Licensing Opportunity: Integration of Coils and Capacitors in Wireless Charging Systems

Invention Reference Number: 202205252 Technology Summary Wireless charging systems need to operate at high frequency, at or near resonance, to maximize power transfer distance and efficiency. High voltages appear across the inductors and capacitors. The use of discrete components reduces efficiency, increases system complexity. This technology is a system that integrates tuning capacitors with the transmitter and receiver coils, leading to better efficiency and control.

Description One of the major obstacles to long distance wireless charging, such as is needed for unmanned aerial vehicles like drones, is the voltage stress on the components. Typically a copper coil has an external capacitor that resonates with that coil and enables power transfer. But as distance keeps increasing, the coupling between transmitter and receiver becomes challenging and the system must operate at increasingly higher frequencies.

Especially, when larger amounts of power are required to be transferred, the voltage and/or current across the capacitor becomes very high and one needs capacitors in series and in parallel which drives up the complexity and may lead to unequal component stresses. This technology addresses these limitations by integrating the capacitor within the coil by incorporating a layer of dielectric material between copper foils that form the coil the capacitor.

The result is that the technology enables different resonant topologies, including in series and parallel, that allows wireless and potentially UAV charging over long distances.

Benefits Better control More efficient Improves power density and system footprint Can be applied to single turn copper foil conductors, and several different types of tuning techniques Can be applied for multi-turn coils Applications and Industries Drones UAV charging Contact To learn more about this technology, email partnerships@ornl.gov or call 865-574-1051.