IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO.

6, NOVEMBER 1998

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An Energy Transmission System for an Articial Heart Using Leakage Inductance Compensation of Transcutaneous Transformer
Gyu Bum Joung and Bo H. Cho
Abstract A power supply system using a transcutaneous transformer to power an articial heart through intact skin has been designed and built. In order to realize both high-voltage gain and minimum circulating current, compensation of leakage inductances on both sides of a transcutaneous transformer is proposed. A frequency region which realizes the robustness against coupling coefcient and load variation is identied. In this region, the converter has inherent advantages such as zerovoltage switching (ZVS) or zero-current switching (ZCS) of the switches, high-voltage gain, minimum circulating current, and high efciency. Index Terms Articial heart, energy transmission system, high efciency, high-frequency converter, high-power density, high-voltage gain, inductance compensation, soft-switched converter, transcutaneous transformer, zero-current switching (ZCS), zero-voltage switching (ZVS).

I. INTRODUCTION LECTRICAL circulatory assist devices such as total articial heart or ventricular assist devices generally use a brushless dc motor as their pump [1][3]. They require 1235 W to operate [1], [4] and can be powered by a portable battery pack and a dcdc converter. It would be desirable to transfer electrical energy to these circulatory assist devices transcutaneously without breaking the skin [1]. This technique would need a power supply which uses a transcutaneous transformer to drive the motor for the circulatory assist devices. The secondary of this transformer would be implanted under the skin, and the primary would be placed on top of the secondary, external to the body. The distance between the transformer windings would be approximately equal to the thickness of the patients skin, nominally between 12 cm. This spacing cannot be assumed constant; the alignment of the cores and the distance between them would certainly vary during the operation. A transformer with a large (12 cm) air gap between the primary and the secondary has large leakage inductances. In ranges approxithis application, the coupling coefcient mately from 0.1 to 0.4. This makes the leakage inductances of the same order of magnitude and usually larger than
Manuscript received July 23, 1997; revised April 24, 1998. Recommended by Associate Editor, K. D. T. Ngo. G. B. Joung is with the Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Woosuk University, Jeonbuk, Korea. B. H. Cho is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. Publisher Item Identier S 0885-8993(98)08224-6.

the magnetizing inductance. Therefore, the transfer gain of voltage is very low, and a signicant portion of the primary current will ow through the magnetizing inductance. The large circulating current through the magnetizing inductance results in poor efciency. A dcdc converter employing secondary-side resonance has been reported to alleviate the problems by lowering the impedance of the secondary side using a resonant circuit [1]. Although the circulating current is lowered, the transfer gain of the voltage varies widely as the coupling coefcient varies [1]. So, advantages characteristics are reduced as the coupling coefcient deviates at a designated value. In this paper, compensation of the leakage inductances on both sides of the transcutaneous transformer is presented. This converter offers signicant improvements over the converter presented in [1] the following aspects. High-voltage gain with relative small variation with respect to load change as well as the variation of the coupling coefcient of the transformerthis reduces the operating frequency range and the size of the transcutaneous transformer is minimized. Higher efciencyminimize circulating current of magnetizing inductance and zero-voltage switching (ZVS) of the primary switches, and zero-current switching (ZCS) of the secondary rectier diodes improves the efciency signicantly, especially at the secondary side (inside the body). A design procedure allowing for a variable output power as well as a variable air gap and misalignment is presented. The theoretical analysis is veried by an experimental converter which transfers 1248 W through an air gap of 12 cm. In addition, the feedback control scheme which processes the secondary sensed signal to the primary switches transcutaneously is presented. II. PROPOSED TRANSCUTANEOUS ENERGY TRANSFERENCE SCHEME To effectively transfer electric energy through the transcutaneous transformer, a high-voltage gain with small variation and small circulating current through the magnetizing inductance is important. To achieve these requirements, a method of the compensation of the leakage inductances on the primary side as well as the secondary side is proposed, as shown in Fig. 1. and are added in series In this scheme, two capacitors

08858993/98$10.00 1998 IEEE

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Fig. 1. Simplied circuit of proposed scheme.

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of Fig. 1.

with the transformer windings in order to compensate the impedance of the leakage inductances on both sides of the transformer. In Fig. 1, the square-wave voltage source , the magne, and the leakage inductances and tizing inductance are the equivalent values reected to the secondary side of the transformer. The higher turn ratio requires more windings of the secondary side for a given operating frequency, and the lower turn ratio requires high voltage of the input side. Therefore, the turn ratio of the transformer is considered to unity in this paper. A. Analysis of the Proposed Scheme Fig. 2 shows a simplied equivalent circuit model of Fig. 1. The voltage gain characteristics for the frequency variation can be calculated by applying an approximation method [13]. The load, rectied diodes, and lter in Fig. 1 are modeled by a , where simple equivalent resister (1) In Fig. 2 (2) (3) (4) where is an operating frequency of the converter. and represent the impedances at various points as shown in Fig. 2.

From Fig. 2, the transfer gain of the voltage is (5) where (6) (7)

(8) From (6) to (8)

(9) From (5) and (9), the resulting equation of the follows: is as

(10) is always unity at compensated Equation (10) implies that , although the leakage inductances frequency of the transformer are very large. In order to analyze

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for frequency variations, in (10) can be expressed as a function of frequency. From (2) and (3), the compensated is dened by the conditions of frequency as follows: (11) From (2), (3), and (11), and are rewritten by (12) and (13) where the normalized frequency is dened by (14) Finally, from (10), (12), and (13), the voltage gain [see (15), given at the bottom of the page]. Since the coupling coefcient, varies in wide range, it is necessary to express the voltage in terms of . If we assume that the congurations gain of the primary and secondary cores are the same, the selfinductances of the primary and secondary have the same value of . Then, the coupling coefcient becomes (16) Then (17) From (15) and (17), the resultant equation of the dc transfer gain for varying frequency is

B. Determination of the Control Region Fig. 3 compares the analytical results with the simulation results for the varying frequency , various , and three different cases of the coupling coefcient. The solid lines show the analytical values of the gain in (18), and the symbolic marks represent the simulation results of the gain. for the three cases Results show that the curves of are almost identical except for a small deviation in low . Thus, the analytic curves can be used for design and control for the system. From these curves, the points at unity of the normalized frequency keep a gain unity because the impedance of the leakage inductances is canceled by the additional capacitors at this frequency. As long as the keeps unity gain, converter operates at this frequency, the and circulating current through the magnetizing inductance is largely suppressed. Furthermore, these characteristics do not depend on load as well as coupling coefcient. This frequency, however, varies as the coupling coefcient varies. For the output-voltage regulation, the feedback control of output voltage should be applied by selecting the desirable in region from among three different regions of the s Fig. 3. Region I is the lowest frequency region. The linearly increase up to the unity as the operating frequency is varied for . increases. The unity gain frequency of Region II is the middle frequency region. The gain largely because the resonant depends on variations of load and characteristics change for varying frequency in this region. s linearly Region III is the highest frequency region. The decrease from the unity as the operating frequency of the converter increases. Region II, also called the double-turned circuit, provides the in maximum transfer gain of the voltage. However, the Region II is very sensitive to change in load as well as coupling coefcient . Furthermore, it has nonlinear characteristics as the frequency varies. Thus, it is difcult to control the output voltage. Regions I or III are able to control the output voltage because the gain is a monatomic function as the frequency varies. Region III is more desirable because the unity gain frequencies for each is much less sensitive than for Region I. In this paper, Region III is suggested as a reliable region to control the output voltage for varying the air gap and the load. III. DESIGN
OF THE

(18) SYSTEM where (19) The design specications are given by the requirements of the output load of the system. Because the power input to the biological heart is approximately 15 W at resting conditions, and 35 W under heavy exercise, the required output power is

(15)

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 13, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 1998

(a)

(b) Fig. 3. Transfer dc gain comparisons of approximation analyses and simulation results. (a)
k

= 0 1. (b)
:

= 0:2.

set from 12 to 48 W. The specications used in this paper are V A A

where is the output voltage, is the maximum output is the minimum output current. current, and A. Transformer and Compensating Capacitance Many researchers have studied the methods to optimize the geometry of the transformer windings to obtain the maximum

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(c) Fig. 3. (Continued.) Transfer dc gain comparisons of approximation analyses and simulation results. (c)
k

= 0 4.
:

coupling coefcient [10][12]. To simplify the task, it is assumed that the size, geometry, and core material of the transformer and the range of air gap and misalignment between them have already been dened. For the transformer windings, the same cores used in [1] were selected to compare the overall performance with proposed scheme. Cores: Ferroxcube Pot Core 6656 3C8 Ferrite 2.6 in, thickness 1.1 in OD Air gap: 1020 mm Misalignment: 010 mm. and Based on the gain characteristics for the predicted in Fig. 3, a design value of can be selected. In Region III, higher provides a high-gain system with respect to the frequency variation. However, due to the deviation of the leakage inductances and, thus, the normalized frequency for the variation of , it is desirable to select a lower to reduce in this the sensitivity for the variation. The selection of design is from two at light load to eight at full load. For minimum size and weight and high-efciency requirement of the system, the compensating resonant frequency is chosen at 120 kHz. From (19), the required leakage inductance can be and determined for a designed H (20)

TABLE I INDUCTANCES OF EXPERIMENTAL TRANSCUTANEOUS TRANSFORMER UNDER MINIMUM, INTERMEDIATE, AND MAXIMUM COUPLING CONDITIONS

H of for . The compensating capacitors and are calculated by the measured and , and the resonant frequency for (21)

and are assumed to be the same Leakage inductances when the turn ratio of the transformer is one to one. Therefore, the number of turns of the cores is 20 to get the nearest 63.5

and are 27 nF. The resultant values of The measured transformer parameters for the varying coupling coefcient are summarized in Table I. The coupling coefcient ranges from 0.16 to 0.39, and the leakage inductance to . Therefore, resonant varies within 20% from frequencies for varying change. Therefore, frequency of , which is the converter operating frequency, has to be varied to control the output voltage.

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Fig. 4. Curves of

GV

for designed transformer.

Fig. 5. Proposed power converter.

B. Input Voltage

and Converter Type

of the converter, the curves To determine input voltage are simulated for the designed transformer as shown in of Fig. 4. Although slightly varies as the coupling coefcient varies, is about eight at full load (48 W) and about two at light load (12 W). Region III is extended for the smaller and shrunk for the larger because the frequencies of the unity gain vary as varies. The output voltage can be controlled to higher gain than 0.45 for full range of load and when the is set from one to two. The gain 0.45 controller range of may be considered a relative high gain which can regulate the output voltage. To get 24 V of the output voltage, the minimized gain of the input voltage to the output voltage is set at 0.4 with about a 10% margin. The input voltage is 60 V for a full-bridge converter. The input voltage can be from 54 to 72 V because of the low margin of the 10% and the high margin which is determined by the limitation of the maximum operating . frequency A full-bridge conguration was selected to supply a rectangular voltage source. The basic power circuit is shown in and , Fig. 5. In this circuit, a pair of the switches,

operates 180 out of phase with respect to the pair of switches and . It is necessary to have a dead time between the turn off of one pair of switches and turn on of the other pair to get and and and are still ZVS conditions. When turned off, the energy of the primary leakage inductor causes the capacitor discharge completely, and the current will ow and . Therefore, the ZVS through the body diodes of condition of their switches is satised. The converter operates at this condition when the control region is the Region III of Fig 3. This condition always exists because the primary current can always be large enough to discharge the capacitors before the end of the dead time. C. Control of the System A feedback controller needs to regulate the output voltage of the transcutaneous power supply. A wireless transmission of a control signal is necessary as in the power transfer. Fig. 6 is a block diagram of the controller. The circuits in a human thorax are only a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and a buffer. The VCO changes the sensed output voltage to a respected ac frequency. The buffer transfers this control

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Fig. 6. Block diagram of controller.

(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 7. Transfer dc gain

GV

comparisons of analytical results and experimental data. (a)

= 0 1. (b)
:

= 0:2. (c)

= 0:4.

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 8. Switching waveform of switch S 1. (a) k = 0:39 and Io = 0:5 A. vs1 : 20 V/div. il1 : 1 A/div, time scale: 1 (b) k = 0:16 and Io = 2 A. vs1 : 20 V/div. il1 : 5 A/div, time scale: 1  s/div, and frequency: 122:5 kHz.

s/div, and frequency: 173:3 kHz.

(a) Fig. 9. Switching waveform of rectied diode. (a) kHz. (b) k = 0:16 and Io = 2 A. vD : 20 V/div.

(b)

k = 0:39 and Io = 0:5 A. vD : 10 V/div. il2 : 0:5 A/div, time scale: 1 s/div, and frequency: 173:3 il2 : 2:5 A/div, time scale: 1 s/div, and frequency: 122:5 kHz.
) is turned off, the voltage is nearly increased with a slip from the zero voltage to input voltage (ZVS); the current ows through the parallel capacitors of the power MOSFETs ). When the voltage of and approaches the ( input voltage, the voltage of the other pair of switches ( ) discharges to zero. Therefore, switches and are naturally turned on by the internal diodes of their MOSFETs. Fig. 9 represents that a rectied diode is always switched at ZCS conditions. This ZVS and ZCS of the switches largely reduces switching losses and voltage spikes of the switches in spite of the lack of snubbers. Fig. 10 shows efciency curves at the minimum, medium, and maximum coupling coefcients for a varying load. As the coupling coefcient lowers, the efciency is also lowered at the same load condition because the circulating current of the primary circuit is higher. As the output power decreases, the efciency goes even lower because the circulating current through the magnetizing inductance does not decrease as fast as the output current does. Fig. 11 shows the steady-state waveform at full load for the minimum coupling coefcient. Although the leakage inductance on the secondary side of the transformer is compensated and circulating current is minimizing, the impedance of magnetizing inductance can be much lower than the equivalent resistor of the output load. Therefore, the circulating current is still large at a low coupling coefcient. The voltage of a and the primary current show that much of is switch circulating from the source to the transformer. This tendency

signal by the main transformer with extracorporeal cores [7]. Therefore, the transformer can transfer the ac control signal as well as the main energy. The ac control signal received outside of the human body, however, can have high-frequency noise caused by the main power circuit. To separate this noise, the frequency of the control signal is selected from 9 to 11 kHz, about ten times lower than the operating frequency of the main converter. Then, the transferred signal is ltered to reduce the noise. A voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC) converts the ltered ac signal to respected output voltage in order to compare the reference voltage. The internal controller is used to regulate the output voltage. IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Fig. 7 shows comparisons in the gain between the analytical results and experimental data for varying frequency, . The solid lines show the values several s, and of the gain in (18). The symbolic marks represent the exbetween perimented results of the gain. The curves of experiments and analyses are almost matched. A small deviais caused by additional resistors such as the series tion of resistors of the power MOSFETs, compensating capacitors, transformer, and lter in the system. For the highest coupling and the minimum load and the lowest coupling and full load conditions, the switching waveform and the rectied diode are shown of the power MOSFET in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively. These osillograms show that all switches are softly switched. When a pair of switches (

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Fig. 10.

Efciency curves for varying load and

k.

(a)

(b)

(c) Fig. 11. Experimental waveform: k = 0:16, Io = 2 A, and time scale: 2 s/div, fs = 122:5 kHz. (a) Switch voltage vs1 , primary current il1 , vs1 : 20 V/div. il1 : 5 A/div. (b) Primary current il1 , capacitor voltage vc1 , il1 : 2:5 A/div, vc1 : 100 V/div. (c) Secondary current il2 , capacitor voltage vc2 , il2 : 2:5 A/div, vc2 : 100 V/div.

increases as the coupling coefcient lowers. The maximum value of the primary current is about 6 A at full load. Because proportionally the voltage of the compensating capacitor increases as the primary current increases, it reaches 300 V at

the worst conditions. The secondary current of the transformer and the secondary voltage of the compensating capacitor almost depend on load conditions. The average value of the rectied current is equal to the load current. The maximum

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value of the capacitor voltage is 130 V at the worst conditions. The maximum operating frequency of the converter at full load and maximum coupling coefcient. The minimum frequency is at light load and minimum coupling coefcient. The operating frequencies of these conditions are about 173.5 and 122.5 kHz, respectively. The variation ratio of the operating frequency is about 1.45. V. CONCLUSION To realize both the high-voltage gain and the minimum circulating current, a method of the compensating leakage inductances on both sides of the transformer is proposed. The properties of the proposed scheme are summarized as follows. 1) High-voltage gain and the reduced circulating current. 2) A control region of an operating frequency is determined, which realizes the robustness the coupling coefcient as well as the load. 3) The minimized conguration of the devices in the thorax is experimented. 4) The converter guarantees many advantages because of ZVS of all active switches and ZCS of the rectied diodes, low devices switching loss and stress, and high efciency. A design procedure to reduce the effects of the given variations of load and coupling coefcient is established, and the above advantages are experimentally veried. REFERENCES
[1] A. Ghahary and B. H. Cho, Design of a transcutaneous energy transmission system using a series resonant converter, in IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conf. Rec., 1990, pp. 18. [2] J. C. Schuder and H. E. Stephenson, Energy transport to a coil which circumscribes a ferrite core and is implanted within the body, IEEE Trans. Bio-Med. Eng., vol. BME-12, nos. 3 and 4, pp. 154163, 1965. [3] J. C. Schuder, J. H. Gold, and H. E. Stephenson, Ultra high power electromagnetic energy transport into the body, IEEE Amer. Soc. Artif. Int. Organs, vol. 17, pp. 406410, 1971. [4] A. Thumin, G. Reed, F. Lupo, G. Myers, and L. Cortes, A power transformer for mechanical heart, in Articial Heart Program Conf. Proc., 1966. [5] C. Sherman, W. Clay, K. Dasse, and B. Daly, Energy transmission across intact skin for powering internal articial organs, IEEE Amer. Soc. Artif. Int. Organs, vol. 27, pp. 137141, 1981. [6] G. H. Myers, G. E. Reed, and A. Thumin, A transcutaneous power transformer, IEEE Amer. Soc. Artif. Int. Organs, vol. 14, pp. 210214, 1968. [7] T. A. Heimlich, F. H. Christiansen, R. D. Robinson, T. L. Parrot, and J. C. Peter, An energy transmission through the intact skin, in Proc. Artif. Heart Program Conf., 1969, pp. 939944.

[8] E. S. Hochmair, System optimization for improved accuracy in transcutaneous signal and power transmission, IEEE Trans. Bio-Med. Eng., vol. BME-31, no. 2, 1984. [9] J. C. Schuder, J. H. Gold, and H. E. Stephenson, An inductively coupled RF system of the transmission of 1 KW of power through the skin, IEEE Trans. Bio-Med. Eng., vol. BME-18, no. 4, 1971. [10] N. de N. Donaldson and T. A. Perkins, Analysis of the resonant coupled coils in the design of radio frequency transcutaneous links, Med. Bio. Eng. Comput., vol. 21, pp. 612627, 1983. [11] F. C. Flack, E. D. James, and D. M. Schlapp, Mutual inductance of air coiled coil: Effect on design of radio-frequency coupled implants, Med. Bio. Eng. Comput., vol. 9, pp. 7985, 1971. [12] W. H. Ko, S. P. Liang, and C. D. Fung, Design of radio-frequency power coils for implant instruments, Med. Bio. Eng. Comput., vol. 15, pp. 634640, 1977. [13] I. J. Pital, Phase-modulated resonant power conversion techniques for high frequency link inverters, IEEE Trans. Ind. Applicat., vol. IA-22, no. 6, pp. 10441051, 1986. [14] J. A. Sabate, V. Vlatkovic, R. B. Ridley, F. C. Lee, and B. H. Cho, Design considerations for high power full bridge ZVS PWM converter, in IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conf., 1990, pp. 275284.

Gyu Bum Joung received the B.S. degree from Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, and the M.S. and Ph.D degrees from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Seoul, Korea, all in electrical engineering, in 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively. From 1990 to 1991, he was a Researcher in the Virginia Power Electronics Center (VPEC), Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg. From 1993 to 1995, he was a Researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Since 1995, he has been an Assistant Professor in the Information and Communication Engineering Department, Woosuk University, Jeonbuk, Korea. His research interests are in the areas of analysis, modeling, and control of power conversion, space power systems, high-frequency power conversion, and the design of high-power density SMPS.

Bo H. Cho received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, and the Ph.D. degree from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, all in electrical engineering. From 1980 to 1982, he was a Member of Technical Staff at the Power Conversion Electronics Department, TRW Defense and Space System Group. From 1982 to 1995, he was a Faculty Member in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. In 1995, he joined the Electrical Engineering Department, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His main research interests include modeling, analysis, and control of power electronics circuits and systems, high-frequency power conversion, spacecraft power processing systems, and distributed power systems. Dr. Cho was the recipient of the 1989 NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award.