IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2016 353
Thin PCB-Type Metamaterials for Improved
Efciency and Reduced EMF Leakage in
Wireless Power Transfer Systems
Yeonje Cho, Student Member, IEEE, Jonghoon J. Kim, Dong-Hyun Kim, Seongsoo Lee,
Hongseok Kim, Student Member, IEEE, Chiuk Song, Sunkyu Kong, Student Member, IEEE,
Hyoungjun Kim, Chulhun Seo, Senior Member, IEEE,
Seungyoung Ahn, Senior Member, IEEE, and
Joungho Kim, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractCurrent wireless power transfer (WPT) technology
can only allow power transfer over a limited distance because,
as the distance between the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx)
coils increases, the power transfer efciency (PTE) decreases
with a steep slope, while the electromagnetic eld (EMF) leakage
increases. In order to increase the PTE and decrease the EMF
leakage simultaneously, we need to develop a method to concen-
trate the magnetic elds between the Tx and Rx coils. In this
paper, we proposed a novel metamaterial structure to realize high
efciency and low EMF leakage. Metamaterials can conne the
magnetic elds between the Tx and Rx coils by negative relative
permeability. We designed and fabricated a thin metamaterial
using a 1.6-mm dual layer printed circuit board (PCB) with a
high dielectric constant substrate and a ne pattern to achieve
a negative relative permeability with low loss at 6.78 MHz. The
thin PCB-type metamaterial has a wide range of applications
with low fabrication cost, light weight, and a simple fabrication
process. We demonstrated a 44.2% improvement in the PTE and
3.49-dBm reduction in the EMF leakage around the WPT system
at 20-cm distance. Furthermore, we rst analyzed metamaterials
from an EMF point of view using the 3-D magnetic eld scanner.
Finally, we discussed a combination of metamaterials and ferrites
to further improve the PTE and reduce the EMF leakage for
long-distance mobile WPT systems.
Index TermsEfciency, electromagnetic eld (EMF), ferrite,
magnetic eld forming, magnetic eld scanner, metamaterials, rel-
ative permeability, wireless power transfer (WPT).
I. INTRODUCTION
M OTIVATED by the consumer demand to eliminate
power cables for convenience, many attempts are being
made to apply wireless charging system in various mobile
Manuscript received July 25, 2015; revised November 08, 2015, December
19, 2015, and December 23, 2015; accepted December 28, 2015. Date of
publication January 18, 2016; date of current version February 03, 2016.
This work was supported in part by the Korea Government (MSIP) under
National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant 2010-0028680 and Grant
2010-0029179. This paper is an expanded version from the IEEE MTT-S
Wireless Power Transfer Conference, Boulder, CO, USA, May 1315, 2015.
Y. Cho, J. J. Kim, D.-H. Kim, S. Lee, H. Kim, C. Song, S. Kong, S. Ahn,
and J. Kim are with the School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced In-
stitute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, Korea (e-mail:
yeonje@kaist.ac.kr).
H. Kim and C. Seo are with the Electronics Engineering from the Soongsil
University, Seoul 156-743, Korea.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMTT.2015.2514090
0018-9480 2016 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
applications such as smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and
other portable devices. While wireless power transfer (WPT)
technology has numerous advantages, it can only transfer
power over a limited distance because, as the distance between
the transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) coils increases, the power
transfer efciency (PTE) decreases with a steep slope. Much
research has been conducted to increase the coil-to-coil distance
and, hence, the PTE for WPT systems [1][4]; however, as
we increase the distance by increasing the Tx power, the total
magnetic eld leakage also increases inevitably.
Recently, electromagnetic eld (EMF) noise has been high-
lighted as one of the most important issues in WPT systems in
terms of the user safety [5], [6]. It is recommended that the EMF
level should be under 270 mG at 6.78 MHz, according to the in-
ternational guidelines for human exposure safety set forth by
the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Pro-
tection (ICNIRP) 2010 [7], [8]. Thus, when designing a WPT
system, both the efciency and EMF levels should be consid-
ered.
Therefore, in order to improve the PTE and reduce the EMF
leakage simultaneously, we need to develop a novel method to
conne the magnetic eld mostly between the Tx and Rx coils in
WPT systems, while reducing the magnetic eld leakage around
the coils in WPT systems. Such objectives can be achieved using
materials such as ferrite or different coil structures such as a
solenoid. In this paper, we used metamaterials with a negative
relative permeability for magnetic eld forming. Ideally, meta-
materials with a negative relative permeability can concentrate
the magnetic elds between the Tx and Rx coils by bending the
elds spreading in outward direction back towards the Rx coil.
Metamaterials are articially fabricated because they inher-
ently do not exist in nature [9]. Whereas the conventional ma-
terials excluding metal below THz plasma frequency have a
positive reective index, metamaterials have a negative reec-
tive index with an articial periodic structure, which combines
the negative permittivity and the negative relative permeability.
Metamaterials are classied into three categories depending on
the polarity of and : double negative (DNG), negative
(ENG), and negative (MNG), as shown in Fig. 1 [10]. Since
our WPT system uses magnetic eld resonance coupling, we
decided to use the metamaterial from the MNG category in this
paper.
354 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Fig. 1. Materials classied by four categories. Most of the conventional mate-
rials have a positive permittivity and positive relative permeability. However,
metamaterials have a negative relative permittivity and/or relative permeability.
A metamaterial in the MNG area is used to improve the efciency and to reduce
the EMF leakage by magnetic eld forming in a WPT system.
When the magnetic elds from the Tx coil are incident on a
metamaterial with MNG, the outgoing magnetic elds are bent
back towards the Rx coil, increasing the eld strength between
the two coils. Moreover, the magnetic eld leakage around the
WPT system is reduced by concentrating the magnetic eld
mostly between the Tx and Rx coils. Thus, the efciency is en-
hanced and the EMF leakage is reduced by using a metamaterial
in between the coils.
In addition to the PTE and EMF noise, other structural fac-
tors that should be considered in the design of a WPT system
include the size and the weight of a metamaterial. The Wire-
less power consortium (WPC) recommends the frequency range
of 110205 kHz for low power applications and 80300 kHz
for medium power applications, while the Alliance for Wire-
less Power (A4WP) recommends the frequency of 6.78 MHz for
WPT systems [11]. Most of the previously reported papers sug-
gested the use of metamaterials, which are too thick and large in
size for mobile WPT applications for enhanced efciency [12].
Relay coils are also an available solution for enhanced PTE;
however, it is hard to reduce EMF noise [13].
This paper, expanded from [14], has added contributions in-
cluding relative permeability research for various metamaterial
structures and analysis of metamaterials from an EMF point
of view by demonstrating a novel magnetic eld measurement
method. Furthermore, we discussed a combination of metama-
terials and ferrites to further improve the PTE and reduce the
EMF leakage for long-distance WPT systems.
In this paper, we proposed a novel thin dual-layer printed
circuit board (PCB) metamaterial for improved PTE and re-
duced EMF. The negative relative permeability of the metama-
terial can concentrate the magnetic elds between the Tx and
Rx coils by magnetic boundary condition. The thin structure is
designed to have a negative relative permeability real part
with minimum loss imaginary part at the fre-
quency of 6.78 MHz using a high dielectric constant substrate
and a ne-pattern planar-type dual-layer spiral coil. By using a
1.6-mm-thick PCB, the proposed metamaterial can be widely
adopted in various applications with low fabrication cost, light
weight, and simple fabrication process. We achieved a 44.2%
improvement in the PTE from S-parameter measurements
and a 3.49-dBm reduction in the EMF leakage from magnetic
eld distribution measurements using the 3-D magnetic eld
Fig. 2. Unit cell of the proposed thin PCB-type metamaterial structure for neg-
ative relative permeability. It is designed as a dual-layer square structure with a
high dielectric constant substrate and ne patterns (0.2 mm). The unit cell size
is 37.2 mm width 37.2 mm length 1.6 mm (thickness).
scanner (3-D-MFS), with the coil-to-coil distance of 20 cm and
power transfer frequency of 6.78 MHz.
II. PROPOSED THIN DUAL-LAYER PCB-TYPE METAMATERIAL
STRUCTURE AND APPLICATION TO A WPT SYSTEM
USING A RESONANT MAGNETIC FIELD
In this section, we proposed the structure of a dual-layer
PCB type metamaterial and simulated the relative permeability.
Thus, we determined the key design factors at the target power
transfer frequency.
A. Simulation of the Relative Permeability With the
Proposed Metamaterial
Two important parameters to be considered in metamaterial
design are the resonance frequency and the relative perme-
ability. This paper targeted the power transfer frequency of
6.78 MHz as recommended by the A4WP. To reach the highest
efciency at the target power transfer frequency, the imaginary
value of the relative permeability should be minimized while
the real value should be a negative value at 6.78 MHz. In this
case, the real value of the relative permeability determines
the angle of magnetic eld direction. Moreover, the relative
permeability of the metamaterial has the highest imaginary
value at the resonance frequency, which means that the loss is
maximized.
To achieve low imaginary value and negative real value
of relative permeability at the power transfer frequency of
6.78 MHz, the metamaterial structure should be designed with
high inductance and high capacitance. Thus, we designed
the proposed metamaterial with a relatively small size of
37.2 mm 37.2 mm, the thickness of 1.6 mm, the pattern
width and space of 0.2 mm, the dielectric constant of 10, and
18 turns-planar type spiral coil structures on both the top and
bottom layer, as shown in Fig. 2. A detailed description of the
parameters is listed in Table I.
CHO et al.: THIN PCB-TYPE METAMATERIALS FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND REDUCED EMF LEAKAGE IN WPT SYSTEMS
TABLE I
DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR THE PROPOSED METAMATERIAL STRUCTURE
Fig. 3. Simulation result for the relative permeability of the proposed unit cell
of the metamaterial. The resonance frequency is 5.36 MHz, where the imaginary
value of the relative permeability and, hence, the loss is maximized. Therefore,
the power transfer resonance frequency used in this paper is 6.78 MHz, where
the imaginary value is low (0.025) with a negative real value 0.1 for relative
permeability. The result of the 3-D EM simulation was obtained using ANSYS
HFSS.
In the proposed thin metamaterial design, the unit cell of the
structure is designed to have the relative permeability with a real
value of 0.1 and an imaginary value of 0.025 at 6.78-MHz
frequency, as shown in Fig. 3. As a result, our proposed design
satises the low-loss condition and achieves negative relative
permeability. At its self resonance frequency of 5.36 MHz, the
imaginary value is at its maximum with a zero real value, which
results in reduced efciency of the WPT system due to magnetic
loss tangent.
B. Comparison of Resonance Frequencies for Various
Metamaterial Structures
To obtain the relative permeability of a specic metamaterial
structure, full-wave 3-D simulation tools can be used to model
the metamaterial structure. The S-parameter can be extracted
355
from the simulation results, which can then be converted to the
relative permeability [15][17]. The relative permeability ex-
tracted with 3-D simulation tools is more accurate when com-
pared to the result obtained from (1)(3), but the process of 3-D
modeling and analysis is time consuming. Therefore, an alter-
native approach to obtain the relative permeability is required.
Some methods have already been reported for basic metamate-
rial structures. Among the alternative methods, there are a few
equations for a split-ring resonator (SRR), a spiral resonator, and
a Swiss roll [18][21]. However, because they are targeted for a
single-layer structure only, they cannot be used to estimate the
relative permeability of other possible metamaterial structures
with more complex design.
Hence, in this section, [22, eq. (1)] is modied to estimate the
relative permeability of the dual-layer metamaterial structure.
Since we can obtain the relative permeability of the proposed
dual layer metamaterial structure in a short time using the equa-
tion, estimation of the relative permeability using the equation
can be very efcient in the initial stage of metamaterial structure
design,
(1)
(2)
(3)
in (2) refers to the capacitance for unit area in a single-
layer metamaterial. In (3), , the duel-layer metamaterials
total capacitance, is modeled as the summation of (capaci-
tance per unit area in top layer), (capacitance per unit area
in bottom layer) and (capacitance per unit area between top
and bottom layer). Hence, using the proposed dual-layer meta-
material equation, various structures are analyzed to design a
thin dual-layer metamaterial structure for resonance frequency
control, as shown in Fig. 4. First, the increase in the number of
turns results in the increase of the inductance, lowering the res-
onance frequency. Additionally, by using a material with a high
dielectric constant as high as the PCB substrate, the resonance
frequency can be lowered due to the increased capacitance. Fur-
thermore, the increase in the number of layers also increases
the capacitance; however, the fabrication cost and the size of
the structure subsequently increase. Therefore, the number of
layers may be limited due to undesirable increase in fabrication
cost and size.
Lastly, the thickness of the layers is a major factor deter-
mining the capacitance per unit area between the top and the
bottom layer . Therefore, it should be considered when
designing a metamaterial for 6.78-MHz WPT applications. In
this paper, to reduce the thickness and the size of the structure,
the metamaterial is designed with a planar type dual-layer spiral
coil, high dielectric constant, and ne pattern width and pattern
space on a PCB. By using a thin PCB type metamaterial, it has
the advantages over the conventional PCBs due to low fabrica-
tion cost, light weight, and simplicity in fabrication.
356 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Fig. 4. Calculation of the relative permeability (real) and resonance frequency
depending on the: (a) number of turns, (b) dielectric constant of the PCB sub-
strate, (c) number of PCB layers, and (d) thickness of the metamaterial sub-
strates.
C. Application of the Proposed Metamaterial With Tx and Rx
Coils for a WPT System Using a Resonant Magnetic Field
The Tx and Rx coils for the WPT system have identical de-
signs. For both the Tx and Rx coils, the PCB size is 15 cm
Fig. 5. Simulation result of the magnitude of complex impedance
obtained by 3-D EM simulation using ANSYS HFSS. The Tx and Rx coils with
seriesseries topology are connected with 56-pF capacitors for 6.78-MHz reso-
nance frequency.
15 cm; the pattern width is 2 mm; the pattern space is 7 mm,
and they both have a spiral coil structure with 7 turns. 35 m
of copper is used, and the total PCB thickness is 1.6 mm. The
material for the PCB substrate is FR-4 with a dielectric constant
of 4.4. The resonance type of the WPT system in this paper uses
a seriesseries topology because the resonance frequency theo-
retically remains constant independent of the magnetic coupling
[23] when the effect of the parasitic components in the capacitor
for resonance frequency is ignored.
The value of the inductance and resistance of the Tx and
Rx coils are approximately 9.96 H and 1.59 , respectively.
They are calculated by the measurement data of the -pa-
rameter using a vector network analyzer (VNA). Series
MLCC-type capacitors (56 pF) are used for the resonance at
the power transfer frequency of 6.78 MHz to meet the A4WP
mobile WPT standard, as shown in Fig. 5. The quality factor
of the coil is 267, which is proportional to a WPT
efciency. Thus, lower resistance results in higher efciency
when the value of the inductance and the operating frequency
are xed.
III. SIMULATION OF THE EFFICIENCY AND EMF OF THE WPT
SYSTEM WITH THE PROPOSED METAMATERIAL
In this section, simulations for the proposed metamaterial
structure, which was analyzed in previous sections, are done
with the 3-D EM simulation tool to evaluate the change in ef-
ciency and EMF leakage noise depending on its distance from
the coils. Furthermore, by analyzing the distribution of the mag-
netic eld generated from the simulation, the change in the dis-
tribution of the magnetic eld due to the metamaterial is visu-
alized.
A. Simulation of the PTE With the Proposed Metamaterials
The metamaterial cell, modeled in Section II, is used to fabri-
cate 5 5 arrays shown in Fig. 6 to match the size of the Tx and
Rx coils. It is then placed in between the Tx and Rx coils and
simulated by increasing the distance at 5-cm intervals from 15
to 30 cm.
The PTE is calculated according to (4) from the simulated
transmission characteristics . Ports 1 and 2 for the simula-
tion are placed Ctx and Crx in the Tx and Rx coils, accordingly.
CHO et al.: THIN PCB-TYPE METAMATERIALS FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND REDUCED EMF LEAKAGE IN WPT SYSTEMS 357

Fig. 6. Simulation model and ports denition of the WPT system with the meta-
material slab, which consists of 5 5 metamaterial unit cells. (a) Top view and
(b) side view of WPT system with metamaterial.

Fig. 7 shows the transmission characteristic between the

Tx and Rx coils with and without the metamaterial. The simu-
lation results are listed in Table II, and it shows the enhanced
and the PTE of 33.8%74.4% at 15 cm, 8.7%25.6% at
20 cm, 2.1%6.0% at 25 cm, and 0.5%1.4% at 30-cm distances
using the proposed thin metamaterial. It also includes several
key parameters, such as coupling coefcient ( ), mutual induc-
tance ( ) between the Tx and Rx coils, and the efciency of the
Fig. 7. Simulation results of the S-parameter , which is the transmission
WPT system, which are extracted from the 3-D EM simulation characteristic between the Tx and Rx coils: (a) without the metamaterial slab
tool. The relationship between and can be written as (5), and (b) with the metamaterial slab. The distances between the Tx and Rx coils
are 15, 20, 25, and 30 cm. The enhancement of the transmission characteristic
(4) using the proposed metamaterial is shown at all four distances.

(5) TABLE II
SIMULATION RESULTS OF PARAMETER COMPARISONS WITH THE VARIATION
OF DISTANCE AND THE METAMATERIAL EXISTENCE
From the results, the increase in the PTE of the WPT system
with the proposed metamaterial structure can be estimated. Fur-
thermore, the proposed thin metamaterial structure can be con-
sidered as an applicable solution to increase the coil-to-coil dis-
tance for WPT systems.

B. Simulation of Magnetic Field Distribution With the

Proposed Metamaterial
The relative permeability of metamaterials is a negative
value. Thus, the incident magnetic eld bends towards the
opposite direction by magnetic boundary condition expressed
as follows in (6):

(6)

The change in the magnetic eld from the Tx coil as it passes

through the metamaterial with negative relative permeability is
visualized through 3-D eld simulation. Fig. 8 shows the result
of cross-sectional magnetic eld analysis of the WPT system.
The upper half of Fig. 8(a) shows the magnetic eld distribution
and the lower half shows the magnetic eld strength and the
vectors. The magnetic eld, generated from the Tx coil, is bent magnetic eld is reduced around the Tx and Rx coils. Therefore,
towards the opposite direction inside the metamaterial, and it the simulation result matches well with the previously stated
is bent once again towards the opposite direction as it exits the boundary condition of the magnetic eld.
metamaterial. The direction of the magnetic eld is illustrated in Fig. 9 visualizes the magnetic eld distribution using the 3-D
Fig. 8(b). Hence, the eld is focused towards the Rx coil and the simulation tool. When compared to a WPT system with only the
358 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016

Fig. 8. Simulation result of the magnetic eld vectors obtained for a WPT
system using a metamaterial with negative relative permeability (cross-sectional
view). The magnetic eld generated by the Tx coil is bent towards the opposite
direction in the metamaterial by the boundary condition of the magnetic eld.
(a) Magnetic eld distribution and eld vectors. (b) Magnetic eld vector plot
zoomed in around the metamaterial.

Tx and Rx coils, as shown in Fig. 9(a), the WPT system with the
metamaterial inserted in between the coils, shown in Fig. 9(b),
demonstrates more focused magnetic eld on the Rx coil by
magnetic boundary condition. For more accurate comparison,
the magnetic eld is calculated at point C. The calculation shows
a 74% increase, from 52.4 to 91.1 mG, in the magnetic eld
with the metamaterial, as listed in Table III. This implies that the
metamaterial increases the PTE of the WPT system. Since the
metamaterial connes the magnetic eld between the two coils,
the surrounding elds around the WPT system decreases. The
magnetic eld at points A and B shows that the magnetic eld is
approximately 18 19 less when the metamaterial is used
at points A and B. This implies that the proposed metamaterial
Fig. 9. Simulation results of the magnetic eld distribution at a 20-cm distance
decreases the EMF leakage noise around the WPT system as in WPT system. Points A and B are selected positions outside the coils of the
well. From the eld distribution analysis, it is veried that the system for EMF leakage noise analysis, point C is a position located in between
proposed material effectively increases the PTE and decreases the coils for efciency analysis. (a) Without metamaterial and (b) with metama-
terial.
the EMF leakage noise at the same time.
TABLE III
IV. FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF THE SIMULATION RESULT OF MAGNETIC FLUX DENSITY FOR WPT SYSTEM WITH
PROPOSED METAMATERIAL FOR A WPT SYSTEM AND WITHOUT METAMATERIAL AT 20 cm DISTANCE

The proposed metamaterial structure is fabricated on a PCB,

as shown in Fig. 10, and the efciency of the WPT system is
measured and analyzed. Furthermore, to measure the eld distri-
bution, a novel measurement setup with a 3-D-MFS is utilized.
The change in magnetic eld distribution and the focused eld
between the two coils due to the metamaterial are visualized and
veried with the proposed 3-D-MFS measurement setup.

A. Measurement of the Efficiency and EMF Leakage Using the

Proposed Metamaterial for a WPT System
A VNA is used to measure the transfer efciency from the
square of the S-parameter . The port 1 (50 ) corresponds
to the Tx coil side and the port 2 (50 ) corresponds to the Rx
side for measurement of the S-parameter. The proposed meta-
material slab is inserted between the Tx and Rx coils, as shown
in Fig. 11(a). The measurement results show that the transfer ef-
ciency enhances at all distances, with the maximum improve-
ment of 44.2% at 20-cm distance, as shown in Fig. 11(b). Based
on these measurement results, it is experimentally veried that
the proposed thin PCB-type metamaterial with negative relative
permeability highly enhances the WPT system through mag-
netic eld connement.
The simulation result in Table II and the measurement result
in Fig. 11(b) are represented in Table IV. The WPT system with
only Tx and Rx shows a high correlation between the simulation
CHO et al.: THIN PCB-TYPE METAMATERIALS FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND REDUCED EMF LEAKAGE IN WPT SYSTEMS
Fig. 10. Fabricated thin dual-layer PCB-type metamaterial with 1.6-mm thick-
ness: (a) metamaterial unit cell (18 turn 2 layer, 35 m copper, dielectric
constant of 10, and 3.72 cm 3.72 cm in size, 7.2 g) and (b) metamaterial slab
with 5 5 cells (18.6 cm 18.6 cm in size, 180 g).
Fig. 11. Measurement setup and results of the PTE from the S-parameter (S21)
between Tx and Rx coils from using a VNA depending on the various
distances with and without the metamaterial slab. (a) Measurement setup with
VNA. (b) PTE measurement results.
and measurement. However, with the metamaterial slab in the
WPT system, the simulation shows lower PTE compared to the
measurement as the distance increases because of the simplied
metamaterial simulation model [14]. However, the trend of the
359
TABLE IV
SUMMARY OF PTE RESULTS (SIMULATION VERSUS MEASUREMENT)
Fig. 12. 3-D-MFS, which can be measured magnetic eld distribution of
and directions for WPT system. The software is control of the probe position
and acquisition of eld strength at each point.
increased efciency with the presence of the metamaterial is still
the same.
B. Measurement of Magnetic Field With the Proposed
Metamaterial Using the 3-D-MFS
In previously reported papers, eld distribution of a WPT
system is illustrated using simulations or numerical analysis
only. However, we show the eld distribution using a novel
measurement setup, the 3-D-MFS, which allows the actual mea-
surement of the 3-D magnetic eld strength. The 3-D-MFS mea-
surement equipment consist of and stages for adjusting
the scanning position, a near magnetic eld probe with an ampli-
er for the magnetic eld measurement, a camera for verifying
the reference position, a spectrum analyzer, and a eld data ac-
quisition software, which merges and plots the eld data at all
three and directions, as shown Fig. 12. Therefore, the
3-D-MFS system is capable of analyzing the eld data from all
directions. It can also analyze the magnetic eld spectrum at a
specic position.
As shown in Fig. 13, the magnetic eld distribution is ana-
lyzed with the 3-D-MFS. Fig. 13(a) and (b) shows the top view
for the measurement of the magnetic eld distribution without
and with the metamaterial in between the coils, respectively.
When compared to the case without the metamaterial array slab,
shown in Fig. 13(a), the magnetic eld is much more focused in
front of the Rx coil at point C after passing through the metama-
terial, as shown in Fig. 13(b). These results show improved PTE
between the Tx and Rx coils. On the other hand, the magnetic
elds outside of the two coils at points A and B are decreased
due to the magnetic eld connement between the Tx and Rx
360 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016

Fig. 13. Measurement results of the 3-D eld distribution for the WPT system
using 3-D-MFS: (a) without the metamaterial array slab and (b) with the meta-
material array slab. The distance between the Tx and Rx coils in this gure is
a 20-cm distance. Point C is positioned inside between the coils to analyze the
transfer power efciency. Points A and B are positioned outside the coils to an-
alyze the EMF leakage noise.

coils. The magnetic eld measurement space is 460 mm (in

direction) 290 mm (in direction) 300 mm ( direction),
Fig. 14. Measurement results of the magnetic eld spectrum plots for the setup
and 320 160 points are measured with 5-mm resolution from shown in Fig. 13, obtained with the 3-D-MFS. (a) Magnetic eld spectrum mea-
6.5- to 7.0-MHz frequency using the 3-D-MFS. sured at point C increases by 0.4 dBm with the use of the metamaterial and the
The magnetic eld spectrum based on the different measure- efciency is improved. (b) In contrast, at points A and B, the magnetic spectrum
decreases by 3.49 dBm with the use of the metamaterial; in other words, EMF
ment positions are obtained and compared as shown in Fig. 14. leakage is reduced.
The strength of the magnetic eld increases by 0.4 dBm at point
C in between the Tx and Rx coils with the use of the metamate-
TABLE V
rial. In contrast, the magnetic elds observed at points A and B SUMMARY OF MAGNETIC FIELD MEASUREMENT RESULTS IN FIGS. 13 AND
are decreased by 3.49 dBm when the metamaterial is placed in 14 FOR WPT SYSTEM WITH AND WITHOUT METAMATERIAL
between the coils. Hence, we veried that the proposed meta-
material both improves the PTE and reduces the EMF leakage
noise level simultaneously. A summary of the magnetic eld
measurement results obtained with the 3-D-MFS is shown in
Table V.

C. Discussion
Although we only analyzed the effect of the negative relative
permeability in this paper, we can also design various structures
to achieve different areas of the relative permeability, which are
CHO et al.: THIN PCB-TYPE METAMATERIALS FOR IMPROVED EFFICIENCY AND REDUCED EMF LEAKAGE IN WPT SYSTEMS
Fig. 15. Basic principle of relative permeability classications. The magnetic
elds direction are controlled by magnetic eld boundary condition. (a) High
positive relative permeability. (b) Zero relative permeability. (c) High negative
relative permeability.
high positive, zero, and high negative areas depending on the
structure and the operating frequency. Fig. 15 shows the other
areas of the relative permeability for magnetic eld forming.
High positive relative permeability can be used for shielding in-
cident magnetic elds by bending the incident magnetic eld to-
wards the direction of boundary, zero relative permeability can
be used for changing the direction of magnetic elds by bending
the incident magnetic eld towards the normal vector to the
boundary and high negative relative permeability can be used
for conning and shielding magnetic elds by bending the inci-
dent magnetic eld in opposite direction towards the boundary.
Using these different characteristics of the relative permeability
by the magnetic eld boundary condition, metamaterials can be
applied not only to enhance PTE, but also for shielding electro-
magnetic interference (EMI) and EMF.
Furthermore, ferrite is a material that can be used for mag-
netic eld forming. The high relative permeability of ferrite
results in similar directional change of the magnetic eld, as
shown in Fig. 15(a). A ferrite allows the magnetic elds to be
bent inwards. Therefore, if we place the ferrites at both ends of
the coils and place the metamaterial in between the two coils,
we cannot only strengthen the eld between the Tx and Rx
coils by concentrating the magnetic eld between the two coils,
but also minimize the magnetic eld loop by shielding the out-
going magnetic eld with ferrites. Such a setup will yield in-
creased PTE and decreased EMF leakage noise by combining
the ferrite and metamaterial, as shown in Fig. 16. However,
most types of ferrite have the relative permeability around a few
thousands in the few tens of kHz frequency range, the relative
permeability of ferrite decreases to approximately several hun-
dreds at 6.78-MHz frequency because the loss due to ferrite in-
creases in the high-frequency range. Moreover, its shielding per-
formance can be further worsened by the eddy currents due to
the increased temperature, thus more research needs to be con-
ducted to overcome such problems for the application of ferrite
shielding. In addition, the PTE only between the coils with the
usage of metamaterial is calculated in this paper. However, once
the entire WPT system is designed, the PTE at each stage must
be considered [24]. The limitation of the power to the Rx must
also be considered in future design [25].
As reported in the previous studies and this paper [12][14],
metamaterials are placed in between the Tx and Rx coils. How-
ever, in order for the metamaterial to be used in various applica-
361
Fig. 16. Combined coil structure using ferrite with high positive relative per-
meability and metamaterial with negative relative permeability. The ferrite can
divert the incident magnetic eld to its surface, allowing it to form the magnetic
elds in the inwards direction. Thus, the metamaterial can be used for the en-
hanced efciency and the can be used for EMF leakage shielding.
tions, the position of the metamaterials must be located as close
to the coils as possible to achieve true WPT technology. There-
fore, we performed additional simulations with the proposed
metamaterials placed close to the Tx and Rx coils. Furthermore,
we additionally inserted ferrites for shielding the EMF leakage
outside the coils, as shown in Fig. 17. First, when two metama-
terial slabs are placed close to Tx and Rx coils with a 2-mm gap,
the efciency is improved by 10.5% compared to the efciency
using the coils only. The second simulation case applies two fer-
rite slabs behind the coils and two metamaterial slabs, as shown
Fig. 17(d). Ferrites not only strengthens the magnetic eld by
minimizing the magnetic eld loop, but also shields the EMF
leakage outside the coils by the magnetic boundary condition.
The PTE is enhanced up to 52.4% (from 14.3% to 52.4%) EMF
leakage at point A, outside the Tx, is reduced by 92% (from 267
to 22 mG ) and at point B, outside the Rx, is reduced by 40%
(from 13.9 to 8.3 mG) when compare to the EMF leakage levels
with the coils only. The magnetic eld at point C, inside the Rx
coil, is proportional to the PTE. Simulated results of four dif-
ferent cases are listed in Table VI.
Although a small shift in the resonance frequency occurs due
to the increased inductance of coils by additional ferrite near
the coils, it can be adjusted by changing the value of the reso-
nance capacitor of the coils. Therefore, the combination of the
metamaterial and the ferrite, by utilizing different relative per-
meability values, is a solution to increase the charging distance
of WPT systems with EMF leakage shielding and PTE enhance-
ment.
362
Fig. 17. Combination of metamaterial with negative relative permeability and
ferrite with high relative permeability: (a) Tx and Rx coils only, (b) with meta-
materials nearby the Rx and Tx coils, (c) with ferrites nearby the Tx and Rx
coils, and (d) with ferrites and metamaterials nearby the Tx and Rx coils.
V. CONCLUSION
In previous sections, we introduced the basic principles of
various magnetic eld forming methods using a metamaterial
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
TABLE VI
SIMULATION OF PTE FOR FIG. 17
of positive, negative, and zero relative permeability and a fer-
rite to improve the PTE and reduce the EMF leakage noise for
long-distance WPT systems. We designed a dual-layer PCB-
type metamaterial structure to achieve the transfer frequency of
6.78 MHz by optimizing the number of turns, dielectric constant
of substrate, number of layer, and thickness.
In this paper, we proposed a novel PCB-type metamaterial
structure with a negative relative permeability for improved ef-
ciency and reduced EMF leakage noise at 6.78 MHz in a WPT
system. The structure is designed using a 1.6-mm thickness
dual-layer PCB with a high dielectric constant substrate and ne
patterned planar type spiral coil. We veried the performance of
the proposed metamaterial by comparing the PTE and EMF of
a WPT system in the absence and presence of the metamate-
rial. Especially, we rst analyzed a metamaterial from an EMF
point of view for a WPT system using the 3-D-MFS. As a result,
we demonstrated a 44.2% improvement in the PTE from 10.7%
to 54.9% and 3.49-dBm reduction in the magnetic eld leakage
from 0.69 to 4.18 dBm using the proposed thin metamaterial
at the frequency of 6.78 MHz, when the coil-to-coil distance is
20 cm. The proposed thin PCB-type metamaterial structure has
numerous advantages such as low cost, light weight, and sim-
plicity in fabrication. In conclusion, the proposed thin dual-layer
PCB-typed metamaterial structure with a negative relative per-
meability is proven to be a promising solution for WPT sys-
tems to increase the distance with high efciency and to pro-
tect the human body from EMF leakage noise by magnetic eld
forming.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to acknowledge the technical support
of ANSYS Korea.
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Yeonje Cho (S15) received the B.S. degree in elec-
tronic engineering from Hanyang University, Ansan,
Korea, the M.S. degree in electrical engineering
from Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea, and
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST),
Daejeon, Korea.
He then joined Samsung Display, where he was
involved with the Electromagnetic Compatibility
(EMC) and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Group. In September 2013, he joined
the TERA Laboratory, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, as a Ph.D. Student. His research has concerned
wireless power transfer systems using metamaterials by magnetic eld forming.
Jonghoon J. Kim received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Dae-
jeon, Korea, in 2011 and 2013, respectively, and is
currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering at KAIST.
His current research interests include signal
integrity and power integrity design and verication
of magnetic probing structure for current measure-
ment and rubber-based test interposer for LPDDR4
memory tests.
Dong-Hyun Kim received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electrical engineering from the Korea Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Dae-
jeon, Korea, in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and is
currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering at KAIST.
His current research interest includes through-sil-
icon-via (TSV) hysteresis modeling and analysis in
TSV-based 3-D integrated circuits.
Seongsoo Lee received the B.S degree in mechan-
ical engineering and management science from the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
(KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 2014, and is currently
working toward the M.S. degree at KAIST.
He is currently with the Division of Future
Vehicle, KAIST. His current research interests are
the design of hybrid metamaterials for high-power
wireless power transfer systems and magnetic eld
connement using hybrid metamaterials.
Hongseok Kim (S14) received the B.S. degree
in electronic and electrical engineering from
Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Korea, in 2011,
vthe M.S. degree in division of future vehicle
from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea, in 2013, and
is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering (division of future vehicle) at
KAIST.
His current research interests include the modeling
and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) design
of automotive wireless power transfer systems for electric vehicle/mobile
phones and motor drive systems for electric vehicles.
364 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 64, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2016
Chiuk Song received the B.S. degree in electrical
and electronic engineering from Chungnam National
University, Daejeon, Korea, the M.S. degree (divi-
sion of future vehicle) from the Korea Advanced In-
stitute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon,
Korea, in 2014, and is currently working toward the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering (division of fu-
ture vehicle) at KAIST.
His current research interests include electro-
magnetic interference modeling of wireless power
transfer systems for electric vehicles and drones.
Sunkyu Kong (S14) received the B.S. degree
in electrical and electronic engineering from
Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, the
M.S. degree from the Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea,
and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering at KAIST.
His research interest includes electromag-
netic interference/electromagnetic compatibility
(EMI/EMC) issues in mixed-mode systems with
chip-package-printed circuit board (PCB) hierar-
chical structures.
Hyoungjun Kim received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electronics engineering and Ph.D. degree in infor-
mation telecommunication electronics engineering
from Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea, in 2005,
2007, and 2014, respectively.
From 2014 to 2015, he was a Research Assistant
with the School of Electronics Engineering, Soongsil
University. Since 2015, he has been an Assistant Pro-
fessor with the School of Electronics Engineering,
Soongsil University. His research interest includes
the development of RF components, power ampli-
ers, antennas, and wireless power transfer techniques using metamaterials.
Chulhun Seo (M97SM14) received the B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Seoul University,
Seoul, Korea, in 1983, 1985, and 1993, respectively.
From 1993 to 1995, he was with the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge,
MA, USA, as a Technical Staff Member. From 1993
to 1997, he was with Soongsil University, Seoul,
Korea, as an Assistant Professor. From 1999 to 2001,
he was with MIT, as a Visiting Professor. From
1997 to 2004, he was with Soongsil University, as
an Associate Professor. Since 2004, he has been a
Professor of electronic engineering with Soongsil University. His research
interests include wireless technologies, RF power ampliers, and wireless
power transfer using metamaterials.
Seungyoung Ahn (M06SM15) received the B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology (KAIST), Seoul, Korea, in 1998, 2000,
and 2005, respectively.
He is currently an Assistant Professor with the
Cho Chun Shik Graduate School for Green Trans-
portation, KAIST. His current research interests
include wireless power transfer system design and
electromagnetic compatibility design for electric
vehicle and digital systems.
Joungho Kim (SM14F16) received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Seoul
National University, Seoul, Korea, in 1984 and
1986, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, MI, USA, in 1993.
In 1994, he joined the Memory Division, Samsung
Electronics, Suwon, Korea, where he was involved
in gigabit-scale DRAM design. In 1996, he joined
the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Tech-
nology (KAIST), Daejeon, Korea. He is currently a
Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, KAIST. He is also
the Director of the 3-D Integrated Circuit (IC) Research Center, supported by
SK Hynix Inc., and the Smart Automotive Electronics Research Center, sup-
ported by KET Inc. He has given more than 219 invited talks and tutorials in
academia and related industries. He has authored or coauthored over 404 tech-
nical papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. He authored Elec-
trical Design of Through-Silicon-Via (Springer, 2014). In particular, his major
research interests include chip-package-printed circuit board (PCB) co-design
and co-simulation for signal integrity, power integrity, ground integrity, timing
integrity, and radiated emission in 3-D integrated circuits (ICs), through sil-
icon-vias (TSVs), and interposers. His current research interests include elec-
tromagnetic compatibility (EMC) modeling, design, and measurement method-
ologies of 3-D ICs, TSVs, interposer, system-in-package, multilayer PCBs, and
wireless power transfer (WPT) technology for 3-D ICs, electric vehicles, and
mobile phones.
Dr. Kim was the Symposium Chair of the 2015 IEEE EDAPS, Seoul,
Korea, and Joint Conference Chair of the JapanKorea Microwave Society in
2015. He was also the Conference Chair of the 2014 IEEE Wireless Power
Transfer Conference (WPTC), Jeju, Korea, and the Symposium Chair of the
2008 IEEE EDAPS and the Technical Program Committee (TPC) Chair of
the 2011 APEMC. He was an IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)
Society Distinguished Lecturer from 2009 to 2011. He is a TPC Member of
Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging and System. He is an Associate
Editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY.
He served as a Guest Editor of a Special Issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY for PCB level signal integrity, power
integrity, and electromagnetic interference/compatibility in 2010, a Special
Issue of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ADVANCED PACKAGING on TSV in 2011,
and a Mini-Special Issue on the 2014 IEEE WPTC of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS
ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES in 2014. He was a recipient of the
Outstanding Academic Achievement Faculty Award of KAIST in 2006, the
KAIST Grand Research Award in 2008, the National 100 Best Project Award
in 2009, the KAIST International Collaboration Award in 2010, the KAIST
Grand Research Award in 2014, and the Technology Achievement Award from
the IEEE Electromagnetic Society in 2010.