Performance Evaluation of Silicon and GaN Switches for a Small Wireless Power Transfer System

• Main Authors: Carotenuto, R. (Author), Della Corte, F.G (Author), Iero, D. (Author), Merenda, M. (Author), Pezzimenti, F. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI 2022
• Subjects: Efficiency; Energy transfer; Gallium nitride; Gallium Nitride; Gallium nitride HEMT; GaN HEMT; High electron mobility transistors; III-V semiconductors; Inductive power transmission; inductive resonance; Inductive resonance; Performances evaluation; Power transfer systems; Power transfers; Research interests; Resonant circuits; Silicon; Switching devices; Wide diffusion; Wireless power; Wireless power transfer; wireless power transfer (WPT)
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 In the last few years, the wide diffusion of rechargeable devices has fueled the research interest in wireless power transfer (WPT) technology that offers advantages such as safety, flexibility, and ease of use. Different standards have been developed over the years but a significant part of the global interest is focused on the inductive resonant wireless power transfer. By increasing the resonance frequency, an improvement in the transfer efficiency between transmit and receive coils is generally observed, at the expense, however, of an increase in losses in the switching devices that constitute the transmitting and receiving circuits. This study concerned the performance evaluation of a WPT transmitting circuit built using Gallium Nitride (GaN) or conventional silicon (Si) switching devices, to assess their specific contribution to the overall efficiency of the system. The overall performance of two circuits, respectively based on GaN HEMTs and Si MOSFETs, were compared at frequencies of the order of MHz under different operating conditions. The theory and design choices regarding the WPT circuit, the coils, and the resonant network are also discussed. The comparison shows that the GaN circuit typically performs better than the Si one, but a clear advantage of the GaN solution cannot be established under all operating conditions. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.