A Magnetic Resonant Coupling Wireless Power
Transmission System under Different Load
Conditions
Hanqiu MO
The Graduate School of
Information,Production and Systems
Waseda University
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 808-0135, Japan
Email: hughmo@meogi.waseda.jp
Abstract—Since the magnetic resonant coupling was suggested
for wireless power transfer (WPT), the theoretical analysis
and experimental verification of resonant coupling structures
have been investigated. However, the relationship between the
performance characteristics and the load conditions has not been
fully explored yet. In this research, a magnetic resonant coupling
wireless power transmission system is theoretically analyzed
and simulated under different load conditions. The transmitting
circuit is constant and receiving circuit is changeable. The load
conditions making power efficiency at center frequency over 50
percents has been found out. Then, the experiment results are
obtained to support above.
I. I NTRODUCTION
In recent years, several wireless power techniques are
being pursued. These efforts are categorized in terms of their
underlying power-transfer mechanism. Far-field techniques,
usually including microwave and laser method, use propa-
gating electromagnetic transfer energy the same way radios
transmit signal. Inductive coupling (or near-field) techniques
operate at distances less than a wavelength of the signal
being transmitted. an alternating current in the transmitting
coil generates a magnetic field which induces a voltage in the
receiving coil [1]. However, the inductive coupling techniques
pushes the limitation on distance, and far-field techniques have
a low transmission efficiency [2]. In 2007, MIT (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology) lighting a 60w lamp in the distance
of 2m through magnetic resonant coupling WPT system,
which has practical-level performance characteristics, hence,
this project have attracted wide attention on WPT technology
[3].
As compared with other wireless transfer mechanisms,
like the inductive coupling method, magnetic resonance-based
WPT can achieve power transfer over a larger distance [4].
Until now,the influence of the space between transmitter and
receiver on transmission efficiency was explained. However
the influence of receiver or load conditions has not been fully
explored yet.
In this paper, a magnetic resonant coupling WPT system
under different conditions is built and studied. In Section 2,
a simple magnetic resonant coupling circuit diagram is shown
and theoretically analysed under different load conditions. The
978-1-4799-6541-0/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE
Yasuaki INOUE
The Graduate School of
Information,Production and Systems
Waseda University
Kitakyushu, Fukuoka 808-0135, Japan
Email: inoue yasuaki@waseda.jp
Fig. 1. Norton equivalent circuit of the input source.
load conditions considered in this research are the coupling
coefficient k, the load resistance and the resonant capacitance
of receiver. Then, in Section 3, circuit simulation is given to
support the theoretical analysis results, and the practical WPT
system is produced to verify the results. Finally, in Section 4,
conclusions are drawn.
II. T HEORETICAL A NALYSIS
Using the Norton equivalent transformation to the input
source, we obtain the current source is and source admittance
gs for simplification as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 2 shows equiv-
alent circuit of magnetic resonant coupling WPT system. In
Fig. 2(a), series-parallel transformation of inductor is shown.
R and L are the resistance and inductance of inductor, which
are transformed to parallel conductance geq and inductance
Leq in theoretical analysis for convenient. L1 is the equivalent
parallel inductance of the primary coil, g1 is equivalent series-
parallel transformed conductance of primary inductor as shown
in Fig. 2(b), and L2 and g2 are those of the secondary coil. The
capacitances to enable coils resonate at center frequency f0 ,
usually being called resonance capacitance, are installed as C1
and C2 . Moreover, k is the coupling coefficient between the
primary and secondary coils. A power source vs with source
resistance Rs drives the primary coil at the resonant frequency
f0 , and the energy coupled by magnetic resonance reaches the
load gl .
Next, the power efficiency η is calculated based on the
equivalent circuits above [5], which is a ratio of the output
power and the input power. The input power is defined when
the circuit working on optimum conditions, in other words, the
input resistance equal to the source resistance.
vs 2 is 2 i2 i2
Pin = | | gin = ( ) gin = s = s (1)
2 2gin 4gin 4gs
 TABLE I. VALUES USED TO EVALUATE SIMPLIFIED MODEL .

Parameter Value
vs 200mV
gs ,gl 1/300,1/300
(a) Ct1 ,Ct2 180pF,180pF
L1 ,L2 756nH,756nH
g1 ,g2 2.878 × 10−4 , 2.878 × 10−4
k 0.33

(b)

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of magnetic resonant coupling WPT system. The real circuit values in Table I for accurate analysis and
simulation are obtained by a battery measurements. Firstly,
using hitester to measure the inductance of coils, then using
2
Pout = |vo | gl (2) Eq. (16)
ω0 1 1
Pout v2 gs gl (2K)2 f0 = = √ = √ = 13.56(M Hz) (16)
η= = 4gs gl 2o = 2π 2π L1 C1 2π L2 C2
Pin is gt1 gt2 (1 + K 2 )2 − 2(K 2 − 2b )x2 + x4
(3) to obtain resonant capacitances 180pF for two coils,while
In the above equations, center frequency is set to 13.56MHz according to ISM band
[2]. Considering strong coupling regime [2], we set gs =gl
gt1 = gs + g1 , (4) =1/300, k=0.33. g1 ,g2 are calculated based on series-parallel
equivalent circuit of coils using Eq. (17), since R and L
gt2 = gl + g2 , (5)
were measured by hitester. The equivalent conductance and
1 1 inductance of transmitting and receiving coil are assumed the
ω0 = 2πf0 = √ =√ , (6) same because the same standard manufacture method is used
L1 C1 L2 C2
on both of them. vs is the power source provided by standard
ω0 C1 1 signal generator.
QL1 = = , (7)
gt1 gt1 ω0 L1 R
g1 = g2 = 2 (17)
ω0 C2 1 R + (ωL)2
QL2 = = , (8)
gt2 gt2 ω0 L2
 In this case, QU 1 and QU 2 are calculated in Eq.(18) and
QL = QL1 QL2 , (9) (19).
 ω0 C1 1
K = k QL1 QL2 = kQL , QU 1 = = = 53.44 (18)
(10) g1 g1 ω0 L1
QL1 QL2 ω0 C2 1
b= + , (11) QU 2 = = = 53.44 (19)
QL2 QL1 g2 g2 ω0 L2
and
f f0 From Eqs. (7), (8), QL1 and QL2 equal to 4.27, thus the
x = QL ( + ). (12) insertion loss at resonant frequency.
f0 f
QL1 QL2 4.27 2
Then, the power efficiency at center frequency η(x=0) can li = (1 − )(1 − ) = (1 − ) = 0.8464 (20)
QU 1 QU 2 53.44
be obtained by setting frequency f equal to center frequency
f0 , meanwhile, x equal to zero. The insertion loss limited the optimum transmission power
gs gl (2K) 2
QL1 QL2 (2K) 2 efficiency. However, a special coil structure could be used to
η(x=0) = = (1− )(1− ) alleviate insertion loss by reduce the parasitic resistance. [6]
gt1 gt2 (1 + K 2 )2 QU 1 QU 2 (1 + K 2 )2
(13) We apply the real circuit values in Table I to Eq. (15) and
where QU 1 and QU 2 are unloaded quality factors of the set Eq. (15) equal to 50% to obtain load conditions enable
transmitting and receiving circuit. We call the part li the 50% power efficiency. After solving the equations, we get the
insertion loss. load conditions when over 50% power efficiency is achieved,
QL1 QL2 which is the coupling coefficient 0.11 <k <0.5 or the load
li = (1 − )(1 − ) (14) resistance 24 <RL (1/gl )<580 Ω
QU 1 QU 2

The center power efficiency with respect to coupling coef- III. S IMULATION AND E XPERIMENT
ficient k, load conductance gl and capacitance C2 is obtained A. Simulation Circuit Modeling and Experiment Devices.
in Eq. (15) with the substitution in Eqs. (5) (8) (9) and (10).
ω20 is the center angular frequency of receiving circuit. To demonstrate the theoretical analysis, simulation is con-
ducted based on the real circuit values in Table I. Produced
4k 2 QL1 g2 gl ω20 C2 coil, showing in Fig. 3, is that four hollow quadrate metals
η(x=0) = (15)
gt1 (gt2 + k 2 QL1 ω20 C2 )2 with same width and length equal to 20mm connect end to
 (a) Layer one (b) Layer two

Fig. 5. Frequency response of output voltages under different coupling

coefficients(distances).

TABLE II. S IMULATED AND M EASURED C ENTER P OWER

E FFICIENCIES UNDER D IFFERENT C OUPLING C OEFFICIENTS .

Simulated Experimental
Distance (mm) Coupling Coefficient k
ηx=0 ηx=0
(c) Layer three (d) Layer four
1 0.5 48.63% 51.84%
Fig. 3. Layout of produced coil. 3 0.33 75.53% 73.02%
7 0.17 79.04% 81%
11 0.11 50.27% 44.04%

center power efficiency is increasing firstly then decreasing

like shown in Table II. The coupling coefficient k is calculated
using two resonance frequency fm , fe in Eq. (21), and fm , fe
are obtained by HFSS simulation [7] [8].
fe2 − fm
2
k= (21)
fe2 + fm
2

The difference in the magnitude of the hump efficiency for

Fig. 4. Practical WPT system with power input on the left side and voltage
measurement on the right side.
end and fabricated as PCB(Printed Circuit Board). The whole
WPT system is shown in Fig. 4 and attached with copper sheet
for output voltage measurement.
B. Simulated and Experiment Results
In Fig. 4, a standard signal generator is used to supply vs
equal to 200mV to the whole WPT system on the left side.
The voltage of the load resistance is detected by a voltmeter
using probe on the right side. Frequency response of voltages
as shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, and the working power efficiency
is listed in Tables II, III and IV.
In view of Fig. 5, when the gaps are small and the coupling
is strong, there exist two hump frequencies that permit maxi-
mum efficiency power transfer. As the gap becomes larger, the
two hump frequencies move closer and eventually become one.
If the gap gets even larger, the maximum efficiency will drop.
The measurements are successful in that the measurement
results are almost the same with the simulation. The difference
in the magnitude of the η peaks for the right and left modes can
be explained by considering the phase of the two modes. The
the upper and lower modes can be explained by considering the
phase of the two modes. Based on the dynamics of resonators,
one expects that, in the lower frequency mode, the current in
the transmitting coil should be in phase with current in the
receiving coil; in the higher frequency mode, the coil currents
should be antiphase. The antiphase current create a counter
magnetic field contributes destructively to transmitter current,
which is called parasitic couplings [1].
Fig. 6 shows that when the load resistance is large, there
exist two hump frequencies that permit maximum efficiency
power transfer. As the load resistance gets smaller, the two
hump power efficiencies become smooth and eventually disap-
pear, the center power efficiency is increasing simultaneously.
If the load resistance gets even smaller, the center power
efficiency will drop like shown in Table III. We find that the
center power efficiency of 150Ω is larger than the optimum
power efficiency considering the insertion loss in Eq. (20).
The reason is that the loaded quality factor of receiving circuit
QL2 is smaller when the load resistance get smaller as noted
in Eq.(8), thus the insertion loss will decrease and power
efficiency will increase.
QL1 QL2 4.27 2.14
li = (1− )(1− ) = (1− )(1− ) = 0.8833
QU 1 QU 2 53.44 53.44
(22)
 TABLE IV. S IMULATED AND M EASURED C ENTER P OWER
E FFICIENCIES UNDER D IFFERENT C APACITANCES .

Simulated Experimental
Capacitance (pF)
ηx=0 ηx=0
62 47.73% 52.89%
120 72.4% 69.95%
180 75.53% 73.02%
240 52.89% 47.74%

Meanwhile, frequency at trough point (lowest point between

two peak points) becomes larger. If the resonance capacitance
gets even larger, the two peak frequencies move farther and
become asymmetric. The power efficiency at center frequency
drops like shown in Table IV.

IV. C ONCLUSIONS
Fig. 6. Frequency response of output voltages under different load resistances.
In this research, we have studied the frequency character-
TABLE III. S IMULATED AND M EASURED C ENTER P OWER istics and the power transmission efficiency of the magnetic
E FFICIENCIES UNDER D IFFERENT R ESISTANCES .
resonant coupling wireless power transmission system under
Resistance (Ω)
Simulated Experimental different load conditions. Good agreement among theoretical
ηx=0 ηx=0 analysis, simulations and experiments are demonstrated. It is
24 50% 50% found that from the analysis and experimental results, the mag-
150 88.66% 88.08% netic resonant coupling WPT system could achieve over 50%
300 75.53% 73.02% center power efficiency when the coupling coefficient is 0.11-
450 62.42% 57.32% 0.5 or the load resistance is 24-560 Ω. The center frequency of
560 51.64% 53.57% receiving circuit changes as the resonant capacitance changes.
The magnetic resonant coupling WPT system could achieve
over 50% power efficiency at center frequency when the
resonant capacitance is 62-240pF according to simulation and
experiment. High efficiency can also be achieved in outrange
resonant capacitance by using impedance matching [2].Com-
paring to the other load conditions, the coupling coefficient
(distance) has more significant influence on power transmission
efficiency.

Fig. 7. Frequency response of output voltages under different resonant
capacitances.
The simulation and experimental results are quite similar
with the theoretical analysis above.
It is complicated to analyse the resonance capacitance
theoretically because the center angular frequency will be
change with different load capacitance in Eq. (15), accordingly
we use simulation and experiment to demonstrate its assignable
influence. In Fig. 7, when the resonance capacitance is smaller
than primary capacitance, there exist only one hump frequency
that permit maximum efficiency power transfer. As resonance
capacitance gets larger and closer to primary capacitance, the
one hump frequency separate to two hump frequencies and
become more symmetric with respect to the center frequency.
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