Both of the factors
were summarized in [37] and are displayed in Equation (62).

34

QTZ]VWH\ = Q

N]TNHT\ + Q(NHY

TNX

; * )

2 :
= 20 k l (`) +

%
P * )
2

T Y

(62)
(63)

Here the skin depth in meters is defined in Equation (63) with ` equal to the area of the inductor,
T Y is the cross-section radius of one single turn of the inductor, ) is the conductivity of the wire
material, for example copper in (S/m), is the magnetic permeability, is frequency in Hertz, the
number of turns or loops and finally equals the speed of the electric wave, in essence the speed of
light(m/s). In most conditions the radiation resistance is so low, that it can be neglected. For
example, at a frequency of 13,56 MHz on a coil of 1 cm2 = 1*10-4 m2, with 10 Loops, Q N]TNHT\Z would
be equal to 1.28*10-6. The material resistance of inductors is often in the range of larger than 1 ,
which cannot be neglected, because the resistance of the source and the load are often in the same
range. If both the primary side, 1, and secondary side, 2, only have resistors, it means that both
are positive real numbers.
, and
Now that the resistances are defined, the inductors will need to be characterized. For these first
circuits , and will be identical with an inductance of 1 H. Because we have not yet determined
the operating frequency or any size parameters of the inductors, an estimate of the inductors
resistance is used equal to 3 . This is just an estimate, because as shown in Equation (61), that the
resistance of an inductor is frequency dependent. In order for simplification, this will not be taken
into consideration before the inductors are more defined by their size, shape and number of coils .
All of the graphs in this chapter are generated by Matlab code, as given in Appendix B. The results
were verified by using a Spice simulator. The following figures are for low values of , as Table 2-6
states that the wave or field efficiency is low, which means that the coupling can be assumed to be
low as well.
As a first simulation we want to see the influence of coupling factor on the frequency-behaviour of
the system. This includes the efficiency and the output power. Important to see is that the optimal
efficiency {\CH is not at the same frequency as the maximum output power (Nc . This can be seen in
Figure 3-6. This is because of the fact that the factor between I1 and I2 as shown in Equation (56) is
not linear with frequency when the system only contains inductor coils and resistors. This means that
the optimal efficiency at the input does not mean a large power output.

Figure 3-6 - The frequency with the highest power efficiency f0 and the frequency of most power max in a system with RL1
= RL2 = 3 , Rs = Rload = 50 , L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V.

35

Figure 3-7 - The maximum output power Pmax and the power at the highest efficiency P(max) in a system with RL1 = RL2 = 3
, Rs = Rload = 50, L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V, 0.01<<0.2 .

As Figure 3-7 shows, there is an enormous difference in the power delivered at the maximum
efficiency of the system compared to the maximum power at the output. The reason is that the
efficiency of the system is manly dependent on the factor shown in Equation (55), whereas the total
power is dependent on the total current. Because at higher frequencies the current I1 is much lower,
the output power is also much lower. The difference is around 20 dB. In Figure 3-8 it can be seen
that the maximum efficiency of the system can be much higher than the efficiency of maximum
power. What could be seen as ideal is that the system is most efficient at the same frequency as at
which it has the highest output power.

Figure 3-8 - The maximum efficiency and the efficiency at maximum power in a system with RL1 = RL2 = 3 , Rs = Rload = 50,
L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V.

36

3.2.3

A capacitive load

Figure 3-9 - an electrical circuit of 2 coupled coils with a the load modelled as a capacitance in parallel with a load
resistance.

A real magnetically coupled pair of coils that are used to transmit power contains more than resistors
in its circuit model. This means that in order to have a better model of the system, the load needs to
be modelled in more detail. The load of a coupled coil system can be partially capacitive. If it is the
goal to power an implant it usually involves charging up a battery. This is a very large capacitor with a
small resistance in series, seen as the loading resistance. Because a battery cannot be charged with
AC, a rectifier is needed to convert the signal into DC. As the capacitor is very large, it will behave like
a voltage source, and as such it can be modelled as a short circuit. When the capacitor is not fully
charged it behaves like a resistance, like in Section 3.2.2. When the capacitor is fully charged, the
rectifier will be blocking current for most of the time. A diode in reverse bias has a junction
capacitance together with a large blocking resistance. See also [38]. Eventually the circuit that can be
seen in Figure 3-9 is found. Because of the fact that the capacitor is full and the rectifier is in reverse
bias most of the time, there is only a very small current flowing. This means that in the only power
the system is now transmitting is the power that is taken by the load that is parallel to the batterycapacitance. In the case that it is assumed that the rectifier diodes are in reverse bias, the resistance
is very large and the current through the capacitance becomes negligible. For this reason, all
following simulations will be done with a purely resistive load and the capacitance is ignored.

3.2.4

The importance of resonance

Resonance is a characteristic property of many systems. If a system is introduced to power at a

certain frequency, the energy is not attenuated, but maintained. The only way in which this power
can then be lost is by friction or resistance. An nice example of the power of resonance was the
Tacoma Narrows bridge in Northern America nicknamed Galloping Gertie that actually collapsed
because the wind made the structure resonate and there was more energy being delivered by the
wind than that could be dissipated by the structure of the bridge, see [39].
How does resonance present itself in circuits and how can this property increase efficiency and
output power when used with magnetically coupled inductors? Like the inductor is an element that
stores flux by converting current into magnetic field, capacitors convert charge into an electric field.
When both an inductor and capacitor are in the same circuit, resonance is possible. In the case of a
series RLC circuit this resonance occurs when the input frequency is equal to 0/2. At resonance,
the input impedance of such a system becomes real, this is because the energy of the inductor
becomes equal in magnitude to that of the capacitor. Because both the capacitor and inductor are
lossless elements, the energy can be freely interchanged between them and the only energy needed
is the energy that is dissipated in the resistances of the system.

37

How does this increase the output power? When the input impedance of the circuit becomes lower,
the current flowing into the system increases. Because the current in the second inductor is linearly
dependent on the current through the first inductor that current also increases. Also, when the
second system is also at resonance, the factor in Equation (56) increases, because the only
impedance seen in the second current loop is equal to the resistance of the coil and that of the load.

Figure 3-10 - A circuit of 2 coupled coils, both with resonating capacitors and with C1 parallel to L1.

Figure 3-11 - A circuit of 2 coupled coils, both with resonating capacitors and with C1 in series with L1.

A possibility to introduce resonance in the circuit is like in Figure 3-10 or Figure 3-11, depending on if
the capacitor , is in series or in parallel to inductor , . In the case of a series connection of a
resistor, capacitor and inductor, the radial frequency of resonance will be equal to Equation (64). In
the case of a parallel connection of the capacitor to the inductor, the resonance frequency will be
equal to Equation (65). The difference lies in the fact that there will always be a resistance in series
with the inductor, because inductors without resistance only exist in superconductors.
1
(64)
% KY TYK =
2
%

CN NXXYX

1
1
Q
- k l
2

(65)

Figure 3-10 and Figure 3-11 show only two possibilities of introducing resonance. The other two
options have the second capacitor parallel to the load. In order to compare these systems they
need to have identical resonance frequencies. Because the system will work on RFID-frequencies, a
of 13,56 MHz is chosen. There are still several parameters that are free, such as the value of the
inductors , and . With both of those values set, the values of , and can be calculated. The
coupling factor is set to 0,005. Because the coupling is small, the mutual inductance M is ignored.

38

For each set of parameters a graph is created. Table 3-2 gives the parameters used for the Matlab
calculations presented in Figure 3-12 to Figure 3-15. Every graph was also simulated in LTSpice for a
number of points to verify the values and trends.
Figure 3-12
Figure 3-13
Figure 3-14
Figure 3-15
Figure 3-16
3
3
3
3
3
Q,
3
3
30
30
30
Q
1:1
1:1
1:10
1:10
1:10
,
50
1 M
50
1 M
50
QX\N]
Coupling
0,005
0,005
0,005
0,005
0,5
50
QK\V WY
1V
TZ
Table 3-2 - Parameter table for the comparison of the power of the 4 possible capacitor configurations.

Figure 3-12 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 1.

39

Figure 3-13 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 2.

Figure 3-14 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 3.

40

Figure 3-15 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 4.

What is going on here ? To make it easier, first the resistance of the second inductor is ignored. In the
case of series resonance, the impedance seen by the second inductor L2, the second loop inductance,
is equal to a series connection of the resonating capacitor and the load resistance. With parallel
resonance the impedance is equal to the parallel connection of the capacitance and resistance.
Because the impedance of the resonating capacitance is much lower than that of the output load
resistance, the impedance contribution of the load resistance can be ignored and the total second
loop impedance becomes smaller. This means that current , becomes larger, because of the lower
mutual impedance. Important is that the current does not entirely flow through the load
resistance, but with a factor equal to Equation (66). As the value of decreases with the increase of
will flow through the load resistance. At the same time, the
the value of , more and more of
second loop impedance increases, reducing the value of the current .
1
(66)
1 + % QX\N]
The power dependency of a parallel resonance with respect to the capacitance is inversely
proportional until the value of the capacitance becomes so large that the value of the resistance
becomes dominating in the second loop impedance, from that point onwards the current will be
constant. At the same time, the relation of the current and the capacitance value in a series
resonance is linear, as the only variable becomes the mutual inductance, which is proportional to the
product of the inductors. At a set frequency, the secondary loop current
will increase with the
increase of the value of the inductor as the ratio between the primary current , and will increase
linearly with the mutual inductance. At the same time, the current in Loop 1 , will not decrease very
much, as the mutual inductance, although quadratic in the value of inductance, is very small because
of low coupling . As soon as the mutual inductance is no longer negligible compared to the other
impedances, the behaviour of the series system also becomes inversely quadratic with respect to the
value of the impedances. As proof, Figure 3-16 shows that at a high coupling value of 0,5 the seriesseries system does also behave inversely quadratic with the inductance values. The other parameters
of the system used are again in Table 3-2. This means that for each circuit configuration there is an
ideal value of L1 and L2 that can be determined either by calculation or circuit simulation.

41

Figure 3-16 - Comparison the power of 2 coupled inductor systems at high coupling.

3.2.5

The quality factor

A possibility to generalize the equations to determine the output power and determine system
efficiency is by the use of the quality factor. In every capacitor or inductor an amount of energy can
be stored dependent on the value of the element and the frequency at which the element operates.
Just like in resistors the amount of power going into such an element is directly proportional to its
impedance. Not all power going into a inductor is transformed into a magnetic field. This is because
of the internal resistance of the inductor. Also, the device itself has extra elements that are either
parasitic or placed there on purpose to set the resonant frequency of the component. The quality
factor is a measure of how much energy is stored during one cycle towards the amount of energy
that is lost.
=

D D

(67)

When the unloaded Q-factor of a component is calculated, the energy in the component is seen as
useful and the energy that is radiated by resistance as the lost energy. When the amount of energy
delivered to the resistive load is to be calculated, the energy in the load is seen as useful and the
energy that stays in the resistance of the resonator is seen as lost. For an example, look at a series
RLC-circuit as Figure 3-10. The apparent power of the circuit is equal to

42

I =

1
2

1
1
1
= Q + 2 % k
4%
2
4
I = ]TKK + 2 %( )

TZ

(68)
(69)

When the system is at resonance, so % = % as in Equation (64), we see that the energy of the coil
becomes equal to that of the capacitor . This means that when this is applied to Equation (67),
the equation for the Q-factor of a series resonator becomes equal to Equation (71).
(70)
= Q + (% 1/%)
1
%(
)
1%
VKYVX
% %
VZX\N]Y] (%) =
=
=
Q
X\KH
Q
Q
(71)
%
% %
VZX\N]Y] (% = % ) =
=
Q
Q

Very important is Equation (72).

=

?]q

%
% ?]q,(Nc %

?]q,(TZ

(72)

It states that the 3-dB bandwidth of a capacitor, inductor or resonator is equal to the resonating
frequency divided by the quality factor. This means, that for instance with a quality factor of 100, the
efficiency of the resonator will diminish to 50 percent when the operating frequency is only 0,5 % off
from the resonance frequency. The higher the quality factor, the more accurate the matching of the
resonance frequency needs to be to keep a high efficiency.
The higher the unloaded quality factor of a resonator, the more of the energy from the input source
is transformed into electromagnetic field. The higher the loaded Q-factor the more energy of
resonator can be turned into useful energy. A nice example of this comparison is given in [40], where
the two possible connections of the capacitor, series and parallel, are compared.
C
K

VZX\N]Y]

VZX\N]Y]

QTZ]VWH\
%
%
=
QTZ]VWH\
=

(73)
(74)

If both circuits are in resonance at the same radial frequency = 0 ,Equations (73) and (74) give the
quality factors for the parallel and series circuit respectively. Now that the quality factor can be
calculated it is clear that for a given set of circuit parameters R,L and C it is possible to calculate
whether a series or a parallel connection will have a better efficiency and with that a higher output
power for the same input power.
3.2.5.1 Example comparisons
In the case that the tested systems resonate at exactly the same frequency it is possible to make a
direct comparison between a series and parallel connection of the resonant capacitance at both the
primary and secondary inductor. Figure 3-11 shows the series connection of capacitor and coil on the
primary side. Equation (75) gives the quality factor of this setup.
% ,
,KY TYK =
(75)
QTZ]VWH\ , + QK\V WY

43

If the capacitor is in parallel with the inductor, the Q-factor can only be calculated once the
resistance in series with the inductor is transformed into its parallel equivalent. This is shown in
Figure 3-18 from which Equations (76) to (78) are derived.

Figure 3-17 - Circuit manipulation for calculating the Q-factor in parallel capacitance connected circuit at the source.

(% , )
QTZ]VWH\ ,
% ,
, =
QTZ]VWH\ ,
QC,

NXXYX =
QK\V WY + QC, ,
QC, =

,CN

(76)
(77)
(78)

Now that the quality factor on the primary side is known, it is time to determine that of the
secondary side. Here equations (79) and (80) show the Q-factor of a series and parallel connection.

CN NXXYX

QTZ]VWH\ + QX\N]
1
=
QTZ]VWH\
%
+Q
%
\N]
KY TYK

(79)
from [41]

(80)

After the calculation of the Q-factors of both the primary and secondary inductor the efficiency of
the entire system can be calculated. Many sources use the same derivations and approximations to
determine the overall efficiency of a coupled inductor system by Equation (81) , among others [37],
[34] and [42] use this definition, where Q, and are the loaded Q-factors of the inductors and is
the coupling factor.
Q, Q
(81)
{W\VCXTZ =
1 + Q, Q
This Equation (81) is not complete for the total system efficiency. Not all energy in the second
current loop can be used by the load resistance, even when the system is at full resonance. This is
because of the resistance of the inductance also dissipates power. Whereas with the series system it
is a simple resistive divider, as shown in Equation (84), with the parallel system the inductor
resistance first has to be transformed into its parallel equivalent, such that a current division can be
made, shown in Figure 3-18 and Equations (82) and (83) .

44

Figure 3-18 - Circuit manipulation for calculating the Q-factor in parallel capacitance connected circuit at the load.

QC =

(% )
QTZ]VWH\
=

(82)

QC
+ QX\N]

(83)
QC
QX\N]
(84)
KY TYK =
R + R }
With these equations it is possible to give the complete equation for the efficiency of both a parallel
Equation (85) and series connected Equation (86) inductance system.
{H\HNX

{H\HNX

CN NXXYX

Y TYK

CN NXXYX

= {W\VCXTZ {

= {W\VCXTZ {

QC
,
1 + , QC + QX\N]
,
QX\N
=
1 + , QTZ]VWH\ + QX\N]

CN NXXYX

KY TYK

(85)
(86)

To examine the efficiencies of the four possible combinations of series and parallel connected
capacitors, two examples with the component values presented in Table 3-3 are simulated. The
efficiency is expressed as the log10 of Equations (85) and (86). All these calculations were again made
in Matlab and verified by LTSpice.
Figure 3-19
Figure 3-20
RL1
3
3
RL2
30
30
L1 : L2
1:10
1:10
Rload
50
1 M
Rsource
50
50
Table 3-3 - Parameter table for the comparison of the power-efficiency of the 4 possible capacitor configurations.

45

Figure 3-19 - Comparing the efficiency of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 1.

Figure 3-20 - Comparing the efficiency of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 2.

It can be concluded that for low values of load resistance series connection of the capacitor at the
output is more efficient. At the same time, for high values of load resistance, a parallel connection
has a better efficiency.

46

3.3 Analysing the use of two extra resonators

As Section 3.2 shows, the analysis of a 2-coil system can get very complicated very quickly, because
of the amount of variables. As soon as a 3- or 4-coil system is proposed, the analytical analysis of the
system becomes almost impossible to do by hand. This is because of the large number of variables.
This paragraph wants to show an alternative way to compute the efficiency of a multi coil system
that does not use KVL directly, but instead uses the law of conservation of energy. Because of the
complicated calculations, the only situation that will be assessed is the situation in which the
capacitors of the primary and secondary resonator are connected in series to their respective
inductors. With help of the quality factor, we can see if adding extra resonators to, for example, a
system of Paragraph 3.2.4, will increase the output power and efficiency.
3.3.1

Comparing the two systems with respect to their power efficiency

The problem of a two-inductor system lies in the fact that both , and are dependent on the
source and the output load. Because especially the output resistance is often high, in the range of
kilo-ohms or higher, the quality factor can be very low. An example is given in Table 3-4. And given
Equation (86) , the efficiency of the system will be lower as well.

Q1(source) series = 1.608

Table 3-4 - Example of Q-factor calculation.

Rinductor1 = Rinductor2 = 3
L1 = L2 = 1 H
Rsource = 50
Rload = 100 k
0 = 13.56 MHz
C1 and C2 matched for 0
Q2 (load) series = 8.52*10-4
[16]

Figure 3-21 - a circuit representation of a 4-coil resonance system

47

A way in which this problem of low efficiency can be reduced is by using a 4-coil system as depicted
in Figure 3-21, courtesy of [37]. This system uses 2 additional coils that are shunted with a capacitor
in order to configure the correct resonance frequency. The effect of using two extra coils can be seen
the same derivation done by [40] , but now for this system gives Equation (87). Important to see here
is that the coupling factors 13, 14 and 24 are presumed to be so small that they can be neglected.
(, , )( ? ? )(?: ? : )
{: TZ]VWH\ =
X\N]
(1 + , , )(1 + ?: ? : ) + ( ? ? )1 + ? ? + ?: ? :
(87)

What does this mean and how can we model this in a circuit? For example, if we would take the
system from Section 3.2.4 and then add 2 resonator coils, it is possible to compare the efficiency of a
2- and 4-coil system, as long as we assume that the coupling between the two inductors in the 2-coil
system W\TX is equal to the coupling between the two resonators in the 4-coil system ? :W\TX and
the simplifications assumed for Equation (87) are valid. The relative efficiency E can be defined as
Equation (88), where is given by Equation (85) or (86) depending on whether the
capacitor is connected in series or in parallel.
YX

{:
= 10 , k
{

TZ]VWH\
TZ]VWH\

(88)

As an example, for the values of Q1 as source- and Q4 as load inductor Q-factor from a series-series
and parallel-parallel system in Table 3-4 and take 12 and 34 to be equal to .35, to illustrate moderate
coupling between the load an source inductor and their respective resonator. For those parameters
Figure 3-22 gives the relative output efficiency for values of Q2 and Q3 between 1 and 250 for the
series-series configuration for the load and source inductors. Especially the Q-factor of the load
resonator is very low. Because the load is set, it is not possible to increase the Q-factor further as
long as the capacitor is connected in series with the inductor. The best way to increase the Q-factor,
is to place the resonance capacitance in parallel to the inductor instead of having it placed in series.
With the other circuit values given in Table 3-4 the value of Q would increase to 27.83 and 27.71 for
the source and load inductor respectively. This is line with the conclusions of Section 3.2.5, where the
parallel connected capacitance performs better with a high load resistance. What would happen if it
were possible to achieve a higher Q-factor without changing the circuit? Figure 3-23 shows what
happens if the Q-factors of the 2-coil system are higher, in this example Q, = 27.83 and = 27.71.
Again, for this thesis this is done by reducing the resistance in both the primary and secondary
resonator. Figure 3-22 and Figure 3-23 are verified in Appendix D.

48

Figure 3-22 - Relative efficiency of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both source and load
-4
inductor in a series configuration, Qsource = 1.608 , Qload = 8.52*10 .

Figure 3-23 - Relative efficiency of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both source and load
inductor in a series configuration, and Qsource = 27,83 Qload = 27,71.

49

Figure 3-22 and Figure 3-23 show that if the Q-factor of the source and load inductor is small, it is
possible to achieve higher efficiencies for a 4-inductor system than for a 2-inductor system. For the
larger values of , and : used for Figure 3-23 it is not possible to achieve higher efficiency by
introducing extra resonators with the given values of and ? . Referring back to Sections 3.2.4 and
3.2.5 this can be explained by the fact that in the case of a low quality factor the ideal value of the
inductance is not yet reached and adding more mutual inductance, by having a large Q-factor. helps
the efficiency of the system. At the same time, if the Q-factor is high, the ideal value of inductance is
lower, which means that adding extra mutual inductance only limits the input power, and with it
efficiency. At a certain point the efficiency will become larger than the two coil system, because of
how Equation (87) is defined. However, if the Q-factor of the resonators becomes very high, the
assumptions that the coupling factors ,? and : are zero are no longer valid, because of the large
values of inductance in the resonators. This means that Equation (87) is no longer valid.
Also creating resonators with a Q-factor higher than 100 in a system that operates at 13,56 MHz is
difficult, because, as in Equation (71), the inductance has to be high. Because, the resistance of an
inductor is related to the inductance value, simply increasing the number of turns of the inductor
does not increase the quality factor. In a wire wound inductor the resistance is linear with the length
of the inductor wire, which is linear to the number of turns. The only way in which to achieve high
induction values in this case would be to use a ferro-magnetic material, in order to increase the
relative magnetic permeability of the inductor.
3.3.2

Comparing the two systems with respect to output power

Further evaluation of Equation (87) also gives an approximation of the output current of both a two
and a four inductor system. Equation (89) was derived by [40] for the output current of a four
inductor system as shown in Figure 3-21. This is only valid for a series connection of the inductor and
capacitor. For a parallel connection the equation is different and will not be discussed in this thesis.
:

, ? ?: ;, ; ? ;? :
;Q,,Y Q:,Y (1 + , , )(1 + ?: Q? Q : ) ? Q Q ?

(89) [40]

Equation (89) has a counterpart for a two inductor system, namely Equation (90).
I
;,
=
K
;Q,, R , 1 + Q, Q

(90)

These two equations make it possible to compare the output current of a two and four inductor
system in order to see which one would provide a larger power, as the power in both system can be
defined as Equation (60). In order to do this comparison, Equation (90) is divided by Equation (89)
giving Equation (91) which gives the ratio of the output current of a 2 coil versus a 4 coil system.
Because the output power in the circuit is proportional to the output current squared times the
output impedance, Equation (92) ,and if the load circuit, read the output impedance, of the two
inductor circuit is equal to load circuit of the four inductor circuit, Equation (91) squared can be used
as an approximation of the ratio of the output power of the two circuits.
:

, ? ?: ;, ; ? ;? : ;Q

,,Y Q

,Y 1 +

;Q,,Y Q:,Y (1 + , , )(1 + ?: ? : ) ? ? ;

X\N] :W\TX
:
X\N] :W\TX
:
k l
=k l
X\N] W\TX
X\N] W\TX

(91)
(92)

50

In order to make sense from this equation certain assumptions have to be made. In this example the
result of taking a 2 coil resonant system as shown in Figure 3-11, and then adding 2 resonator coils
with a higher Q-factor to increase the efficiency of the system is analysed. Again, just like in Section
3.3.1 the addition of extra resonators increases the mutual inductance as well as the mutual
impedance. As stated in Equation (51), mutual inductance has a square root dependency on the
inductance value and with that a square root dependency on the quality factor of the resonators.
Because the mutual impedance is quadratic with the increase in mutual inductance and the output
current only has a linear dependence, there will be an optimal value of mutual inductance. To
illustrate this for a more general situation, with given values of Q1 and Q4 like in Table 3-4 it is
possible to get graphs for the equivalent ratio of power. Taking the logarithm of Equation (92) to get
Equation (93) for the power ratio PR, for a series-series configuration in Figure 3-24 and the parallelparallel configuration in Figure 3-25. Both of these graphs were verified with LTSpice, see Appendix
D.
PR = 10 , k : l = 20 , :

(93)

Figure 3-24 - Relative output power of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both source and load
inductor in a series configuration.

51

Figure 3-25 - Relative output power of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both source and load
inductor in a parallel configuration.

What is happening? If the Q-factor of both the load and source resonators is low, the series
resistance of the system is high. The mutual impedance, introduced to the primary resonator is small
compared to the resistance of the rest of the system. This means that the relative effect of increasing
the output power because of mutual induction is larger than the reduction of input current because
of the relative increase in input impedance. When the Q-factor of the load and source resonators is
low, the extra mutual impedance is relatively large compared to the input resistance, and the
reduction of input current because of this is relatively larger than the increase in output current
because of large mutual induction. When the Q-factor increases, the efficiency will reach an optimal
point beyond which the output power will no longer increase, because the increase in current caused
by the large mutual inductance is negated by the increase in mutual impedance and the output
power will no longer increase. This explains why in Figure 3-24 with the low Q-factor the Power Ratio
PR in dB is larger than one and in Figure 3-25 with a high Q-factor the PR in dB is smaller than one.

52

3.4 Conclusions on coupled inductor circuit topology

The output power of the system as well as the power efficiency at maximum output power of
the system is poor because of very weak coupling.
The ideal frequency of the system is not equal to the resonance frequency of loop 1, because
the current relation between currents , and is not linear.
It does not make sense to model a capacitance in parallel with the output resistance,
because when this model is valid, the total resistance is so high, that there is very little
current flowing and no real amount of power transferred.
By introducing resonance, the efficiency can be increased. In the case of a low load
resistance a series connection of the capacitor at the load side is favourable if the load
resistance is high a parallel connection has both a higher output power and a higher output
efficiency.
For each circuit configuration an ideal value of inductance exists at which the efficiency and
output power is optimized. This can be found by calculation and or simulation. If the value of
inductance is lower the output current is limited by the small mutual inductance of the
system. If the value is chosen larger the mutual impedance limits the input current and with
that lowers the efficiency and output power.
The efficiency of an EM-transfer system is highly dependent on the series resistance inside
the system. The higher the resistance, the more power is lost in the form of heat. A way to
show the dependency between the resistance and the reactance of a resonating element is
its quality factor. This coupled with the coupling factor that shows the relation between the
amount of flux coupled from one coil to the other it is possible to make an equation that
gives the efficiency of the total system.
The quality factor of a parallel connected inductor and capacitor is higher than its series
equivalent as long as the value of the resistance of the inductor is small compared to that of
the source or load resistance.
Calculations have shown that it is possible to achieve a quality factor of the load and source
resonators higher than 20.
Creating resonators with a large Q-factor is difficult to achieve in 13,56 MHz technology,
because of the large value needed for the inductor.
Adding extra resonators to a two inductor system can increase the power efficiency of a
coupled inductor system, but only if the quality factors of the load and source inductors in
the two coupled inductor circuit are small. For values of the quality factor of around 25 or
higher, even if the quality factors of the added resonators is 250, the efficiency will still be
smaller than that of the two inductor system.
Adding extra resonators to a two inductor system can increase the output power of the
system, again as long as the quality factor of both the load an source inductor is small.
Because of the mutual impedance the current will not increase to infinity as the quality
factors of the resonators improve. If the quality factors of both the source and load inductor
is moderate or high, in this example at a value of 27,7, then the output power of the four
inductor system is significantly lower than that of his two inductor counterpart.

53

4 The prototype circuit of two coupled inductors

After all the theory, a prototype circuit needs to be built to analyse the coupling of the two inductors
and to verify the equations derived in earlier chapters. Because the demands for the secondary or
load inductor are more strict than that of the inductor connected to the power supply, the secondary
coil was designed first. This chapter will first show the design and measurements of both inductors
before analysing the system as a whole.

4.1 The secondary inductor

The secondary or load inductor will be the inductor that is directly connected to the output load.
The inductor will also be referred to as a coil, because it is cylindrical in shape. This makes the
analysis of the inductors a little bit easier. The maximum surface area the secondary inductor can
have is the surface area of a two-euro coin, or approximately 20 mm in diameter. The thickness of
the inductor should be less than 5 mm. With these sizes the inductor is capable of being implanted
into a living person.
Because the value of inductance is a function of size, the value for any given volume is limited.
Another way to increase the inductance is to increase the number of turns in the inductor. Because
of the low amount of power that will be traveling through the inductor it is possible to use a small
diameter lacquer coated copper wire. A limitation in size was the fact that the wire needs to be
under a small amount of tension in order for it to be wound around a core. The smaller the gauge of
wire, the faster it will snap under tension. The smallest gauge of copper wire that was available in the
university was used, a diameter of 50 m.
Also, increasing the number of turns of the inductor will increase its inductance as shown in section
3.1 . This can be done to a certain limit, as more turns will not only increase the size needed for the
inductor coil, it will also increase the length of wire in the inductor and that will increase the
resistance of the inductor, degrading the performance.
The core is essential for the design of the secondary inductor. It serves primarily a structural purpose,
because the small gauge copper wire is not strong enough to hold its shape without a fixation point.
This can be done with glue, but for strength a core is to be recommended, not in the last place to
provide a point to mound the inductor in an implant. Furthermore it is possible to achieve a higher
inductance value by the use of a core made of ferromagnetic material. This material has a high
magnetic permeability which is directly proportional to the inductance of the inductor. The use of a
ferromagnetic core has many advantages, like higher coupling and higher inductance values, which
increase the efficiency and output power of a system of coupled inductors. Because the core uses
less space than an a coil resonator, ideally the resonator inductor coil is larger, for a larger quality
factor, it is a better option for small receiving inductors. This is only valid if the material still has those
properties at the used frequencies. For the secondary inductor used in this thesis a core of ferrite
material with a diameter of 17 mm and a depth of 5 mm was used. The material proved to be not
useful for increasing the inductance [43]. The reason was that the permeability of most ferrite
materials reduces with increasing frequency. At the target frequency of 13 to 17 MHz, the
permeability of the ferrite was around the same as that of regular air.

54

After the construction of the secondary coil it was mounted on a piece of epoxy euro board type
SU527413. This was for the purpose of mounting the secondary inductor on a mount together with
the other electronic components that would make up the secondary resonator circuit. With the help
of the HP4194 impedance analyser it was possible to create an equivalent circuit for the inductor by
itself. This is shown in Figure 4-1.

Figure 4-1 - Equivalent circuit of the secondary inductor coil.

After the creation of the inductor itself, we need to know the value of the capacitance that is needed
for resonance. Because it was the purpose of the circuit to resonate at 13,56 MHz and the value of
the resonance capacitor was calculated to be 2.4 pF. Because the parallel capacitance of the
inductor itself was already larger than that and adding the capacitor in parallel would only increase
the value, the only possible way to include this capacitance was to connect it in series, even though
Section 3.2.4 proved that with high output resistances a parallel capacitance would perform better.
Because of availability and accuracy of SMD capacitors the first implementation of the resonance
capacitor was in the form of an adjustable capacitor. This component proved to be too difficult to
adjust because it was not possible to measure its value directly. Because of this a capacitor with a
fixed value of 1,0 pF was chosen. This was deliberate, as the printed circuit board material would
introduce parasitic capacitance, and it would always be possible to remove the capacitor and replace
it with a larger value.
A shunt load resistor of 100 k was added to act as a load for the system. This resistor had an
accuracy of 10 % and was measured to give an actual resistance of 93 k. After adding both
components a connecting wire and a BNC-connector were added to the circuit board to connect the
resonator to the HP4194 impedance probe. The second equivalent circuit can be seen in Figure 4-2.

55

Figure 4-2 - Equivalent circuit of the secondary resonator including parasitic capacitance.

Interestingly, the value of the inductance L is much larger in Figure 4-2 than in Figure 4-1. There are
several reasons for this. Firstly, in Figure 4-1 the inductor was not yet connected to the circuit board,
but instead connected to the analyser directly. Also, the circuit board itself as well as the connecting
wires to the BNC connector add to the value of the inductance L. The impedance analyser combines
all the inductances in the circuit and presents a rough estimation of the total value of inductance. An
important component in this circuit is the capacitor C2. This capacitance is the total parasitic
capacitance of the secondary resonator, caused by the inductor coil itself, the circuit board, the wires
to the probe as well as the BNC connector. This extra inductor shifts the resonance frequency of the
secondary resonator and degrades the performance of the circuit. In the final setup in which the
inductor would be coupled to the modelled load, this capacitance needs to be reduced. This can be
done by shortening the length of the connecting wires and by eliminating any connectors between
the resonator and load.

4.2 The primary inductor

With the secondary inductor build it was time to implement the primary inductance. Research in
[15] and the example in Figure 3-3 showed that in the case of low coupling it is beneficiary for the
primary inductor to have a larger diameter than that of the secondary inductor. The larger the size
ratio, the better the coupling of the two inductors becomes at a larger distance, but at the same time
the maximal value of coupling that can be achieved by the system becomes smaller. This trade off led
to the use of a ratio of size that would be between 2 and 3. Using a diameter of 5 cm would give a
size ratio close to 3. As a core to wind the inductor around a medicine bottle with a diameter of 5 cm
was used. Because the gauge of wire can be larger, stability is not an issue for the primary inductor,
there was no need for a permanent core, as the large gauge of wire would be stable enough to hold
its shape after fixation with epoxy glue.

56

Again, the impedance analyser HP4194 was used to give an approximate equivalent circuit of the
inductor, after which the value of capacitance was chosen and soldered in series with the inductor.
To make the inductor easier to assemble and disassemble the inductance was soldered to an SMA
connector which would also be used to connect the primary inductor to the primary resonator circuit
board. An extra capacitor was connected to the circuit, because the resonance frequency of the
primary resonator was too high. The value of the capacitance was found by trial and error increasing
or decreasing the value of capacitance lowered the gain of the system as a whole.
The final equivalent circuit of the primary resonator is seen in Figure 4-3 . This is again including the
connecting wires from source to circuit board as well as the parasitic components of the circuit
board.

Figure 4-3 - The equivalent circuit of the build primary resonator.

4.3 Measurements of the coupled inductor system

In Section 3.1, Equations (40) to (51) were derived that can calculate the coupling factor of two
coupled coils and these equations need to be verified. With the prototype resonators of the previous
Sections 4.1 and 4.2 a circuit can be built for this purpose. The setup can be seen in Figure 4-4.
Whereas the primary coil was fixed in place, the secondary coil could move along a ruler with a
digital distance read-out and also had the possibility of turning a few degrees.

57

Figure 4-4 - The experimental prototype circuit of two coupled inductors.

Once the entire circuit was build, the HP4194A analyser was used to give an equivalent circuit of the
entire primary and secondary side. This gave a circuit that could be used in a circuit simulator. For the
analysis of this circuit the simulator LTSpice was used. A screenshot of the Spice model is shown
below in Figure 4-5.

Figure 4-5 - LTSpice screenshot of the model used for prototype analysis.

The resistance Rex was needed in order to make the circuit solvable by the circuit simulator. Because
of the large value, no current is flowing through the resistance. The components C \Y and QC \Y
come from the input of the used oscilloscope for gain-phase measurements, the HP 4194A. For the
measurement the coils were aligned as well as possible and then the distance between the centres of
both coils was varied between 30 and 150 mm. The reason for this, is that in the calculations so far it
has been assumed that the skin would be 5 mm thick and the muscle would be 20 mm thick.

58

This together with the thickness of both coils would result in a minimum distance between the
centres of the inductors of around 30 mm. Also, the distance at which the system would operate
would be around 75 mm. Going further than twice that distance would not give relevant information
for the system.
The LTSpice model had one disadvantage compared to the real circuit. With a change in distance
between the two inductor coils the resonance frequency of the real circuit changed. It went from
16,14 MHz at the closest distance to roughly 16.32 MHz at the furthest distance. The parameter to
simulate the changing distance in the model was the coupling factor. In the model however, changing
the coupling factor did not have an influence on the resonance frequency of the LTSpice model,
which stayed at 16,09 MHz. This results in an relative error of the resonance frequency which is in
the order of 0-1.5%. To estimate the coupling factor the matching was done by matching the model
value to be as close as possible to the actual value of gain at the maximum frequency of the
measurement result. Because the gain was rounded to 2 digits, the coupling factor was also rounded.
Results of the estimated coupling factor and the voltage gain are shown in Figure 4-6 and Figure 4-7.

Figure 4-6 - Estimated values of the coupling factor of the prototype circuit as a function of distance.

59

Figure 4-7 - measured voltage-gain and the gain given by the estimated coupling factor values.

4.4 Verification of the coupling factor equation

Now that we have an estimation of the coupling factor, we can use these results to verify the
equation given in Section 3.2.1 namely Equations (45)-(51) . Important here is to see that for the
value of inductance in , and in Equation (51) can come either from Equation (52) which derives
the inductance value directly from the inductor parameters, or the values given by the impedance
analyser can be used. Because the hand-made inductor coils are not perfectly wound, the true
measured inductance of both the primary and secondary coil are far smaller than the value
calculated with Equation (52).If the value of L, and L is larger, the resulting coupling factor is
smaller. To illustrate this, Figure 4-8 shows the different coupling factors. , is where the values of
Equation (52) are used for L, and L , and for the values of , and of the Spice model are used.

60

Figure 4-8 - different values of the calculated coupling factor for different inductance values compared to the measured
value.

There is a difference in the determination of the distance between the two inductor coils. In the
measurement the distance is between the centres of the two inductor coils. The distance used for
calculating modifies this to the distance between the two closest surfaces of the inductors. One of
the reasons for the difference between the measurements and the calculation results, is that
Equations (45) and (46) do not include the thickness of both the sending and receiving inductor coil.
This gives an over-estimation of the amount of flux that is captured by the secondary inductor. This
explains why the coupling factor from the calculations, in this case of in Figure 4-8, is slightly
higher than the measured coupling factor. This does not explain why the gain at larger distances is
higher than the calculations suggest. The most logical reason for this discrepancy would be that the
field around the second inductor would is different to the field Equations (45) and (46). The field in
and around the second inductor is not inverse quadratic with distance. This has several reasons.
There could be additional coupling between both inductors in the form of a capacitive link. Although
the effect from it would be small, and a picture taken from the frequency response of the system,
taken after the rectifier was added, does not imply a capacitive link, as there is no 20-dB per decade
slope to be seen. It can also be possible that the printed circuit board behind the secondary inductor
reflects parts of the magnetic field such that the field intensity inside the secondary inductor is
higher than in Equations (45) and (46). A final option would be that the ferrite core, of which the
datasheet of the material [43] suggests that the material does not have any ferromagnetic abilities,
has a relative permeability higher than one, across the 13-17 MHz range. The materials in the ferrite
would not be able to react fast enough to give an relative magnetic permeability higher than one at
high field conditions, but maybe it could still be possible in weak magnetic field conditions. The
saturation curve of the material is highly non-linear and furthermore the datasheet does not include
measurements at frequencies above 2 MHz. The exact reason for the apparent higher coupling is
therefore still unknown and more research can be done for the purpose of explaining the difference
fully. For this field measurements are necessary.

61

4.5 Safety limits on the input power

In order to determine if the circuit is safe for use with humans, the limits below which the system can
work must be known. According to [44] the maximum RMS H-field for a human exposure of 30
minutes is equal to Equation (94).
=

16.3

(94)
(89)
If exposure is linear in time, we can assume that for an exposure of 3000 minutes, the field can be
100 times smaller. So for a frequency of 16,14 MHz, the optimal frequency for the model at a
distance of 75 mm, the maximum RMS field strength is equal to 0,0101 Am-1. Now by using the
equation for self-inductance, we can calculate the maximum input current of the primary inductor by
using Equation (95).
(K

,
,

, *

(K `

2 , D

(95)

In this Equation D is equal to the thickness of the inductor, , equal to the number of turns of the
inductor. The square root of 2 is added, because , is a sinusoid signal, and H is a rms value. Now
filling in the values of the model in Figure 4-5 gives Equation (96). And also, if the source resistance is
neglected, it is possible to calculate the maximum input voltage for the system.
,

(Nc

, *

(K `

= 34.4 `

2,
(%
= ,
+ R , ) = 7089 V

(96)
(97)

At the current given by Equation (96), the resistance of the inductance R , coil with an estimated
value of 3.26 would become very hot, as it would generate over 100 W of heat. This small system
would self-destruct at such power levels. Also, the input voltage given by Equation (97) is very high
and it is not possible to drive the system with this voltage. This means, that is impossible for this
system to generate a field that would be harmful for prolonged human exposure and that there is no
reasonable input voltage restriction, set by magnetic field exposure. The only limit set by the input
current to the system would be because of heat generated by the real part of the inductors
impedance.

62

4.6 The power limit of the prototype

Because of the reflection that can occur at the output, ideally the load resistance equals the series
inductor resistance. So this means QX\N] = Q which in the case of the prototype system is equal to
825 . The original idea for this thesis was to build a system that works at the RFID frequency of
13.56 MHz. For these values it is possible to give a calculation of the maximum amount of power that
can be transferred from source to load as a function of distance. First an estimate of the safe amount
of power that can be given off by the source has to be made. As a first approximation, the only heat
generated will the that generated by the amount of power being dissipated in the primary inductor
coil , .

As shown, the maximum inductor current of 34,4 A is a far too high current. The total current trough
the inductor and the approximation of the power flowing through it can be estimated. In the
previous Section 4.5 we discussed the total amount of power that can be transferred from source to
load. In reality the prototype system will not be able to give this amount of power to the load
because of the fact that the system is far from perfect. The inductor coils are not perfectly wound,
which decreases the possible inductance values they could have. The system is not at resonance at
13.56 MHz, and furthermore the resonance frequency of the primary and secondary sides are not
equal. This all reduces the amount of power that can be transmitted, as a offset in resonance
frequency will increase the input impedance of the circuit, and with that the output power. In order
to determine the maximum amount of power that can be transferred from transmitter to receiver in
the conditions set by , the distance between both inductors in the prototype circuit has to be
reduced. First Equation (98) will be used to calculate the maximum output power for an ideal seriesseries connected couple inductor system that has a distance of 75 mm between both inductors, and
then the distance between both inductors in the prototype will be reduced until that level of output
power is reached. This will then determine which distance will be between the sending and receiving
inductor of the prototype during measurements in later sections.

X\N] = QX\N]

= QX\N]

QK\V

WY

+ Q, +

% s
Q + Q

% s

Q + QX\N]

(98)

Because of the fact that the impedance needs to be matched in order to get the largest amount of
power delivered to the load, an equivalent output load resistance of 825 is needed. This is shown
in Figure 4-9, which is made by Matlab, in order to show the maximum power and output voltage.

63

Figure 4-9 - The output power and output voltage of an ideal two coil resonant system, with the given distance of 75 mm
at 13.56 MHz as a function of Rload.

Figure 4-9 shows that at a load resistance of 825 , a resonance frequency of 13.56 MHz a coupling
of .0033, which is equivalent to a distance of 75 mm and TZ equal to 15 V, the ideal system would
generate 334 W of power with an output voltage of 525 mV.
With the help of the LT Spice model we can estimate the distance and operating frequency that the
system needs to have in order to get close to the values of output power and voltage given by
Figure 4-9. Because of several reasons the prototype will not achieve this level of power and output
voltage at the given distance of 75 mm. First of all, the system is not in perfect resonance. That is, the
ideal frequency of the system is not equal to either the resonance frequency of the primary nor the
secondary coil. The resonance frequencies of both inductors are also not equal. The ideal frequency
lies at a higher frequency then 13.56 MHz. For this thesis it will be attempted to equal the ideal
amount of power given by Figure 4-9. The way to achieve this, is to move the inductor coils of the
prototype closer together. Analysis with LTSpice gave an ideal load resistance of 825 . That was to
be expected as the series resistance of the second inductor coil in the simulation is approximately
equal to that of the series resistance of the ideal system. In Table 4-1 the output power as well as the
output voltage of the prototype is presented for several simulated distances.
Distance
30 mm
35 mm
40 mm
45 mm

Vload
959 mV
723 mV
552 mV
426 mV

Pload
1115 W
634.5 W
370.5 W
219.6 W

optimal
16.22 MHz
16.22 MHz
16.21 MHz
16.21 MHz

Table 4-1 - Output power and -voltage for the prototype system.

64

From this dataset, given in Table 4-1, we can conclude that to model the ideal system that has a
distance of 75 mm between the two inductor coils, we can approximate that with the prototype if
those two inductor coils are approximately 40 mm apart and operating at 16.21 MHz. As the
prototype system is now designed and analysed, the next step will be to turn the output power,
which is still at 16.22 MHz, into power at DC. For this a rectifier circuit is needed. This will be in
Chapter 5, which is the next chapter.

65

5 The RF-Rectifier
The output voltage of a pair of magnetically coupled inductors is ideally at the same frequency as the
resonant frequency of the coupled pair. The power required by implantable devices is required at DC.
In order to transform the power from the resonance frequency down to DC, a non-linear circuit is
needed which is called a rectifier. The best possible scenario for a single stage rectifier would be the
one that uses loss-free switches, that are opened and closed in such a way that the output voltage of
the rectifier is equal to

times the peak to peak voltage of the RF input, in the case of a sinusoidal

input, which is equal to the RMS-value of the input signal. Loss-free switches do not exist, but they
can be approximated. What will be explained in this chapter is that it is possible to achieve a DClevel output that is higher than the input amplitude of the RF signal. Such circuits can be called boostrectifiers.
A simple way to implement the switches is to use a diode. This type of switch has the advantage that
it does not need a control signal. When the voltage across the diode becomes positive, current flows
from anode to cathode. When the voltage becomes negative the current becomes close to zero. This
thesis will look into the options to implement this diode. This can either be in the form of a junction
diode, diode connected MOSFETs or a so called ULP-diode. There are many more ways to implement
a rectifier and this chapter analyses the input and output characteristics of several systems as well as
their efficiency. One group of rectifiers that is not analyzed in this section will be the bridge rectifier,
in order to keep the size of the thesis manageable. The analysis of a bridge rectifier can however be
easily derived from the equations in the chapter, because the same type of analysis can be used.

5.1 Analysis of RF-boost rectifiers

A simple way to implement a rectifier is to use one or more junction diodes. These devices consist of
either a p-n junction or a semiconductor-metal junction. At the interface between the two different
materials there will be a region of the material void of any charge. Applying an external bias voltage
controls the current flowing through the device. Introducing a reverse bias will increase the size of
the so called depletion region, such that ideally no current flows in the opposite direction.

66

5.1.1

The junction diode rectifier

The single stage diode rectifier

The most basic rectifier circuit can be made with just one diode and a capacitor. In [45] a complete
analysis of an N-stage boost rectifier is given. This analysis can be easily adapted to describe the
operation of this circuit.

Figure 5-1 - A single diode rectifier with buffer capacitance.

In order to know the output current and the output voltage the current though the diode named
] needs to be calculated. The small circuit for a diode is given by an ideal diode in parallel with the
junction capacitance of the real diode plus in some cases an extra parasitic capacitance and
resistance to ground or substrate. Whether the path leads to ground or substrate depends on the
location and type of diode. Placing the diode on a printed circuit board gives a path to ground, MOS
diodes have a loss path to the silicon substrate. This equivalent circuit is given in Figure 5-2.

Figure 5-2 - Equivalent circuit of a single diode.

67

For the circuit, it is assumed that the input voltage TZ is a sinusoid with amplitude TZ and a radial
frequency of % , as described in Equation (99).
TZ = TZ

(% )

(99)

The output voltage \VH is assumed to be constant. This can be achieved by adding a buffer
capacitance VY . In the case of a single diode and capacitor like in Figure 5-1, there is one
criterion that has to be fulfilled. The size of the capacitor has to be chosen such that the amount of
charge that can be stored in this capacitor during one cycle of the input signal is larger than the
amount of charge that is required by the output in the same cycle. This can be ensured if Equation
(100) is valid. In that case the capacitor can be seen as a voltage source with a set voltage. A
absolute minimum would be at least 5 times smaller, as that is the estimation for charge and
discharge time of the equivalent RC-system. The larger the value of VY , the smaller the
fluctuations of charge during the cycle and the more stable the output will be.
\VH

VY \VH

(100)

For now the losses of the diode to the substrate capacitance are neglected, as well as other parasitic
capacitances to ground, because it is assumed that the output voltage is constant. This means that
there is no current flowing through any capacitances to ground or substrate. Also, the series
resistance of the diode Q]T\]Y is neglected because of the low current through the diode. Simulations
in [45] showed that the effect of series resistance is negligible. Equation (101) gives the current
equation for a diode in this situation, in which is equal to the reverse saturation current of the
diode, is equal to the thermal voltage and ]T\]Y is the diode capacitance.
]

aA x

TZ

(% )z aA k

\VH
D(TZ \VH )
l 1 + ]T\]Y

(101)

In order to calculate the current through the diode ] a Bessel expansion is used for the exponential
term with the cosine. This is shown in Equation (102) where each Bessel function rZ is given by
Equations (103) and (104). For more information see [46].
aA(a

rZ (a) =

(% )) = r (a) + 2 [ rZ (a)

1 Z
2 a

1
+ 2

J aA(a
1

r (a) = J aA (a

(u) = J

Z,

)(

aA() (9

,)

)D

( % )

(102)

> 0

(103)

(104)

68

5.1.2

Diode current analysis

Now to apply Equation (101) to a single stage double diode voltage rectifier, as given in Figure 5-3 .

Figure 5-3 - A circuit layout of a N stage diode rectifier.

For each diode the current equation now takes on the form of Equation (105) or (106) depending on
where the diode is placed. All diodes in Figure 5-3 and also Figure 5-4, in red have Equation (105) and
the blue diodes in both figures Equation (106). In both equations stands for the total number of
diodes. Again the voltage on each capacitor is presumed to be constant, such that the time derivative
falls out of the equation. In each equation ], and ] are equal to the voltage drop across the
respective diode.
],

TZ

TZ

aA x

aA x

\VH
D],
l 1 + ]T\]Y

D
\VH
D]
(% )z aA k
l 1 + ]T\]Y

D
], = ]

(% )z aA k

(105)
(106)
(107)

In the case of the DC output analysis, that for this case the output current is equal to the current
through both diodes ] and the current through both diodes is equal, but in opposite direction, see
Equation (107), the only term that gives a DC current in the Bessel expansion is r . This gives the
input-output relation in Equation (108), again from the derivations in [45].

\VH
TZ
(108)
l=r x z

By rearranging the terms Equation (109) can be seen as the equation of the output voltage as a
function of the input voltage and the output current. This equation suggests that the output voltage
is linearly dependent on the number of stages.
k1 +

\VH

l aA k

r k TZ l

\VH =
1 +

\VH

(109)

69

What can be seen from this equation is that in order to get the highest possible output voltage it
would be favorable to have a diode with a high reverse saturation current . This is the reason why
in some low-voltage rectifiers a Schottky diode is used instead of a standard pn-junction diode. This is
because Schottky diodes have a larger saturation current for the same size and or dopant
concentrations. In order to get a higher it is possible to increase the dopant concentrations of the
diodes. This has a downside however. Diodes with a high IS as well as Schottky diodes have a lower
reverse breakdown voltage q .This limits the input voltage TZ and with that the output voltage
\VH . Another possibility to increase is to increase the size of the diode. This has as a consequence
that the diode capacitance increases and with that the diode has a slower response. In DC analysis
there are no transients, so the response time is not an issue, but it is important to realize that
Equation (109) neglects the influence of the diode capacitance. In order to incorporate this influence,
some assumptions must be made. Firstly, a diode that is in forward bias has a capacitance that is
shorted by the low conduction resistance of the diode, so the only leakage that occurs is when the
diode is in reverse bias. Secondly, it is assumed that the current flowing through the ideal diode does
not have an effect on the derivative of the voltage across the diode. Then thirdly, it is assumed that
for the ideal diode Equation (109) can be used to estimate the DC voltage.

As an observation from Figure 5-2, a realistic model of a diode has an equivalent capacitance ]T\]Y .
In forward bias, this capacitance is largely shorted by the low resistance of the ideal diode in the
circuit, causing the voltage to climb to the voltage lever set by Equation (109). As the voltage across
the diode bcomes negative, the current flowing though the ideal diode becomes negligible compared
to the current flowing though the diode capacitance ]T\]Y . Thus the diode behaves as a capacitor
during the negative half cycle of the system, the input sees a series connection of two capacitors,
]T\]Y and VY . This is a non-linear capacitive voltage divider, which means that the true output
voltage, across VY will be equal to Equation (110). Because ]T\]Y is highly non-linear and
voltage dependent, it is only possible to have an estimate of the order of magnitude of ]T\]Y . Ideally
we want to be able to neglect the effect of the diode capacitance.
\VH

ZY

VY
VY + ]T\]Y

(110)

This gives a criteria which the diode circuit has to fulfil. As long as the buffer capacitance VY is at
least two orders of magnitude larger than the capacitance of the diode ]T\]Y , the error in Equation
(109) is smaller than 1 percent. With this approximation Equation (109) can be used as an equivalent
voltage estimation for a single stage.
Another effect that is neglected is the influence of the buffer capacitance on the output current.
While the circuit is operating in DC, all the buffer capacitances are loaded to their respective
voltages, so there is no current needed to charge or discharge this capacitance that needs to flow
through the diode. In reality, the capacitance does not have any charge present at the moment the
circuit is turned on, so it has to be charged. Every cycle charge is being pushed from the source to the
output capacitance. If the capacitance is large and has almost no charge, it behaves like a short
circuit. This means the output current flows into the capacitor instead of the load. Once the capacitor
is charged the time to reach the DC-voltage calculated in Equation (109) can be estimated by
Equation (111), will be reached.

70

WN

VY \VH
\VH

(111)

So only if the buffer capacitances are fully charged, Equation (109) will hold, and the larger the buffer
capacitances, the longer this will take. Simulations have been made in LT-Spice to verify Equation
(109). When the diode rectifier consists of a single stage like in Figure 5-3, N, the number of diodes, is
equal to 2. The model used was that of the HSMS-2860-TR1G diode, found in [47]. All the results for
the measurements are given in Table 5-1. The relative error in voltage is given by Equation (112). All
the voltages are in mV. The input voltage amplitude is 500 mV.
+
Cbuffer =
IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

VEquation
879.5
727.3
648.7
614.3

YXNHT|Y

10 pF
Vsimulation
834.4
662.3
567.7
512.7

KT(VXNHT\Z YVNHT\Z
100 %
YVNHT\Z
100 pF
relative
Vsimulation
-5.13% 865.0
-8.94% 694.6
-12.49% 606.4
-15.47% 567.4

relative
-1.65%
-4.50%
-6.52%
-7.63%

1 nF
Vsimulation
868.1
698.0
609.9
571.1

(112)

relative
-1.30%
-4.03%
-5.98%
-7.03%

10 nF
Vsimulation
868.4
698.1
610.2
571.4

relative
-1.26%
-4.01%
-5.93%
-6.98%

Table 5-1 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with the relative error compared to Equation (109).

As Table 5-1 shows the simulated voltage of the single diode rectifier is always lower than the voltage
calculated by implementing Equation (109) in Matlab . Analysis was done to determine the origin of
the error between simulation and calculation. As stated earlier, in the derivation of Equation (109)
the contribution of the diode capacitance ]T\]Y is ignored. By simplifying the SPICE model it was
possible to remove the capacitance of the diode to a large extend. This is possible because SPICE
uses Equation (113) to determine the depletion capacitance. In this equation T is the build in
voltage of the junction, ]T\]Y the voltage across the diode and s the grading coefficient, which is
dependent on how the diode is doped. See [48]. Also, the current through a diode in Spice is scaled
not by , like in Equation (109) but with an extra factor Y( which stands for the emission
coefficient as shown in Equation (114). In real life some of the charge carriers will not travel all the
way through the depletion region, because they recombine with their corresponding counterparts
holes for electrons and vice versa which means that in real life the factor Y( is larger than 1.
Again see [48]. again is equal to the saturation current of the diode, the thermal voltage, is
the recombination current and Y( is the emission coefficient of the recombination current. As a
simplification the recombination current is set to 0.

]T\]Y
(113)
l
T
]T\]Y
]T\]Y
(114)
l 1l + k aA k
l 1l
] = k aA k
Y(
Y(
In the model from [47], the value of Y( was 1,08. By reducing the value of , the zero-bias diode
capacitance, to 0 and the emission coefficient Y( to 1, the effect of recombination and depletion
capacitance are removed. To test the effects separately the measurements were repeated with the
modified diode models. In Table 5-2 the value of the depletion capacitance is set to zero and in Table
5-3 the emission factor is set to 1.
]YCXYHT\Z = k1

71

Cbuffer =
IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

VEquation
879.5
727.3
648.7
614.3

10 pF
Vsimulation
868.5
698.0
610.2
548.2

relative
-1.25%
-4.03%
-5.93%
-10.97%

100 pF
Vsimulation
868.5
698.3
610.2
571.2

relative
-1.25%
-3.99%
-5.93%
-7.02%

1 nF
Vsimulation
868.5
698.3
610.3
571.5

relative
-1.25%
-3.99%
-5.92%
-6.97%

10 nF
Vsimulation
868.5
698.3
610.3
571.5

relative
-1.25%
-3.99%
-5.92%
-6.97%

Table 5-2 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with zero depletion capacitance as well as the relative
error.

Cbuffer =
IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

VEquation
879.5
727.3
648.7
614.3

10 pF
Vsimulation
876.2
718.4
630.5
576.9

relative
-0.38%
-1.22%
-2.81%
-6.09%

100 pF
Vsimulation
876.2
718.7
637.4
601.6

relative
-0.38%
-1.18%
-1.74%
-2.07%

1 nF
Vsimulation
876.2
718.7
637.5
601.9

relative
-0.38%
-1.18%
-1.73%
-2.02%

10 nF
Vsimulation
876.2
718.7
637.5
601.9

relative
-0.38%
-1.18%
-1.73%
-2.02%

Table 5-3 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with zero depletion capacitance and an emission
factor of 1 as well as the relative error

A number of conclusions can be drawn from Table 5-2 and Table 5-3. The error between Equation
(109) and the simulations show the effect of the neglected diode capacitance. By reducing the
reverse capacitance, the output voltage becomes less sensitive to the value of VY . It does show
that having a value of VY at least an order of 2 above the value given by Equation (100) does
increase the output voltage by reducing the amount of charge leakage during the reverse bias phase.
This effect becomes more pronounced as the DC-current increases, as the amount of charge drained
during the reverse bias phase also increases. Also, the emission factor of the diode has a big
influence on the current running through the diode as it works directly on the exponential factor of
Equation (109). The error that is still present has two main causes. First, the diffusion capacitance of
the diode is not completely removed from the model. This gives an increasing error between the
measurements and calculations as the diffusion capacitance is linearly dependent on the DC current.
Also in the derivation of Equation (108), the summation of higher orders of the Bessel functions were
canceled out because the system would be in perfect steady state. In reality there is still a ripple on
the output voltage, so the circuit is never in steady state. It is possible to reintroduce the first and
second order of the modified Bessel function expansion to Equation (108) to emulate those
frequency components of the current through the diodes like in Equation (115). This way Equation
(108) can be expanded to Equation (116) and gives a modified equation for the output voltage in the
form of Equation (117).

k1 +

\VH

]T\]Y

2 r, x

TZ
z

(% ) + 2r x

TZ
z

(2% t)

\VH
TZ
TZ
TZ
(% ) + 2r x z
l aA k
l = r x z 2 r, x z

TZ
TZ
TZ
r k l 2r, k l +2r k l

\VH =
NV
\V
1 + I

(115)
(2% )

(116)

(117)

72

If the value of Equation (117) for the DC output voltage is used, the error between the simulation of
an idealized diode and the calculated value becomes even smaller, as shown in Table 5-4. This is also
valid for the simulated model of the real diode, when the values in Table 5-4 are compared with the
those of Table 5-1 .
Cbuffer = 1 nF

Full model

Without Cj0

IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

Vsimulation
868.1
698.0
609.9
571.1

Vsimulation
868.5
698.3
610.2
571.2

VEquation
872.0
719.5
640.9
606.5

relative
-0.45%
-2.99%
-4.84%
-5.84%

relative
-0.40%
-2.95%
-4.79%
-5.82%

Without
Cj0,
ideality factor = 1
Vsimulation relative
876.2
0.48%
718.7
-0.11%
637.5
-0.53%
601.9
-0.76%

Table 5-4 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of a double diode rectifier.

What can be concluded from all this, is that Equation (117) can give an more accurate estimation of
the output voltage of an single stage double diode rectifier than Equation (109).

The N-stage diode rectifier

A way to increase the output voltage of a diode rectifier is to increase the number of stages. In the
case of a diode boost converter each stage consists of two diodes and two capacitors in a circuit that
looks like Figure 5-4.

Figure 5-4 - A RF diode rectifier consisting of N stages.

73

For this circuit, the same current calculations are identical for a single stage circuit and thus the
output voltage can be determined by Equation (118). The only difference between the single stage
and the multi stage design is that the number of diodes is larger than two.
\VH =

r k

TZ

l 2 r, k TZ l + 2 r k TZ l

2
1 + \VH

(118)

In reality Equation (118) does not hold perfectly for this circuit, as the current flowing through diode
x+1 is slightly smaller than that through diode x, because the current needed to compensate for the
leakage of capacitor VY c does not flow through that diode. For a worst-case estimation, it
would be best to take the largest current, that of stage 1, and then multiply that voltage with the
number of stages. The real value of the output voltage will be slightly higher. By how much depends
on the difference of the current in the output stage compared to that of the first stage. If this
difference is small, which can be assured if the output current is high compared to the leakage
current, this estimation will be more accurate. To my opinion it is better to have an underestimation
than a overestimation of the output voltage. If the voltage calculated by Equation (118) is compared
to the simulated voltage of such circuits, the relative error can be determined, again via Equation
(112).
Cbuffer =
IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

VEquation
1773
1439
1282
1213

10 pF
Vsimulation
1650
1305
1111
989.6

relative
-5.34%
-9.31%
-13.34%
-18.42%

100 pF
Vsimulation
1728
1387
1211
1132

relative
-0.86%
-3.61%
-5.54%
-6.68%

1 nF
Vsimulation
1736
1396
1220
1142

relative
-0.40%
-2.99%
-4.84%
-5.85%

10 nF
Vsimulation
1737
1397
1220
1144

relative
-0.34%
-2.92%
-4.84%
-5.69%

Table 5-5 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of 2 stages of a double diode rectifier.

Cbuffer =
IDC
0
1 A
5 A
10 A

VEquation
2615
2158
1923
1820

10 pF
Vsimulation
2465
1947
1654
1467

relative
-5.74%
-9.78%
-13.99%
-19.40%

100 pF
Vsimulation
2592
2080
1815
1697

relative
-0.88%
-3.61%
-5.62%
-6.67%

1 nF
Vsimulation
2604
2093
1829
1713

relative
-0.42%
-3.01%
-4.89%
-5.88%

10 nF
Vsimulation
2606
2095
1831
1714

relative
-0.34%
-2.92%
-4.78%
-5.82%

Table 5-6 - Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of 3 stages of a double diode rectifier.

If the relative error between the calculated voltage and the simulated voltage of the single, two and
three stage rectifier respectively from Table 5-1 , Table 5-5 and Table 5-6 at a buffer capacitance
value of 1 nF are compared to each other, it is apparent that the error scales with the number of
diodes, which makes the relative error about constant. For a single stage system the absolute error at
10 A is equal to 5.84% , for the two-stage 5.85% and the three stage has an relative error of 5.88%.
Thus it can be concluded that the assumption that the output voltage scales linearly with the number
of stages, and with it the number of diodes, is correct.

74

Cbuffer = 1 nF , IS = 20 nA , full diode model

1-stage (2 diodes)
2-stage (4 diodes)
IDC
VEquation Vsimulation relative
VEquation Vsimulation
1 A
683
648
-5.12%
1360
1300
5 A
603
559
-7.3%
1200
1120
10 A 569
520
-8.61%
1130
1040

relative
-4.70%
-6.91%
-8.13%

3-stage (6 diodes)
VEquation Vsimulation
2040
1950
1800
1680
1710
1560

relative
-4.74%
-6.92%
-8.77%

Table 5-7 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of an 1, 2 and 3 stage rectifier with lower
saturation current.

Until now, all diodes tested in this section had a saturation current equal to 50 nA. Table 5-7 shows
the relative error between the calculated value of Equation (118) and the value obtained from
simulations. Again, it can be seen that the relative voltage error can be considered to be independent
on the number of stages. The second conclusion is that the error in output voltage relative to
Equation (118) becomes larger as the ratio of output current \VH to saturation current increases.
5.1.3

Power analysis of a diode boost rectifier

Now that the equation for the output voltage is known, it is time to look into the efficiency of the
diode rectifier. To do this, first the power that goes into the rectifier a well as the losses that occur
inside the system need to be calculated. The next step is to determine the required output power to
the load of the system, which is equal to \N] . By now using the equation for the output current and
output voltage and placing this into Equation (119), an equation giving the power generated by each
diode is derived as Equation (120). In Equation (120) r, , r and r? are again given by Equation
(104). Now by summing the input power Equation (122) gives the input load of the system with only
diode losses in which \VH is given by Equation (118).

X\KK

1
] = J ] ] D
R
TZ
TZ
TZ
\VH
X\N]
] = K r, k l 2r k l + 2r? k l aA k
l

TZ
TZ
T
V
l 2r k l + 2r? k l exp k
l
YY = ] + X\N] = K r, k

NV

(119)
(120)
(121)

In Figure 5-2 we have seen that there is a resistive and capacitive path to the substrate in the case of
a chip based system. This loss path for each diode consists of a resistor R and a capacitor C .
Referring back to Figure 5-3, in the case of the blue diodes, the parasitic capacitance is loaded with a
DC voltage. This means that there is no current flowing and therefore no losses. For the red diodes
this is not the case and the losses inside these capacitors are approximately equal to Equation (122).
See [45].
]

When Qq (% q ) 1

1
\VH Qq (% q )
2

(122)

75

Now to sum up, the input power to this rectifier and the losses from Equation (123) can be derived
for the total input power of the rectifier and a power efficiency can be defined as Equation (124).
From this equation it can be seen that adding extra stages in the form of extra diodes can give a
higher output voltage, but does not necessarily mean that the efficiency is also better. In order to
know the exact efficiency, important parameters like reverse saturation current , substrate
resistance Qq and substrate capacitance q have to be known to determine the optimal
number of stages.
= X\KK YY + ] q
TZ
TZ
TZ
\VH

= K r, k l 4r k l + 4r? k l aA k
l + \VH Qq (% q )

2
X\N]
\VH \VH
{ =
=

X\N]

\VH

K r, TZ aA
+ 2 \VH Qq (% q )

X\N]
{

\VH
K r, TZ aA

(123)

(124)

(125)

Because for the circuit of this thesis the values of the leakage resistance and capacitance are not
known, the input power TZ will be taken from Equation (122), such that Equation (124) simplifies to
Equation (125). Because from Equation (118) it is assumed that the output voltage is linearly
dependent on the amount of diodes, the efficiency can then be assumed to also be independent on
the number of diodes or stages. To verify this, for two different types of diodes the efficiency of the
system was simulated in LT-Spice, by testing 1, 2 and 3-stage rectifiers, where the only thing that was
changed in the diode model was the saturation current . The same circuits were calculated with
Matlab. Then the relative error was taken, following Equation (126). The results are given in Table 5-8
for a saturation current of 50 nA and in Table 5-9 where the saturation current is reduced to 20 nA.
'

YXNHT|Y

KT(VXNT\Z VNHT\Z
100%
VNHT\Z

Cbuffer = 1 nF, IS = 50 nA
1-stage (2 diodes)
IDC
Equation simulation relative
1 A
71.1% 68.4%
-3.8%
5 A
65.1% 62.2%
-5.6%
10 A 62.7% 58.5%
-6.6%

2-stage (4 diodes)
simulation relative
68.5%
-3.7%
62.2%
-5.6%
58.5%
-6.6%

(126)

3-stage (6 diodes)
simulation relative
68.4%
-3.8%
62.2%
-5.7%
58.5%
-6.6%

Table 5-8 Relative error between the calculated and modeled efficiency of an 1, 2 and 3 stage rectifier with a saturation
current of 50 nA.

Cbuffer = 1 nF, IS = 20 nA
Cbuffer = 1 nF
1-stage (2 diodes)
IDC
Equation simulation relative
1 A
68.7% 65.4%
-4.8%
5 A
61.6% 57.3%
-6.9%
10 A 58.2% 53.5%
-8.1%

2-stage (4 diodes)
simulation relative
65.5%
-4.7%
57.3%
-6.9%
53.1%
-8.1%

3-stage (6 diodes)
simulation relative
65.4%
-4.7%
62.2%
-6.9%
53.5%
-8.1%

Table 5-9 Relative error between the calculated and modeled efficiency of an 1, 2 and 3 stage rectifier with a saturation
current of 20 nA.

76

The results from Table 5-8 and Table 5-9 clearly show that the assumption that the efficiency is
independent on the number of stages in this type of rectifier is correct. Also, the error between the
calculated value of the efficiency as well as that of the value of the output voltage becomes larger as
the output current becomes larger relative to the saturation currents of the diodes. All in all the
Equations that can be derived from the work by [45] are good estimations of the current and power
analysis of this type of rectifier.
As for the input capacitance. What the input sees from the rectifier in the case of a single diode is the
capacitance of a diode]T\]Y in series with the buffer capacitance VY at the output. In the case
of multiple diodes this capacitance is seen for every pair of diode and capacitance like in Equation
(127).
TZ_Y x

VY ]T\]Y
z
VY + ]T\]Y

(127)

In reality this capacitance is even larger, because for stage P, the buffer capacitance VY _C is in
parallel with the series connection of diode capacitance VY _C , and buffer capacitance
]T\]Y , . This extra capacitance is neglected, because this iteration makes analytical analysis
difficult. Also, as stated before, the capacitance of the diode is dependent on output voltage. Finally,
there is a variance in the values of the capacitance, because there is a drift in manufacturing values
of the capacitances, all of this means that this equivalent capacitance can only be determined by
measurements.

Because the input capacitance and the input resistance of the rectifier have to be compensated, in
order to have a system that is operating at peak efficiency, this process also needs iteration, because
changing the input impedance changes the input voltage. This changes the output voltage, and with
that the output power and input impedance. This again changes the input voltage, and so on. This
means that even with Equation (127) it is very difficult to accurately determine the input capacitance.

5.1.4

Possible alternatives to the use of a junction diode

Instead of using junction diodes it is possible to create a rectifier with a diode connected MOS
transistor. There are several articles describing the workings of a MOS rectifier circuit, for example
[49], [50] and [51]. All of these examples make certain simplifications in order to calculate the inputoutput relations. Partly as an expansion to the called sources [52] introduces an elaborate calculation
of this type of rectifier. The reason these components will not be used for this rectifier is that the
current relation of a MOS transistor when the gate is connected to the source, or drain in the case of
PMOS, is far less useful for a rectifier than a diode. As long as the absolute voltage across the
transistor is beneath the threshold voltage the transistor behaves like two anti-series connected
diodes, and thus the current will never be bigger than that of an equivalent reverse biased diode. As
soon as the threshold voltage is reached, a channel is formed between source and drain.

77

From this point on the transistor behaves like a variable resistance. As in an ideal world the
derivative of the forward current in a rectifier is infinitely positive, and the derivative of the forward
biased diode current is larger, MOS transistors will behave worse in a diode connected structure. The
problem of a resistive forward current can be negated to a certain extend by increasing the gatesource voltage.
This can only be achieved by having an external high voltage oscillator that is perfectly in phase with
the input signal. In order to generate this extra signal output power is lost, which is not wanted in a
situation where the input power is very limited.
A big factor in the efficiency of a diode connected NMOS (or PMOS) rectifier are the losses because
of leakage current while the device is reverse biased. In order to decrease this current, several
groups opted to use a series connection of a PMOS and NMOS transistor, shown in Figure 5-5. [53]

Figure 5-5 - Equivalent circuit of a ULP-diode.

The current flowing through such a series connection of an NMOS and PMOS transistor while both
transistors are in saturation, can be modelled where it holds that ] = ] , see [53]. Ideally
the input voltage of both transistors should be equal to each other. If the NMOS and PMOS transistor
are sized such that the current gain of both transistors are equal, the ULP diode will behave the
same as a single diode connected NMOS transistor as shown in [53] and [27].
One reason why this diode is not used for every rectifier is that it is difficult to fabricate. In order to
create both an NMOS and PMOS transistor the use of silicon as a substrate would lead to a relatively
large distance between both transistors, because one of them has to be placed in either an N or P
doped well. This leads to resistance in the circuit path between both transistors, which creates a
difference in the gate-source voltage of both transistors, as well as an extra voltage loss in the diode
itself for the main current. When placing the transistor on another substrate, the system requires
extra fabrication steps , which increases costs.
Another reason for the limited use of this diode is the area used. Area is often in short supply for
micro- and nanoscale circuits and the fact that both the saturation currents of the PMOS and NMOS
have to be the same, means that the PMOS has to be larger. This is often by a factor of 2 to 5, which
means that even without having to need an N or P doped silicon well we need 3 to 6 times the area
for the transistors alone. This leads to a larger capacitance to the substrate which gives larger
substrate losses.

78

5.2 A discrete rectifier realization

Now that most of the analysis has been performed, a realization of the RF rectifier has to be built.
Because of availability reasons as well as cost and time, a discrete realization has been chosen. This
Section will summarize the design of the rectifier that will be used in the final circuit.

5.2.1

Topology questions

This realization will consist of a Schottky diode rectifier instead of a PN-junction diode rectifier as has
been introduced in Section 5.1. This is because the Schottky diode has a higher saturation current
than a pn-junction diode of the same doping and Equation (117) shows that having a higher
saturation current IS gives a higher output current and a higher efficiency. Also, Schottky diodes have
a lower depletion and diffusion capacitances. With the help of the program Eagle from [54] it was
possible to build a circuit that could be milled and constructed at the university. Thanks to Section
4.6 the input voltage and ideal output resistance is known. Because the input voltage is known
Equation (118) as well as Table 5-10 can be used, which shows the properties of the used Schottky
diodes. With both these sources a function of the output voltage depending on number of stages can
be made. The only reference that is missing is the wanted output current. Because the efficiency of
this rectifier is not yet known, approximations are made to determine the output current. As the
system is capable of delivering a maximum output power of 370 W, it would be ideal to use an
estimate of the output current by specifying a minimum output voltage and then use that value to
give an output current. It is wise to assume that the efficiency of the rectifier will be less than 50 %
and the needed power for most of the implantable systems is in the range of 10-50 W. If a wanted
output voltage of at least 2,0 V and an output power of 20 W would be required, an output current
of 20 */ 2.0 = 10 *` is used. Also, the capacitance of the diode needs to be as small as
possible, because of the influence this has on diode current Equation (101). One thing that has to be
taken into account is that in the datasheets of diodes the reverse saturation current is often not
given directly. Instead the forward voltages at a given frequency and current are given.
Because the capacitance of a diode is strongly dependent on the voltage, a simple approximation of
the forward diode current can only be made without considering the current through the diode
capacitance in forward bias. Such a relation is given in Equation (128). This means that it is now
possible to calculate and approximate the maximum and minimum of the reverse saturation current
of the diodes given in Table 5-10 .
I
(128)

aA\ N ] / 1

Name / Type
Forward voltage (I = 1mA, = 1MHz)
Saturation current IS
Maximum reverse voltage
Diode capacitance (approximation at
1MHz)

1PS76SB40 [55]
Max 380 mV
Min 0.25 nA
40 V
5 pF

HSMS-2860-TR1G [47]
Min 250 mV
Max 350 mV
Max 45.4 nA
Min 0.83 nA
4V
0.3 pF

Table 5-10 - Schottky diode properties

79

Looking back to Section 4.6 it can be seen that the rectifier can have an input voltage around 500 mV.
If a output current of 10 A and at a voltage of at least 2 V is wanted, using Equation (118), it can be
seen that in order to achieve an output voltage of at least 2 V at an output current of 10 A the
minimum amount of stages to the rectifier would be equal to 6 for the 1PS75SB40 diode and 5 for
the HSMS diode. Because tolerances of discrete diodes can lead to a big spread in the saturation
current, as Table 5-10 shows as well as the given SPICE-models, the saturation current of the
1PS76SB40 diode is assumed to be 14,2 nA, which means that only 5 stages would be needed. The
HSMS286* model produced by [47] has the assumption of a saturation current of 50 nA. This is
strange as, the forward voltage given by the model leads to a maximum current of 45.4 nA.
In order to be able to build this rectifier the demand set by Equation (100) needs to be fulfilled. This
states that the capacitors should have a minimum value in order to give enough charge to boost the
output voltage.
%
\VH

VY \VH
5
(129)
y
10 10
2 16.22 10y

2
5
50 10 y
(130)
VY
.245 pF
2 2 16.22 10y

From (130) it can be seen that a value 2 orders larger than .245 pF would be enough to suffice
Equation (100). However, this is not the value for buffer capacitor that is chosen for the prototype
rectifier. This has to do with the factor of buffer capacitance to diode capacitance. The higher the
buffer capacitance, the higher the output of the rectifier, given that the losses caused by capacitor
charge leakage from the internal resistance of the capacitor do not become too large. As Table 5-6
showed for the three stage rectifier, at a frequency of 16 MHz, at a current of 10 A and a voltage of
1.82 V, Equation (130) gives a value for VY of
VY

50 10 y
.273 A=
1.82 2 16 10y

When looking at Table 5-6 it becomes apparent that at that value of buffer capacitance the output
voltage does not even come close to the value of Equation (118). This is because of the leakage
during the negative half cycle and that means that the buffer capacitance is still too small. At the
value of 10 pF, which is already over 30 times larger than the value given by 5 times the RC time, the
buffer DC voltage is only 1467 mV, the absolute relative error of the output voltage is 19.4 percent.
By increasing the buffer capacitors to 1 nF this error can be reduced to 5.88 percent and the voltage
climbs to 1713 mV. Increasing the buffer capacitance further to 10 nF would not give a large increase
in voltage to 1714 mV and with that a decrease in relative error. It then only drops to 5.82 percent.
That is why the value of 1 nF was chosen as the value of the buffer capacitance in the rectifier
realization.

80

Figure 5-6 - The first prototype rectifier using the 1PS76SB40 diode.

For the first prototype circuit the 1PS76SB40 diode was used. A picture of this board can be seen in
Figure 5-6. This board proved to be have too many parasites, caused by unshielded input- and output
wires, as well as the fact that the HSMS diodes in simulations outperformed the first rectifier in terms
of both output voltage and efficiency. In the rest of this chapter, the second realization of the
rectifier will be discussed in full.

81

Figure 5-7 - The complete circuit realization, including a 5-stage rectifier, impedance compensation network and a load emulator. Generated with Eagle
CAD software.
.

5.2.2
The circuit layout

82

The diode cascade

For the final version of the circuit, see Figure 5-7, the HSMS2860-TR1G diodes were used, shown in
the schematic as D, to D, . The buffer capacitances of 1 nF each are shown as , to , .
Furthermore, in order to have a larger amount of charge stored for demonstration purposes, two
further capacitors of 10 F each (,, and , ) are connected to the output via a soldering bridge
(I: ). The reason these capacitors are not permanently connected, is the fact that the circuit charge
time for the larger capacitors would make simulation much slower. After initial verification with
LT-Spice the larger capacitors were added. Because adding the extra capacitors influenced the output
power, the equivalent circuit in LT-Spice was changed by adding an extra capacitor at the input to
emulate the extra capacitance at the output.
The compensation network
As Equation (127) shows, the diode rectifier has an input capacitance as well as an equivalent output
resistance. These values can be transformed to the input as an equivalent input impedance
YWHTTY . Because the value of this impedance is not automatically the same as the output
impedance of the output inductor of the coupled coils | YWYT|Y | , and in order to have optimum
efficiency, these valued have to be identical, a compensation network is needed. As shown in Section
4.6 , the ideal input resistance of the RF-rectifier to be paired with the coupled inductors should be
825 . Because of the low amount of current in the order of microamperes and the voltage in the
order of several volts, the input resistance of the rectifier is much higher than 825 . The
compensation network could be used to give an equivalently smaller input impedance. In the circuit
the compensation network is given by an inductor (, ) and two capacitors (,? and ,:), which are
connected via solder bridges (I,, I , JUMOR). The reasoning here is that the rectifier itself needs to
be parameterized first, before any estimations on a compensation network can be made. On the
circuit board, these components were not installed at the time of the first measurements.
Load-current generation
The rectifier of the system will see a big capacitor at the output. As long as this capacitor is not fully
charged, it can be assumed that the current being drawn from the circuit is constant. In order to
simulate this for the prototype circuit, the Keithley 6430 Sourcemeter, data in [56], was used as a
current source load. If the current source would be connected directly to the output of the rectifier
the cables and connectors would pose an additional load to the rectifier. Also, the Sourcemeter could
itself be influenced by the currents flowing through the circuit and the varying impedance the
current source would then see. Because of this it was decided to decouple the current source from
the circuit. For this purpose a simple current mirror consisting of 2 bipolar transistors was used.
Whereas the first rectifier realization had this circuit on a separate circuit board, see Figure 5-6,
which was connected to the rectifier by wires, the final realization had this current mirror on board
with the use of a double BC847 transistor array (Q, and Q, ). The current source was connected
between the points GROUND and I_In. Also, an extra decoupling capacitor of 4,7 F (,<) was added
to reduce the variations in the input of the current mirror even further. Again, the full circuit diagram
can be seen in Figure 5-7.

83

The current mirror does not have a perfect 1:1 current ratio. There are several effects that lead to
the two currents leading to the mirror to not be the same. The first effect is that transistors have a
finite current amplification factor , or DC-gain. This means that the current flowing through the first
transistor is not equal to the input current of the source, but in fact smaller by a factor of around
Equation (131). Because there are 2 transistors being driven in the current mirror the final current is
about equal to Equation (132).The second effect is the forward early effect, where the voltage
between emitter and collector has a modulating effect on the output current of a bipolar transistor.
This leads to the output current of a transistor to be equal to Equation (133).
TZ
(T

TZ

TZ

1
1/(1 + )
2
1/(1 + )

(131)
(132)

aA ( q )

(133)

The used transistors BC847 have a DC gain larger than 300, the effect of the finite gain is negligible.
The forward early voltage of these transistors, which lies between 40 and 85 volt for the different
BC847 models, does have an influence on the output current. Also, a restriction on the minimal
voltage was made, because the current source only gives a reliable current relation above a certain
voltage. In order to determine a threshold for the minimum voltage two sets of simulations were
made in LT-Spice to test the current relation of the simple current mirror. Results of simulations
showed that in at an input voltage of 100 mV the relative error between the simulated value and
Equation (133) was 4 percent or less. At higher voltages the error became less than 1 percent. At an
input voltage of only 60 mV, the error had already reached 12 percent and the trend was climbing.
This lead to the decision to ignore measurements with an output voltage lower than 100 mV,
because it would not be possible to accurately determine the output current.
Finally, the oscilloscope that is used to read out the circuit has a large but not infinite input
resistance. Because the rectifier is connected to the input directly, the resistance is equal to 1 M in
parallel with a small capacitance. This means that the current, at DC-level, will be increased by
around 1 A per Volt. When parameterizing the rectifier, this output current needs to be taken into
account.
Circuit board
The circuit board was made from copper coated epoxy. The final result as well as the layout that was
generated by Eagle, is shown in Figure 5-8 . The SMA connectors for in-(left) and output(above) are
clearly visible. The twisted black and red wire pair are for connecting the current source.

84

Figure 5-8 - The final circuit board (a) and the Eagle board-design it was made from (b). Yellow 5-Stage rectifier, orange
impedance compensation network, light green extra output capacitors, dark brown output current mirror.

5.3 Measurements and simulation results

Now that the rectifier was created, it was time to measure the circuit and to see if the results match
the expectations set by Equation (118). The signal generator was the Agilent 33522B [57], the
oscilloscope was a Tektronix TDS2014C [58] and the current source was created with a Keithley 6430
Sourcemeter [56]. A picture of the setup is given by Figure 5-9.

85

Figure 5-9 - The measurement setup with oscilloscope, function generator and current source.

Figure 5-10 - The spice circuit used for the rectifier simulations. The equivalent cable capacitances are highlighted in red.

Figure 5-11 - The spice sub-circuit of the used rectifier.

The simulations were made in LT-Spice, the circuit used is seen in Figure 5-10, in which the
rectifier itself is given in a block called 5I Q p . The Spice circuit of the rectifier itself is
given in Figure 5-11, which is built by models of the used diodes ( , , ), as well as models for
non-ideal capacitors ( , , ). Resistance, capacitance and inductance values for the equivalent
circuit for the capacitors were taken from [59] which are used for 0603 SMD-capacitors. Although in
the circuits 0805 SMD capacitors were used, only small deviations of the model were expected,
because of the larger soldering areas. Also, small deviations in connecting capacitance in the order of
pF would not influence the behavior of the capacitor if its intrinsic value is 1 nF. The connections
between the function generator and the board as well as between the board and the scope were
made with coaxial cables with SMA connectors on the side of the board and with a BNC-to-SMA
transfer plug in order to make the connections to the devices. The wires have negligible resistance
and inductance; instead the parasitic capacitance of the cables had to be taken into account.

86

With a length of approximately 30 cm and, from [60], a given capacitance of 105 pF/m, the values of
the cable capacitance were chosen to be 30 pF. These capacitors are highlighted in red in Figure 5-10.
At the output the capacitance of the scope is added to this value.
The current source was connected using two drilled normal cables with 4mm banana-plugs on the
side of the current source and a solder connection to the board. Because of the fact that the signal
on this line is DC and the fact that the board has a relatively large decoupling capacitor of several
microfarad the parasitic components of the cable between the board and the current source were
not put in the model.
There is not a specific SPICE model for the used BC847 array, so one of the standard models was
used, the BC847C model to be exact. Furthermore, the reverse saturation current IS of the diodes was
lowered, compared to the model given by [61]. A current of 20 nA gave a much better match
between simulation and measurement than the original 50 nA. Given that the datasheet of Avago in
[47] stated that the saturation current could be between 0.8 and 45 nA, this is a valid change. As a
comparison Figure 5-12 can be used that shows the difference of the used saturation current, and
shows that 20 nA is the better value for the simulations.

Figure 5-12 - The comparison of the simulation versus the measurement for different values of Is.

The first measurement was to observe the output voltage of the rectifier as a function of the
frequency of the input signal. Ideally the rectifier should have a relatively flat spectrum and a large
bandwidth, which would mean that the rectifier could be used both with the proposed system at
13,56 MHz as well as the build prototype system which operates at 16,22 MHz. Figure 5-13 shows
that the relative variation of the output voltage between 1 and 20 MHz is lower than 1,2 percent in
either direction. This means that the frequency spectrum output voltage of the rectifier is relatively
flat between 1 and 20 MHz. At an output voltage of 3 volt the error would be less than about 30
millivolts.

87

Figure 5-13 - The relative deviation in output voltage as a function of frequency.

The reason of these measurements was to assure that the rectifier would perform equally good with
the prototype coupled inductors that operate at 16.22 MHz compared to the ideal system at 13.56
MHz. Also, because the input frequency is a factor in the speed at which the simulation runs and the
large amount of simulations required, the simulations were taken at 5 MHz, whereas the
measurements of the real system were taken at 16.22 MHz. Figure 5-13 shows that the error in
output voltage generated by this frequency mismatch would not be larger than 1.2 %, and that was
considered negligible.
For the next set of measurements, the output voltage of the system was both measured and
simulated for a range of input voltages and output currents. Because of the reasons mentioned in
Section 5.2.2, the true output current is not equal to the current selected by the current source. This
meant that the values had to be modified in order to give a true representation of the voltage to
current relation using Equation (133). In Figure 5-14 the measurements are the circles and the full
lines are the simulation results. This figure proves that the LT-spice model is relatively accurate and
can be used for simulation together with the circuit from Chapter 4.

88

Figure 5-14 - Output voltage as a function of output current at different input voltages.

Figure 5-14 shows the rectifiers output voltage behavior as a function of increasing output current.
The output voltage decreases as the input voltage decreases and as the output current increases.
When the input voltage decreases, the voltage drop across the diodes becomes more relevant
compared to the input voltage, decreasing the voltage boost of each stage. When the output current
increases, the voltage drop across the diodes increases, which again leads to a lower output voltage.
Because the error of the system was proven to be very small and the input voltage is the same in
both the simulation and the measurements, the simulations can be used to estimate the efficiency of
the rectifier. The output power was defined as the load current times the output voltage. See
Equation (134) The input power was defined as Equation (135) where the average of the product of
input current and voltage over several periods. For both conditions it was given that the output
voltage had stabilized.
\VH = \VH \VH
1
TZ = J TZ TZ D
R

(134)
(135)

The simulations were needed, because it was not possible to accurately measure the input current
without disturbing the circuit. Figure 5-15 shows the results of the efficiency calculations. Because of
the small error (< 1,2 %) in the output voltage and the resulting error in the output current and
output power, the efficiency could be 1-3 % lower or higher than calculated with the simulations.
This error is small enough to be neglected. As shown, the rectifier would have a power-efficiency of
around 50 percent given an input voltage of 500 mV and an output load current of 15 A.

89

Figure 5-15 - The power efficiency of the rectifier as a function of output current at several input voltages.

For the use in this thesis it would be good to have the power efficiency to be set against the output
power instead of the output current. The reason is that in Figure 5-15 the output voltage is not
shown. This information is necessary to calculate the output power. Figure 5-16 shows the relation
between output power and efficiency. It is shown that at the given 50 percent efficiency and input
voltage of 500 mV, the rectifier would be able to generate 35 microwatts of power.

Figure 5-16 - The power efficiency of the rectifier as a function of output power.

90

5.4 Conclusions on the analysis of RF-rectifiers

What can be concluded is that for a RF rectifier that has a very limited power budget it can be
beneficial to use a type of electronic switch that does not need a control signal, such as a diode. The
way in which this diode is implemented will determine the efficiency of the rectifier. When junctiondiodes are used the biggest point of interest is the diode capacitance and saturation current.
Increasing this current will improve the performance of the rectifier. Increasing the diode
capacitance will lower the efficiency. This is why often Schottky diodes are used instead of silicon PNjunction diodes. An equation for both output voltage and efficiency of a diode rectifier have been
implemented and have proved to be accurate to within 10 percent. The reason for the mismatch is
the neglected diode capacitance as well as the recombination of charge carriers inside the diode. This
error increases as the ratio of output current to saturation current increases.
A MOS transistor can be a better implementation of a diode, because its leakage current can be
smaller compared to that of a junction diode given that the transistor can be controlled with a higher
control voltage. The possibility of controlling the size of the transistors can give a lot of freedom in
finding the optimum for a rectifier. With discrete components however, this is more difficult as the
size ratios are given by the available components.
The ULP diode, consisting of 2 complementary MOS transistors has a lower leakage current than a
junction diode, which means that the efficiency can be even higher. However, this type of circuit is
hard to miniaturize in standard Silicon technology, because either the NMOS or the PMOS transistor
will have to sit in a N- or P-well, which means that the total area of the transistor will be large and
there is a longer signal path giving a larger resistance and more parasitic capacitance. Other
technology, like Silicon on Anything, are needed to implement such a circuit if there is only limited
size of the circuit. The designed and tested rectifier has an approximately flat spectrum between 1
and 20 MHz and can therefore not only be used for a 13.56 MHz system, but also for the prototype
circuit from the last chapter, which has an optimum at 16.22 MHz. The rectifier can, given an input
RF amplitude of 500 mV, have an output power of around 50 W, at a voltage of around 2,4 V.

91

6 Integration of the rectifier and coupled inductors

The rectifier and the pair of coupled inductors have now been analysed and parameterized. The next
step is to couple the two systems together. The most important part of this operation is to ensure
that the output impedance of the coupled coils match the input impedance of the rectifier as well as
possible.

6.1 Matching the impedance of the rectifier with the inductors

If both coupled inductors are designed such that they both can be operated at their identical
resonance frequency the output impedance of the coupled inductors is completely resistive. Because
the equivalent input impedance of the rectifier is both capacitive as resistive, in order to get a
completely resistive load that does not influence the resonance frequency of the coupled inductors
an extra inductance is needed to compensate. This inductance cannot be calculated analytically,
because each change of the inductance value changes the input voltage of the rectifier and with that
the equivalent input impedance of the device. Because of this non-linearity it is needed to run
several simulations to estimate the optimal value.
Because the equivalent input capacitance of the rectifier is in the order of 1-10 picofarad and
because in the case of the prototype coupled inductors used in this thesis it is needed that the
inductance compensates for the capacitance at 16.22 MHz, the inductance value that is needed will
be in the order of microhenry. Another small compromise was that the free solder space for the
inductor was for an inductor of a certain SMD size. With these restrictions a limited number of values
for the inductance were left. For these values simulations have been run. The output current was set
to 10 A. Figure 6-1 shows the relation between the values of L and the output power of the entire
system operating at 16.22 MHz.

Figure 6-1 - The output power of the rectifier as a function of compensating inductance. Iout 10 A.

92

At each of the three peaks in Figure 6-1, at the inductance values of 1, 2.2 and 15 H, a more detailed
model of the proposed inductance was used for a further simulation. The models published by [62]
were used for this purpose. The models show that the real inductor does not only have a inductive
component to the impedance, but also parasitic resistance and capacitance. As can be expected by
the addition of those parasitic resistance and capacitance to the ideal inductance, the results of the
more realistic model performs worse than that of the ideal inductance, these results are the 3 red
circles in Figure 6-1. With these results a value of 15 H for the impedance was chosen.
The next step was to add this inductance to the circuit consisting of the coupled inductors and the
rectifier and measure the output power of the resulting system as a function of the output current.
The results of these measurements can be seen in Figure 6-2. The measurements show a problem
with the system, in the fact that the performance is far worse than in the simulations. According to
the simulations, for example those from Figure 6-1, the system should be able to generate around
17,5 W of power with the current source set to 10 A. As Figure 6-2 shows it instead is only capable
of transmitting 0,7 W at that current setting. The reason for this was found in the presence of extra
parasitic capacitance in the line between the second coupled inductor and the input of the rectifier.
This capacitance is the result of the long cable and the BNC-SMA connectors used to connect to the
rectifier.

Figure 6-2 - Results of the first set of measurements with a 15 H inductor.

The next step that is taken to improve the stability of the system is to increase the output buffer
capacitor from 1 nF to 20 F. This capacitance is also non linearly transformed into an equivalent
input capacitance of the rectifier. The value of the equivalent input capacitance of the rectifier was
increased further and with it, decreasing the matching of the system even further, and thus lowering
the output power. Because of the large capacitance value, it is not possible to simulate the effect of
the output capacitance directly. It is however possible to simulate the effect by running another set
of simulations and with it estimate the value of the new input capacitance. The results from these
simulations are shown in Figure 6-3. The constants in these simulations were an output current of 10
A, a coupling of .0264 and an input voltage amplitude of 5 volt. It was concluded that this extra
capacitance can be approximated by a single capacitance of around 12 picofarad placed parallel to
the rectifiers output. This however is only valid in a single situation, that is, the one in Figure 6-3. If
the load, input voltage or any other parameters change, the relation between output and input
capacitance of the rectifier changes as well, which would lead to another capacitance value.

93

Figure 6-3 - The effect of an extra equivalent input capacitance on the output power.

It is not possible to increase the value of the compensating inductor to compensate for the parasitic
capacitance, because of the location of the capacitance and the fact that it is not a constant value.
The only possibility to increase the output power of the rectifier is to decrease the equivalent input
capacitance as much as possible. The correct course of action is to decrease the length of cable
between the coupled inductor and the rectifier as well as to eliminate the BNC and SMA connectors.
The best way would be to directly solder a short cable connection directly to the rectifier. That way,
not only does this nullify the capacitance of the connectors, it also decreases the shunt capacitance
of the inductive link. This means that the ideal frequency of the system will shift to a slightly higher
frequency. It was then decided to shorten the cables and remove the connectors.
Because of this change in the impedance of the secondary inductor circuit, the final set of
measurements were taken at different frequencies to determine what the ideal frequency would be
to operate. This had to be done by measurements, because with the removal of the BNC-connectors
between the output of the secondary inductor and the input of the rectifier it was no longer possible
to get an equivalent circuit for the secondary side of the inductive link. Because of the relatively low
coupling (< 0.1) the mutual impedance the primary inductor that would see would still be very small
and it would not be possible to derive the impedance of the secondary inductor from those results.

94

6.2 Full system measurements

As stated in Section 6.1, the rectifier was now connected to the output of the secondary resonator
with a small piece of wiring. In Figure 6-4 the two wires from the resonator to the rectifier can be
seen as well as the two twisted wires from the rectifier that lead to the reference current source. In
this Section the final measurement results will be presented and discussed.

Figure 6-4 - The new wire connection between the second resonator and the rectifier circuit board (blue arrow) as well as
the cable connections between the rectifier and the controlling current source (green arrow).

95

6.2.1

Measurement setup

With the connection between the coupled inductors and the rectifier made, the rest of the
measurement setup could be build. It was identical to that of Section 5.3 with the same equipment
for the generation of the input signal as well as the measurements itself. To recap, the signal
generator used was the 33500B Series from Agilent [57] , for measuring the output voltage the
oscilloscope was the TDS2014C from Tektronics [58] and finally the Keithley Sourcemeter [56] was
used for the reference current used to drive the output current mirror. The difference between
Section 5.3 and the measurements in this Section as well as in Section 6.1 is that the signal generator
was no longer connected to the rectifier directly but to the BNC-connector of the primary resonator.
6.2.2

Final measurement results

With the setup as described in section 6.2.1 the maximum amplitude on the Agilent that could be
used was a peak to peak voltage of 10 volt. Because of the 50 source resistance of the signal
generator the peak to peak input voltage at the input of the primary inductor was equal to 9.12 volt.
With this amplitude setting the output voltage was measured for six different positions of the
secondary resonator / inductor. These positions are
Hart-to-hart distance of 15 mm, angle of 0 degrees
Hart-to-hart distance of 20 mm, angle of 0 degrees
Hart-to-hart distance of 25 mm, angle of 0 degrees
Hart-to-hart distance of 40 mm, angle of 0 degrees
Hart-to-hart distance of 15 mm, angle of 45 degrees
Hart-to-hart distance of 25 mm, angle of 45 degrees
Each position was measured at ten input frequencies between 14.0 and 18.5 MHz and at each
frequency a minimum of four settings of the reference current was used. From the results it became
clear that the optimal frequency was around 17.5 MHz. This was in the line of expectations, because
the original system from Section 4 had an optimal frequency of 16.22 MHz, and with the
modifications made in Section 6.1, the capacitance was reduced and with it, the optimal frequency of
the system would increase. In order to keep the size of this Section manageable, at each position, the
optimal power and corresponding output voltage will be given for each of the used current settings.
Also, the true current mirror output current, given by Equation (133) from page 84 , will be given. Of
course the current through the oscilloscope, being 1A/V is added as well. Table 6-1 gives the values
for the aligned resonators, Table 6-2 for the two positions at an 45 degree offset angle.

96

Position
D=15mm, =0

D=20mm, =0

D=25mm, =0

D=40mm, =0

Current setting
(A)
Off
1
2
5
10
Off
1
2
5
10
Off
1
2
3
5
Off
1
2

Output voltage
(V)
7.29
7.01
6.70
5.76
4.28
4.89
4.57
4.26
3.33
1.88
3.41
3.10
2.77
2.47
1.85
1.38
1.02
.688

True output
current (A)
7.29
8.16
8.98
11.35
15.14
4.89
5.66
6.43
8.66
12.23
3.41
4.16
4.88
5.61
7.02
1.38
2.04
2.71

Output power
(W)
53.14
57.18
60.16
65.39
64.78
23.91
25.88
27.39
28.82
22.98
11.63
12.90
13.51
13.86
12.99
1.90
2.08
1.86

Table 6-1 - Final measurement results for both of the inductors aligned at zero degrees.

Position
D=15mm, =45

D=25mm, =45

Current setting
(A)
Off
1
2
5
10
Off
1
2
3
5

Output voltage
(V)
7.83
7.52
7.21
6.32
4.81
3.85
3.52
3.19
2.85
2.21

True output
current (A)
7.83
8.86
9.51
11.98
15.78
3.85
4.59
5.31
6.01
7.42

Output power
(W)
61.31
65.26
68.59
75.68
75.91
14.82
16.15
16.95
17.14
16.39

Table 6-2 - Final results with the hearts of the inductors at an angle of 45 degrees.

It can be seen that the system seems to operate at a higher efficiency with the resonators offset at
an angle of 45 degrees compared to them being aligned. Equation (51) from Page 31, would suggest
that the coupling at 45 degrees would be lower than the version in which the inductor coils are
aligned. However, looking back at Figure 3-2 from Page 30, it is presumed for simplicity that the
secondary inductor is perpendicular to the touching radius of the first inductor. This is not always the
case, thus the field itself has to then be calculated for each point. To illustrate this point, it is possible
to examine the absolute field strength Babs instead of the separate components. Babs can be given
by Equation (136), in which Br and B are given by Equation (40) and (41) respectively. Plotting the
outcome for the used primary inductor gives Figure 6-5. This shows that it is possible to have a higher
coupling if the inductor has an offset angle.

97

Figure 6-5 - The absolute B-Field at a certain distance from the center of the primary inductor coil.

rNK = Pr + B

(136)

Because the electrical changes in the circuit were made at the secondary side, the circuit of the
primary resonator, given in Figure 4-3 on Page 57 is unchanged. With the known input voltage it is
possible to calculate the input power produced by the signal generator via simulations as long as the
mutual inductance is ignored. Because of low coupling, according to Equation (51) from Section 3.1
the coupling is smaller than 0.07, this is a valid assumption. Using LTSpice the input apparent power
Sin was measured at 17.5 MHz to be 708.2 W. What this means is that the maximum efficiency of
the system is reached at a distance of 15 millimeters and an offset angle of 45 degrees with a
maximum value of 10.7 percent. The lowest efficiency measured at a distance of 40 millimeters and
no offset angle is equal to 0.29 percent. Because in Section 4.6 it was shown that the efficiency of
the non-ideal prototype build in this thesis would perform the same at a distance of 40 millimeters
compared to the ideal system at 75 millimeters, the value of 0.29 percent can be compared to the
field efficiency calculated in Section 2.2.5 on page 23. This value is equal to 0.24 percent, which
means that the power efficiency of the prototype system exceeds the field efficiency. Still the
difference is not very large, which gives another confirmation that the value given in Section 2.2.5 is
a good approximation of a magnetically coupled system in the given conditions.

98

The final results can now be compared with earlier work by [12], [63] and [64]. This comparison is
presented in Table 6-3 on page 100. The work by [63] poses an interesting option for powering
biomedical implants. Instead of placing the transmitting inductors in a bed or matrass, [63] places
multiple transmitters in the floor of a room as well as using a single resonating inductor worn by the
patient. [64] uses the principle of an extra resonating inductor inside the load inductor to improve
efficiency to a receiver that could be implanted underneath the patients skull. Finally [12] uses active
impedance matching technics to achieve a higher efficiency.
All of the mentioned works produce a higher output power as well as a higher power efficiency as
the prototype build in this thesis. That said, [64] does not add the influence of a rectifier in his
studies, only using an LED to illustrate that the system is working. Also, the system of this Thesis does
not use any impedance matching other than the inductor of which the value was determined in
Section 6.1. The other two examples all used integrated circuits as their rectifiers, which implies that
there was more information towards the parasitic impedances between the components as the
modern design programs have information integrated in their models. The system build in this thesis
had many imperfections and simplifications. In Section 7.3 these drawbacks of the build prototype
will be discussed once more with ways to improve the system.

99

100

In-Vitro
16.5 cm
41 mm
16.5 cm
6.9 MHz
90 mm
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
22.3 %

Tissue influence

Tx Transmitter coil diameter

Rx Receiver coil diameter

Resonator coil diameter

Frequency

Distance Rx/Tx

Output voltage

Output power

Signal source power eff.

Rectifier + Receiver power efficiency

Total power efficiency

= 5 F

50.0 %

92.6 %4

99.8 %4
3.0 %

Not defined

60 mW

3.6 V

Not specified

13.56 MHz

N/A

9.5 mm

Not specified

Not considered

0.35nm CMOS

/{

Table 6-3 - Comparison of this work with other related research.

Not e4 : only the efficiency of the rectifier is given.

Note 3 : estimated efficiency by calculating {

Note 2 : efficiency of signal generator determined by ( /

[12]

62.8 %

3.51 mW

N/A

100 cm

13.56 MHz

48 cm

1.1 mm

48 cm

In-Vitro and In-Vivo

CMOS (no size given)

[63]

2
)

with

Note 1 : Section 2.2.4 showed the effects of the tissue on the wave efficiency to be negligible.

Discrete

Used architecture for receiver

[64]

18.5mm

18.5mm

10.7 %

12.9 %3

0.29 %

0.30 %3

83.2 %2

83.2 %2

1.02 V

4.89 V

2.08 W

40 mm

15 mm

75.91 W

17.50 MHz

17.50 MHz

N/A

50 mm

Neglected1

50 mm

Neglected1

Discrete

This work

7 Conclusions and recommendations

After all the research, building and measurements, this chapter will present the final conclusion of
this thesis as well as a short summary of the contributions made to science and recommendations on
how to improve the results of future research.

7.1 Conclusions
The main question in this thesis, is it possible to construct a system that is capable of transferring at
least 360 Wh of energy within six hours. The distance between the transmitter and receiver is 7,5
centimetres and the energy will have to pass through air, skin and muscle tissue. The answer is yes,
even though under the conditions set during the measurements, the prototype was not able to
achieve these power levels. Equations show that with better impedance matching and a core for the
receiver that still has a higher magnetic permeability at the operating frequency, higher output
power is possible. Also the input voltage was limited by the used equipment, higher input voltage
would lead to higher output power as well as a higher power efficiency. With a higher input voltage
the efficiency of the rectifier would increase as well. Even with an efficiency of 0,29 percent the
amount of power that would have to be radiated by the main inductor in order to achieve a
minimum of 75 W of output power would be equal to 25.9 mW. A value that can easily be reached
by increasing the input voltage without the risk of too strong magnetic fields or overheating of the
primary inductor.
As for the use of ultrasound as an alternative to EM field transfer, it is not an effective method of
transferring energy in the scenario of this thesis. Even though there are examples of systems working
at mid to long distance (10 to 100 cm) and also system working in-vivo, none of these systems
include the actual transfer of air to skin. As concluded in Section 2.2.5, the biggest downfall of the
use of ultrasound systems is the transfer from air to skin. As the acoustic impedance of tissue is
orders of magnitude different from that of air, sound waves will hardly penetrate the skin. At the
same time, because the acoustic impedance of different tissue types is in the same order of
magnitude, acoustic energy transfer is a viable option for the transfer of energy inside the human
body.
As electrostatic energy transfer using capacitive coupling would lead to very low efficiencies due to
low capacitance values and ionizing radiation would lead to tissue damage, these options are not
viable for the scenario set in this thesis. Optical or infrared radiation transfer was also not an option,
because these system fall outside of my expertise. The only option left is to use magnetically coupled
inductors. Because RFID frequencies are used and the wave field efficiency increases with the
increase in operating frequency, an operating frequency of 13,56 MHz is used. The higher
frequencies of the RFID standards are not used, because the system had to be built with discrete
components and the influence of parasitic components increases with frequency as well.

101

In a system of coupled inductors, the law of Biot-Savart can be used to make a reasonable estimation
of the coupling factor , the value of which was determined by a summation of field intensities at
point on the receiving inductor. What is interesting is the effect of a ferrite core in the inductor, as it
increases the magnetic field inside the inductor and with that it increases coupling. Although the
used core in this thesis should not have ferromagnetic properties in the used frequency range,
Section 4.4 showed that the coupling at large distances was still larger than expected, some of which
can be attributed to a higher value of magnetic permeability * caused by a ferromagnetic core.
Placing a resonating capacitor in parallel to the inductors is a better option with respect of efficiency
and power in the case that coupling between inductors is low and the output impedance is high.
When the output impedance is low, a series connection of inductor and capacitor has higher
performance on the aspects of efficiency and power. For each set of circuit parameters such as
frequency, load impedance and inductor value, an optimal circuit layout can be designed.

The quality factor is a good tool to estimate power efficiencies of systems. Important is the fact that
many publications are not always clear on which quality factor is meant, loaded or unloaded, as well
as that the equations shown for circuit power efficiency are often for the inductive link alone, instead
of deriving the efficiency between true output power and input power.
In order to have a better output power and a higher power efficiency by adding resonators between
the existing inductors are used, it is a requirement that the quality factors of the transmitting and
receiving inductors are low. Otherwise, the addition of those extra resonators will degrade
performance. With the use of ferromagnetic cores at the receiving load inductor as well as a good
design for source inductor it is possible to achieve quality factors higher than 25. In this case it is still
possible to improve the power efficiency of the system, but only if the quality factors of the added
resonators is very high (>250). It is not easy to build a high quality factor resonator at 13.56 MHz and
in a small volume. As stated above, the use of a ferromagnetic core can have the same effect as
adding a resonator to the system. At the same time, the thesis has shown that when the quality
factors of both the receiving and transmitting inductor are higher than 27 (27.71 and 27.83
respectively, see section 3.3.2) it is not possible to achieve a higher output power by adding extra
resonators to the circuit.
The use of a ferromagnetic core has many advantages, like higher coupling and higher inductance
values, which increase the efficiency and output power of a system of coupled inductors. Because a
core uses less space than an a coil resonator, an additional resonator would be larger than a standard
inductor with a core. When the volume for a receiving inductor is limited, adding a ferromagnetic
core to the inductor would give a higher quality factor than the addition of an extra resonator. This
thesis also showed that it is very important to check whether the material used still has
ferromagnetic properties at the used frequency. There are existing materials that can be used for
systems at 13.56 MHz. The use of discrete components and the effect of circuit boards and wires
makes it hard to tune a system to a specific frequency, as the prototype system build for this thesis
had an optimum operating frequency of 16.22 MHz, which increased to 17.50 MHz after removing
connecting wires from the circuit (see Chapter 6). At the same time, if the build system would have
perfectly matched impedance, the system of coupled inductors would have been able to produce
over 350 W of power at 13.56 MHz, more than enough for the power demand set for this thesis.

102

This level of power could be generated by the prototype system of coupled inductors by reducing the
distance between the inductors.
In the design of a rectifier junction diodes perform better than diode connected MOS transistors,
because the current-voltage relation of diodes is better than that of MOS transistors. At the same
time, if it would be able to drive MOS transistors with a higher control voltage, the performance of
such systems would increase. Because this thesis uses only discrete components to construct the
rectifier and the power budget was very limited, diodes were used instead of MOS transistors.
Shottky diodes were used instead of pn-junction diodes, because Shottky diodes have a higher
saturation current for the same area and dopant concentrations.
Simplified equations as well as simulations with more elaborate diode models show that the output
voltage of diode boost rectifier is linear with the number of stages, as well as that power efficiency
and the error between the simulations and the derived equations (see section 5.1.3) is independent
on the number of stages. The size of the buffer capacitance as well as the diode capacitance is crucial
as a too large diode capacitance compared to a too low buffer capacitance will lead to large voltage
losses in the diode rectifier.
Finally, the matching of a RF rectifier to a system of coupled inductors usually involves the use of an
extra inductor, to compensate for the capacitive behaviour of the rectifier. This is ideally done while
factoring in the effect of the used cables as neglecting those effects will shift the ideal operating
frequency of the total system.
The resulting system was able to produce a maximum of 75.9 W of power with a power efficiency of
10.7 percent. In Section 4.6 it was determined that the prototype system of coupled inductors would
have the same performance of an ideal system with 75 mm separation when the inductors of the
prototype would be 40 mm apart. In the final measurements it was shown that the power efficiency
of the system at that distance would be equal to 0.29 percent. When the input voltage amplitude is
increased, not only will output power increase, the power efficiency will also increase. This is
because the rectifier becomes more power efficient at higher input voltage amplitudes.

7.2 Scientific contributions

In this section, the contributions to science made in this thesis will be summarized.

The comparison of acoustic and magnetic field transfer

This thesis demonstrated the difference in magnetic field transfer trough three separate media and
the transfer of acoustic field through the same environment. It demonstrated, by studying the effects
of free-space loss, attenuation, absorption and media boundaries, how an acoustic system would nog
be a viable alternative to magnetic field coupling in the used setup of this thesis. The reason for this,
is the large difference in acoustic impedance of tissue and that of air, resulting in a low transfer of
acoustic field energy from air to skin, or other tissue. At the same time, the transfer of acoustic
energy within the human body is efficient, because of the low differences in acoustic impedance.

103

The Matlab models

For this thesis, many Matlab models have been made, that can be used for the analysis of coupled
inductors, RF diode rectifiers as well as the transfer of acoustic and magnetic fields though different
types of tissue as well as air. These models are in Appendix B and C.

The circuit topology analysis for two coupled inductor systems

A full analysis of the circuit topology of coupled inductors, including the derivation of the coupling
factor between the inductors. Analysing the influence of resonance, the connection of capacitor to
inductor and the alignment of both inductors with respect to output voltage and power efficiency.

The analysis of the introduction of extra resonators

The introduction of two extra resonators was discussed in full, including the effects on output power
and power efficiency. This thesis demonstrated that only when the quality factor of both inductors of
the two inductor system are low, the adding of resonators can increase output power as well as
output efficiency. Adding a ferromagnetic core to the load inductor can increase the quality factor of
the receiving inductor to such a point that adding extra resonators becomes obsolete.

The new modified voltage equations for rectifiers

This thesis showed the model used for the current analysis of diode RF rectifiers as well as to rewrite
existing equations to get an input output voltage relation. Furthermore this thesis demonstrated
where the differences between the equations and the true circuits are and demonstrated a
possibility to increase the accuracy of the equations that evaluate output voltage and power
efficiency of RF rectifiers.

7.3 Recommendations for future research

In this final paragraph of this thesis, some recommendations for future research will be given as well
as a small discussion about the wrong assumptions made in this thesis.
To start from the beginning, the use of discrete components to build a magnetic transfer system puts
a researcher at a small disadvantage if the system has to be built on a small scale. The conditions set
in Section 1.3 would make it difficult to integrate the rectifier in the same build area as the receiving
inductor. At the same time, the winding of the inductor for the receiver was not done to the best
standard, meaning that several turns of the inductor were not perpendicular to the surface, which
leads to a loss in inductance. A better way of constructing such small inductors without using
machinery can be devised.
The next issue that can be improved is the integration of the rectifier with the circuit of the inductor.
With the use of discrete components The PCB as a whole would still be larger than 20 mm in
diameter, but it would lead to less parasitic capacitance and inductance in the signal line between
inductor and rectifier.

104

More research could be done in the effect of having a PCB on the back of the inductor as well as the
effect of a higher permeability in the inductors core. The equations set in Section 3.1 can be further
improved to make the development of the receiving resonator plus the rectifier easier.
On the point of the rectifier, it could be possible to reduce the size of the rectifier by changing the
discrete Shottky diodes to integrated versions in CMOS. For this realization two problems have to
resolved. First, the reverse saturation current of the integrated CMOS diodes has to be matched to
those of the discrete Shottky diodes. This could pose a problem, because of the area needed.
Secondly, realizing Shottky diodes on CMOS requires extra fabrication steps, which results in higher
cost for prototype production.
The advantage of being able to use software for the generation of CMOS circuits has the advantage
that much of the parasitic influence of the substrate as well as the signal paths can be simulated
along with the rest of the circuit. For discrete realizations, this is not easy to measure and with that,
difficult to simulate.

105

8 Lists of figures, tables and equations

a. List of figures
Figure 1-1 - Average life expectancy of example countries from five continents................................... 1
Figure 1-2 - An example of how energy transmitters can be installed in a matrass. .............................. 7
Figure 2-1- a sketch of the piston and integrating surface. .................................................................. 13
Figure 2-2 - A simple model to determine the attenuation and transmission values. ......................... 14
Figure 2-3 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of muscle tissue. ................................................... 16
Figure 2-4 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of dry skin. ............................................................ 17
Figure 2-5 - Relative permittivity and conductivity of wet skin. ........................................................... 17
Figure 2-6 - Magnitude of Z0 for different tissue types. ........................................................................ 18
Figure 2-7 - transfer coefficient from air through dry skin to muscle tissue with d_skin = 5 mm and
without considering losses through attenuation inside the skin. ......................................................... 18
Figure 2-8 EM attenuation of muscle-tissue ...................................................................................... 20
Figure 2-9 EM attenuation of dry skin ................................................................................................ 20
Figure 2-10 EM-Attenuation of wet skin .............................................................................................. 21
Figure 2-11 - Magnetic field efficiency as a function of frequency. ...................................................... 24
Figure 3-1 - The spherical coordinate system with the ring S. .............................................................. 29
Figure 3-2 - The coordinates and -transformation of a point p to a ring Cs.......................................... 30
Figure 3-3 - The coupling factor as a function of the ratio between the radius of the transmitter and
that of the receiver................................................................................................................................ 32
Figure 3-4 - an electrical circuit of two coupled coils. .......................................................................... 33
Figure 3-5 - an electrical circuit of two coupled coils with only resistors. ........................................... 34
Figure 3-6 - The frequency with the highest power efficiency f0 and the frequency of most power max
in a system with RL1 = RL2 = 3 , Rs = Rload = 50 , L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V. .......................................... 35
Figure 3-7 - The maximum output power Pmax and the power at the highest efficiency P(max) in a
system with RL1 = RL2 = 3 , Rs = Rload = 50, L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V, 0.01<<0.2 . ................................ 36
Figure 3-8 - The maximum efficiency and the efficiency at maximum power in a system with RL1 = RL2
= 3 , Rs = Rload = 50, L1 = L2 = 10 nH, Vs = 1 V........................................................................................ 36
Figure 3-9 - an electrical circuit of 2 coupled coils with a the load modelled as a capacitance in
parallel with a load resistance. .............................................................................................................. 37
Figure 3-10 - A circuit of 2 coupled coils, both with resonating capacitors and with C1 parallel to L1. 38
Figure 3-11 - A circuit of 2 coupled coils, both with resonating capacitors and with C1 in series with L1.
............................................................................................................................................................... 38
Figure 3-12 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 1. ......................... 39
Figure 3-13 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 2. ......................... 40
Figure 3-14 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 3. ........................ 40
Figure 3-15 - Comparison the output power of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 4. ........................ 41
Figure 3-16 - Comparison the power of 2 coupled inductor systems at high coupling. ....................... 42
Figure 3-17 - Circuit manipulation for calculating the Q-factor in parallel capacitance connected
circuit at the source. .............................................................................................................................. 44

106

Figure 3-18 - Circuit manipulation for calculating the Q-factor in parallel capacitance connected
circuit at the load. ................................................................................................................................. 45
Figure 3-19 - Comparing the efficiency of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 1. .................................. 46
Figure 3-20 - Comparing the efficiency of 2 coupled inductor systems - part 2. .................................. 46
Figure 3-21 - a circuit representation of a 4-coil resonance system ................................................... 47
Figure 3-22 - Relative efficiency of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both
source and load inductor in a series configuration, Qsource = 1.608 , Qload = 8.52*10-4. ......................... 49
Figure 3-23 - Relative efficiency of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with both
source and load inductor in a series configuration, and Qsource = 27,83 Qload = 27,71. .......................... 49
Figure 3-24 - Relative output power of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with
both source and load inductor in a series configuration. ..................................................................... 51
Figure 3-25 - Relative output power of a 4-inductor system compared to a 2-inductor system, with
both source and load inductor in a parallel configuration. ................................................................... 52
Figure 4-1 - Equivalent circuit of the secondary inductor coil. ............................................................. 55
Figure 4-2 - Equivalent circuit of the secondary resonator including parasitic capacitance. ............... 56
Figure 4-3 - The equivalent circuit of the build primary resonator. ...................................................... 57
Figure 4-4 - The experimental prototype circuit of two coupled inductors.......................................... 58
Figure 4-5 - LTSpice screenshot of the model used for prototype analysis. ......................................... 58
Figure 4-6 - Estimated values of the coupling factor of the prototype circuit as a function of distance.
............................................................................................................................................................... 59
Figure 4-7 - measured voltage-gain and the gain given by the estimated coupling factor values. ...... 60
Figure 4-8 - different values of the calculated coupling factor for different inductance values
compared to the measured value. ........................................................................................................ 61
Figure 4-9 - The output power and output voltage of an ideal two coil resonant system, with the
given distance of 75 mm at 13.56 MHz as a function of Rload. .............................................................. 64
Figure 5-1 - A single diode rectifier with buffer capacitance. ............................................................... 67
Figure 5-2 - Equivalent circuit of a single diode. ................................................................................... 67
Figure 5-3 - A circuit layout of a N stage diode rectifier. ...................................................................... 69
Figure 5-4 - A RF diode rectifier consisting of N stages. ........................................................................ 73
Figure 5-5 - Equivalent circuit of a ULP-diode. ...................................................................................... 78
Figure 5-6 - The first prototype rectifier using the 1PS76SB40 diode. .................................................. 81
Figure 5-7 - The complete circuit realization, including a 5-stage rectifier, impedance compensation
network and a load emulator. Generated with Eagle CAD software. ................................................... 82
Figure 5-8 - The final circuit board (a) and the Eagle board-design it was made from (b). Yellow 5Stage rectifier, orange impedance compensation network, light green extra output capacitors,
dark brown output current mirror. .................................................................................................... 85
Figure 5-9 - The measurement setup with oscilloscope, function generator and current source. ...... 86
Figure 5-10 - The spice circuit used for the rectifier simulations. The equivalent cable capacitances
are highlighted in red. ........................................................................................................................... 86
Figure 5-11 - The spice sub-circuit of the used rectifier........................................................................ 86
Figure 5-12 - The comparison of the simulation versus the measurement for different values of Is. . 87
Figure 5-13 - The relative deviation in output voltage as a function of frequency............................... 88
Figure 5-14 - Output voltage as a function of output current at different input voltages. .................. 89
Figure 5-15 - The power efficiency of the rectifier as a function of output current at several input
voltages. ................................................................................................................................................ 90

107

Figure 5-16 - The power efficiency of the rectifier as a function of output power. ............................. 90
Figure 6-1 - The output power of the rectifier as a function of compensating inductance. Iout 10 A.
............................................................................................................................................................... 92
Figure 6-2 - Results of the first set of measurements with a 15 H inductor. ...................................... 93
Figure 6-3 - The effect of an extra equivalent input capacitance on the output power....................... 94
Figure 6-4 - The new wire connection between the second resonator and the rectifier circuit board
(blue arrow) as well as the cable connections between the rectifier and the controlling current source
(green arrow)......................................................................................................................................... 95
Figure 6-5 - The absolute B-Field at a certain distance from the center of the primary inductor coil. 98
Figure A-1 - The spherical coordinate system ..................................................................................... 118
Figure D-1 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q3 = 1. ........................................................................ 129
Figure D-2 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q2 = 1. ........................................................................ 130
Figure D-3 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q2 = Q3. ...................................................................... 130
Figure D-4 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q3 = 1......................................................................... 131
Figure D-5 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q2 = 1......................................................................... 132
Figure D-6 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q2 = Q3. ...................................................................... 132
Figure D-7 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q3 = 1......................................................................... 133
Figure D-8 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q2 = 1......................................................................... 133
Figure D-9 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q2 = Q3. ...................................................................... 134
Figure D-10 Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = 1. ..................................................................... 135
Figure D-11 Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = 1. ........................................................................ 135
Figure D-12 - Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = Q3. .................................................................... 136

108

b. List of tables
Table 2-1 - Distance information for the example ................................................................................ 14
Table 2-2 - specific acoustic impedances of several types of tissue, .................................................... 15
Table 2-3 - transmission-coefficients between air and skin and between skin an muscle. .................. 15
Table 2-4 - Sound attenuation factor of air. .......................................................................................... 21
Table 2-5 - calculated sound attenuation factors of muscle and skin................................................... 22
Table 2-6 - Summation of the efficiencies of a proposed EM-based wireless energy system. ............. 24
Table 2-7 - Summation of the efficiency of a proposed sound based wireless energy system. ........... 25
Table 3-1 - Given variables for the calculation of coupling factor vs radius ratios. .............................. 32
Table 3-2 - Parameter table for the comparison of the power of the 4 possible capacitor
configurations........................................................................................................................................ 39
Table 3-3 - Parameter table for the comparison of the power-efficiency of the 4 possible capacitor
configurations........................................................................................................................................ 45
Table 3-4 - Example of Q-factor calculation. ......................................................................................... 47
Table 4-1 - Output power and -voltage for the prototype system........................................................ 64
Table 5-1 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with the relative error compared
to Equation (109)................................................................................................................................... 71
Table 5-2 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with zero depletion capacitance as
well as the relative error. ...................................................................................................................... 72
Table 5-3 - Output voltage for a single stage double diode rectifier with zero depletion capacitance
and an emission factor of 1 as well as the relative error ...................................................................... 72
Table 5-4 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of a double diode rectifier. 73
Table 5-5 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of 2 stages of a double diode
rectifier. ................................................................................................................................................. 74
Table 5-6 - Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of 3 stages of a double diode
rectifier. ................................................................................................................................................. 74
Table 5-7 Relative error between the calculated and modeled voltage of an 1, 2 and 3 stage rectifier
with lower saturation current. .............................................................................................................. 75
Table 5-8 Relative error between the calculated and modeled efficiency of an 1, 2 and 3 stage
rectifier with a saturation current of 50 nA. ......................................................................................... 76
Table 5-9 Relative error between the calculated and modeled efficiency of an 1, 2 and 3 stage
rectifier with a saturation current of 20 nA. ......................................................................................... 76
Table 5-10 - Schottky diode properties ................................................................................................. 79
Table 6-1 - Final measurement results for both of the inductors aligned at zero degrees. ................. 97
Table 6-2 - Final results with the hearts of the inductors at an angle of 45 degrees. .......................... 97
Table 6-3 - Comparison of this work with other related research. ..................................................... 100

109

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115

10 List of symbols
Unless otherwise defined in the text, the unit of each symbol is given behind the name of the symbol.
C
S
P

capacitance
apparent power vector
true power

(F)
(VA)
(W)

R
Ra->b
T
Ta->b

reflection coefficient
reflection coefficient between media a and b
transmission coefficient
transmission coefficient between media a and b

unit less
unit less
unit less
unit less

Rinductor
Rradiation
Rmaterial
RLi
Ri

resistance of a resonating coil

radiation resistance
material resistance
resistance of inductor I
resistance of resistor I

()
()
()
()
()

r
rt
rr
tt
tr

radius or distance
radius of the transmitter coil
radius of the receiver coil
thickness of the transmitter coil
thickness of the receiver coil

(m)
(cm)
(cm)
(cm)
(cm)

A
rwire

skin depth
surface area of the inductor
cross-section surface of 1 coil wire
conductivity
magnetic permeability
frequency in

(m)
(m)
(m)
(m/)
(A/m)
(Hz)

attenuation constant
attenuation number
coupling factor

(cm-1)
unit less
unit less

N
c

number of loops / number of stages

speed of the electric wave, in essence the speed of light

unit less
(m/s)

Diode and transistor properties (with subtext NMOS / PMOS for those type of transistors
Is
IsR
Isub
Id
Ids

reverse diode saturation current

reserve diode recombination current
subthreshold current
diode current
drain-source current

(A)
(A)
(A)
(A)
(A)

116

Cdiode
Cj0
CSUB
RSUB
VB

total diode capacitance

diode capacitance at zero bias voltage
equivalent capacitance of the path from diode to substrate
equivalent resistance of the path from diode to substrate
reverse breakdown voltage

(F)
(F)
(F)
()
(V)

Nem
Nem-R
M

emission factor
emission factor for the recombination current
dopant gradient factor

unit less
unit less
unit less

Bn

modified Bessel function of the order n

unit less

n
p
q

mobility of electrons
mobility of holes
elemental charge of a single electron

1.609*10-19 C

PR

Power ratio of a 4- compared to a 2-inductor circuit

unit less

117

11 Appendices

A. Appendix A Derivation of the Magnetic field vectors in Section 2.2

Figure A-1 - The spherical coordinate system

The spherical system is an alternative way to express coordinates of certain locations and works very
well in the case of a radiating source. Each point has three variables of the coordinates, being the
distance from the centre, the radius r, the polar angle and the azimuth angle . There is a
coordinate transformation that transforms the values of a vector A from Ax,Ay and Az to Ar, A and
A, This is given by the following equations

=
=

+ +
+
+
=

(137)
(138)
(139)

According to [16] it can be easier to work with a vector `B that is the curl of the magnetic field instead
of the magnetic field vector B itself. This gives rise to the magnetic potential A which follows this
equation.
1
B =
`B
(140)
*
Also we define that the magnetic source is situated at the origin of the coordinate system. The
magnetic source is a coil of wires with radius a with a current of I flowing through it. R is the distance
away from the coil of wire, is the magnetic permeability

118

*
`(a, , u) = J (a , , u )
4

dl

(141)

And k is the wave number given by Equation (142) , where is the radial frequency and m the
electrical permittivity of the medium.
(142)
k = %;*+( = 2 p;*+(
At a distance r from the centre of the coil the distance R in the magnetic potential equation is
defined as
(143)
Q = ; + 2
( )
Where a is the diameter of the transmitter coil, and the azimuth and polar angle and the
azimuth offset angle depending on the position on the transmitting coil of wire. Together with the
coordinate transformations and substituting Equation (142) in (141) we get an equation for A.
*

`=

Oh

(144)
J
o
D
4
; !N N KTZ ! W\K
Equation (144) is almost impossible to compute without simplifications. In the case that the magnetic
source can be seen as a small current loop, so a is close to 0, we can use the simplification in which
the term
;

Oh

; !N N KTZ ! W\K
can be approximated by a Maclaurin series around a = 0. This is the reason a small loop is taken as
the source. By cutting of the series after the second term we eventually end up with this magnetic
potential A.
* \
1
(145)
`
1+
4
If we then apply Equations (137)-(139) to (145) we get Equations (1)-(4) for the six field components.
In these Equations, Z0 is equal to the characteristic electrical impedance of the material.

=
=

4
2

1+
1+
1+

E = E = 0
H = 0

(1)

(2)
1
e
(kr)

$%

(3)

(4)

In Equations (1)-(4), Z0 is the complex characteristic impedance of the material, defined as Equation
(5), with being the radial frequency of the EM-wave, the magnetic permeability, m the electrical
permittivity and the conductivity of the medium.
j
Z =
+ j+

(5)

119

B. Appendix B - Used Matlab-Scripts Chapter 2

All Matlab scripts from this appendix are either provided by M. van Dongen or modified versions
from M. van Dongen.

EpsilonTissueCM.m
function [freq, EpsilonComplex] =
EpsilonTissueCM(freqMin,freqMax,Steps,Type)
% Retrieve the complex permittivity of human tissue over a frequency
% range (freqMin, freqMax, #Steps) (Gabriel, Phys.Med.Biol., 1996)
% Type Tissue
% 1
Blood
% 2
Bone (cancellous)
% 3
Bone (cortical)
% 4
Brain (grey matter)
% 5
Brain (white matter)
% 6
Fat (infiltrated)
% 7
Fat (non infiltrated)
% 8
Heart
% 9
Kidney
% 10
Lens Cortex
% 11
Liver
% 12
Lung
% 13
Muscle
% 14
Skin (dry)
% 15
Skin (wet)
% 16
Spleen
% 17
Tendon
freq = logspace(floor(log10(freqMin)),floor(log10(freqMax)),Steps);
omega = 2*pi*freq;
%EpsInf dEps1 Tau1
Alpha3 dEps4 Tau4
Alpha4
Table = [4 56
8.38 0.1
0
0
0
0.7;
2.5
18
13.26
0.2
2E7
15.915 0
2.5
10
13.26
0.2
1E5
15.915 0
4
45
9.76
0.22
4.5E7 5.305
0
4
32
7.96
0.3
3.5E7 7.958
0.02
2.5
9
7.96
0.05
1E7
15.915 0.01
2.5
3
7.96
0.05
1E7
7.958
0.01
4
50
7.96
0.22
2.5E7 4547
0
4
47
7.96
0.22
3E7
4.547
0
4
42
7.96
0.1
4E7
15.915 0
4
39
8.84
0.2
3E7
15.915 0.05

Alpha1 dEps2
Tau2
Sigma
5200
132.63 0.1

Alpha2 dEps3

0.22
0.07;
0.2
0.02;
0.1
0.02;
0.1
0.02;
0.2
0.035;
0.2
0.01;
0.1
0.05;
0.1
0.05;
0.1
0.3;
0.1
0.02;

Tau3
0

300

79.25

0.25

2E4

159.15

180

79.58

0.2

5E3

159.15

400

15.92

0.15

2E5

106.1

100

7.96

0.1

4E4

53.05

35

15.92

0.1

3.3E4

159.15

15

15.92

0.1

3.3E4

159.15

1200

159.15

0.05

4.5E5

72.34

3500

198.94

0.22

2.5E5

79.25

1500

79.58

0.1

2E5

159.15

6000

530.52

0.2

5E4

22.74

120

0.2
0.1
0
0.16
0.25
0.22

2.5
4E7
4
2.5E7
4
0
4
3E4
4
5E7
4
2E7

18
7.958
50
2.274
32
0
39
1.592
48
6.366
42
1.326

7.96
0.1
500
0
0.03;
7.23
0.1
7000
0
0.2;
7.23
0
1100
0.0002;
7.96
0.1
280
0.2
0.0004;
7.96
0.1
2500
0
0.03;
12.24 0.1
60
0
0.25];

63.66

0.1

2.5E5

159.15

353.68

0.1

1.2E6

318.31

32.48

0.2

79.58

3E4

1.59

63.66

0.15

2E5

265.26

6.37

0.1

6E4

318.31

Eps0 = 8.85E-14;
Values = Table(Type,:);
EpsilonComplex = Values(1) + ...
Values(2)./(1+(Values(3)*1E-12*omega*1i).^(1-Values(4))) + ...
Values(5)./(1+(Values(6)*1E-9*omega*1i).^(1-Values(7))) + ...
Values(8)./(1+(Values(9)*1E-6*omega*1i).^(1-Values(10))) + ...
Values(11)./(1+(Values(12)*1E-3*omega*1i).^(1-Values(13))) ...
+ Values(14)./(omega*1i.*Eps0);

char_impedance.m
function [freq, Impedance] = char_impedance(type,plot)
close all;
% -----------------------------------------------------%Obtain and plot the complex characteristic impedance of tissues
%-----------------------------------------------------Eps0 = 8.85E-14;
freqMin = 1; % Must correspond with the harmonic simulations
freqMax = 1E10;
Nsteps = 1e5; % Must correspond with the harmonic simulations
[freq,EpsilonComplex] = EpsilonTissue(freqMin,freqMax,Nsteps,type);
Sigma = -1*imag(EpsilonComplex).*(2*pi*freq).*Eps0.*1e4;
Epsilon = real(EpsilonComplex)*Eps0;
Mu = 4*pi*1e-9; % magnetic permeability
Omega = 2*pi.*freq;
Impedance = sqrt((1i.*Omega.*Mu)./(Sigma+(1i.*Omega.*Epsilon)));
ImpedanceMAG = abs(Impedance);
if (plot == 1)
figure();
loglog(freq,real(Impedance),'r','linewidth',2);
hold on;
loglog(freq,imag(Impedance),'k','linewidth',2);
legend('real-part','Imaginary-part');
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');
ylabel('Impedance Zo real-part and imaginairy part \Omega cm-1');
figure();
loglog(freq,ImpedanceMAG,'r','linewidth',2);
legend('Magnitude of Characteristic impedance');
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');
ylabel('Magnitude of Zo');
end

121

attenuationfactor.m
function [freq,Attenuation] = attenuationfactor(type,plot)
% -----------------------------------------------------%Obtain and plot EM-attenuation factor of tissues
%-----------------------------------------------------Eps0 = 8.85E-14;
freqMin = 1; % Must correspond with the harmonic simulations
freqMax = 1E11;
Nsteps = 1e5; % Must correspond with the harmonic simulations
[freq,EpsilonComplex] = EpsilonTissue(freqMin,freqMax,Nsteps,type);
Sigma = -1*imag(EpsilonComplex).*(2*pi*freq).*Eps0.*1e4;
Epsilon = real(EpsilonComplex).*Eps0;
Mu = 4*pi*1e-9; % magnetic permeability
SigmaSquare = Sigma.^2;
EpsilonSquare = Epsilon.^2;
Cox = 1 + (SigmaSquare)./(EpsilonSquare);
Som = sqrt(sqrt(Cox-1));
Attenuation = 2*pi*sqrt(Mu.*Epsilon/2).*Som;

if (plot == 1)
figure();
semilogx(freq,Attenuation,'r','linewidth',2);
legend('Attenuationfactor\alpha');
xlabel('Frequency (Hz)');
ylabel('Attenuationfactor cm-1');
end
end

122

C. Appendix C Used Matlab-Scripts Chapter 3

The following two Matlab files are the main Matlab scripts used in Chapter 3 to generate the 2D
graphs for evaluating the influence of adding resonators to a two inductor system.

qfactorsGraph.m
function [Data,Q2,Q3] = qfactorsGraph(Q1,Q4,k12,k23,k34,options)
%
%
%
%

this function produces 1 to 3 graphs of the relative power efficiency of

a four inductor system compared to that of a two inductor system. It
displays what happens if extra resonators with a quality factor Q2 and Q3
are added to a two inductor system

%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
%

--- inputs --primary

= [Rsource,Rl1,L1,orientation]
secondary = [Rload,Rl2,L2,orientation]
options
= [type,value1,value2]
if type
= 0
3D graph value1 < Q2 and Q3 < value2
if type
= 1
creates 2 2D-subgraphs with alternating Q2 = value1 and
1 < Q3 < value2 and for the second graph Q3 = value1 and
1 < Q2 < value2
if type
= 2
creates a 2Dgraph with Q2=Q3 and value1 < Q2 < value2

%
%
%
%
%

--- outputs --Data

- contains the power efficiency ratio information stored in the
output graph(s)
Q2
- value of the quality factor of resonator 1 (2nd current loop)
Q3
- value of the quality factor of resonator 2 (3rd current loop)

type
value1
value2

= options(1);
= options(2);
= options(3);

close all

if type == 0
Q2 = value1:1:value2;
Q3 = value1:1:value2;
Data = zeros(length(Q2),length(Q3));
A = k23^2*Q1*Q4 / (1 + k23^2*Q1*Q4);
for i = 1 :
for j =
B =
C =

length(Q2)
1 : length(Q3)
(k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(j))*(k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4);
((1+k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(1+k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4)+(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(j)))*
(1+k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(j)+k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4);
Data(j,i) =10*log10(B/(C*A));

end
end

123

figure
mesh(Q2,Q3,Data);
xlabel('Q_2');
ylabel('Q_3');
zlabel('relative efficiency (dB)');
end

if type == 1
Q2 = value1:1:value2;
Q3 = value1;
Data = zeros(2,length(Q2));
A = k23^2*Q1*Q4 / (1 + k23^2*Q1*Q4);
for i = 1 : length(Q2)
B = (k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3)*(k34^2*Q3*Q4);
C = (1+k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(1+k34^2*Q3*Q4)+(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3))*
(1+k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3+k34^2*Q3*Q4);
Data(1,i) =10*log10(B/(C*A));
end
Q3 = value1:1:value2;
Q2 = value1;
for j = 1 : length(Q3)
B = (k12^2*Q1*Q2)*(k23^2*Q2*Q3(j))*(k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4);
C = ((1+k12^2*Q1*Q2)*(1+k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4)+(k23^2*Q2*Q3(j)))*
(1+k23^2*Q2*Q3(j)+k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4);
Data(2,j) =10*log10(B/(C*A));
end
figure
plot(Q3,Data(1,:),'linewidth',2);
xlabel('Q_2');
ylabel('relative efficiency (dB)');
figure
plot(Q3,Data(2,:),'linewidth',2);
xlabel('Q_3');
ylabel('relative efficiency (dB)');
end
if type == 2
Q2 = value1:1:value2;
Q3 = Q2;
Data = zeros(1,length(Q2));
A = k23^2*Q1*Q4 / (1 + k23^2*Q1*Q4);
for i = 1 : length(Q2)
B = (k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(i))*(k34^2*Q3(i)*Q4);
C = ((1+k12^2*Q1*Q2(i))*(1+k34^2*Q3(i)*Q4)+(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(i)))*
(1+k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(i)+k34^2*Q3(i)*Q4);
Data(1,i) =10*log10(B/(C*A));
end

124

figure
plot(Q3,Data,'linewidth',2);
xlabel('Q_2=Q_3');
ylabel('relative efficiency (dB)');
end
end

qfactorsGraphP2.m
function [Data,Q2,Q3,out_D] =
qfactorsGraphP2(primary,secondary,k12,k23,k34,f0,options)
%
%
%
%

this function produces 1 to 3 graphs of the relative output power of a

four inductor system compared to that of a two inductor system. It shows
what happens if extra resonators with a quality factor Q2 and Q3 are
added to a two inductor system

%
%
%
%
%
%
<
%
%

--- inputs --primary

= [Rsource,Rl1,L1,orientation]
secondary = [Rload,Rl2,L2,orientation]
options
= [type,value1,value2]
if type
= 0
3D graph value1 < Q2 and Q3 < value2
if type
= 1
creates 2 2D-subgraphs with alternating Q2 = value1 and 1
Q3 < value2
and for the second graph Q3 = value1 and 1 < Q2 < value2
if type
= 2
creates a 2Dgraph with Q2=Q3 and value1 < Q2 < value2

% --- outputs
% Data
graph(s)
% Q2
% Q3
% out_D
-

--contains the power ratio information stored in the output

value of the quality factor of resonator 1 (2nd current loop)
value of the quality factor of resonator 2 (3rd current loop)
extra information (used in debugging)

close all
% retrieving relevant current loop variables
Rsource = primary(1);
Rl1 = primary(2);
L1 = primary(3);
if primary(4) == 0
O1 = 2;
else
O1 = primary(4);
end
Rload = secondary(1);
Rl2 = secondary(2);
L2 = secondary(3);
O2 = primary(4);
type = options(1);
V1 = options(2);
V2 = options(3);
out_D = 0;
w = 2 * pi * f0;

125

if type == 0

% create 3D graph

Q2 = V1:1:V2;
Q3 = V1:1:V2;
Data = zeros(length(Q2),length(Q3));
out_D = zeros(length(Q2),length(Q3));
for i = 1 : length(Q2)
Q1t = qFcalculator(Rl1,Rsource,L1,0,f0,[O1,1]);
Q4 = qFcalculator(Rl2,Rload,L2,0,f0,[O2,1]);

if (O1 == 1)
R1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
R2eq = Rl2+Rload;
RT1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
else
R1p = w^2*L1/(Rl1);
R1eq = Rsource+R1p;
RT1p = w^2*L1/Rl1;
RT1eq = Rsource+RT1p;
R2p = w^2*L2/Rl2;
R2eq = (R2p*Rload)/(R2p+Rload);
end
I2 = k23*sqrt(Q1t*Q4) / (sqrt(RT1eq*R2eq) * (1+(k23^2*Q1t*Q4)));
for j = 1 : length(Q3)
B = ( (1+k12^2*Q1t*Q2(i)) * (1+k34^2*Q3(j)*Q4) +
(k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3(j))) * sqrt(R1eq*R2eq);
I4 = (k12*k23*k34* sqrt(Q1t*Q2(i)) * sqrt(Q2(i)*Q3(j)) *
sqrt(Q3(j)*Q4)) / B;
Data(j,i) = 10*log10(I4/I2);
out_D(j,i) = 20*log10(I2);
end
end
% plot results
figure
mesh(Q2,Q3,Data);
xlabel('Q_2');
ylabel('Q_3');
zlabel('PR (dB)');
end
if type == 1

% create two 2D graphs

Q2 = V1:1:V2;
Q3 = 1;
Data = zeros(2,length(Q2));
Q1t = qFcalculator(Rl1,Rsource,L1,0,f0,[O1,1]);
Q4 = qFcalculator(Rl2,Rload,L2,0,f0,[O2,1]);

126

if (O1 == 1)
R1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
R2eq = Rl2+Rload;
RT1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
else
R1p = w^2*L1/(Rl1);
R1eq = Rsource+R1p;
RT1p = w^2*L1/Rl1;
RT1eq = Rsource+RT1p;
R2p = w^2*L2/Rl2;
R2eq = (R2p*Rload)/(R2p+Rload);
end
I2 = k23*sqrt(Q1t*Q4) / (sqrt(RT1eq*R2eq) * (1+(k23^2*Q1t*Q4)));
for i = 1 : length(Q2)
B = ((1+k12^2*Q1t*Q2(i)) * (1+k34^2*Q3*Q4) + (k23^2*Q2(i)*Q3)) *
sqrt(R1eq*R2eq);
I4 = (k12*k23*k34*sqrt(Q1t*Q2(i))*sqrt(Q2(i)*Q3) * sqrt(Q3*Q4))/B;
Data(1,i) = 10*log10(I4/I2);
end
Q3 = V1:1:V2;
Q2 = 1;
for i = 1 : length(Q3)
B =

((1+k12^2*Q1t*Q2) * (1+k34^2*Q3(i)*Q4) + (k23^2*Q2*Q3(i))) *

sqrt(R1eq*R2eq);
I4 = (k12*k23*k34*sqrt(Q1t*Q2) * sqrt(Q2*Q3(i)) * sqrt(Q3(i)*Q4)) /
B;
Data(2,i) = 10*log10(I4/I2);
end
% plot results
Q2 = V1:1:V2;
figure
plot(Q2,Data(1,:))
xlabel('Q_2');
ylabel('PR (dB)');
figure
plot(Q3,Data(2,:))
xlabel('Q_3');
ylabel('PR (dB)');
end

if type > 1

% create single 2D graph with Q2=Q3

Q = V1:1:V2;
Q3 = 0;
Q2 = Q;
Data = zeros(1,length(Q));
Q1t = qFcalculator(Rl1,Rsource,L1,0,f0,[O1,1]);
Q4 = qFcalculator(Rl2,Rload,L2,0,f0,[O2,1]);

127

if (O1 == 1)
R1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
R2eq = Rl2+Rload;
RT1eq = Rl1+Rsource;
else
R1p = w^2*L1/(Rl1);
R1eq = Rsource+R1p;
RT1p = w^2*L1/Rl1;
RT1eq = Rsource+RT1p;
R2p = w^2*L2/Rl2;
R2eq = (R2p*Rload)/(R2p+Rload);
end
I2 = k23*sqrt(Q1t*Q4) / (sqrt(RT1eq*R2eq) * (1+(k23^2*Q1t*Q4)));
for i = 1 : length(Q)
B = ((1+k12^2*Q1t*Q(i)) * (1+k34^2*Q(i)*Q4) + (k23^2*Q(i)*Q(i))) *
sqrt(R1eq*R2eq);
I4 = (k12*k23*k34* sqrt(Q1t*Q(i)) * sqrt(Q(i)*Q(i)) *
sqrt(Q(i)*Q4)) / B;
Data(i) = 10*log10(I4/I2);
end
% plot results
figure
plot(Q,Data)
xlabel('Q_2 and Q_3');
ylabel('PR (dB)');

end

128

D. Appendix D Verification of Figures used in Chapter 3

In this Appendix several figures used in Section 3.3 will be verified. This was done by making
simulations of the calculated circuit in the software program LT SPICE.
Figure 3-22, page 49
In the case of this 2D graph, the way to verify the equations was to take 3 cross sections of the figure
and take values along those lines. For this and the other 2D graphs, the lines that were chosen were
the lines Q2 = 1, Q3 = 1 and Q2=Q3. For Figure 3-22 these three cross sections are shown in Figure D-1
to Figure D-3 .

Figure D-1 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q3 = 1.

129

Figure D-2 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q2 = 1.

Figure D-3 cross-section of Figure 3-22 with Q2 = Q3.

130

Figure 3-23, page 49

In the case of this 2D graph, the way to verify the equations was to take 3 cross sections of the figure
and take values along those lines. For this and the other 2D graphs, the lines that were chosen were
the lines Q2 = 1, Q3 = 1 and Q2=Q3. For Figure 3-22 these three cross sections are shown in Figure D-4
to Figure D-6 .

Figure D-4 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q3 = 1.

131

Figure D-5 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q2 = 1.

Figure D-6 Cross-section of Figure 3-23 with Q2 = Q3.

132

Figure 3-24, page 51

Again with this 2D graph, the way to verify the equations was to take 3 cross sections of the figure
and take values along those lines. For this and the other 2D graphs, the lines that were chosen were
the lines Q2 = 1, Q3 = 1 and Q2=Q3. For Figure 3-22 these three cross sections are shown in Figure D-7
to Figure D-9.

.
Figure D-7 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q3 = 1.

Figure D-8 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q2 = 1.

133

Figure D-9 Cross-section of Figure 3-24 with Q2 = Q3.

Figure 3-25, page 52

Also with this 2D graph, the way to verify the equations was to take 3 cross sections of the figure and
take values along those lines. For this and the other 2D graphs, the lines that were chosen were the
lines Q2 = 1, Q3 = 1 and Q2=Q3. For Figure 3-22 these three cross sections are shown in Figure D-10 to
Figure D-12.

134

Figure D-10 Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = 1.

Figure D-11 Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = 1.

135

Figure D-12 - Cross-section of Figure 3-25 with Q2 = Q3.

136

Acknowledgements
As this thesis comes to an end, it is time to think back on the time working in the Delft University of
Technology. It has been a time, not only filled with fun, but also with stress and problems, many of
which by my own doing. That said, I would not doubt a single second if I would be asked if I would do
it again. My answer would be, Yes, of course. Working in the university has given me a new look
on life and everything around it. It has opened my eyes to new possibilities and options for the
future. I would recommend everyone who thinks he or she could do a Bachelor and Master degree,
to just do it.
I would not have been able to finish this work without support. Not only from my family, but also
everyone from the Bio-Medical Group of the Delft University of Technology as well as several
students and teachers from the faculty Elektronical Engineering . Furthermore, my special thanks
go out to three persons. Firstly, thanks to Drs. W.A. Serdijn for the support and managing me during
my work, bringing me back on track if I got to wrapped up in secondary problems. Secondly, Drs. M.
van Dongen who was not only my supervisor, but also assisted my work by allowing me to use his
Matlab scripts to perform wave field analysis. Finally, I would like to thank miss M. de Vlieger. She is
not a Doctor or PhD, but without her I am sure the entire group would collapse. Bringing everything
together by doing the often dreadfully boring paperwork and organizing trips and other fun stuff, my
experience of this MSc project would simply not be the same.

As the final words of this thesis, again thanks to everyone who I had the favor of working with during
my time at the Delft University of Technology. I will be looking back at a very satisfying time of my
life.

Regards,

Sander Fondse

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