The Hardware Design of a Novel Inductive Contactless Power Transfer System Based on Loosely Coupled Transformer

The inductively coupled power transfer technology (ICPT) is a new power transmission technology, which can transmit electric energy without physical connection. With the advantages of safety and convenience, it has been applied in portable electronic products, medical devices, and high-power transmission. In space engineering, the electric energy generated by solar panels needs to be transmitted to the spacecraft through brushes. Brushes are costly because of the high requirement, and the ICPT instead of brushes is proposed in this paper. A rotating loosely coupled transformer is designed that can transmit electric energy steadily and reliably. This paper studies the compensation network, the influence of coupling coefficient (k), compensation capacitance ratio (α), and quality factor (Q) on compensation characteristics. A prototype of ICPT system is built, which includes the selection of topology of main circuit, the design of driving circuit, shaping circuit, and the selection of original and secondary compensation network parameters. Finally, the performance test of the prototype is carried out. The experimental results show that the prototype of ICPT system can transmit electric energy stably and reliably.