A particle swarm optimizer for tuning a software-defined, highly configurable wireless power transfer platform

An important challenge in wireless power transfer systems based on resonant coupling is the frequency splitting phenomenon, which results in detuning the resonance frequency of the system and consequently in a reduction in the system power transfer efficiency. In this paper, a software-defined, near-field wireless power transfer (WPT) platform is proposed where a particle swarm optimizer (PSO) is used to optimize the power transfer effieciency of the system. A prototype platform operating at 13.56 MHz is designed and fabricated and the capability of the PSO to tune the system to the operating point of maximum efficiency is demonstrated by experiments. It is shown that by controlling the matching network of the transmit and receive chain through the PSO algorithm it is possible to reach the optimum solution within a few iterations. The proposed system can find application in adaptively tuned WPT systems.