University of Tennessee University of Tennessee Knoxville
This digest presents a systematic approach to reduce the total weight of the receiver components in a wireless charger for drones. An overall design and optimization methodology, based on loss, thermal and weight models, incorporating all stages of the on-board receiver, is presented to maximize the gravimetric power density of the wireless charger. A 600 W prototype leveraging GaN technology is built to validate the system modeling and design. The receiver achieves a gravimetric power density of 11.8 W/g not considering the weight of controls and sensing. The prototype exhibits 90.9% efficiency at full power.
