GaN-Based Oscillators for Wireless Power Transfer

Applications
Anwar Jarndal Teodora Petrovic
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Power, Electronic and Telecommunication Department
University of Sharjah University of Novi Sad
27272 Sharjah, United Arab Emirates 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract— This paper reports linear- and switching-mode high voltage operation. These devices can handle large
oscillators based on GaN power device that can be used efficiently amounts of energy without failing. GaN has a high power
for wireless power transfer (WPT) applications. The proposed density of about 9 W/mm [5] and a wide band-gap which
oscillators are designed using a packaged GaN high electron permits the operation at higher voltages [6] necessary for high
mobility transistor (HEMT) from Transphorm Inc. In the first voltage systems like electric cars. It also has a high breakdown
design a class-AB has been adopted and implemented to provide voltage allowing it to withstand high input powers and energy
lower harmonics oscillator that can be used for electromagnetic spikes [7] without the need of any protection circuitry [7],
interference (EMI) sensitive WPT applications. In the second part, which offers more efficient wireless power systems. Also, the
higher efficiency class-E oscillator based on the same transistor has
high operating frequency capability of GaN HEMT makes it
been designed and implemented to provide an optimal solution for
higher power WPT applications. Both oscillators have been
an optima choice for designing power electronic switching-
implemented and tested. The oscillators produce high output mode circuits.
voltage up 40 V with lower total harmonic distortion of around 10%
for class-AB and higher efficiency of around 90% for class-E
oscillator.

Keywords—GaN HEMT; Wireless Power Transfer; Oscillator

I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) was firstly demonstrated
by Nikola Tesla in 1899, however in the past decade this
technology has been developed to the point where it offers Fig. 1. Block diagram of wireless power charger.
benefits to the real-world applications. One of the most
common applications is powering a number of devices
simultaneously, where RF signal of desired power and
frequency is intentionally transmitted, subsequently received
and then rectified by the targeted devices, which convert it to
direct current (dc) electrical power. WPT have gained a This paper presents a design for class-AB and class-E
significant interest of industries and researchers with the oscillators based on the packaged GaN HEMT, TPH3208PS
development of battery operated and small devices like and its provided LTSpice model from Transphorm Inc. [8].
wireless sensors [1], biomedical implants [2] and electric cars The main contribution of the paper is to demonstrate the
[3]. However, charging these cordless and/or inaccessible applicability of GaN technology for implementing high power
devices later became the problem, which demanded ac sources for WPT application. The main advantage of the
transferring the power wirelessly to charge these devices proposed design is its dependence on a single GaN HEMT
efficiently and reliably. This paper contributes to this demand enforced by frequency-selective positive feedback to generate
and provides two different improved designs for class-AB and higher ac signal. Thus, there is no need for external gate driver
class-E oscillator that can be used as high-power alternating such as dc-ac converter. Another advantage is also embedding
current (ac) source for WPT systems. To transfer energy the transmitting coil as a circuit element of the oscillator,
wirelessly, a near-field inductive power transfer will be used which reduces the requirement for additional matching circuit
[4] where the receiver and the transmitter are coupled using between the source and the coil. This in total will contribute to
magnetic fields, which are generated by a coil in the improve the dc-to-ac conversion efficiency of the ac source.
transmitter as it is illustrated in Fig. 1 . To provide an ac
power to the transmitting coil, a proposed oscillator based on II. CLASS-AB OSCILLATOR
GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) will be used. Class AB oscillator is common operating class used for
linear amplification. The bias point for Class AB is located
GaN HEMTs have been offered commercially since last
between Class A and Class B. Therefor, the conduction angle is
decade and have found immediate use in various wireless
between  and 2, and maximum drain efficiency is between
infrastructure applications due to their high efficiency and

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50% and 78%. This operating class is widely employed for the
amplifiers in communication applications [9]. The circuit
topology of the adopted class-AB oscillator is based on collpit
oscillator with LC feedback circuit as shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Simulated class-AB oscillator.

Fig. 3. Simulated signal waveform and spectrum of the output drain

voltage for class-AB oscillator.

It consists of GaN HEMT in common source configuration

with load inductor L2 and biased with VDD and VGG dc
voltages. The feedback LC network includes C3 , C2 and L1.
The oscillator has been simulated in LTSpice using the model
of the considered device from Transform Inc. (TPH3208PS).
This transistor has low on resistance (RON = 0.11 ) and can
handle very high drain voltage up to 650V. The same transistor
has been used for both circuits of class-AB and class-E
oscillators. The class-AB oscillator was designed to provide
high output voltage at 7 MHz. This high frequency will
improve the magnetic power coupling and reduce the required
size of both transmitting and receiving coils. The frequency of For 7 MHz, the calculated values are: C2=C3=1 nF and
oscillation depends on the values of C2, C3 and L1 as folow: L1=516 nH. The output voltage is proportional with 2.66VDD
ଵ and it can reach to 40 V at VDD=15 V. Fig. 3 shows the output
݂ൌ ಴ ಴
Ǥ (1) voltage for the simulated class-AB oscillator at VDD=15 V and
ଶగට௅భ మ య
಴మ శ಴య
VGG=2.2 V. As it can be seen, the drain output voltage can
reach up to 42 V at frequency of 7 MHz.
The oscillator has been implemented on bread board as
illustrated in Fig. 4. As can be observed, the transistor was
mounted on heatsink to remove the heat and keep it cool at
higher operating voltages. The output voltage at the drain,
which is the same voltage through transmitting coil L2, was
measured using the oscilloscope. Fig. 5 shows the measured
signal waveform at VDD=15 V and VGG=2.4 V. The output has
a peak value of 37 V at frequency of 7.4 MHz.

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 efficiency. Class-E oscillator consists of an input dc voltage
source VDD, a dc-feed inductor L2, a MOSFET as switching
device, a capacitor C5 shunting the device, a series resonant
circuit L3-C1, two capacitors C2 and C3, and feedback inductor
L1. R1 is resistor for supplying the bias voltage, large enough
to neglect current through it, and R2 is load resistance (Fig.6)
[12].

Fig. 4. Implemented circuit of the class-AB oscillator.

Fig. 6. Simulated class-E oscillator.

This device has been simulated using LTSpice as well. As

can be seen in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, the output voltage reaches to
51 V with frequency of 530 KHz under bias voltages of
VGG=2.1 V and VDD=16 V.

Fig. 5. Measured drain voltage for class-AB oscillator.

III. CLASS-E OSCILLATOR

Fig. 7. Simulated signal waveform for the drain voltage of class-E oscillator.
Class-E is one of the most popular switching-mode
operations due to its high efficiency. It was invented by Sokal
[10]. In the class-E oscillators, the transistor operates as a
switch and driven a feedback voltage transformed from the
output voltage. Class-E oscillators must satisfy the zero-
voltage switching and zero-derivative switching conditions.
This makes the drain voltage fall to zero value with zero slope
with respect to time and at this time the switch is turned ON
[11]. When the switch is OFF, the capacitors are charged and
the drain voltage VD raises and falls without drain current ID.
When the switch is OFF, the current rises smoothly with no
voltage across the capacitors [9]. By avoiding the overlapping
of voltage and current, it can ideally achieve up to 100% drain

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 Fig. 8. Simulated spectrum for the output drain voltage of class-E oscillator.

Fig. 10. Simulated and measured data of cass-E oscillator.

Fig. 9 shows implemented circuit for class-E oscillator.

Lower coil is used as transmitter and an upper coil is used as a
receiver for the wireless power transmission circuit. As it is
illustrated by the ruler, the distance between coils is shown. As TABLE I. COMPONENTS OF CLASS-E OSCILLATOR .
we know, amount of transferred power depends on the distance
Component Value Unit
between those two coils. This circuit was tested on distance of
2 cm. Fig. 10 shows also comparison between the measured L1 99 μH
and simulated drain output voltage. The discrepancy in L2 7.2 μH
magnitude and frequency could be attributed to the tolerance of R1 6.8 k
the circuit elements and interconnection induced parasitic C1 453 pF
effects. Table I. list the values of the components for the C2 470 nF
implemented class-E Oscillator. C3 10 nF
L1 5.6 nF
L2 100 μH
R1 22 

The same approach presented in [10] has been followed to

determine the values of the circuit components. The inductance
of L3 is calculated as:
ொ ήோ
‫ܮ‬ଷ ൌ ಽ మ (2)
ଶήగή௙
Its value is selected to achieve quality factor QL of 16.4. Using
this value of capacitor C5 can be computed as:

ଵ ଴Ǥଽଵସଶସ ଵǤ଴ଷଵ଻ହ ଴Ǥ଺

Fig. 9. Implemented circuit of the class-E oscillator. ‫ܥ‬ହ ൌ ൬ͲǤͻͻͺ͸͸ ൅ െ ൰ ൅ ሺଶήగή௙ሻమ (3)
ଷସǤଶଶଵଽή௙ήோమ ொಽ ொಽమ ή௅భ

From equation (3), C5 will have a value of 3.3 nF.

ଵ ଵ ଵǤ଴ଵସ଺଼ ଴Ǥଶ
‫ܥ‬ଵ ൌ ቀ ቁ ቀͳǤͲͲͳʹͳ ൅ ቁ െ ሺଶήగή௙ሻమ (4)
ଶήగή௙ ொಽ ି଴Ǥଵ଴ସ଼ଶଷ ொಽ ିଵǤ଻଼଻ଽ ή௅భ

From equation (4) value for capacitor C1 is calculated to be

549 pF. The difference between the calculated and
implemented values for the capacitors come from the parasitic
components of the circuit. Thus the circuit elements have been
tuned to compensate the effect and satisfy the oscillation
condition. Fig. 11 shows the measured voltage and current
waveforms. As can be seen, the overlapping of these two

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signals is small, which results in higher dc-to-ac conversion IV. CONSLUSION
efficiency. The estimated value of efficiency is a round 90 %. The implemented oscillators showed good agreement
between their simulations and experimental results. Class-AB
oscillator can be used for generating high output voltage with
lower harmonics, which is appropriate for EMI sensitive WPT
applications. The class-E, on the other side, provided higher
output switching voltage with higher efficiency, which is
applicable for higher power WPT applications.

Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support from the
University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates and
University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia.

References
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Transfer and Max Flow in Rechargeable Wireless Sensor Networks,"
Fig. 11. Measured drain voltage and current for class-E oscillatoe. IEEE Access, 2016.
[2] Hao Liu, Qi Shao, and Xuelin Fang, "Modeling and Optimization of
Class-E Amplifier at Subnominal Condition in a Wireless Power
Transfer System for Biomedical Implants," Transactions on Biomedical
circuits and systems, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 35-43, 2017.
[3] A. Gercikow, A. Fuchs, and H. Schmidt, "Wireless power and data
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[4] Tianjia Sun, Zhihua Wang, and Xiang Xie, Wireless Power Transfer for
Medical Microsystems.: Springer, 2013.
[5] B. Green and K Chu et al., "Cascode Connected AlGaN/GaN HEMT’s
on SiC Substrates," Microwave and guided wave letters, vol. 10, no. 8,
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[6] M Micovic et al., "GaN MMIC Technology for Microwave and
Millimeter-wave Applications," IEEE, pp. 173-176, 2005.
[7] H. Xu and C. Sanabria et al., "A C-Band High-Dynamic Range GaN
HEMT Low-Noise Amplifier," Microwave and wireless components
Letters, vol. 14, no. 6, pp. 262-264, June 2004.
[8] Transphorm Inc. (http://www.transphormusa.com/document-type/spice-
models/).
[9] Design and Stability Analysis Techniques for Switching-mode
Nonlinear Circuits: Power Amplifiers and Oscillators, Sanggeun Jeon,
California Institute of Technology, 2006
[10] Class-E RF Power Amplifiers, Dothan O. Sokal, WA1HQC of Design
Automation, Inc ARRL Technical Advisor.
[11] Marian K. Kazimierczuk, Fellow, IEEE, Vladimir G. Krizhanovski,
Senior Member, IEEE, Julia V. Rassokina, Member, IEEE, and Dmitrii
Fig. 12. Measured voltage on the receiving coil of class-E WPT circuit. V. Chernov “Class E MOSFET Tuned Power Oscillator Design
Procedure”, June 2006..
[12] Dmitrii V. Chernov, Marian K. Kazimierczuk, and Vladimir G.
Krizhnovski “Class-E MOSFET Low-Voltage Power Oscillattor”.

Since this circuit is going to be used as a transmitting part

of wireless power charger, output voltage was measured on
the receiving coil as well. For testing the circuit, bias voltage
was 2.1 V and drain voltage 16 V. In these conditions, output
voltage on the receiving coil is shown in the Fig. 12. As it can
be seen, in this case, output voltage is 14.69 V with a distance
between the coils of 2 cm.

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