2014 17th International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS),Oct.

22-25, 2014, Hangzhou, China

Theoretical Analysis and Simulation Study

Of Resonant Coupling
Air Core Power Transformers
1

Kang Li1, Guoqiang Zhang1, Runrui Guo1, Hassan Javed1,2

Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

2
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
E-mail: likang07@mail.iee.ac.cn

Abstract Thanks to the inherent features of small volume

and light weight, high frequency power transformers are widely
used as the key module for DC power supply. With the increasing
prevalence of DC power technologies, high frequency power
transformers are widely implemented in large scale DC
conversions. However, conventional iron-core materials used in
high frequency power transformers inhibit the raising of power
capacity and frequency because the ideal iron core materials with
excellent high frequency performance and low power loss are not
readily available. In this paper, a new type of power transformer
is proposed using magnetic resonance coupling and air-core
shape
techniques. Theoretical analysis is conducted based on
model of iron-core high frequncy and circuit theory of resonant
coupling wireless power transfer. After that simulation models
are built using the parameters fulfilling the mentioned voltage
ratio with Pspice software package. And output power as well as
transfer efficiency are calculated. We observed that the stray
capacitors which are very small compare to coupling capacitor
have little impact on tranfer property. Meanwhile, the stray
capacitor C01 and C02 have stronger impact than C12. To get the
same voltage ratio, the Series-Series and Series-Parallel model
have different parameters. Besides, the two type models have
different property to load resistance and coupling coefficient.
I.

INTRODUCTION

Because of its small volume, light weight, high energy

density and high frequency power transformers are widely
used in DC power supplies and DC-DC converters. However,
the iron core material in traditional high frequency power
transformers restrict the raising of power capacity and
frequency due to the lack of special core material which has
excellent high frequency performance and low losses[1-4].
Recently a new technique using magnetic resonance has been
UHSRUWHG E\ 6ROMDL 0[5] which shows a new clue for
designing of high frequency power transformers. This
phenomenon explains that two coils at the magnetic Resonance
conditions can exchange energy efficiently, while dissipating
relatively little energy in extraneous off-resonant objects. It
works well at the frequency up to tens of megahertz. Wireless
power transfer (WPT) system using magnetic resonance has
been studied a lot [5-9]. However most of these researches are
mainly focus on how to increase the power-transfer distance
and efficiency. According to these literatures the power
transfer efficiency without iron core can reach 95% using the
Supported by National Science Foundation of China (No.51307157) and State

magnetic resonance technology [7], which could also be

employed as an essential technique for designing the new type
of high frequency transformers.
In this paper, an air-core power transformer via magnetic
resonance is presented. Firstly, combined the iron-core high
frequncy transformer model and the resonant coupling circuit
theory, circuit model of the new type transformer is built and
analysed proliminaryly. After that the influence of stray
capacitors to transferring characteristics are thoroughly studied
to investigate the performance of mentioned transformer.
0HDQZKLOH simulation models of two type transformer are
built using the parameters of the same voltage ratio with a
Pspice software package. Finally, the properties of transformer
with load resistance and coupling coefficient K are studied.
II. ANALYTICAL 0ODELS OF RESONANT COUPLING AIR CORE
POWER T5$16)250(56
To analysis the property of the proposed transformer, The
circuit theory is used to analyze the proposed transformer.
A. Model of Iron Core High Frequency Transformer
For analysis of a tranditional iron core high frequency
transformer, the shape network of three lumped stray
capacitors is normally used as show in Fig.1[10]. R1 and R2
are the equivalent resistances of the primary and secondary
windings, C01, C02 and C12 are used to account for the selfcapacitors of the primary and the secondary windings and the
mutual capacitors between the two windings, respectively. L1
and L2 are inductances of the primary and secondary windings.

682

Fig. 1. the circuit of iron core transformer with stray capacitance effects
included

B. Model of Series-Series Resonant Coupling WPT

Resonant coupling WPT is a new technology to achieve
wireless energy transfer. It can be analysised using coupled

Key Laboratory of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources (No.LAPS14010)

978-1-4799-5162-8/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

mode theory or circuit theory. Fig.2 gives the equivalent

circuit of a series-series resonant coupling wireless power
transfer system [11]. Up is high frequeccy power source. Us
is load voltage. Rp and Rs are the equivalent resistances of
the transmitter and receiver coils. RL is the load resistance.
Cp and Cs are coupled capacitors of the two coils,
respectively. Lp, Ls DQG 0 DUH LQGXFWDQFH DQG PXWXDO
inductance of the emitter and receiver coils. Where
(1)
LphCp =LshCs
Fig.5. the equivalent circuit of S-S air core transformer model
III.

S,08/$7,210ETHOD AND RESULTS

A. Simulaiton Method
The Pspice is used to anslysis the property of the
transformer using the obtained circuit model. Fig.6 show the
Pspice circuit of S-S air-core transformer. The resonant
frequency is set to 500 kHz. To make the voltage transfer ratio
to be 2, the parameters of L and C choose as in Fig.6.

Fig. 2. the equivalent circuit of Series-Series resonant coupling wireless power

transfer system

C. Model of Resonant Coupling Air-Core High Frequency

Transformer
Based on the shape network of three lumped stray
capacitances model for iron core transformer and the circuit
theory model for resonant coupling system, the resonant
coupling air core transformer model is established. As show
in Fig.3 and Fig.4 are equivalent circuits of the Series-Series
resonant coupling and Series-Parallel resonant coupling aircore power transformer, seperately. Based on obtained
models the properties of Series-Series and Series-Parallel
resonant coupling air core transformer are analyzed.

Fig. 6. the Pspice circuit of S-S resonant coupling transformer

B. Some Parameters of Simulation Model

It is hard to calcuate the stray capacitors, normally it is
determinated by experimental. As mentioned in [12], the
magnitude of C12, C01 and C02 is normally among 10~100pF
for an iron-core high frequency transformer. And for a air-core
transformer more coils are used, and the distance between
coils is nearly the same with iron-core transformer, but the
frequency is much higher. The magnitude of stray capacitors
can be among 10~1000pF.
(1)
LphCp =LshCs=f0
Where f0 is the resonant frequency.

Fig.3. the equivalent circuit of S-S air core transformer model

Fig.4. the equivalent circuit of S-S air core transformer model

D. Analysis of Resonant Coupling Air-Core High

Frequency Transformer Based on Circuit Theory
The equivalent circuit of Fig.3 can be transform to Fig.5
based on mutual inductance circuit theory. The structure of
the circuit is simple, but the analytic solution is very
complex because of the existence of stray capacitor between
primary and secondary windings. In this paper we mainly use
simulation method to get the property such as power transfer
efficiency, voltage, voltage ratio and the main influence
parameter of these properties of the proposed transformer.
683

C. Influence of stray capacitors

As we mentioned above, if the stray capacitance can be
ignored, the analytic solution will be simpler. The
relationship between circuit parameter and property will be
clearer. So it is important to know whether the stray
capacitance is a key role which influent the perfomance. In
this part the influence of stray capacitances for an S-S
resonant coupling transformer is studied using simulation
technique.
1) Influence of stray capacitor C12
In this part C12 is set to be 0nF, 10pF, 100pF, 1nF and
10nF separately. While C01, C02 keep unvariable and set to
be 0.1nF. Then we get the output power and voltage. Table I

shows calculation results. From the results we can see that

the output power and voltage increase with capacitor C12.
However, when the C12 is smaller than 0.1nF, the increase is
neglectable.
TABLE I
INFLUENCE OF C12 TO OUTPUT POWER AND VOLTAGE
C12(pF)
0
10
100
1000
Output
power(W)
Output
voltage(V)

10000

10122

10123

10124

10136

10254

100.6

100.6

100.6

100.7

101.3

D. Caculation Results of S-S Type air core transformer

1) Influence of load RL
As a transformer, its load is variable. So we need to
know the porperty while load is fluctuating. And RL is set to
be 0.2, 0.6, 1, 1.4 and 1.8, while keep the other
parameters unvariable. As we can see in the Fig.7 the output
power increase with RL and the transfer efficiency remains
the same and is nearly 97%.

2) Influence of stray capacitor C01

In this part C01 is set to be 0nF, 10pF, 100pF, 1nF and
10nF separately. While C02, C12 keep unvariable and set to
be 0.1nF. Then we get the output power and voltage. Table II
shows calculation results. From the results we can see that
the output power and voltage decrease with capacitor C01.
However, when the C01 is smaller than 0.1nF, the decrease is
small and neglectable.
TABLE II
INFLUENCE OF C01 TO OUTPUT POWER AND VOLTAGE
C01(pF)
0
10
100
1000
Output
power(W)
Output
voltage(V)

Fig.7. the output power and transfer efficiency VS. load resistance RL

10000

10129

10128

10124

10078

9571

100.6

100.6

100.6

100.4

97.8

3) Influence of stray capacitor C02

In this part C02 is set to be 0nF, 1nF, 10nF, 100nF, 1uF,
and 10uF separately. While C01, C12 keep unvariable and set
to be 1nF. Then we get the output power and voltage. Table
III shows calculation results. From the results we can see that
the output power and voltage decrease with capacitor C02.
However, when the C02 is smaller than 0.1nF, the decrease is
neglectable.
TABLE III
INFLUENCE OF C02 TO OUTPUT POWER AND VOLTAGE
C02(pF)
0
10
100
1000
Output
power(W)
Output
voltage(V)

10000

10128

10128

10124

10079

9642

100.6

100.6

100.6

100.4

98.2

4) Comparation with no stray capacitor

In this part the output power and voltage are calcuatied
with no stray capacitor. As we can see in table IV, the result
is almost the same with that when all the stray capacitor is
100pF. The stray capacitor can be ignored when it is small
compare to coupling capacitor. 0eanwhile, C01 and C02
have more influence to transfer property than C12.
TABLE IV
C203$5$7,21:,7+12STRAY CAPACITOR
No
All
Deviation
C12
C01
capacitor 100pF
100%
10nF
10nF
Output
power(W)
Output
voltage(V)

2) Influence of coupling coeffient K

In the design process of a transformer, the coupling
coeffient K is an important factor. We need to know the
porperty of transformer under different K. And K is set to be
0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9, while keep the other parameters
unvariable. As we can see in Fig.8 the output power decrease
with K and the transfer efficiency remains the same and is
nearly 97%.

C02
10nF

10133

10124

0.08%

10254

9571

9642

100.6

100.6

0%

101.3

97.8

98.2

684

Fig.8. the output power and transfer efficiency VS. coupling coefficient K

E. Caculation Results of S-P Type air-core transformer

1) Influence of load RL
To get the same voltage transfer ratio such as 2, S-P type
transformer has different circuit parameters. L2 is 317.5nH,
and C2 is 272.7nF. As a transformer, its load is variable. So
we need to know the porperty while load is fluctuating. And
RL is set to be 2, 6, 10, 14 and 18, while keep the
other parameters unvariable. As we can see in the Fig.9 the
output power decrease with RL and the transfer efficiency
remains the same and is nearly 95%.

A&.12:/('*0(17
The authors wish to thank Professor Cui Xiang for his
advices on high-frenquency transformer model.
REFERENCES
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Fig.9. the output power and transfer efficiency VS. load resistance RL

2) Influence of coupling coeffient K

In the design process of a transformer, the coupling
coeffient K is an important factor. We need to know the
porperty of transformer under different K. And K is set to be
0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8 and 0.9, while keep the other parameters
unvariable. As we can see the output power and the transfer
efficiency remains the same and is nearly 97%.

Fig.10. the output power and transfer efficiency VS. coupling coefficient K
IV.

CONCLUSION

A new type of transformer using resonant coupling

technology is proposed. Based on Pspice simulation, the
property of the proposed transformer is studied, the following
result is obtained.
1) If the stray capacitors are very small compare to coupling
capacitors, it has a little influence to transfer properties. In the
three stray capacitors C01 and C02 have much more impact on
transfer property.
2) To have the same voltage ratio S-S and S-P type resonant
coupling transformers have different parameters. 0eanwhile
the output power of S-S type transformer increase with load
resistance, while S-P type decreases.
3) The output power of S-S type transformer decrease with
coupling efficincy K. And S-P type is almost independent of
that.
4) The transfer efficiency of both type transformers is nearly
independent of load resistance and coupling efficiency.

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