2013 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD), 16 -17 December 2013, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Wireless Power Transfer For Small Scale Application

1
Ravi Lakshmanan, 2Kok Hoe Keat 3
Rajendran Sinnadurai
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation University Selangor, Bestari Jaya Campus, Batang Bejuntai,
Lot 6, TPM, Bukit Jalil, Malaysia Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
1
ravi@apu.edu.my & 2briankok90@gmail.com 3
rajendran@unisel.edu.my

Abstract The password security wireless power transfer system wiring. According to the survey by International Copper Study
is the integration of password security into wireless electrical Group, 9628 thousand metric tonnes, which totalled up
power design which has a separate power design from source to 43.57% of global copper usage, is used in electrical power,
load controlled by password controller. The revolution for power utility, consumer and general products sectors in year
wireless power and communications has arrived with wireless 2009, a large percentage of global copper usage is consumed
technologies widely integrated into wide range of products,
for electricity as shown in Fig. 2 [1].
provides new levels of convenience, interaction and monitoring.
Consumer behaviours and demands have shifted for better
reliability, convenience and innovative products. The research
idea is innovative and no familiar design application and
products are developed within designated electrical area. The
research aims to design and develop a small scale wireless power
transfer system via resonance inductive coupling wireless power
technique to transmit power through high resonant frequency. A
robust password security system is designed and developed using
Arduino Deumilanove microcontroller, which adopts knowledge-
based authentication technique to control the wireless power
system. Full system analysis and experimental tests were
conducted and it recorded 60% efficiency across transmitting
distance of 50mm and the best transmitting and receiving
antenna position are identified with range of 1 cm to 2 cm offset
for antenna intersection for maximum efficiency. The research
serves a good platform for electrical power design in security Fig. 1. Malaysia Electric Power Consumption from 1990 to 2009.
system and could be improvised further with advance system
development, which can be commercialized to the public.

Keywords-Wireless Power Transfer, Resonant Frequency and

Arduino Deumilanove Microcontroller.

I. INTRODUCTION

Electricity is an important source of energy in todays world

because almost every application needs to be powered by
electricity, for energy conversion into various forms such as
heat, light, sound and mechanical energy. Malaysia is a
developing country that has high electricity supply coverage
throughout the nation with accessibility as high as 99.4% [1].
With the growing population and industrialization in
Malaysia, the electrical power consumption has increases
within a percentage range of 1% to 8% from year 1990 until
2009 as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 2. Major Uses of Copper: Usage by End-Use Sector and Region for
Power cables are the essential components for electrical Year 2009 (International Copper Study Group, 2010)
conductivity for power transmission and delivery, extensively
used in manufacturing insulated and non-insulated power The research aims to design and develop a small scale wireless
cables for high, medium and low voltage application, power power transfer system using resonance inductive coupling
transmission cables, commercial and residential building wireless power technique to transmit power through high

978-1-4799-2656-5/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE 31

resonant frequency. A robust password security system is maximum power transfer. At resonance stage, the circuit is
designed and developed using Arduino Deumilanove oscillating at particular resonant frequency causing impedance
microcontroller that adopts knowledge based authentication between input and output is equivalent or minimum and
technique to control the wireless power system. transfers function at maximum [2,3,4]. The resonant frequency
is shown in equation (1).
With the increasing demand of mankind towards electricity,
the copper usage for power design are increasing and the
f = (1)
importance of electricity and wireless technologies is justified
in ability to reduce copper usage in power design by using
wireless power technique. It is identified that resonant wireless
electricity transmission is the most effective wireless power
transfer techniques.

The password security system developed is reviewed and the

resonant inductive coupling is the most efficient wireless
power transfer techniques with high resonant frequency. The
power transmission has no harm to human with magnetic field
radiation and performs good efficiency for wireless power
transmission at high resonant frequency [7]. Password
protection system has identified the 3 major techniques
commonly used in today world, biometric authentication being
the most effective way for authentication protection due to its
distinctive biological features from every individual and
simplest way for authentication and effective to combine it
with other technique. However, a simple password protection Fig. 4. Password Security Wireless Power System Block Diagram
on knowledge-based technique will be sufficient and effective
for prototype system to make it cost effective [5]. A frequency generator circuit is designed and constructed
using timer IC, LM555 to generate a high frequency
oscillating at 130kHz. DC to AC inverter circuit is designed
II. PASSWORD SECURITY WIRELESS POWER SYSTEM DESIGN and used to convert the timer DC output to AC output
oscillating at 130kHz frequency. Equation (2) is used to
A wireless power system integrated with password protection determine resistor R1, R2 and C1.
system will be constructed using a frequency generator to
generate high frequency signal resonating at specific 130 kHz .
frequency for successful power transfer from transmitter to R =
(2)
receiver for load activation. The design concept is shown in
Fig. 3. Assume that capacitor, C1 is a known value of 180pF and
resistors, R1 and R2 should be at a ratio of 1:10. Resistor, R2
is calculated with equation (2) and URXQGHG WR QHDUHVW N
and R1 VKRXOG EH N The output of LM555 timer is a DC
square waveform voltage output oscillating at approximately
Fig. 3. Design Concept. 130 kHz. The DC output is amplified to 9V using a power
MOSFET. An AC inverter circuit is designed using NPN and
Password protection system constructed using controller PNP transistor to generate a square wave AC voltage output
allows only authorized user with password to activate the that swings at 129.63 kHz frequency.
wireless power system. Upon password activation, transmitter
circuit will be activated and transmitting high resonant In order to suit the design of the password security wireless
frequency between transmitting and receiving coil antennas. power system, pin 4 is manipulated as an external trigger with
Both transmitter and receiver resonance tanks will be tuned for input signals from password controller, which is active high. It
maximum power transfer through impedance matching. The is represented with a switch in the schematic design that short-
generated output voltage is rectified and loaded with lock circuited when it is triggered for IC activation else will be an
mechanism. open circuit which always pull down to ground as shown in
Fig. 5.
Wireless Power System will be developed using resonance
inductive coupling wireless power transfer technique which
transferring in high frequency normally at Mega Hertz and the
impedance is matched between source and load to have

32
 By using equation (3), the number of turns of the self-made
coil inductor is calculated with parameters set in Table I. The
inductance of the coil inductor is calculated with parameters
set using equation (3) and its yield to 12 turns. Multiple
adjustments on the coil parameters and the number of turns are
required to increase the accuracy of self-wrapped coil
inductor.

Maxwell-Wien Bridge is used to ensure that the coil inductors

made are closed to the desired inductance. The setup of the
bridge is shown in Fig. 6. The unknown inductor will be
connected at L3.

Fig. 5. Frequency Generator with Trigger Circuit Analysis.

Maximum power transfer occurs during resonance where the

capacitor reactance is equivalent to the inductor reactance.
Equation (1) is used to calculate the inductance with assumed
capacitor, C = 100nF and resonant frequency, fr = 129.63kHz.
The inductor rated 15.074H with capacitor rated 100nF
connected in parallel in both transmitter and receiver at
129.63kHz frequency will have maximum power transfer at
resonance stage.

A resonant tank with inductor and capacitor of rated value will

ensure that transmitter and receiver oscillating at the same
resonant frequency for maximum power transfer [2,3,4]. The
size of the coil inductor can be varied in diameter and shaped Fig. 6. Maxwell-Wien Bridge for Inductance Measurement
into different shapes such as circular, rectangular or spiral [7].
The coil inductor is personally constructed and the types of For real part,
wires used and number of turns will affect the inductance
values. Coil inductors are required to produce the required R R = R R (4)
rated inductance and enable successful power transferred.
Wheelers multilayer air core solenoid equation shown in The resistors R1, R2, R3 and R4 used are the same, which are
equation (3) is used to design and determine the inductance of NWRHQVXUHWKDWWKHFRQGLWLRQRIHTXDWLRQ (4) fulfilled when
a self-made coil inductor [6,8]. the bridge is balanced.

. N2 For imaginary part,

L = (3)
( )
L = C R R (5)
Where,
L = inductance in microhenries (H) L3 will be 15.074H, R2 and R4 DUH N WKXV &1 is to be
R1 = inner radius of coil in meters (m) calculated by equation (5) and its yield to 15pF to be
R2 = outer radius of coil in meters (m) connected as shown in the designed bridge, the bridge only
l = physical length of coil winding in meters (m) will be stable when the inductor are wrapped with the desired
N = total number of turns inductance, 15.074H. This will be used to determine the
inductance of the self-wrapped inductor as the coil antenna.
The characteristics of the coil inductor design are shown in
Table I. Cockroft Walton (CW) Generator is a voltage booster inverter
that used to convert AC voltage to a higher DC voltage. It can
TABLE I. INDUCTOR COIL PARAMETER be designed with multiple stages of voltage multiplier with
capacitors and diodes. The number of stages for voltage
Inductance, H R1, m R2, m l, m multiplier will justify the number of capacitors and diodes
15.074 0.031 0.035 0.006 required. It is low cost, relatively smaller in size, lighter and
simple. The given output voltage formula for AC to DC
voltage converter and voltage multiplier with Cockroft Walton

33
generator. Using equation (6), Cockroft Walton Generator is
designed with assumed minimum voltage, Vp-p = 0.8V to
identify the number of voltage multiplication stages. The
number of the voltage multiplier stages is computed to 2.
Vout = 2 x Vin(rms) x 1.414 x Nstages (6)
Cockroft Walton generator is designed and simulation testing
is performed in Multisim as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Cockroft Walton Generator Circuit Analysis
To meet the requirement of the password security system,
Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller with ATmega168 PIC
chip is used. It consists of 14 digital input and output pins out
of which 6 pins are used as PWM outputs, 6 analog inputs,
16MHz crystal oscillator, 512 bytes of EEPROM memory,
USB connection and power jack for power supply to serve the
requirement of the system. A 5V input voltage is given to
activate the microcontroller and programming codes are
written and flashed into the ATmega168 PIC chip to process
inputs and output signals. Keypad is connected to the digital
I/O pins as input and output trigger signal is assigned for pin
13.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The whole project layout is shown in Fig. 8. Upon successful
password entry, the password controller will send a triggering
pulsing voltage to the transmitter to activate the wireless
power system. The transmitter will generate an AC signal
oscillating at a resonant frequency of 130kHz and the receiver
circuit with resonant tank is tuned to match the impedance of
the transmitting antenna for successful power transfer. The
received voltage is charged up and converted from AC to DC
through Cockroft Walton generator. The output voltage is
loaded with a LED for testing. The transmitter consists of a
square wave frequency generator constructed with LM555 to
produce a DC pulsing signal and further converted to AC
signal oscillating at 130kHz. The main components for the
IUHTXHQF\ JHQHUDWRUDUHUHVLVWRUV5DQG 5 ZKLFKDUHN
34
DQG N DQG FDSDFLWRU S) 7KHUH LV D VOLJKW GLIIHUHQW LQ
resistors reading due to its loading effects. IRF510 is a
MOSFET used as voltage pull up transistor whereas NPN
WUDQVLVWRU1DQG313ZLWKUHVLVWRUGLYLGHURI
act as a switching effect to convert DC pulsing to AC signal
oscillating at 130kHz.
Fig. 8. Whole Project Layout
Resonant tank at both transmitter and receiver circuit designed
with 100nF capacitor connected in parallel to the coil
inductors for impedance matching to have maximum power
transfer. The output voltage is loaded with LED. The
transmitting and receiving coil antenna is wrapped using 18
SWG solid enamelled copper magnet wire for the required
inductance as shown in Fig. 9. The number of turns for a
specific 15uH inductance of inductor is calculated through
Wheelers formula and the coil inductor has 12 turns sized
with 7cm diameter. It is tested with Maxwell-Wien Bridge and
further tuned. The coil inductor is previously constructed
using 30 SWG non-insulated copper wires with number of
turns recalculated using Wheelers formula, it is observed that
no voltage reading is recorded because the loss rate is too
high.
The transmitter system is controlled by a password security
system developed with Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller.
The connection of the controller and matrix keypad is as
shown in Fig. 10. Upon successful password entry, pin 13 is
triggered high and LED will light up to indicate successful
password entry. The output trigger of pin 13 will be connected
to the RESET pin, pin 4 of LM555 for chip activation to
activate the transmitter system. The frequency generator that
aims to generate an AC output voltage swing at approximation
of 130 kHz is put into testing to ensure the efficiency of the
generator. The time period of 1 full cycle will be 7.69s. A
DC input supply of 9V is given and the oscilloscope is set
with timer interval of 5s and amplitude of 2V. The DC
output and AC output is probed into the oscilloscope and the
waveforms and voltage swing are taken as shown in Fig. 11
and Fig. 12.
 According to Fig. 11 and Fig. 12, the DC output achieves a 7V
DC pulsing signal and upon converted to AC signal, it
recorded voltage swing at 130kHz frequency with 5V peak to
peak voltage in which the converter experienced losses during
DC to AC conversions. The magnitude difference is due to
transistor current sinking process and heat factors. The
received output AC voltage swing and frequency recorded
almost similar output as transmitter. The output signal is
reduced due to coil position and stray capacitances on the
transmitting and receiving coil antenna, which did not achieve
the peak of maximum power transfer.

Cockroft Walton Generator is an AC to DC voltage boosting

converter to boost the received output voltage to desired value.
Fig. 9. Transmitting and Receiving Coil Antenna Design The output of the receiver is estimated with a percentage of
power losses during the transmission and the Cockroft Walton
generator is designed with 2 stages to boost the output voltage.
During the voltage boosting process, there are power losses
due to diode and capacitive loading and thus it is limited to 2
number of stages designed. It recorded a loaded output DC
LM555 voltage 2.5V and no load voltage at 3.2V. In order to analyse
Pin 4 the wireless power system, two experiments are set up to test
and evaluate the efficiency of the designed wireless power
system across distance and area of coverage. The 5V input
LM555 voltage, 7cm coil diameter and 0.5 initial air gap are set for
GND both experiments. The purpose of the transmission distant test
is to evaluate the transmission efficiency of the wireless power
system across the distance. The experiment setup has both
primary transmitting and secondary receiving coil antenna
Fig. 10. Arduino Duemilanove Password Controller kept stationary facing completely facing each another. A meter
ruler will be placed horizontally across X-axis as shown in
Fig. 13 and the secondary receiving coil antenna will be
moving from left to right with 0.5cm interval and the output
voltage across transmitted distance are recorded. The primary
transmitting coil antenna and other parameters are kept
stationary throughout the experiment.

Fig. 11. DC Output Waveform

Fig. 13. Coil Position for Experiment 1

Both output no load and loaded voltage are recorded and

analysed as shown in Fig 14. The output voltage decreases at
range of 0.2 to 0.3V as the test distance increases for every
0.5cm. The efficiency of the wireless power transfer system
recorded 60% for no load and 36% for loaded at output.

Fig. 12. AC Output Waveform

35

Fig. 14. Transmission Distance Testing
Then the second experiment is performed to evaluate the
optimum coverage area for the most effective power
transmission of the wireless power system. This experiment
setup has both primary transmitting and secondary receiving
coil antenna kept stationary facing completely facing each
another. A meter ruler will be placed horizontally across Z-
axis as shown in Fig. 15 and the secondary receiving coil
antenna will be moving from left to right with 0.5cm interval
and the output voltage with intersecting coil diameter is
recorded.
Fig. 15. Coil Position for Experiment 2
Fig. 16. Transmission Area Coverage Testing
The primary transmitting coil antenna and other parameters
are kept stationary throughout the experiment. Both output no
load and loaded voltage are documented and analysed as
shown in Fig. 16. The maximum output recorded at the coils
intersection at the range of 5cm to 6cm diameter and gradually
decreases as the coil moved to corner and intersection area
decreases.
36
IV. CONCLUSION
The developed wireless power system integrated with
password security system is a successful project, which
fulfilled the objectives of the project. The generated output
could be used for wide range of applications. Full system
design and development is documented throughout the study
with detailed explanation and analysis provided. Experiments
are conducted to evaluate the performance of the system and
the results are justified and discussed thoroughly. Although
the research analysis shows that the designed wireless power
system efficiency is not as expected with short distance power
transfer but the overall objectives are fulfilled. The system
functions effectively by demonstrating successful wireless
power transferred between two terminations across air
medium. The wireless power system is controlled by a
password security system developed whereby authenticated
for user with specific password. The overall password security
wireless power system is effective only for short transmission
distance.
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