Smart Magentoelectric Fluxghuide Enables WPT Systems with Highly-Misaligned Coils

Wireless charging relies on the proper alignment of the emitter and receiver coils. Applications where this cannot be maintained lead to “dark spots” of low charging. We demonstrate that we actively guide and distribute the magnetic field in wireless power transfer (WPT) systems using smart magnetoelectric composites showing both magnetostrictive plus piezoelectric properties. Thereby, we enable WPT to operate with highly misaligned coils and enhance positioning freedom. When the fluxguide is kept in passive state, our method preserves 41% coupling at 160% lateral misalignment, and when it is switched active it recovers 20% of the coupling losses introduced by our fluxguide in the aligned case.