A Ferrite Round Rod WPT Coupler for Power Supply of Medium Voltage Devices

Wireless power transfer is currently a disruptive technology with applications in various fields: medicine, communication, industry, road, rail and maritime transport, etc. for transmitted powers ranging from mW up to hundreds of kW. The main problem with all these applications is the distance from the power source (transmitter) to the load (receiver) to be covered by the contactless transmission. This limitation is caused by the operating principle of near-field energy transfer based on the Faraday's law. The paper deals with a dipolar magnetic (inductive) coupler based on the use of round rod ferrites which allow the increase of the magnetic coupling and provides the possibility to cover distances at least twice as large as compared to the unipolar magnetic coupler with planar coils used in most applications. The properties of these magnetic couplers are determined experimentally and by FEM simulation and compared. An application is presented herein, in which the separation gap of the coupler linked to the required insulation voltage which must be provided for the power supply of high voltage devices.