1358 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 65, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2018
Analytical and Experimental Investigations of
Omnidirectional Wireless Power Transfer Using
a Cubic Transmitter
Nam Ha-Van , Member, IEEE, and Chulhun Seo, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—In recent years, wireless power technology
has been promoted for recharging systems for portable
devices that are used in everyday life. The conventional
technology used for this purpose, which is based on mag-
netically coupled resonators, has provided promising re-
sults but is limited in range and direction at the receiv-
ing terminal. In this paper, we propose an omnidirectional
wireless power transfer (WPT) system with a novel cubic
transmitter to achieve relatively high efficiency. Specifi-
cally, a single power source is utilized to drive the cur-
rent of the transmitter without phase and current control
methodology. Energy delivery is transmitted to the receiver
through magnetic resonant coupling in the medium-range
WPT mode. In addition, an equivalent circuit model of a
coupling two-coil system is derived and mathematically an-
alyzed. The efficiency of the proposed omnidirectional WPT
system depending on the various distances between the
transmitter and the receiver, as well as the transmitter
structure, is evaluated via analysis and implementation. Fi-
nally, practical experimental results from the resonant cou-
pling system confirm the theoretical analysis of the cubic
transmitter and the omnidirectional power transfer capabil-
ity, which demonstrate approximately 60% power transfer
efficiency.
Index Terms—Coupling coefficient, magnetic resonant
coupling, mutual inductance, omnidirectional, two-coil sys-
tem, wireless power transfer (WPT).
I. INTRODUCTION
IRELESS power transfer (WPT) has attracted a great
W deal of attention because of its potential in applica-
tions such as consumer electronic products, portable devices,
robotics, electric vehicles, and charging systems [1]–[3]. In
recent research, the possibility of omnidirectional WPT has
been explored, as opposed to the use of one direction or two
Manuscript received December 14, 2016; revised March 24, 2017
and June 1, 2017; accepted July 5, 2017. Date of publication July 31,
2017; date of current version December 8, 2017. This work was sup-
ported by the National Research Foundation of Korea under Grant NRF-
2017R1A5A1015596 funded by the Korean government (Minister of Sci-
ence, ICT and Future Planning). (Corresponding author: Chulhun Seo.)
N. Ha-Van is with the Department of Information Communication, Ma-
terials, and Chemistry Convergence Technology, Soongsil University,
Seoul 156-743, South Korea (e-mail: hanam.fet@gmail.com).
C. Seo is with the School of Electronic Engineering, Soongsil Univer-
sity, Seoul 156-743, South Korea (e-mail: chulhun@ssu.ac.kr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIE.2017.2733470
0278-0046 © 2017 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.
directions on the same plane [4]–[7]. An effectively designed
omnidirectional wireless charging system is a highly attractive
and economic strategy. Such systems can overcome the restric-
tions of a paired single transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) coils
and reduce the cost of multidirectional energy transfer systems.
To date, a number of efforts have been made to improve this
technology. However, most omnidirectional WPT systems need
to be supplied with more than one source for the orthogonal coils
using phase and current control methodology. In [8], the neces-
sity for nonidentical current control is demonstrated in order to
achieve an omnidirectional WPT system without the guarantee
that the equivalent magnetic field vector would point evenly in
all directions. To resolve this issue, a technique with load de-
tection and a power flow focused on the targeted loads were
required, as shown in [9]. However, in this technique, exter-
nal measuring and a feedback control loop using oscilloscopes
and computers are expensive, leading to economic considera-
tions. Besides, another omnidirectional system connects three
orthogonal Tx coils in series driven with the same ac current
that has orientation insensitive characteristic with the only three
orthogonal Rx coils [10]. The complexity of the Rx structure is
incompatible with single-Rx applications and compact equip-
ment. The techniques described above were proposed to get the
best out of two separate orthogonal Tx coils in series with a sin-
gle power source, as presented in [11], and to determine which
Rx coil can obtain the highest efficiency at receiving angles
between two orthogonal Tx coils.
In this paper, a single source with the same ac current is sup-
plied to the cubic Tx coil to drive the omnidirectional magnetic
field without phase and current control methodology. In addi-
tion, a simple single-Rx coil is used in this WPT system for
popular applications. An equivalent circuit model is mathemat-
ically analyzed to present the magnetic resonant coupling of the
wireless power system and illustrate the relation between the
transfer function and the coupling coefficient. In [12], a mul-
tidirectional magnetic resonant coupling WPT was presented
using a new cubic Tx design. However, the best use of the Tx
coil was not made. The Rx coil was arranged side-by-side with
the Tx faces so that the transferred energy could be forwarded to
the Rx coil in six directions. The magnetic field of this structure
also represented the 2-D omnidirectional characteristic. The ef-
ficient evaluation of the Tx shape was interpreted by reckoning
the magnetic field magnitude. In this research, the power trans-
fer efficiency (PTE) of the WPT system with the cubic Tx shape
HA-VAN AND SEO: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL WPT USING A CUBIC TRANSMITTER
Fig. 1. Omnidirectional WPT system in a 3-D view. The rectangular Rx
coil is placed at a receiving angle ϕ and a distance OD from the origin
of the coordinate system.
is improved significantly. Therefore, the energy transfer system
is investigated with extended directions to utilize the capability
of the magnetic structure. A practical omnidirectional system is
fabricated, and its efficiency is measured in terms of the distance
between the Tx and Rx coils.
This paper is organized as follows. The magnetic field of
a cubic Tx coil is evaluated and optimized in Section II. The
mutual inductance between the Tx and Rx coils is derived, and
the transfer efficiency is also analyzed with the WPT system’s
characteristics. In Section III, the cubic Tx and Rx coils are
fabricated and measured. The measured results are compared
with the analytical method and simulation results.
II. ANALYSIS OF THE RESONANT COUPLING SYSTEM
In general, WPT via magnetic resonant coupling is exper-
imentally demonstrated in a system with two resonant loop
antennas in one or two directions on the same plane. A coil
designed with different geometries is required to modify the
radiation pattern; this modification of the pattern leads to an
increase in directionality. In order to extend the coupling direc-
tion, an inhomogeneous polyhedral Tx is constructed by folding
the copper wire along the edges of the polyhedron. The purpose
of the system is to have a relatively strongly coupled magnetic
field around the Tx and Rx coils. Thus, the folded wire should
be situated so that the current is driven as closed loop on each
side of the polyhedron and in the opposite direction of the two
closest wires at the structure’s corners. The sketch of the WPT
structure is illustrated in Fig. 1. The WPT system is designed
to work at a frequency of 13.56-MHz band for consumer elec-
tronics to avoid the need of frequency allocation. With this op-
erating frequency, the wavelength of the current is much larger
than the circuit dimension. Therefore, we can assume that the
driven current in each side loop of the Tx coil is identical and in
phase. The magnetic field is generated by the driven current on
1359
each loop side of the polyhedral Tx coil. It is obvious that the
magnetic vector is perpendicular to each loop side of the poly-
hedron. The currents of the close couple wires flow in opposite
directions, conducive to the emitted magnetic field between the
two wires. For this reason, the polyhedral Tx structure gener-
ates the omnidirectional magnetic field surrounding it. With this
particular characteristic, the Rx coil can be arranged around the
omnidirectional Tx coil to obtain energy transmission. In this
resonant coupling system, the Rx coil is relatively coupled with
all sides of the polyhedral Tx coil. However, the coupling mag-
netic energy is extremely weak when the Tx and Rx directions
are perpendicularly arranged, and their distance is greater than
their dimension. Therefore, the mutual magnetic coupling of
the Rx coil with the perpendicular side of the Tx coil can be
neglected. The following subsection will evaluate the magnetic
field density of the various polyhedral Tx shapes to select the
most effective structure performance.
A. Magnetic Field Omnidirectional Transmitter Structure
Evaluation and Optimization
Based on the principle of the polyhedral Tx structure ana-
lyzed above, we will evaluate omnidirectional Tx prototypes by
adjusting the gap between the two close wires to validate the de-
pendence of the magnetic field on the gap value δ, as well as on
the Tx structure. The loop dimension l of the Tx is set to 20 cm,
with the radius of the copper wire being 2.5 mm. With a gap δ of
20 cm, the wireless power Tx is an octagonal prism, resulting in
a structure with equilateral sides and dimensions equal to those
of the Rx, as shown in Fig. 2(a). The current at each side of the
octagonal structure is supplied by a single source and generates
the magnetic field surrounding the resonant loop. The under side
of Fig. 2(a) shows a top view of the magnetic field of the octag-
onal wireless power Tx, which represents the omnidirectional
wireless power system. However, the magnetic field around the
Tx in this case is weak, and the magnetic field distribution is
inhomogeneous. The octagonal Tx seem likes four separate Tx
loops with the contributed magnetic field surrounding the loop
faces. Similarly, the magnetic field is evaluated by decreasing
the gap δ, as shown in Fig. 2(b) and (c). For each change in
the gap δ, we take into account the magnitude of the magnetic
field around the Tx structure. It is obvious that the magnetic
field strength is increased and significantly improved when the
gap δ is decreased. Therefore, an optimized Tx structure and its
omnidirectional magnetic field with strong intensity in the XY
plane is demonstrated in Fig. 2(d). The snapshots of simulated
distributions of the magnetic field vectors generated by the Tx
coil agree well with the theoretical analysis in the above section.
The magnetic vectors are perpendicular to loop sides and emit-
ted at the corners of the cubic Tx coil. The optimal gap value
δopt in this case is 1.4 cm, which is suitable and makes it easy to
fabricate in the structure of the Tx.
A simulation comparison of the magnetic field magnitude
with the various gaps δ is illustrated in Fig. 3 at an operat-
ing frequency of 13.56 MHz and at points with a distance of
30 cm from the origin of the coordinate system. In general,
the field magnitude of the Tx coil is significantly decreased
1360 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 65, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018

Fig. 2. Polyhedral Tx prototypes with their respective magnetic field density simulations in the XY plane for efficient performance evaluation.
(a) δ = 20 cm. (b) δ = 14.1 cm. (c) δ = 7.1 cm. (d) Optimized cubic Tx coil at δ = 1.4 cm with its magnetic field density and magnetic field vector.

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram for the calculation of the mutual inductance

between the Tx and Rx at the receiving angle ϕ degree.

Fig. 3. Efficiency simulation comparison of magnetic field magnitude

depending on the gap value δ at points with a distance of 30 cm from
the origin of the coordinate system.
by the expanded gap value. In this figure, the line graphs are
divided into two groups when the gap δ is larger than the opti-
mized one. The upper group lines include the receiving angles of
2n(180◦ /4), where n is an integer, because the magnetic field is
generated mainly in the normal directions of the loop faces; the
lower group lines are involved the (2n + 1)(180◦ /4) receiving
angles, where the corner sides of the Tx coil present weak field
magnitude. It can be seen that the magnetic field generated by
two close copper wires is sufficiently strong and applicable for
use in an optimal wireless power Tx coil.
B. Mutual Inductance Calculation
Tx and Rx shapes, their relative dimensions, and the distance
between them. When the Rx coil is laterally and angularly mis-
aligned from the Tx coil, there is no strong interaction between
them [13]–[15]. Therefore, the mutual inductance of two coils
or two wires in these cases can be neglected in this research.
The Rx coil is a rectangular loop that is split into four pieces
of wire, and the partial mutual inductance between each pair of
wire of Tx and Rx coils is calculated. Now, we consider the first
piece wire of the Rx coil to illustrate its mutual inductance with
the Tx coil.
The mutual inductance between two parallel wires can be
derived by solving Neumann’s formula

μ0 dl dl 
M1 |i = (1)
4π r

Fig. 4 shows the schematic diagram of the Tx and Rx coils at where dl and dl  define the infinitesimal of l of the Tx and Rx
the receiving angle ϕ degree for calculating mutual inductance. coils, respectively. r is the distance between dl and dl  , and μ0
The mutual inductance value is effectively determined by the is the magnetic permeability of free space. With two wires of
HA-VAN AND SEO: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL WPT USING A CUBIC TRANSMITTER
Fig. 5. (a) Equivalent circuit model of the resonator coil with a matching
network, including a series capacitor and a shunt capacitor. (b) The
Smith chart represents the coil impedance region and the termination
impedance region that can be matched using a pair of capacitors.
same length l, (1) can be reduced by
      Fig. 6. (a) Equivalent circuit model of the resonant coupling two-coil
μ0 l l l2 d21i d1i
M1 |i = ln + 1+ 2 − 1+ 2 +
2π d1i d1i l l
(2)
where d1i is the distance between the first wire of the Rx coil
and the considered parallel wire of the Tx coil. The total mutual
inductance between the Tx coil and the rectangular Rx coil at
the receiving angle ϕ degree is given by
4 4 4
N+
N−
Mϕ = Mk |i = Mk |i − Mk |j
k =1 k =1 i=1 k =1 j =1
where N+ and N− are the number of Tx wires in which the
current flows in the same and opposite directions with the current
in the Rx wire, respectively. From (3), the mutual inductance
between the Tx and Rx coils can be calculated at each receiving
angle.
C. Circuit Model and System Analysis
Normally, a conventional model of the two-coil WPT sys-
tem was widely known as a short-ended system with a series
capacitor in each coil that produce poor efficiency because the
lumped capacitor is added to adjust the resonant frequency with-
out matching the coil impedance to the source or load impedance
[16]–[18]. To provide better efficiency and stability, we pro-
posed an impedance-matching network including a pair of se-
ries and parallel capacitors for the coupling two-coil system.
The lumped capacitors were chosen to yield a good match be-
tween coil impedances and the source and load impedances at
the working resonant frequency to achieve the least return loss.
The equivalent circuit of the resonant coil with the matching
circuit is demonstrated in Fig. 5(a). Because the resonant coil
is constructed of copper wire, its impedance ZA consists of a
small intrinsic resistance and an inductance. The region of this
impedance is illustrated in the Smith chart shown in Fig. 5(b)
with blue dots. By using a series capacitor Cs and a shunt ca-
pacitor Cp , the coil impedance can be matched with almost load
impedances with the gray region. Therefore, if the termination
impedance is changed, the resonant coil can be matched using
1361
system, which is composed of lumped components. The resonators are
linked by mutual inductance. (b) S-parameter |S 2 1 | as a function of fre-
quency and coupling coefficient k ϕ for the equivalent circuit model with
the values given in Table I.
a series capacitor and a shunt capacitor. The Tx and Rx coils
are well matched in the magnetic resonance coupling mode,
helping to significantly improve the transmission efficiency. A
magnetically coupled resonator two-coil system can be modeled
(3) in terms of equivalent lumped circuit elements. The schematic
circuit that was used for hand analysis, as implemented below, is
shown in Fig. 6(a). The schematic is composed of two resonant
circuits corresponding to the cubic Tx and Rx coils, which are
connected via a mutual inductance Mϕ at the receiving angle ϕ
degree. In order to understand how magnetically coupled res-
onators in the new geometries can efficiently transfer energy, it
is useful to characterize the interaction of the Tx and Rx coils
by a coupling coefficient. The coupling coefficient is related to
the mutual inductance through the given formula
Mϕ
kϕ = √ . (4)
L1 L2
Referring to the equivalent circuit, the Tx coil is supplied
by a sinusoidal voltage source VS with an output impedance
of RS , which has a typical value of 50 Ω. The Tx and Rx
coils can be modeled as inductors (L1 , L2 ) with parasitic resis-
tances (R1 , R2 ). Series capacitors (C1 , C3 ) and parallel capac-
itors (C2 , C4 ) are added to control the resonant frequency and
reduce the reactance of the Tx and Rx coils to match with 50 Ω
[19]–[21]. Inductors L1 and L2 are magnetically coupled with
the mutual inductance Mϕ . The Rx is connected with a load
impedance RL of 50 Ω.
The magnetically coupled resonator system is analyzed by
applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law (KVL) to determine the cur-
rents in each circuit loop and through the parallel capacitors, as
demonstrated in Fig. 6(a).
(I1 + I2 )Z1 + jωMϕ (I3 + I4 ) + I2 RS = VS (5)
(I3 + I4 )Z2 + jωMϕ (I1 + I2 ) + I4 RL = 0 (6)
1362 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 65, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018

TABLE I TABLE II
LUMPED ELEMENT VALUES OF THE RESONANT LOOPS EXTRACTED COMPONENT VALUES OF THE TX AND RX

Tx Rx Tx Rx

Parameter Value Parameter Value Parameter Value Parameter Value

Rs 50 Ω RL 50 Ω R1 3.5 Ω R2 0.2 Ω
R1 0.59 Ω R2 0.46 Ω L1 3.22 μH L2 0.69 μH
C1 81 pF C3 303 pF C1 53 pF C3 110 pF
C2 470 pF C4 850 pF C2 620 pF C4 910 pF
L1 1.9 μH L2 0.6 μH Q1 269.6 Q2 68
kϕ 0.01–1 frequency 10–18 MHz

this point, the delivered power, which is represented by transfer

where
efficiency, falls rapidly at the operating frequency. When kϕ is
1 small, it corresponds to a case in which the system is under-
Z1 = R1 + jωL1 +
jωC1 coupled; when kϕ is higher than the critical coupling point, the
1 system is overcoupled, and operating at either resonance will
Z2 = R2 + jωL2 + result in maximum power transfer.
jωC3
I1
VS = I2 RS − III. FABRICATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF THE
jωC2
WPT SYSTEM
I3
VL = −RL I4 = − . (7) A. Fabrication of Cubic Tx and Rx Coils
jωC4
In order to verify the theoretical analysis, the resonant cou-
The KVL equations are simultaneously solved using the sub-
pling system was constructed using a long copper wire with a
stitution method; the transfer function VL /VS is derived in (8),
radius of 2.5 mm for both the Tx and Rx coils. The total length
shown at the bottom of the page, where VL and VS are the
of the copper wire for the cubic Tx coil was approximately
load voltage and source voltage, respectively. For consistency,
870 cm. The lengths of the edge sides of the Tx and Rx coils
power transfer will be represented in terms of a linear mag-
were the same, with the value set to 20 cm. The real volume of
nitude scattering parameter (|S21 |), which is important experi-
the cubic Tx coil is 20.6 mm × 20.8 mm × 20.5 mm. First, to de-
mentally, since it can be measured with a vector network ana-
termine the working frequency, each coil was tested separately
lyzer. The PTE is calculated according to the |S21 | by PTE =
with a Protek A333 network analyzer. The measured resonant
|S21 |2 × 100(%). The equivalent S21 scattering parameter can
frequencies of the Tx and Rx coils are 13.586 and 13.574 MHz,
be calculated in [19], which results in
respectively. The detailed values of the lumped elements and




VL
RS extracted parasitic components of the Tx and Rx coils are listed
|S21 | = 2

. (9) in Table II. The measured quality factors of the Tx and Rx coils
VS RL
With the example circuit parameters provided in Table I, the
|S21 | is a function of two variables, including the coupling coef-
ficient kϕ and frequency, as illustrated in Fig. 6(b). The coupling
coefficient is changed in circumstances, including orientation
and distance between the Tx and Rx coils. In a conventional
WPT system, when the Tx and Rx coils are in misalignment or
are in nonparallel organization, kϕ is decreased because of the
declined mutual inductance between the resonant loops. In this
paper, stability is maintained for kϕ , even if the Rx is rotated
around the Tx coil. From Fig. 6(b), it is obvious that the cou-
pling coefficient increases followed by frequency splitting. The
|S21 | can reach a peak at the resonant frequency and a critical
coupling point kϕ critical [19]. When kϕ is greater or less than
are 269.6 and 68, respectively.
B. Measurement and Comparison of Mutual Inductance
Between the Tx and Rx Coils
Once the Tx and Rx parameters and their working frequencies
were established, the Rx was displaced up to 30 cm from the
origin of the coordinate system. The configuration of the reso-
nant WPT system fabrication to confirm the simulation results
using the network analyzer is shown in Fig. 7. In this experi-
ment, the generating Tx coil was maintained in a fixed position,
while the Rx coil was in turn arranged around the Tx plane
side at various receiving angles completing a circle, as shown in
Fig. 8(a). The mutual inductances between the cubic Tx and Rx

√
VL jωkϕ L1 L2 RL
= 4 2
VS ω kϕ L1 L2 C2 C4 RS RL − jω 3 kϕ2 L1 L2 (C2 RS + C4 RL ) − ω 2 (kϕ2 L1 L2 − C2 C4 RS RL Z1 Z2 )
(8)
−jω[C2 RS Z1 (RL + Z2 ) + C4 RL Z2 (RS + Z1 )] − (RS + Z1 )(RL + Z2 )
HA-VAN AND SEO: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL WPT USING A CUBIC TRANSMITTER 1363

Fig. 7. Measurement configuration for the resonant coupling system.

Ports 1 and 2 of the Network Analyzer Protek A333 are connected to the
Tx and Rx coils, respectively.

coils are measured at all angles and a distance of 30 cm from

the origin of the coordinate system. A comparison of mutual
inductance between calculated, simulated, and measured results
are plotted in Fig. 8(b). There is a good agreement between the
simulated and calculated results that are obtained using (3) to
describe mutual inductance of two coils. Measured results are
slightly lower than others because of the fabricated tolerance.
The mutual inductances at the angles around 135◦ and 315◦ are
a bit higher than others, because there are two diagonally folded
Fig. 8. (a) Receiving positions of the Rx coil corresponding to the
wires at the bottom of the cubic Tx, which were conducive to receiving angles ϕ. (b) Comparison of calculated, simulated, and mea-
the development of a stronger magnetic field. sured mutual inductance values according to the receiving angle ϕ at
an operating frequency of 13.56 MHz and a distance of 30 cm from the
origin of the coordinate system.
C. Measurement the PTE of the WPT System
The S-parameters were measured using a network analyzer
at the resonant frequency of 13.56 MHz, with a distance be-
tween the Tx loop faces and Rx coil of 20 cm or the distance
of 30 cm from the origin of coordinate system to the Rx coil.
The return loss values of the Tx and Rx coils at the operat-
ing frequency were insignificant due to a good match with the
resonant circuits. The PTE was calculated from the square of
the S-parameter |S21 |. Alternatively, the PTE of the WPT sys-
tem can be measured as the ratio of the output power to the
input power. A signal generator (Agilent E4436B) was used to
supply the input power to Tx coil, while a power meter was
used to measure the delivered power of the Rx coil by a spec-
trum analyzer (Agilent 85665EC). The signal generator has a
maximum generating power of 19 dBm. In order to extend the
input power range, a +45-dBm drive amplifier was added to a
transmitting module. Besides, the spectrum analyzer has a mea-
sured limitation of 30 dBm. Therefore, a −40-dB attenuator was
used to reduce the power transferred to the spectrum analyzer.
The experimental setup of the WPT system is shown in Fig. 9. Fig. 9. Experimental setup of the WPT system.
1364 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS, VOL. 65, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2018

Fig. 10. PTE measurement results according to the frequency for the Fig. 11. Dependence between PTE and input power supplied to the
omnidirectional resonant coupling system at an operating frequency of Tx coil.
13.56 MHz and a distance of 30 cm from the origin of the coordinate
system. The operating frequency shifted to the insignificant range around
the resonant frequency of 13.56 MHz.

TABLE III
SUMMARY OF PTE RESULTS (SIMULATION VERSUS MEASUREMENT)

Angle Simu. (%) Meas. (%) Angle Simu. (%) Meas. (%)

0◦ 60.1 58.3 180 ◦ 62.2 59.7

45 ◦ 59.4 57.1 225 ◦ 61.2 59
90 ◦ 62.8 58.6 270 ◦ 62 58.9
135 ◦ 59.8 59.1 315 ◦ 57.9 56.8

The PTEs depending on the frequency at receiving angles are

illustrated in Fig. 10. It is worth noting that the operating fre-
quency of the coupling resonant system fluctuated insignifi-
cantly compared with one in which the Tx and Rx stand alone.
Because the mutual inductances between the Tx and Rx coils
change inconsiderably according to the receiving angles, the
PTE values are almost the same when the impedances of the
Tx and Rx coils are well matched. With the same distance, sev-
eral receiving directions were over- or undercoupling resonant
with the Tx coil. However, the received energy of the receivers
was acceptable with the efficiency at almost approximately 60%
at resonant frequency of 13.56 MHz. The PTE simulation and
measurement results are represented in Table III that are high
correlation.
In order to validate the maximum delivered power, the in-
duced power to the Tx coil was changed from 3 to 10 W. The
received power of the Rx coil was measured corresponding to
various input powers. The PTE dependence on the input power
is illustrated in Fig. 11. The PTEs stay unchanged in the small
input power from 3 to 5 W, followed by a significant decrease in
the higher input power range from 6 to 10 W. The received power
of the Rx coil is quite homogeneous at all receiving angles. To
investigate the efficiency dependence on the distance between
the Tx and Rx coils, we measured the efficiency by moving the
Fig. 12. Dependence between PTE and resonant coils distance. The
distance is from the origin of coordinate system to the Rx coil.
Rx within a distance ranging from 25 to 50 cm to the origin
of the coordinate system. An efficiency comparison with that
distance range at a frequency of 13.56 MHz is demonstrated in
Fig. 12. With the distance around 30 cm, the Tx and Rx coils
possess the strongest magnetic coupling resonance so that the
energy received by the Rx coil is highest with an efficiency of
approximately 60% in the experimental results. When the Rx
coil is moved nearer or farther from the Tx coil, the efficiency
of the system is decreased strongly because of the under- or
overcoupling resonance between the two resonant coils. With
distances from 40 to 50 cm, the Rx coil achieves a small amount
of energy in most of the directions, which is consistent with the
small mutual inductances between the Tx and Rx coils. Table IV
summarizes the performance comparison of this paper with the
previous researches. This paper shows a compatible high PTE
for the omnidirectional WPT system using the cubic Tx coil
with a single power source.
HA-VAN AND SEO: ANALYTICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF OMNIDIRECTIONAL WPT USING A CUBIC TRANSMITTER
TABLE IV
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS RESEARCHES
Reference [8] [9]
Structure Orthogonal coils with Orthogonal coils with
nonidentical current load detection and
control methods a power flow control
WPT type Omnidirection Omnidirection
Resonant Frequency 530 kHz 550 kHz
PTE >50% 69.5%
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we presented a cubic Tx coil design for an omni-
directional magnetic resonant coupling WPT system. Magnetic
field strengths of various Tx shapes were evaluated to achieve
an optimized structure. In addition, a new model of resonant
coupling two-coil system was proposed with an equivalent cir-
cuit and mathematical analysis to specify the resonant coupling
operation. It was shown that the proposed Tx coil can deliver
power to the Rx coil arranged around it with an efficiency of
approximately 60% at an operating frequency of 13.56 MHz
and an optimum separation of 30 cm. The dependence between
PTE and distance was investigated to validate the performance
of the WPT system. In conclusion, low-cost fabrication with-
out current control methodology was implemented to verify the
practical design of an omnidirectional cubic Tx coil with a sim-
ple single-Rx coil.
V. FUTURE WORK
From the analyzed circuit model of the WPT system, it is
clear that receivers can be added into the system to collect the
omnidirectional magnetic field of the cubic Tx coil. Similarly,
the transfer functions of the multi-Rx coil and cubic Tx coil are
easily extracted for each Rx coil, depending on the coupling
coefficient and the Rx shape. Furthermore, the improvement
of PTE for long-distance WPT systems can be considered by
placing metamaterial slabs around the cubic Tx coil [22], [23].
With its simple construction, flexible characteristics, and low
manufacturing cost, this WPT system has many advantages for
recharging scenarios for portable devices, such as laptops and
mobile phones, at mid-range distance in public areas.
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Nam Ha-Van (M’17) received the B.S. degree in
electronics and telecommunications from Hanoi
University of Science and Technology, Hanoi,
Vietnam, in 2012. He is currently working toward
the Integrated Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in in-
formation communication, materials, and chem-
istry convergence technology with Soongsil Uni-
versity, Seoul, South Korea.
His current research interests include wire-
less power transfer, metamaterials, power am-
plifiers, and antennas.
Chulhun Seo (M’97–SM’14) received the B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronics engineer-
ing from Seoul National University, Seoul, South
Korea, in 1983, 1985, and 1993, respectively.
From 1993 to 1995, he was a Technical Staff
Member with Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. From 1993
to 1997, he was an Assistant Professor with
Soongsil University, Seoul. From 1999 to 2001,
he was a Visiting Professor with MIT. From 1997
to 2004, he was an Associate Professor with
Soongsil University, where he has been a Professor of electronic engi-
neering since 2004. He is the Dean of the Informations and Telecommu-
nications College, Soongsil University. He is the Director of the Wireless
Power Transfer Research Center supported by the Korea Government
(Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy) and the Director of the Meta-
materials Research Center supported by Basic Research Laboratories
through the National Research Foundation grant funded by the Ministry
of Science, ICT and Future Planning. His research interests include wire-
less communication technologies, radio frequency power amplifiers, and
wireless power transfer using metamaterials.
Dr. Seo was the IEEE MTT Korea Chapter Chairman from 2011 to
2014. He is the President of the Korean Institute of Electromagnetic En-
gineering and Science.