Wireless Power and Data Transfer System Using Split Transformer with Combined Windings

Simultaneous power and data transfer to enable fast communication between the primary and the secondary sides of wireless power transfer (WPT) systems is rapidly growing, to improve system performance and enable interoperability. The present work details the design, numerical simulation and test of a simultaneous wireless power and data transfer (SWPDT) system for battery charging of autonomous mobile robots. The system implements independent multiple inductive channels for power and full duplex data transfer, that are combined on the same split transformer topology, based on commercially available E-shape ferrite cores. In particular, a main winding is used to transfer power, while auxiliary data windings on the outer wings are used to realize a bidirectional data communication, implemented by means of Manchester coding technique. Preliminary experimental results carried out on multiple inductive channels SWPDT prototype with rated power 600W and 1 Mbit/s data rate are presented, and are in agreement with the simulation ones.