ISSN 1843-6188

Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

WIRELESS POWER OPTIMAL TRANSFER IN MAGNETIC

COUPLED RESONATORS
D. NICULAE1, L. DUMITRIU1, M. IORDACHE1, L. MANDACHE2, G. ZAINEA1
1

Politehnica University of Bucharest, Spl. Independentei 313, 060042, Bucharest, Romania,

2
University of Craiova,
E-mail: iordache@elth.pub.ro

enough to allow a reasonable power transfer. This is

possible if both the emitter and receiver achieve
magnetic resonance. Wireless transmission is useful in
cases where instantaneous or continuous energy is
needed but interconnecting wires are inconvenient,
hazardous, or impossible.
The term Witricity was introduced by Professor Marin
Soljai from MIT who, together with his team, started
to work on the subject in 2005. Their first papers on this
subject, "Coupled-mode theory for general free-space
resonant scattering of waves" [2], and "Wireless power
transfer via strongly coupled magnetic resonances" [3]
was published in 2007. An experimental demonstration
is presented, in which a 60 W light bulb was powered
wirelessly over a distance of 2 m with an efficiency of
45%. The coils resonated together at 9.9 MHz.
Many of the Witricity technology aspects can be found
in Andre Kurs Master of Science Thesis [4], or Bachelor
of Science Thesis of Robert Moffatt [5] members of the
initial team who developed the technology. In order to
better promote the Witricity concept, a company was
founded shortly after the paper publication by Soljai
and some members of his team [6].
At the beginning the technology was proposed for small
power application like cordless battery charging of
laptops and mobile phones.
The papers that succeeded, suggested practical
implementations of the Witricity concept in electric
vehicle field [7] and medical area [8 , 9] as a way to
recharge the otherwise unreachable sensors and
implanted devices.
The coupling through magnetic resonance implies the
coupled systems to work at their resonance frequency. In
[2], the energy is transferred between two simple coils
which form resonators due to the parasitic capacitance of
their turns. In [9] the concept is improved the coils are
connected to capacitors leading to retention of the
electric field inside those devices. The coupling is made
through magnetic field and the electric field is reduced.
Some remarks have to be made [9-21]:
The interaction between the source and device is
strong enough so that the interactions with nonresonant objects can be neglected, and an efficient
wireless channel for power transmission is built;
Magnetic resonance is particularly suitable for
applications because, in general, the common
materials do not interact with magnetic fields;
It seems [2] that the power transfer is not visibly
affected when humans and various objects, such as

Abstract. Witricity (WIreless elecTRICITY) represents an

experimental technology used to transfer electricity/power
between electrical sources and receivers without using wires.
The transfer is made over distances at which the
electromagnetic field is strong enough to allow a reasonable
power transfer. This is possible if both the emitter and receiver
achieve magnetic resonance. Our paper proposes an efficient
method to determine the equivalent voltage generator in respect
of the output port of the two magnetic coupled resonators. In
this way we can compute very easy the resonant frequency of
the resonators and the maximum active power transferred from
the emitter resonator to the receiver resonator.
Keywords: Near field, wireless transfer power, magnetic coupled
resonators, equivalent voltage generator, and maximum active
power.

1. INTRODUCTION
The electric signals are basis concepts of the
electromagnetic field. They are carriers of energy and
information and the applications take this into account.
Concepts like near and far fields, and radiative
propagation related to the antenna concept occur when
study the physical principle these applications are based
on. The near field is referred to as a non-radiative type
that occurs close to the antenna in a distance smaller
than one wavelength and decays very fast (1/r3). The far
field is considered to be of a radiative type. It
propagates starting from a distance equal with two
wavelengths from antenna up to infinity. This type of
radiation decays much slower than the near field (1/r).
The emitted power decays with the distance square.
There is a transition zone starting from a distance of one
wavelength from the antenna up to two wavelengths in
which the combined effects of the near and far fields
occur, [1-22].
The modern applications in telecommunication area are
based on propagation of electromagnetic waves (on far
field), but the antenna radiation technology is not
suitable for power transfer. The main reason is that the
radiated electromagnetic power is small (a vast majority
of the energy is wasted by dispersion into the free space)
making this technology more suitable to transfer
information than power.
Witricity (WIreless elecTRICITY) represents an
experimental
technology
used
to
transfer
electricity/power between electrical sources and
receivers without using wires. The transfer is made over
distances at which the electromagnetic field is strong

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Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

metals, wood, electronic devices, are placed

between the two coils at more then few centimetres
from each of them, even in cases where they
completely obstruct the line of sight between source
and device;
Some materials (such as aluminium foil and
humans) just shift the resonant frequency, which can
in principle be easily corrected with a feedback
circuit.
Obviously, the efficiency of the wireless transfer power
depends of the configuration of the two magnetic
coupled resonators (series-series, parallel-parallel,
series-parallel and parallel-series), of the values of the
two circuit parameters, and of the resonant frequency. It
was proved that the best configuration is the serier-series
configuration.
In this paper we propose an efficient method to
determine the equivalent voltage generator in respect of
the output port of the two magnetic coupled resonators.
In this way we can compute very easy the resonant
frequency of the resonators and the maximum active
power transferred from the emitter resonator to the
receiver resonator.

ISSN 1843-6188

Receiving
coil

Transmittin
g coil
Figure 2. Parameters of coils [7].

For any configuration resonator, studied in chapter four,

we can compute the maximum active power transfer
from the first circuit to the second one. We consider only
the configuration series-series represented in Figure 1.
For the witricity power transfer system in Figure 1 the
condition X l = X e = 0 implies
Xl := (1+ (M 2 C12 C 2 L3
C 2 L4 C12 L32 )6 + (C12 L32
2 C12 C 2 L4 R5 R7 +

2. WITRICITY POWER TRANSFER IN A SERIESSERIES CONFIGURATION

+2 C 2 L4 C1 L3 C12 C 2 L4 R72
M 2 C1 C 2 C12 C 2 L4 R52 )4 +

Let us consider two series-series resonators inductively

coupled as in Fig. X-1, in which the independent current
sources j2 is not connected. The coaxial identical coils
L3 and L4 are represented in Fig. xx. The parameters of
the coils are: the radius r = 150 mm, the pitch p = 3 mm,
the wire size w = 2 mm, the distance between the coils g
= 150 mm, and the number of the turns N =5. Using the
program Q3D Extractor we have obtained the following
numeric value for the two coils:
C1 = C2 = C = 1.0404 nF, L3 = 16.747 H, L4 = 16.736

(1)

+(R52 C12 + R72 C12 C 2 L4 2 C1 L3 +

+2 R5 C12 R7) 2 ) / ( C 2(1+ 4 C12 L32 +
+(2 C1 L3 R52 C12 + 2 R5 C12 R7 +
R72 C12 ) 2 ))

in which is the frequency of the voltage source.

If the circuit parameters are given, we can compute the
resonant frequencies.
Substituting the load resistance Rl = R8 by an ideal
independent current source J2 we can compute, using the
SYMNAP (SYmbolic Modified Nodal Analysis
Program), [16, 22], program, the equivalent voltage
generator in respect of the terminals o o in full
symbolic form.

H, M = 1.4898 H, R5 = 0.12891 , R6 = 0.12896 ,

R7 = 5.0 , and R8 = 5.0 .

Running the SYMNAP program we get:

VAB0 _ sim _ f _ th _ ss := 24649.000 M f 2

C1 e9 / 3925. I R5 f C1 625. +
24649. f 2 C1 L3 3925. I R7 f C1
and

Figure 1. Coupling of two series-series resonators driven by

a voltage source.

46

(2)

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Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

ZAB0_sim_f_Th_ss := 0.10000000107
( 0.995222941010 I + 0.392500001012 I

XAB 0 _sim _f_Th_ss := 0 . 20000000 10 5

( 0 . 31100717 1011 0 . 24531250 1013 f 2 C 1 L 3 +

f 2 C1 L3 + 0.625000001011 R7 f C1 0.24649000
1013 f 3 C2 L4 R5 C1+ 0.392500001012 I f 2 C2 L4

+ 0 . 483736621 1014 f 4 C 12 L 3 2 0 . 12265625

1013 f 2 C 2 L 4 + 0 . 96747325 1014 f 4 C 2 L 4
C 1 L 3 0 . 19077799 1016 f 6 C 2 L 4 C 12 L 3 2
0 . 48 373662 1014 M 2 f 4 C 1 C 2 +

(3)

0.154795721014 I f 4 C2 L4 C1 L3
0.246490001013 f 3 C2 L4 R7 C1+

+ 0 . 19077799 1016 M 2 f 6 C 12 C 2 L 3 +
+ 0 . 12265625 1013 R 7 2 f 2 C 12 +

+0.392500001012 I f 2 C2 R6 R5 C1+
+0.625000001011 f C2 R6
0.246490001013 f 3 C2 R6 C1 L3 +
+0.392500001012 I f 2 C2 R6 R7 C1+

0 . 48373662 1014 f 4 C 12 C 2 L 4 R 5 2
0 . 48373662 101 4 f 4 C 12 C 2 L 4 R 7 2 +
+ 0 . 12265625 1013 R 5 2 f 2 C 12 ) /

+0.154795721014 I M2 f 4 C1 C2 +
+0.625000001011 R5 f C1)/ ( 3925. I R5 f C1 625.+

/(f C 2 ( 390625 . 0 . 30811250 10 8 f 2 C 1 L 3 +

+ 0 . 60757320 10 9 f 4 C 12 L 3 2 + 0 . 15405625 10 8
R 5 2 f 2 C 12 + 0 . 30811250 10 8 R 5 f 2 C 12 R 7 +

+24649. f 2 C1 L3 3925. I R5 f C1))

+ 0 . 15405625 10 8 R 5 2 f 2 C 12 ))

Remark:

Computing the Thvenin generator parameters at the

resonance frequency f = f 0 we obtain:

We can see that all the parameters of the Thvenin

generator are functions of all the circuit parameters (L3,
L4, C1, C2, M, R5, R6, R7, and R8) and also of the
frequency.
The numeric value of the input signal is E8 = 100j, and
the
resonant
frequency
is f 0 = 1 / 2

VAB 0 _ f 0 _ f _ th _ ss := 2 ( L3 + L 4)C M e9 /( R5 2
C L3 I + + R 5 2 C L 4 I L3 ( L3 + L 4) C +

((L3 + L4 ) / 2)C = 1.2065435 MHz.

and
ZAB 0 _ sim _ f 0 _ Th _ ss := ( L3 + L 4) C 2
( 4 I M 2 ( L 3 + L 4) C 2 I L 4 L 3

RAB0 _ sim _ f _ Th _ ss := 0.000050000000

( L 3 + L 4) C + ( L 3 + L 4) C L 4 2 I +

(79. C1 R7 + 0.78125 1010 C 2 R6

+ ( L 3 + L 4) C L 3 2 I + 2 I C R 6 R 5

0.616225 1012 f 2 C 2 R6 C1 L3 +

( L 3 + L 4) C L 3 + 2 I C R 6 R 5 ( L 3 + L 4) C

+ 0.12151464 1014 f 4 C 2 R6 C12 L3

L 4 + 2 I C R 6 R 7 ( L3 + L 4) C L 3 + 2 I C
R 6 R 7 ( L 3 + L 4) C L 4 + R 5 2 C L 3 2

79. C1 R5 + 0.61622500 1012 f 2 C 2 R6

2

12

R5 2 C L 4 2 + R 7 2 C L3 2 R 7 2 C L 4 2 ) /

R5 C1 R7 + 0.30811250 10 f C 2 R6
2

12

R5 C1 + 0.30811250 10 f C 2 R6 R7
2

14

(4)

( 2( R 5 2 C L 3 I + R 5 2 C L 4 I

L 3 ( L 3 + L 4) C + ( L 3 + L 4 ) C L 4 + R 7 2

C1 + 0.12151464 10 M f C1 C 2 R7 +
14

(6)

+ ( L3 + L 4) C L 4 + R 7 2 C L3 I + R 7 2 C L 4 I )

Separating the real and the imaginary part of the

equivalent impedance we get:

(5)

+ 0 . 24531250 1013 R 5 f 2 C 12 R 7
0 . 96747325 1014 f 4 C 12 C 2 L 4 R 5 R 7

C L3 I + R 7 2 C L 4 I )( L3 + L 4)C )

+ 0.12151464 10 M f C1 C 2 R5) /

Consequently

/(C 2(390625. 0.30811250 108 f 2 C1 L3 +

+ 0.60757320 109 f 4 C12 L32 +
+ 0.15405625 108 R52 f 2 C12 +
+ 0.30811250 108 R5 f 2 C12 R7 +
+ 0.15405625 108 R7 2 f 2 C12 ))
and

47

(7)

Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

ISSN 1843-6188

RAB 0 _ f 0 _ Th _ ss := ( L3 + L 4) C 2 (4 I M 2
( L 3 + L 4) C 2 I L 4 L 3 ( L 3 + L 4) C +
+ ( L3 + L 4) C L 4 2 I + ( L3 + L 4) C L3 2 I +
+ 2 I C R 6 R 5 ( L 3 + L 4) C L 3 +
+ 2 I C R 6 R 5 ( L 3 + L 4) C L 4 + 2 I C R 6 R 7
( L 3 + L 4) C L 3 + 2 I C R 6 R 7 ( L 3 + L 4) C L 4 +

(8)

+ R 5 2 C L3 2 R5 2 C L 4 2 + R 7 2 C L3 2
R 7 2 C L 4 2 ) /( 2( R 5 2 C L3 I + R5 2 C
L 4 I L3 ( L3 + L 4) C + ( L3 + L 4) C L 4 +
+ R 7 2 C L3 I + R 7 2 C L 4 I )( L3 + L 4)C )

and
XAB 0 _ f 0 )Th _ ss := 0

(9)
Figure 3. The variation with frequency of the Thvenin
generator reactance.

The symbolic expression of the maximum power

transferred to the load resistance is
PR8 _ max_ f 0 _ Th _ ss := 1.0000000 ( L3 + L4)2 /

The frequencies in which the reactance XAB0_f_Th_ss is

equal to zero are: f1 = 1.1619 [MHz], f2 = 1.20622
[MHz], and f3 = 1.258 [MHz].
The first and the last value represent the frequencies
corresponding to the maximum of power dissipated on
load resistance (Figure 4): f PR8 _ max1 _ ss = 1.162[MHz],

( R5 2 C L3 I + R5 2 C L4 I
L3 ( L3 + L4) C + ( L3 + L4) C L4 +
+ R7 2 C L3 I + R7 2 C L4 I ) ( L3 + L4) C
(4 I M 2 ( L3 + L4) C 2 I L4 L3 ( L3 + L4) C +
( L3 + L4) C L42 I + ( L3 + L4) C L32 I +

(10)

f PR8 _ max 2 _ ss = 1.208[MHz], and

+2 I C R6 R5 ( L3 + L4) C L3 +

f PR8 _ max 3 _ ss = 1.258[MHz] while the middle frequency

+2 I C R6 R5 ( L3 + L4) C L4 + 2 I C R6 R7

is approximately equal to the resonant one

f0_ss = 1.206 [MHz].

( L3 + L4) C L3 + 2 I C R6 R7 ( L3 + L4) C L4 +
+ R5 2 C L32 R5 2 C L42 + R7 2 C L32
R7 2 C L42 2 C R6 L32 + 2 C R6 L42 ))

The numeric values of these parameters at the angular

frequency 0 = 7.5771 106 [rad/s] are:
(11)
VAB0 _ f 0n _ Th _ ss := 220.08540 [V ]
RAB0 _ f 0 _ Th _ ss := 24.973397 []
XAB 0 _ f 0)Th _ ss := 0. []

and the maximum power transferred to the load

resistance is:
(12)
PR8 _ max_ f 0 _ Th _ ssc := 484.89182 [W ]
the same as we found in the analysis of series-series
connection (Figure 1):
PR8 _ f _ max1 _ ss = 472.70665 [W],

Figure 4: Power variation in respect of frequency

PR 6 _ f _ max 3 _ ss = 476.7677 [W]

The powers dissipated on load resistance and the

efficiencies of the transfer power to the load resistance,
corresponding to the frequencies in which the power
dissipated on load resistance is maximum or minimum
and to the frequencies, in which the reactance XAB0_f_Th_ss
is equal to zero, are presented in Table 1.

when splitting of frequency occurs.

Variation of XAB0 in respect of frequency is presented in
figure 3.

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ISSN 1843-6188

Table 1.
Frequency
[Hz]

Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

Power
PR8_f_ss
[W]

f max1:= 0.11618296107

PR8 _ f max 1 _ ss

eta21_ f max1 _ ss

:= 472.70665

:= 0.49840524

f max2:= 0.12079818107

PR8 _ f max 2 _ ss
:= 268.93815

eta21_ f max2 _ ss
:= 0.89885055

f max 3 := 0.12579765 107

PR8 _ f max3 _ ss
:= 476.7677

eta21_ f max3 _ ss

f 0 := 0.12065435 107

f 01_ XAB0 _ f _ Th _ ss
:= 0.11618869107
f 02 _ XAB0 _ f _ Th _ ss
:= 0.12062209107
f 03 _ XAB 0 _ f _ Th _ ss
:= 0.1258037 107

REFERENCES

Efficiency
eta21
[%]

[1] D. Schneider, Electrons Unplugged: Wireless power

at a distance is still far away, IEEE Spectrum
Magazine, May 2010, pp. 35-39.
[2] R. E. Hamam, A. Karalis, J. D. Joannopoulos, and M.
Soljacic, Coupled-mode theory for general freespace resonant scattering of waves, Physical
Review A 75, 2007.
[3] Andr Kurs et all, Wireless power transfer via strongly
coupled magnetic resonances Science Express, Vol.
317. no. 5834, pp. 83 - 86, June 2007.
[4] Andr Kurs, Power transfer through strongly
coupled resonances, thesis for Master of Science in
Physics under the supervision of Marin Soljai,
September 2007.
[5] Robert A. Moffatt, Wireless Transfer of electric
power, thesis for Bachelor of Science in Physics
under the supervision of Marin Soljai, June 2009.
[6] Witricity Corporation at
http://www.witricity.com/index.html.
[7] T. Imura, H. Okabe, and Y. Hori, Basic Experimental
Study on Helical Antennas of Wireless Power
Transfer for Electric Vehicles by using Magnetic
Resonant Couplings, Proceedings of Vehicle Power
and Propulsion Conference, September 2009, IEEE
Xplore, 978-1-4244-2601-4/010/2010, pp. 936-940.
[8] M.K.Watfa, H. Al-Hassanieh, and S. Salmen, The
Road to Immortal Sensor Nodes, Proceedings of
International Conference on Intelligent Sensors,
Sensor Networks and Information Processing,
December 2008, pp. 523-528.
[9] F. Zhang, X. Liu, S.A. Hackworth, R.j. Sclabassi, and
M. Sun, In Vitro and In Vivo Studies on Wireless
Powering of Medical Sensors and Implantable
Devices, Proceedings of Life Science Systems and
Applications Workshop, April 2009, IEEE Xplore,
978-1-4244-4293-5/09/2009, pp. 84-87.
[10] R. Bhutkar and S. Sapre, Wireless Energy Transfer
using Magnetic Resonance, Second International
Conference
on
Computer
and
Electrical
Engineering, December 2009.
[11] A. Karalis, J.D. Joannopoulos, and M. Soljacic,
Efficient wireless non-radiative mid-range energy
transfer, Annals of Physics, Vol. 323, pp. 34-48,
January 2008.
[12] H. A. Haus, Microwaves and Fields in Optoelectronics,
Pretince-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey
07632, SSBN: 0-13-946053-5, 1984.
[13] H.A. Haus and W. Huang, Coupled-Mode Theory,
Proc of the IEEE, Vol. 79, No. 10, October 1991,
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[14] R. E. Hamam, A. Karalis, J.D. Joannopoulos, and
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Review A 75, 053801, May 2007.
[15] A.A. Barybin, V. A. Dmitriev, Modern
Electrodynamics and Coupled-Mode Theory:
Application to Guided-Wave Optics, Published by

:= 0.50163736

PR8 _ f 0 _ ss

eta21 _ f 0 _ ss

:= 267.74883
PR8 _ f 01 _ Th _ ss

:= 0.82886308
eta 21 _ f 01 _ ss

:= 474.56183

:= 0.49893812

PR8 _ f 02 _ Th _ ss
:= 269.96340

eta 21 _ f 02 _ ss
:= 0.8287361

PR8 _ f 03_ Th _ ss
:= 472.98163

eta 21 _ f 03 _ ss
:= 0.50119274

3. CONCLUSION
In the case of the series-series configuration we can
remark that at the resonance frequency the maximum
power transferred to the load resistance depends of the
following circuit parameters: C1, C2, L3, L4, R5, R6, R7
and of the input voltage E9. The resonance frequencies
at which the reactance XAB0_f_Th_ss is equal to zero are
identically with the frequencies which correspond to the
extreme points of the power delivered to the load
resistance R8.
Using the SYMNAP (SYmbolic Modified Nodal
Analysis Program), the equivalent voltage generator, in
respect of the terminals o o in full symbolic form,
can be computed for any resonator configuration. The
full symbolic form of all parameters of the equivalent
voltage generator allows the optimization of the
expressions of these parameters in respect of all the
circuit parameters and the frequency as well.
The frequencies in which the reactance XAB0_f_Th_ss is
equal to zero are: f1 = 1.1619 [MHz], f2 = 1.20622
[MHz], and f3 = 1.258 [MHz].
The first and the last frequencies in which the reactance
XAB0_f_Th_ss is equal to zero are very closed with the
frequencies corresponding to the maximum of power
dissipated on load resistance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by CNCSIS - UEFISCDI,
project number 678/2009 PNII - IDEI code 539/2008, and
by the Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources
Development 2007-2013 of the Romanian Ministry of
Labour, Family and Social Protection through the
Financial Agreement POSDRU/6/1.5/S/19 (ID: 76909).

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Scientific Bulletin of the Electrical Engineering Faculty Year 11 No. 2 (16)

Rinton Press, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, ISBN:

1-58949-007-X, 2002.
[16] M. Iordache, Lucia Dumitriu, D. Delion, Automatic
Formulation of Symbolic State Equations for
Analog Circuits with Degeneracies, Proceedings of
6th International Workshop on Symbolic Methods
and Applications in Circuit Design, SMACD 2000,
Instituto Superior Tcnico, Lisbon, Portugal,
October 12-13, 2000, pp. 65-72.
[17] M. Iordache, Lucia Dumitriu, L. Mandache, TimeDomain Modified Nodal Analysis for Large-Scale
Analog Circuits, Revue Roum. Sci. Techn.lectrotechn. et nerg., Bucarest, Tome 48, No. 2-3,
Bucarest , 2003, pp. 257-268, RM-ISSN 0035-4066.
[18] M. Iordache, Lucia Dumitriu, Computer
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Center, Dresden, Germany, September 17-21,

2000, pp. 355-358.
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Method, Analog Circuits and Signal Processing,
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Academic Publishers, pp.235-253, Springer
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(Online).
[20] Marin Soljai (researcher team leader), home page
on MIT"
http://www.mit.edu/~soljacic/wireless_power.html.
[21] MIT Prof. Marin Soljacic Wireless Power
Transmission page
http://www.mit.edu/~soljacic/wireless_power.html.
[22] M. Iordache, Lucia Dumitriu, D. Delion, SYMNAP
- SYmbolic Modified Nodal Analysis Program,
User Guide, Library of the Electrical Department,
Politehnica University of Bucharest, Bucharest,
2000

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