Prof. Costinett Gives Power America Webinar on GaN-Based Wireless Power Transfer
written by Daniel Costinett
Original article
submitted on 2020-06-29 15:57:07
Protoype hardware for a single-stage ac-to-rf WPT transmitter
PoTenntial Professor Daniel Costinett gave a Power America webinar on March 6th, 2019, covering the fundamentals of wireless power transfer and ongoing research at the University of Tennessee employing GaN transistors in the design of conversion circuits,
Abstract
For consumer electronics, multi-load wireless power transfer (WPT) represents the ultimate transition away from wired technology; the commercialization of WPT technologies represents a paradigm shift comparable to the development of WiFi and Bluetooth before it. However, in order to capitalize on the potential market, there are key technological issues that have yet to be solved, including charging efficiency, EMI compliance, and multi-load spatial freedom.
The commercial introduction of WBG semiconductors, with superior high-frequency switching performance, allows the use of converter and system topologies which are infeasible with traditional silicon transistors. This seminar will discuss the design of WPT converters for consumer electronics, including the impact of WBG devices in expanding design freedom and achievable performance. The presentation will also review designs developed at the University of Tennessee to address the key technological issues, and prototyped in the context of a 100 W, 6.78 MHz, multi-receiver WPT application.