IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 30, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2015 6001

Letters
Selective Wireless Power Transfer to Multiple Loads Using Receivers
of Different Resonant Frequencies
Yiming Zhang, Student Member, IEEE, Ting Lu, Member, IEEE, Zhengming Zhao, Senior Member, IEEE,
Fanbo He, Member, IEEE, Kainan Chen, and Liqiang Yuan, Member, IEEE

Abstract—In multiple receivers of resonant wireless power

transfer, selective power flow among the loads is an important
issue. This paper proposes a new method to control power divi-
sion. The two-coil structure with different resonant frequencies
of the sending and receiving loops is modeled and analyzed. The
efficiency is proved to peak at the resonant frequency of the receiv-
ing loop, regardless of the resonant frequency of the sending loop.
Using this feature, selective power transfer can be achieved by set-
ting the receiving loops at different resonant frequencies. The effi-
ciency of a particular load is greatly influenced by the driving fre-
quency. The multiple-load system with different resonant frequen- Fig. 1. (a) Abstract model and (b) equivalent circuit of the two-coil structure.
cies is modeled and the efficiency expression of each load is deduced.
The mutual inductances of the receiving coils have a small impact
on the efficiency distribution. The closer the resonant frequencies
of the receiving loops, the less isolated the related loads. The cal- To find a solution for controllable power division among re-
culations and the experiments confirm the analysis. ceivers, this letter utilizes a new method. In a two-coil RWPT
system with different resonant frequencies of the sending and
Index Terms—Magnetic resonance, multiple loads, power divi-
receiving loops, efficiency is proved to reach its maximum at
sion, resonant frequency, selective, wireless power transfer. the resonant frequency of the receiving loop, regardless of the
resonant frequency of the sending loop. Using this feature, se-
lective power transfer in multiple receivers with controllable
I. INTRODUCTION power division can be achieved by setting the receiving loops at
ESONANT wireless power transfer (RWPT) has attracted different resonant frequencies. Changing the driving frequency
R much attention in recent years [1]–[9]. Multiple-load
transfer, as an important issue in the application of RWPT,
can determine the efficiency of a particular load. An individ-
ual load can obtain high output power and efficiency at its own
has been widely studied. In [10], the feasibility of multiple resonant frequency.
receivers was discussed. Power delivery was proved to be ro-
bust in multiple-load transfer [11]. Multiple transmitters and II. SINGLE-LOAD TRANSFER WITH DIFFERENT
receivers were investigated in [12] for maximum efficiency and RESONANT FREQUENCIES
output power. In [13], multiple pickups with a controllable out-
The abstract model and the equivalent circuit of the two-coil
put voltage were researched. Controllable power division among
structure are depicted in Fig. 1. The parameters of the sending
receivers is an important feature, as mentioned in [14]. Koh et al.
loop are denoted with subscript 1, and those of the receiving loop
[14] proposed a new impedance matching and power division
with 2. Since commercially available capacitors have far smaller
method utilizing impedance inverters.
equivalent resistances than the transmission coils, R1 and R2
represent the equivalent resistances of the sending and receiving
Manuscript received June 17, 2014; revised July 21, 2014; accepted August
9, 2014. Date of publication August 15, 2014; date of current version July coils, respectively, ignoring the equivalent resistances of the
10, 2015. This work was supported in part by the Power Electronics Science capacitors. U represents the root-mean-square (RMS) voltage
and Education Development Program of Delta Environmental & Educational of the source. RS indicates the source internal resistance. RL
Foundation (DREG2013002) and in part by the Program of State Key Laboratory
of Power System in Tsinghua University (SKLD13M09). Recommended for denotes the load resistance. M12 is the mutual inductance of the
publication by Associate Editor H. Chung. sending and receiving coils. The driving angular frequency is
The authors are with the State Key Laboratory of Power System, Department ω. The resonant frequencies of the sending and receiving loops
of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail:
zhangym07@gmail.com; lut@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn; zhaozm@tsinghua.edu. are f1 and f2 , respectively. We have
cn; hefanbo@gmail.com; chen-kn09@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn; ylq@tsinghua.
1 1
edu.cn). f1 = √ , f2 = √ . (1)
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online 2π L1 C1 2π L2 C2
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPEL.2014.2347966

0885-8993 © 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
6002 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 30, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015

The reflected impedance from the receiving loop to the send-

ing loop is
(ωM12 )2
Zref =
R2 + RL + jωL2 + jω1C 2
 
(ωM12 )2 R2 + RL − jωL2 − jω1C 2
=  2 . (2)
(R2 + RL )2 + ωL2 − ω C1 2
Fig. 2. (a) Abstract model and (b) equivalent circuit of double-load transfer.
Efficiency represents power distribution among resistances in
each coil. Thus, the efficiency η, defined by the ratio of the load
power consumed by RL and the source available power, is loop. This feature can be utilized in the multiple-load transfer.
By changing the driving frequency of the source, power can be
(ωM12 )2 (R2 + RL ) selectively transferred to receivers with different resonant fre-
 2
1 quencies. The abstract model and the equivalent circuit of the
(R2 + RL )2 + ωL2 −
ωC2 RL double-load transfer are demonstrated in Fig. 2.
η= . The resonant frequencies of the sending loop, receiving loops
(ωM12 )2 (R2 + RL ) R2 + RL
RS + R1 +  2 1 and 2 are f1 , f2 , and f3 , respectively. They are
1
(R2 + RL )2 + ωL2 − 1 1 1
ωC2 f1 = √ , f2 = √ , f3 = √ . (6)
(3) 2π L1 C1 2π L2 C2 2π L3 C3
Four types of factors are introduced [15]. The source matching
The mutual inductance of the receiving coils is ignored. Thus,
factor SM denotes the power loss percentage in the source. The
the reflected impedance from the receiving loop 1 to the sending
load matching factor LM represents the load matching condition.
loop is
The transfer quality factor TQ indicates the coupling tightness of
two coils. The frequency deviation factors FD1 and FD2 suggest (ωM12 )2
Zref 1 =
the degree that the driving frequency deviates from the resonant R2 + RL1 + jωL2 + jω1C 2
frequency of each loop. They are defined, respectively, by  
RS RL ωM12 (ωM12 )2 R2 + RL1 − jωL2 − 1
jω C 2
SM = , LM = , TQ = √ = . (7)
R1 R2 R1 R2 (R2 + RL1 )2 + (ωL2 − 1
ωC2 )
2

ωL1 − 1
ωC1 ωL2 − 1
ωC2 The reflected impedance from the receiving loop 2 to the
FD 1 = , FD 2 = . (4)
R1 R2 sending loop is
With these factors, the efficiency can be rewritten by (ωM13 )2
Zref 2 =
TQ2 LM R3 + RL2 + jωL3 + jω1C 3
η= 1+S M
. (5)  
(1 + SM )(1 + LM ) + 1+L M FD2 2 + TQ2 1 + LM (ωM13 )2 R3 + RL2 − jωL3 − 1
jω C 3
From aforementioned equation, we can see that the larger the = . (8)
(R3 + RL2 )2 + (ωL3 − 1
ωC3 )
2
TQ , the higher the efficiency. Larger TQ means tighter coupling
of the two coils. Therefore, power can be transferred more effi- The source matching factor SM is the same as that in the
ciently. The smaller the SM , the higher the efficiency. Smaller single-load transfer. The load matching factors for load 1 and
SM indicates that less power is consumed in the source, thus load 2 are LM 1 and LM 2 , respectively; the transfer quality factors
improving the efficiency. There is an optimal LM to achieve the are TQ12 and TQ13 , respectively; the frequency deviation factors
highest efficiency. As to FD2 , the efficiency is maximized only are FD2 and FD3 , respectively. They are defined by
when FD2 = 0, which means the driving frequency is set at the
RL1 ωM12 ωL2 − ω C1 2
resonant frequency of the receiving loop: f = f2 . LM 1 = , TQ12 = √ , FD 2 =
Therefore, the efficiency of the two-coil structure is maxi- R2 R1 R2 R2
mized when the driving frequency equals the resonant frequency RL2 ωM13 ωL3 − ω C1 3
of the receiving loop, regardless of the resonant frequency of the LM 2 = , TQ13 = √ , FD 3 = . (9)
R3 R1 R3 R3
sending loop. Normally, the sending loop is compensated with
capacitors to resonate at the same frequency as the receiving The efficiency of load 1 is
loop, aiming at obtaining large amount of output power.
TQ2 12 LM 1
III. SELECTIVE MULTIPLE-LOAD TRANSFER (1 + LM 1 )2 + FD2 2
η1 = 2 .
TQ 12 (1 + LM 1 ) TQ2 13 (1 + LM 2 )
In Section II, we prove that the efficiency is maximized when 1 + SM + +
the driving frequency equals the resonant frequency of the re- (1 + LM 1 )2 + FD2 2 (1 + LM 2 )2 + FD2 3
ceiving loop, regardless of the resonant frequency of the sending (10)
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 30, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015 6003

Similarly, the efficiency of load 2 is

TQ2 13 LM 2
(1 + LM 2 )2 + FD2 3
η2 = 2 .
TQ 12 (1 + LM 1 ) TQ2 13 (1 + LM 2 )
1 + SM + +
(1 + LM 1 )2 + FD2 2 (1 + LM 2 )2 + FD2 3
(11)
The efficiency ratio of load 1 to load 2 is
η1 TQ2 12 LM 1 (1 + LM 2 )2 + FD2 3 Fig. 3. Photograph of experimental prototype.
= 2 . (12)
η2 TQ 13 LM 2 (1 + LM 1 )2 + FD2 2
When the conditions of the two loads are identical, namely
the same load resistance and the same mutual inductance of the of the receiving loop 1, resulting in more power received by
sending coil and the respective receiving coil, LM 1 = LM 2 and load 1.
TQ12 = TQ13 . The efficiency ratio is changed into
IV. CALCULATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS
η1 (1 + LM 2 )2 + FD2 3
= . (13) The RWPT systems of both single-load and double-load trans-
η2 (1 + LM 1 )2 + FD2 2
fer are implemented to validate the aforementioned analysis,
FD2 = 0 at f2 and FD3 = 0 at f3 . If there is a large difference displayed in Fig. 3. The coils are copper helical coils with a turn
2
between the resonant frequencies of the receiving loops, FD2 number of 12, a diameter of 0.15 m, and a pitch of 0.01 m. The
2
would be extremely large at f3 and the same is true for FD3 at inductance is around 18.4 μH and the resistance is 0.1211 Ω.
f2 . Therefore, the efficiency of each load only peaks at its own The coils resonate with different numbers of capacitors, which
resonant frequency. are connected in parallel, leading to different resonant frequen-
If the mutual inductance of the receiving coils (M23 ) is con- cies. The capacitance of one single capacitor is 4.7 nF. Thus,
sidered, the system can be solved by 7, 8, and 9 capacitors connected in parallel resonating with the
⎡ ⎤⎡ ⎤ ⎡ ⎤
RS + Z1 −Z12 −Z13 I1 U coil, respectively, result in resonant frequencies of 181, 191,
⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥ and 203 kHz (taking the lead-in inductance into consideration).
⎣ −Z12 Z2 + RL1 −Z23 ⎦ ⎣ I2 ⎦ = ⎣ 0 ⎦ (14)
Given that the equivalent resistance of the coil is far larger than
−Z13 −Z23 Z3 + RL2 I3 0 that of the parallel-connected capacitors, the equivalent resis-
where I1 , I2 , and I3 are the currents of the sending loop, the re- tance of the capacitors is ignored. The source internal resistance
ceiving loop 1, and the receiving loop 2, respectively. Z1 = is 0.1 Ω and the load resistance is 0.5 Ω. The source is controlled
j ωL1 + 1/(j ωC1 ), Z2 = j ωL2 + 1/(j ωC2 ), Z3 = j ωL3 + such that the source output power is roughly constant, namely
1/(j ωC3 ), Z12 = j ωM12 , Z13 = j ωM13 , and Z23 = j ωM23 . 50 W.
The addition of the mutual inductance of the receiving coils
makes a small difference to the efficiency of the loads. This is A. Single-Load Transfer
because the efficiencies of the loads peak at different resonant
When the center-to-center distance of the sending coil and the
frequencies.
receiving coil is 0.2 m, the mutual inductance is 1.058 μH; when
For n-load transfer with n different resonant frequencies, the
the distance is 0.3 m, the mutual inductance is 0.342 μH. The
efficiency of load i (i = 1, 2, . . . , n) can be expressed by
resonant frequency of the sending loop is 191 kHz and that of
TQ2 1(i+1) LM i the receiving loop is 181 kHz. The calculated and experimental
(1 + LM i )2 + FD2 (i+1) results are shown in Fig. 4.
ηi = . (15) When changing the resonant frequency of the receiving loop

n TQ2 1(k +1) (1 + LM k )
1 + SM +
k =1 (1 + LM k )2 + FD2 (k +1)
The efficiency is only dependent on the transfer system and
has nothing to do with the source RMS voltage. However, the
output voltage, and thus, the output power are in direct pro-
portion to the source RMS voltage, decided by the system in-
put impedance. There are three valleys in the input impedance
amplitude of the double-load system with different resonant
frequencies, corresponding to the resonant frequencies of the
sending loop, the receiving loop 1, and the receiving loop 2. If
load 1 needs more power than load 2, the resonant frequency
of the sending loop can be set closer to the resonant frequency
to 203 kHz, the calculated and experimental results at 0.2 m and
0.3 m are shown in Fig. 5.
From Figs. 4 and 5, we can see that the efficiency only peaks
at the resonant frequency of the receiving loop, regardless of the
resonant frequency of the sending loop.
B. Double-Load Transfer
The resonant frequency of the sending loop is set at 191 kHz.
The resonant frequencies of the two receiving loops are 181
and 203 kHz, respectively. At 0.25 m (the mutual inductance is
0.574 μH), the calculated and experimental results are displayed
in Fig. 6.
6004
Fig. 4. Calculations and experiments of single-load transfer: f2 = 181 kHz.
Fig. 5. Calculations and experiments of single-load transfer: f2 = 203 kHz.
Fig. 6 Calculations and experiments of two-load transfer: f2 = 181 kHz and
f3 = 203 kHz.
When the resonant frequencies of the two receiving loops are
changed into 191 and 203 kHz, and the resonant frequency of
the sending loop is 181 kHz, the calculated and experimental
results at 0.25 m are displayed in Fig. 7.
As shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the efficiency of each load peaks
at its own resonant frequency, regardless of the resonant fre-
quencies of the sending loop or the other receiving loop. The
case in Fig. 6 is suitable for powering two isolated loads without
simultaneous power supply. In contrast, the case in Fig. 7 can be
applied where different loads need to be fed simultaneously by
setting the driving frequency between these two resonant fre-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 30, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015
Fig. 7. Calculations and experiments of two-load transfer: f2 = 191 kHz and
f3 = 203 kHz.
Fig. 8. Calculations of two-load transfer: M 2 3 = 0 μH and M 2 3 =
0.574 μH.
quencies of the receiving loops. Moreover, if these two resonant
frequencies are closer, higher efficiency of both loads can be
obtained between them.
When there is a big difference between the resonant frequen-
cies of the two receiving loops, the mutual inductance of the
receiving coils has a small impact on the efficiency distribution,
even when the mutual inductance is as large as that of the send-
ing coil and the receiving coil. When the resonant frequencies
of the two receiving loops are 181 and 203 kHz, respectively,
the efficiency distribution among the two loads before and after
the existence of the mutual inductance of the receiving coils are
depicted in Fig. 8. Fig. 8 clearly shows that the existing mu-
tual inductance of the receiving coils has a small impact on the
efficiency distribution.
V. CONCLUSION
In this letter, the two-coil structure of RWPT has been mod-
eled and analyzed by introducing four types of important factors.
The efficiency is proved to reach its maximum when the driving
frequency equals the resonant frequency of the receiving loop,
regardless of the resonant frequency of the sending loop. Us-
ing this feature, power can be selectively transferred to multiple
loads of different resonant frequencies. By setting the driving
frequency at the resonant frequency of a particular receiver,
the efficiency of the load reaches its maximum. The multiple-
load transfer system with different resonant frequencies has also
been modeled and analyzed. The efficiency expression of each
load has been deduced. The mutual inductances of the receiving
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 30, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2015
coils have a small impact on the efficiency, contrary to the con-
ventional multiple-load transfer.
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