Enhancing the Stability of Medium Range and Misalignment Wireless Power Transfer System by Negative Magnetic Metamaterials

The misalignment of the resonant coils in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems causes a sharp decrease in transfer efficiency. This paper presents a method which improves the misalignment tolerance of WPT systems. Based on electromagnetic simulations, the structural unit parameters of the electromagnetic material were extracted, and an experimental prototype of a four-coil WPT system was built. The influence of electromagnetic metamaterials on the WPT system under the conditions of lateral misalignment and angular offset was investigated. Experiments showed that the transfer efficiency of the system could be maintained above 45% when the transfer distance of the WPT system with electromagnetic metamaterials was 1 m and the resonant coils were shifted laterally within one coil diameter. Furthermore, the system transfer efficiency could be stabilized by more than 40% within an angle variation range of 70 degrees. Under the same conditions, the transfer efficiency of a system without electromagnetic metamaterials was as low as 30% when lateral migration occurred, and less than 25% when the angle changed. This comparison shows that the stability of the WPT system loaded with electromagnetic metamaterials was significantly enhanced.