A Novel IPT Converter With Current-Controlled Semi-Active Rectifier for Efficiency Enhancement Throughout Supercapacitor Charging Process

During the typical constant current (CC) charging process, the supercapacitor has a pretty wide-range load variation. However, an inductive power transfer (IPT) converter can maintain high efficiency only within a certain load range around its optimum load point. Once the supercapacitor load resistance is far away from the optimum point, which usually happens in low charging power levels, i.e., the smaller load resistances, the IPT converter will suffer from the dramatic efficiency degradation and thus a step-up load transformation is required throughout the whole charging process. In this article, a novel current-controlled semi-active rectifier (CCSAR)-based IPT converter is proposed to fulfill this requirement. The characteristic of step-up load transformation is first identified and implemented by controlling the conduction angle of the CCSAR to enhance the efficiency in the charging process. The desired charging CC is then regulated by tuning the operating frequency of the IPT inverter. To coordinate these two objectives, a bivariate control is adopted here to achieve fast, direct, and precise current output with enhanced efficiency performance over the whole load range during the CC charging process. Finally, experiment results validate the theoretical analysis well.