An LCC-P Compensated Wireless Power Transfer System with a Constant Current Output and Reduced Receiver Size

Abstract

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has been a research focus in recent years. This paper studies the inductor-capacitor-capacitor and parallel (LCC-P) compensation topology to achieve a compact receiver for AUVs. Unlike the series-series (SS) compensation topology, the LCC-P topology retains the advantages of the double-sided LCC topology and has a more compact receiver than the double-sided LCC topology with fewer elements used on the receiver side. The analytical model of such a WPT system is established to analyze the output power and transfer efficiency. The LCC-P topology has a higher efficiency compared to the SS topology due to the smaller conduction loss of the inverter. Moreover, a method of eliminating the DC filter inductor L0 is proposed to further decrease the size and weight of the receiver. The amplitude of the withstanding voltage on the receiver compensation capacitor without L0 is approximately decreased by 40% compared to that with L0. Both cases of with and without L0 have a constant current output and the peak efficiency without L0 is about 94%, which is 1% lower than that with L0. A prototype was built and the experimental results verified the theoretical analysis.