Design and optimization of a 3-coil resonance-based wireless power transfer system for biomedical implants

This paper presents a resonance-based wireless power transfer system using a single layer of inductor coil windings, in a pancake configuration, in order to obtain a compact system for implantable electronic applications. We theoretically analyzed the system and characterized it by measuring its inductance, self-resonant frequency, and quality factor Q. In our resonance-based wireless power transfer prototype, we proposed a 3-coil system, using two 15-mm radius implantable coils, with a resonance frequency of 6.76MHz. This system can effectively transfer power for a distance of up to 50mm. Moreover, our proposed 3-coil system can achieve a high Q-factor and has a comparable power transfer efficiency (PTE) to previously reported works about 3-coil and 4-coil systems. The experimental PTE can achieve 82.4% at a separation distance of 20mm and more than 10% PTE at a distance of 40mm.