International Journal of Power Electronics and Drive Systems (IJPEDS)

Vol. 14, No. 4, December 2023, pp. 2307~2318

ISSN: 2088-8694, DOI: 10.11591/ijpeds.v14.i4.pp2307-2318  2307

Design of the transmitter coil used in wireless power transfer

system based on genetic algorithm

Mongkol Konghirun, Supapong Nutwong, Anawach Sangswang, Nattapong Hatchavanich

Department of Electrical Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, Thailand

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history: Performance of the wireless power transfer (WPT) system relies on the
physical dimensions of the coupled coil, which should be optimally designed
Received Jan 11, 2023 to meet required system performance and reduce the operating cost. This
Revised Apr 20, 2023 paper presents an optimal design based on genetic algorithm (GA) for the
Accepted May 3, 2023 transmitter coil used in wireless power transfer system. Physical parameters
of the circular flat spiral coil, including wire’s cross-sectional area, coil’s
inner diameter, coil’s outer diameter, coil’s turn number, and space between
Keywords: each turn of the coil are considered. The design objective is to minimize the
total wire length required by the coil subjected to both linear and nonlinear
Circular flat spiral coil constraints. The design process is implemented on MATLAB optimization
Genetic Algorithm toolbox which is simple and accurate. The validity of proposed optimal coil
Optimal design design is verified by the experiment, which indicates that total wire length of
System performance the optimized coil can be reduced by 5.5 percent compared to the
Wireless power transfer conventional coil without sacrificing the system performance. System
efficiency obtained from the optimized coil can be improved up to 8.32
percent.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license.

Corresponding Author:
Supapong Nutwong
Department of Electrical Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
126 Pracha Uthit Rd., Bang Mod, Thung Khru, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand
Email: supapong.nut@kmutt.ac.th

1. INTRODUCTION
Wireless power transfer (WPT) is an innovative technique that allows the electrical energy to
transmit from source to load without any physical connection. It provides contactless, safety, convenient, and
automated operation. Nowadays, it has been successfully adopted in various applications, such as implantable
biomedical devices [1]–[3], portable devices [4]–[6], robot [7]–[9], kitchen appliances [10], electric vehicles
(EVs) [11]–[14], electric bicycle [15]–[17], unmanned aerial vehicle [18]–[20], and IoT devices [21]–[25].
Since the working principle of WPT system is based on electromagnetic induction, the coupled coil,
i.e., transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) coil, are the most important part of this system. A circular flat spiral
coil structure is frequently used as a coupled coils in the WPT system due to it is easy to fabricate and having
scalable function [26]. Additionally, the magnetic coupling between coupled coils is radial symmetry where
misalignment tolerance is the same in all directions [27]. Physical parameters of this coil structure, including
cross-sectional area of litz-wire, inner diameter, outer diameter, number of turns, and space between each
turn of the coil, have a significant impact on the performance of WPT system [28].
These parameters have been investigated in previous research efforts. The length of inner diameter
of transmitter and receiver coil are considered which leads to the key design consideration as follows: i) The
system will be less sensitive to misalignment if the inner diameter of transmitter coil is large; and ii) The
average coupling factor increases with the inner diameter of a receiver coil [29]. The outer diameter is set to

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2308  ISSN: 2088-8694

constant at 300 mm, while the inner diameter and space between each turn of the coil are varied. It found that
the ratio between inner diameter and outer diameter should be lower than or equal to 0.4 to achieve a
relatively high coupling coefficient [30]. In addition, if the space between each turn is increased it will lower
the coil’s self-inductance, but it has less effect on the magnetic coupling coefficient. Five coupled coils with
different dimensions are compared [31]. Physical parameters of a transmitter coil are fixed, but the inner
diameter and outer diameter of the receiver coil are varied to investigate the coil pair that least sensitive to
misalignments. From this finding, to obtain the coupled coil that is least sensitive to misalignment, it should
be designed to meet the following guideline: i) The inner diameter of a receiver coil should be greater than
the inner diameter of a transmitter coil; ii) The outer diameter of transmitter and receiver coils should be
equal. The inner diameter, outer diameter, and number of turns are investigated to obtain the key design
parameters that leads to high figure of merit (FOM), which is the product of magnetic coupling coefficient
and system quality factor [32]. It is noted that system efficiency is directly proportional to this FOM. From
various comparative studies, it leads to the design guideline to achieve a high value of FOM, which can be
summarized as follows: i) Both transmitter and receiver coils should have the same number of turns.
Moreover, the FOM increases with the coil turn numbers; ii) For a given number of turns and outer diameter,
inner diameter should be as large as possible; iii) Since the outer diameter has less effect on the FOM, it
should be fixed according to the applications. The inner diameter, outer diameter, and space between each
turn of the coil (turn spacing) of the transmitter coil are investigated according to the following assumptions:
i) Self-inductance of both transmitter and receiver coils are kept constant; ii) Wire diameter of both Tx and
Rx coil are set to 4 mm; iii) Physical parameters of the receiver coil are fixed [33]. It was discovered that,
while increasing the turn spacing, the system will be sensitive to misalignment if the outer diameter is kept
constant. In contrast, the system will be less sensitive to misalignment if the inner diameter is kept constant.
Four transmitter coils with different inner diameter, outer diameter, and number of turns are investigated to
compare the transferred power, system efficiency, and required total wire length (TWL) [34]. The wire
diameter and turn spacing of the Tx coil are fixed and the physical parameters of a receiver coil are set to
constant. It can be concluded from this comparative study that the TWL will be lowest, and the transferred
power will be highest if the inner diameter of Tx coil is greater than the inner diameter of Rx coil and the
outer diameter of Tx coil is smaller than the outer diameter of Rx coil. Moreover, the mentioned Tx coil
provides considerably high efficiency and is suitable to use at aligned position.
Unfortunately, the optimal physical parameters of a circular flat spiral coil structure have not been
reported in the literature due to the complexity of optimizing the system with multi-variables. Thus, the
optimization technique should be adopted in the design process of WPT coil. For a given output power,
system efficiency is dependent on the self-inductance of a transmitter coil. To achieve high self-inductance,
conventional Tx coil used in WPT system usually have small inner diameter and a lot of turn numbers. This
increases the total wire length required by the coil which led to high cost and ohmic loss.
This paper presents an optimal design of the transmitter coil used in WPT system based on genetic
algorithm. Inner diameter and number of turns of the circular flat spiral coil structure are optimized. The
design objective is to minimize the total wire length required by the coil, while the design constraints are
maximum outer diameter and minimum self-inductance. The presented optimal design is implemented on
MATLAB optimization toolbox which is simple and accurate. The optimal design results are validated
through an experiment where the total wire length and system efficiency are compared with the conventional
coil. This paper is organized as follows: system description, analysis of the impact of self-inductance on system
performance, and calculation of self-inductance of circular flat spiral coil are introduced in section 2.
Implementation of the genetic algorithm using MATLAB simulation toolbox is presented in section 3. The
experimental results and discussion are reported in section 4. The conclusion is detailed in section 5.

2. SYSTEM ANALYSIS
2.1. System description
The wireless power transfer system under studied is shown in Figure 1, which consists of DC
voltage source, inverter circuit, transmitter coil, receiver coil, compensation capacitors, rectifier circuit, and a
resistive load. Two coils configuration, i.e., one transmitter (Tx) and one receiver (Rx) coil, are adopted in
this WPT system. Both Tx and Rx coils have a circular flat spiral coil structure. The mutual inductance
between coupled coils is represented by “M”. Compensation capacitors C1 and C2 are connected in series
with Tx and Rx coil, respectively. This forms a series-series (S-S) compensation topology. The S-S topology
is selected in this work because the system resonant frequency is insensitive to the mutual inductance
variation which occur when there is misalignment between Tx and Rx coils [35]–[37]. Therefore, the fixed-
frequency operation of an inverter circuit can be applied. A full-bridge inverter is adopted in the primary
circuit to convert DC into high frequency AC voltage. Its switching frequency is fixed at resonant frequency

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Int J Pow Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694  2309

throughout the operation. The duty cycle of each switch is set to 50 percent which causes the inverter output
voltage to be a square wave. An uncontrolled full-wave bridge rectifier is used in the secondary circuit to
obtain a smooth DC voltage at the output. Load resistance is defined by “RL”. In this studied system, the
output power is regulated by manually adjusting the magnitude of DC input voltage.

Figure 1. Wireless power transfer system under studied

2.2. Impact of self-inductance on system performance

Simplified equivalent circuit of WPT system under studied is shown in Figure 2 based on the mutual
inductance coupling model. From the first harmonic approximation (FHA), the square wave voltage at an
inverter output can be substituted by a sinusoidal voltage source (V in). Self-inductance of transmitter coil and
receiver coil are denoted by L1 and L2, respectively. A rectifier circuit and load resistor can be replaced by an
equivalent AC resistance (Rac) [38] as (1).
8𝑅𝐿
𝑅𝑎𝑐 = (1)
𝜋2

The system will be operated at resonant frequency (f 0) if compensation capacitances C1 and C2 are tuned to
1
𝐶1 = (2)
4𝜋2 𝑓02 𝐿1

1
𝐶2 = (3)
4𝜋2 𝑓02 𝐿2

at resonant frequency, the magnitude of secondary current (I 2) and output power (Pout) are derived as:
2𝜋𝑓 𝑘|𝐼 |√𝐿 𝐿⃑
|𝐼⃑2 | = 0 1 1 2 (4)
𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐

2
4𝑅𝑎𝑐 𝐿1 𝐿2 𝜋2 𝑓02 𝑘 2 |𝐼⃑1 |
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = )2
(5)
2(𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐

where k is the magnetic coupling coefficient or coupling factor of a coupled coil. The impedance that reflects
from secondary circuit to primary circuit is illustrated in Figure 3, which can be calculated by (6).
4𝐿1 𝐿2 𝜋2 𝑓 2 𝑘 2
𝑍⃑𝑟 = (6)
𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐 +𝑗(2𝜋𝑓𝐿2 −1⁄2𝜋𝑓𝐶2 )

This reflected impedance will be a purely resistive impedance at resonant frequency which is given as,

4𝐿1 𝐿2 𝜋2 𝑓02 𝑘 2
𝑅𝑟 = (7)
𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐

thus, the magnitude of primary current (I 1) can be obtained by (8),

⃑⃑𝑖𝑛 |
|𝑉
|𝐼⃑1 | = (8)
𝑅1 +𝑅𝑟

⃑⃑𝑖𝑛 | is the magnitude of an input voltage. Substitute (8) into (5), the output power can be rewritten as (9).
where |𝑉
2
′ 2𝑅𝑎𝑐 𝐿1 𝐿2 𝜋2 𝑓02 𝑘 2 |𝑉
⃑⃑𝑖𝑛|
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = (𝑅1 +𝑅𝑟 )2 (𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐 )2
(9)

The input power can be determined by (10).

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2
⃑⃑𝑖𝑛 ||𝐼⃑1 |
|𝑉 ⃑⃑𝑖𝑛 |
|𝑉
𝑃𝑖𝑛 = = (10)
2 2(𝑅1 +𝑅𝑟 )

The system efficiency can be evaluated from (9) and (10) as (11).

4𝑅𝑎𝑐 𝐿1 𝐿2 𝜋2 𝑓02 𝑘 2
𝜂 = (𝑅 2 (11)
1 +𝑅𝑟 )(𝑅2 +𝑅𝑎𝑐 )

Figure 2. Simplified equivalent circuit of WPT system Figure 3. Reflected impedance in

under studied the primary circuit

For a given input voltage, resonant frequency, receiver coil, and a load, |𝑉 ⃑⃑𝑖𝑛 |, 𝑓0 , 𝐿2 , 𝑅2 , and 𝑅𝐿 are
constant. Assuming the variation in self-inductance of transmitter coil (L1) does not affect the k value, the
reflected resistance (Rr) will be fixed. Therefore, the relationship between output power and self-inductance
of Tx coil as in (9), and the relationship between system efficiency (𝜂) and self-inductance L1 as in (11) can
be plotted as shown in Figures 4 and 5, respectively. It is clearly seen from Figures 4 and 5 that self-
inductance of transmitter coil has a strong impact on the output power (P out) and efficiency of WPT system.
As noticed in Figure 4, the Pout is decreasing as the L1 is increased, which is the inverse relationship.
However, for a given self-inductance L1, the output power can be boosted by adjusting the input voltage. For
the same value of L1, Pout will be increased if the coupling factor (k) is decreased. As pointed out in Figure 5,
system efficiency is directly proportional to self-inductance of the Tx coil. Thus, to achieve better system
efficiency compared to conventional transmitter coil, self-inductance of Tx coil (L1) should be designed to be
greater than the conventional one. In addition, for the same value of self-inductance L1, system efficiency
will be improved if the coupling factor (k) is increased.

Figure 4. Output power as a function of self- Figure 5. System efficiency as a function of self-
inductance of Tx coil inductance of Tx coil

2.3. Self-inductance of the circular flat spiral coil

A circular flat spiral coil structure used in the WPT system is shown in Figure 6, while its cross-
sectional view is illustrated in Figure 7. Its self-inductance is dependent on the physical parameters of the
coil, including cross-sectional area of litz-wire (w), inner diameter (di), outer diameter (do), number of
turns (N), and space between each turn (s). The formular used for computing self-inductance of circular flat
spiral coil corresponding to its physical parameters was first introduced in [39] which is expressed as (12).

𝑎2 𝑁 2
𝐿= (12)
8𝑎+11𝑐

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where 𝑐 = (𝑑𝑜 − 𝑑𝑖 )⁄2 and 𝑎 = (𝑑𝑜 + 𝑑𝑖 )⁄4. It is noted that the unit of calculated self-inductance in (12) is
micro-Henry (µH) while the unit of inner diameter, outer diameter, and wire diameter are defined as inches.

Figure 6. Circular flat spiral coil structure Figure 7. Cross-sectional view of the circular flat spiral coil
used in WPT system structure

Let the space between each turn of the coil (s) is zero, “c” will be equal to “wN”. Therefore, the
self-inductance formular in (12) can be modified as in (13). It is noted in (13) that the unit of di, do, and w
have been changed from inches to millimeters.

(𝑑𝑖 +𝑤𝑁)2 𝑁2
𝐿′ = (13)
406.4𝑑𝑖 +1524𝑤𝑁

As suggested in [39], the error of calculated self-inductance will be less than 5 percent if

0.9𝑤𝑁 − 0.1𝑑𝑖 > 0 (14)

total wire length (TWL) of the coil relies on its physical parameters, which can be computed by (15).

𝑑𝑖 +𝑤
𝑇𝑊𝐿 = ∑𝑁
𝑘=1 2𝜋 [( ) + (𝑘 − 1)𝑤] (15)
2

3. GENETIC ALGORITHM
Genetic algorithm (GA) is the optimization algorithm which is developed from the biological
evolution based on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Key advantages of GA are the ability to deal
with complex optimization problems. Although the GA can be implemented in any programming language, it
requires a coding process which is complicated and time consuming. Nowadays, genetic algorithm can be
realized on MATLAB optimization toolbox which is simple and accurate. It can be done by using the
command in (16) where each attribute is defined in Table 1.

𝑋 = 𝑔𝑎(𝐹𝐼𝑇𝑁𝐸𝑆𝑆𝐹𝐶𝑁, 𝑁𝑉𝐴𝑅𝑆, 𝐴, 𝑏, 𝐴𝑒𝑞, 𝑏𝑒𝑞, 𝑙𝑏, 𝑢𝑏, 𝑁𝑂𝑁𝐿𝐶𝑂𝑁) (16)

In this work, the optimal design of transmitter coil used in WPT system is performed based on GA
which is implemented in MATLAB. The objective is to minimize the total wirelength of the coil as referred
to (15). There are two design variables, which are inner diameter (d i) and number of turns (N). The space
between each turn (s) and diameter of litz-wire (w) are fixed at 0 and 3 mm, respectively. The minimum
inner diameter and number of turns are set to 10 mm and 1 turn, which are the lower bound on design
variables. The maximum inner diameter and number of turns are set to 200 mm and 50 turns, which are the
upper bound on design variables. The outer diameter of the coil (d o) is designed to not be bigger than 500
mm. This leads to a linear inequalities constraint which can be expressed as,

𝑑𝑖 + 2𝑤𝑁 ≤ 500 (17)

The aim of optimal coil design presented in this paper is to reduce the total wirelength (TWL)
required by the coil, and to enhance the system efficiency when compared to the conventional coil. The
physical parameters of conventional coil are defined as listed in Table 2. Using (13), its calculated self-
inductance is obtained as 113.83 µH. Thus, to ensure that the system efficiency obtained from optimized coil
is higher than or equal to one obtained from conventional coil, self-inductance of the optimized coil must be

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higher than or equal to 113.83 µH. This establishes a nonlinear inequalities constraint which can
be derived as (18).

(𝑑𝑖 +𝑤𝑁)2 𝑁2
≥ 113.83 (18)
406.4𝑑𝑖 +1524𝑤𝑁

To limit the error of computed self-inductance within 5 percent, the condition in (14) should be
included in the design process. Therefore, this condition will also be regarded as one of the nonlinear
inequalities constraints. The value of all attributes in MATLAB’s GA command are already introduced in
Table 1. The optimization results are also presented in Table 2 where the global minimum of an objective
function is met. As pointed out in Table 2, the total wirelength required by the optimized coil is reduced by
5.5 percent compared to the conventional coil, while the design variables satisfy all design constraints. This
validates the presented optimal coil design.

Table 1. Definition and values of attributes in GA command

Attributes Definition Values
X Design variables d i, N
FITNESSFCN 𝑁
𝑑𝑖 + 𝑤
Fitness or objection function 𝑇𝑊𝐿 = ∑ 2𝜋 [( ) + (𝑘 − 1)𝑤]
2
𝑘=1
NVARS Number of design variables 2
A, b Linear inequalities constraints (𝐴 ∙ 𝑋 ≤ 𝑏) 𝑑𝑖 + 2𝑤𝑁 ≤ 500
Aeq, beq Linear equalities constraints (𝐴𝑒𝑞 ∙ 𝑋 = 𝑏𝑒𝑞) -
lb Lower bound on the design variables 10 mm, 1 turn
ub Upper bound on the design variables 200 mm, 50 turns
NONLCON Nonlinear constraints (𝑑𝑖 + 𝑤𝑁)2 𝑁 2
≥ 113.83
406.4𝑑𝑖 + 1524𝑤𝑁

and

0.9𝑤𝑁 − 0.1𝑑𝑖 > 0

Table 2. Comparison between conventional coil and optimized coil

Parameters Conventional coil Optimized coil
Inner diameter (di) 20 mm 122 mm
Outer diameter (do) 230 mm 254 mm
Number of turns (N) 35 turns 22 turns
Space between each turn (s) 0 mm 0 mm
Diameter of litz-wire (w) 3 mm 3 mm
Self-inductance (L) 113.83 µH 113.92 µH
Total wire length (TWL) 13.74 m 12.99 m
0.9𝑤𝑁 − 0.1𝑑𝑖 92.5 47.2

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To verify the optimal design results, both conventional coil and optimized coil as indicated in
Table 2 are fabricated, which are shown in Figure 8. The measured self-inductance and winding resistance of
both conventional and optimized coils are presented in Table 3. Although there are some differences between
calculation and measurement values of self-inductance, these errors are within 5 percent which complies with
the condition discussed in (14). In traditional WPT system, physical dimensions of transmitter (Tx) and
receiver (Rx) coils are identical. Thus, the dimensions of Rx coil used in this studied system will be the same
as conventional coil.
For comparison purposes, both conventional and optimized Tx coils will be coupled with the same
Rx coil. Figure 9 illustrates the comparison results of measured coupling factor between conventional and
optimized Tx coil. The air gap (vertical distance) between Tx coil and Rx coil is fixed at 80 mm, while the
Rx coil is horizontally moved from aligned position (0 mm) to 100 mm. The coupling factor obtained from
conventional and optimized Tx coil at aligned position is almost equal, which are 0.213 and 0.218,
respectively. When the horizontal misalignment between Tx coil and Rx coil is increased, the coupling factor
obtained from both cases tends to decrease. However, when compared at the same misalignment, coupling
factor of optimized Tx coil is greater than conventional Tx coil. It is noted that efficiency of WPT system
increases with the coupling factor.

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Table 3. Measured self-inductance and winding resistance of the fabricated coil

Parameters Conventional coil Optimized coil
Winding resistance 0.39 0.26
Self-inductance 117.46 µH 110.21 µH
Error between calculated and measured value of self-inductance 3.19% -3.26%

Figure 8. Fabricated coils under conventional and optimized parameters

Figure 9. Comparison of measured coupling factor

To validate the presented optimal coil design, an experiment is performed on the 50-watt WPT
system prototype which is shown in Figure 10. It is noted that the created experimental setup is for testing the
presented concept. However, this proposed design can be applied to any of the static WPT applications.
A benchtop DC power supply is used as the input DC voltage source. The full-bridge inverter circuit consists
of four MOSFETs (IRFP460) and gate drive circuits. Its switching frequency (f s) is fixed at 85 kHz
throughout the operation, which is the system resonant frequency. An uncontrolled bridge rectifier circuit
composes of four Schottky diode (SR3100) and filter capacitor (C f). Film capacitors are used in the
compensation capacitors (C1 and C2). Their capacitances are designed based on (2) and (3). Wire wound
resistor is adopted as a resistive load (RL). Circuit parameters of the created experimental set up are measured
and listed in Table 4.

Table 4. Measured circuit parameters

Parameters Values
C1 (for conventional Tx coil) 30.22 µF
C1 (for optimized Tx coil) 30.96 µF
C2 30.22 µF
Cf 1,000 µF
RL 12 Ω
fs 85 kHz

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Figure 10. Experimental setup

Simplified equivalent circuit of the experimental set up is shown in Figure 11. An input DC voltage
source is represented by Vdc. An inverter voltage and inverter current are denoted by I in and Vin, respectively.
A current passing through the receiver coil is defined as output current (Iout). The voltage at rectifier input is
defined as output voltage (Vout).

Figure 11. Simplified equivalent circuit of the experimental setup

Experimental waveforms of the studied system are measured using digital oscilloscope. The
measurement is performed at 0 mm and 100 mm horizontal misalignment. To compare the efficiency
obtained from conventional Tx coil and optimized Tx coil, the output power must be controlled to constant
throughout the operation. Thus, it will be regulated to maintain at rated value of 50 watts by manually
adjusting the magnitude of DC input voltage through a benchtop DC power supply. The input power (Pin) and
output power (Pout) of the system are obtained from the average (mean) value of their instantaneous powers,
which are the product between instantaneous voltage and instantaneous current. This can be done by using
mathematical functions in digital oscilloscope.
At 0 mm horizontal misalignment, experimental results of the system with conventional Tx coil and
optimized Tx coil are shown in Figures 12 and 13, respectively. As seen from the results, waveform of the
voltage at an inverter output (Vin) is a square wave which has the frequency of 85 kHz. The current flowing
in primary and secondary circuit, Iin and Iout, are sinusoid due to high-quality factor of the circuit. Since the
capacitance of filter capacitor (Cf) is considerably high, the output voltage (V out) is also a square wave. The
current Iin is in phase with the voltage Vin while the current Iout is in phase with the voltage Vout. This is
because the system operates in a resonant state. The measured output power (Pout) of each case is
approximately equal to 50 watts. The measured input power (Pin) of conventional coil (56.531 W) is a little
bit higher than optimized coil (56.1785 W). Therefore, efficiency of the system with optimized coil will be
slightly greater than the system with conventional coil.
At 10 mm horizontal misalignment, experimental results of the system with conventional Tx coil
and optimized Tx coil are shown in Figures 14 and 15, respectively. As seen from the results, waveform of
the inverter voltage (Vin) is a square wave containing spike, which indicates the non-soft switching operation.
This is because the inverter current (Iin) required to maintain the output power increases with the
misalignment between Tx and Rx coils. Thus, the temperature of a coupled coil will rise which causes its
self-inductance to decrease. As a result, system resonant frequency will be increased. Since the fixed

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frequency operation is applied to this system, the switching frequency will be lower than the system resonant
frequency. This forces the system to operate in non-ZVS region. Waveforms of the current flowing in
primary and secondary circuit (Iin and Iout) remain the same, which are sinusoid. The output power (P out) of
both cases is approximately equal to 50 watts. Input power (P in) of the system with optimized Tx coil is
reduced by 5.35 watts or 7.7 percent compared to the system with conventional Tx coil. This improves the
efficiency of the WPT system.
The measured system efficiency at different horizontal misalignment is shown in Figure 16 where
the WPT system with conventional Tx coil is compared with the optimized Tx coil. At aligned position (0
mm), the measured efficiency of optimized Tx coil is 89.02 percent which is slightly higher than convention
Tx coil (88.48 percent). When there is a horizontal misalignment between Tx and Rx coil, measured system
efficiency obtained from both cases tend to decrease. However, system efficiency of optimized Tx coil is
greater than conventional Tx coil for all the receiver coil positions. This agrees with the measured results of
coupling factor. With the use of optimized Tx coil, system efficiency can be improved by 0.61 percent and
8.32 percent at 0 mm and 10 mm horizontal misalignment, respectively. The average increment of system
efficiency of all horizontal misalignments (0 to 10 mm) is 2.43 percent.
The presented work is compared with the previous works in Table 5 where the physical parameters
of circular flat spiral coil structure investigated in each work are summarized. These parameters have not
been optimized in any previous work. In contrast, genetic algorithm is adopted in this work to design the
optimal parameters of the coil which requires minimal total wire length. The presented work can be improved
by including all physical parameters in the optimization process which will extend the feasibility of the
presented optimal design.

Figure 12. Experimental waveforms of the system Figure 13. Experimental waveforms of the system
with conventional Tx coil (0 mm misalignment) with optimized Tx coil (0 mm misalignment)

Figure 14. Experimental waveforms of the system Figure 15. Experimental waveforms of the system
with conventional Tx coil (10 mm misalignment) with optimized Tx coil (0 mm misalignment)

Design of the transmitter coil used in wireless power transfer system based on … (Mongkol Konghirun)
2316  ISSN: 2088-8694

Figure 16. Comparison of measured system efficiency

Table 5. Comparison between presented work and previous works

Sources Investigated parameters Optimal design
[29] Inner diameter ×
[30] Inner diameter and turn spacing ×
[31] Inner diameter and outer diameter ×
[32] Inner diameter, outer diameter, and turn numbers ×
[33] Inner diameter, outer diameter, and turn spacing ×
[34] Inner diameter, outer diameter, and turn numbers ×
This work Inner diameter and turn numbers 

5. CONCLUSION
The optimal design of transmitter coil used in wireless power transfer system is presented in this
paper based on genetic algorithm. The design process is implemented in MATLAB optimization toolbox
which is simple and accurate. Inner diameter and number of turns of circular flat spiral coil are optimized.
The design objective is to minimize the total wirelength required by the coil, subjected to both linear and
nonlinear constraints. The design results indicated that total wirelength of optimized coil can be decreased by
5.5 percent compared to conventional coil. This can reduce the cost and ohmic loss of WPT system.
Furthermore, from the experimental measurement, the average increment of system efficiency is 2.43 percent
with the use of optimized coil. In future work, the space between each turn of the coil and wire diameter will
be included in the design variables to extend the feasibility of presented optimal design.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research project is supported by Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI). Basic
Research Fund: Fiscal year 2022 under project number FRB650048/0164.

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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS

Mongkol Konghirun is a lecturer in Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty

of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok,
Thailand; He received the B.Eng. degree (First Class Honors) in Electrical Engineering from
the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in 1995; and the M.Sc. and Ph.D.
degrees in Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, in
1999 and 2003, respectively. Presently, he is an Associate Professor with the Department of
Electrical Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. His research
interests include electric motor drives, power electronics, railway electrification, and
renewable energy. He can be contacted at email: mongkol.kon@kmutt.ac.th.

Supapong Nutwong is a lecturer in Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty

of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok,
Thailand since 2020; He received the B.Eng. degree and M.Eng. degree in Electrical
Engineering from the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in 2007 and 2011,
respectively; and the D.Eng. degree in Electrical and Information Engineering Technology
from the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in 2019. From 2013 to 2014, he
was a Researcher at the Educational Support Unit, KMUTT. Since 2022, he has been an
Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, KMUTT. His research
interests include the field of power electronics, inductive power transfer (IPT) systems,
capacitive power transfer (CPT) systems, wireless charging applications, and induction
heating systems. He can be contacted at email: supapong.nut@kmutt.ac.th.

Anawach Sangswang is a lecturer in Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty

of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT), Bangkok,
Thailand; He received the B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering from the King Mongkut’s
University of Technology Thonburi in 1995; and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
Engineering from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, in 1999 and 2003, respectively. Since
2020, he has been an Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering,
KMUTT. From 1999 to 2003, he was a Research Assistant with the Center for Electric Power
Engineering, Drexel University. His research interests include induction heating, wireless
power transfer, energy management systems, and power system stability. He can be contacted
at email: anawach.san@kmutt.ac.th.

Nattapong Hatchavanich is a lecturer in Electrical Engineering Department,

Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT),
Bangkok, Thailand since 2021; He received the B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering from
the King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok (KMUTNB) in 2012; received
the M.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering from the King Mongkut’s University of
Technology Thonburi in 2016; and the D.Eng. degree in Electrical and Information
Engineering Technology from the King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi in
2020. His current research interests include the resonant inverter and control technique for
wireless power transfer system (WPT) and induction heating applications. He can be contacted
at email: nattapong.hat@kmutt.ac.th.

Int J Pow Elec & Dri Syst, Vol. 14, No. 4, December 2023: 2307-2318