E-bike battery charging: methods and circuits

F. Pellitteri**, V. Boscaino**, A.O. Di Tommaso*, F. Genduso* and R. Miceli*

*Sustainable Development and Energy Saving Laboratory, Department of Energy, Information engineering and
Mathematical models, University of Palermo, viale delle scienze, building 9, 90128, Palermo, (Italy)
**Power Applications Laboratory, Department of Energy, Information engineering and Mathematical models,
University of Palermo, viale delle scienze, building 9, 90128, Palermo, (Italy)
Abstract— Today, academic and industrial research is Supplying the standby power by harvesters is one of the
focused on innovative battery charging methods to ensure most attractive research topics.
complete mobility of both handheld devices and electric In the past, main investments on power electronics
vehicles. Wireless power transfer is actually the leading
strategy even if efficiency related issues are to be solved for research were focused on speeding up the transient
a successful marketing. In this paper, a wireless battery response improving steady-state and dynamic load
charging station is proposed for electric assisted pedal bikes. regulation keeping as a side effect the improvement of the
If compared with existing wireless solutions, the proposed power conversion efficiency [26-27]. Nowadays, the
system architecture improves power conversion efficiency of power conversion efficiency plays a key role in power
the charging equipment. The simulation model of the whole
supply system design to accomplish with modern trends
charging station is described in detail. The transmitter,
receiver and inductive coupling circuits are described and in energy saving. In the literature, several innovative
design criteria are given for further applications. The model solutions to efficiency related issues are proposed for a
is implemented in SPICE simulation environment and wide variety of research areas, from front-end to point of
simulation results are presented to test the efficiency of the load converters [28-32].
proposed topology. Due to increasing oil price and global warming, the
electrical traction of transportation means represents a
Index Terms—wireless power transfer, wireless battery
charging, inductive power transfer, vehicular and wireless
convenient solution in terms of cost and environmental
technologies. cleanness. Therefore, the use of electric power is
particularly compliant with urban mobility, since the
I. INTRODUCTION distances covered by vehicles are relatively short inside
Today, consumer and automotive markets call for cities. Among urban electric vehicles, bicycles are
high-performance devices. Ideally, an infinite source of certainly the least noisy and polluting ones. Moreover,
energy is desired from the end-user. True mobility is the electric bikes are cheaper than the other electric vehicles.
most attractive feature of both handheld devices and In the electric bicycle, so-called “E-bike”, a part of the
electric vehicles [1,2]. Academic and industrial research classical energy source, that is muscle power, is replaced
is actually focused on accomplishing true portability by electricity, providing the possibility of an electric
while keeping high performances of devices. True assisted pedal [33-36].
portability while saving cost of energy from the electrical In the near future, a rising number of electric vehicles
grid is the key challenge to face with. In the last years, should move through the urban roads. In a similar
great efforts have been made to both improve the power scenario, new battery recharge stations will be necessary
conversion efficiency of the whole charging station and in order to offer all vehicles the amount of electric energy
integrating in the charging equipment low-emission which is needed for their traction. An electric vehicle
renewable energy sources, thus reducing the amount and battery is commonly recharged through the traditional
cost of energy drawn from the electrical grid [3-11]. “plug-in” method that is a wired connection between the
For years, powering handheld devices by renewable vehicle and a charging column which is linked to the
energy sources like fuel cells or micro photovoltaic electrical grid. Despite its simplicity, this charging
generators have been the leading research topic [12 -17]. method turns out to be uncomfortable for the driver, who
In the last few years, European and worldwide research has to plug the cable into the socket, and unsafe, due to
programs have been dominated by fuel cell and the electrocution danger arising from old power cords and
photovoltaic based applications. Accurate modeling of even more likely in wet conditions. Furthermore, the
renewable energy sources is still an acknowledged open presence of wires could bother, especially when a lot of
topic to shorten the overall design process [18-25]. small vehicles are parked very close to each other, as in
Today, several leading firms are investing on efficient parking lots. For this purpose, wireless battery charging is
energy harvesting solutions for handheld devices. actually investigated for automotive applications also.
Whereas in the past, wireless sensor networks and Nevertheless, the traditional energy sources still
biomedical applications were the main application areas, provide better performances in terms of vehicle autonomy
today multi-sourcing techniques are investigated to and power conversion efficiency of the whole charging
provide efficient battery charging in handheld devices. equipment. Conventional fuels or grid-connected wired
charging still ensures higher performances.
 In the literature, several innovative solutions for Due to the magnetic coupling inside the resonant
wireless power transfer which ensure complete mobility network, a wireless power transfer occurs from power
are proposed [37-40]. Yet, if compared with their wired transmitter to power receiver, consisting of this AC signal
counterparts, power conversion efficiency is relatively flowing towards the load-connected subsystem.
low. Even if wireless technology is already mature, the The power receiver includes: an active rectifier, which
loss of a few percentage points of power conversion efficiently converts the AC signal into a 48V DC bus
efficiency is still the major hindrance to a successful level; a battery charger, which controls the flow of charge
spread on the market. Since extremely low power levels from rectifier to battery; the E-bike LiFePO4 battery.
are involved, handheld applications are less burdened by The following design procedure has been undertaken.
the loss of efficiency than automotive applications. According to the envisioned spatial constraints referring
Whereas prototypes of wireless battery chargers for to an E-bike battery wireless recharge, the magnetic
handheld devices are already available on the market, coupling structure has been selected and analyzed
wireless charging for electric vehicles is still not suited through magnetic simulation software. From the magnetic
for marketing. simulator analysis, inductive and resistive parameters
Research is therefore focused on efficiency related values have been obtained and consequently included in
issues aiming at ensuring the highest mobility while the circuit simulation model of the whole charging
reducing consumption from the electrical grid. equipment. Based on the selected coil length, wire
In this paper a wireless solution of E-bike battery section and material, skin effect losses versus operating
recharge is proposed. Power transfer from grid to battery frequency have been modeled too.
is achieved through magnetic coupling: a coil, connected In order to obtain the nominal 48V rectifier output
to mains, transmits energy towards another coil, placed voltage together with a high coupling efficiency value, a
upon the bike and linked to its rechargeable battery. fixed and resonant operating frequency control has been
Cyclers should only park their bike and recharge will start implemented. Power load regulation is achieved by
automatically, without needing to use bulky and varying the duty-cycle of the inverter square wave.
dangerous power cords. A. Load-connected subsystem
II. E-BIKE CHARGING SYSTEM In the proposed system simulation model, the battery
charger and the rechargeable battery are considered as the
Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the proposed
actual load, so that the rectifier is the main power receiver
recharging system, compliant with an E-bike battery.
part which is widely described in this paper.
From the left to the right, the following parts are shown:
In order to evaluate the system efficiency, the rectifier
the grid-connected subsystem, also referred to as power
input resistance shall be evaluated. At the resonant
transmitter; the resonant network, including a magnetic
frequency, the equivalent load resistance (Rr) of the
coupling structure; the load-connected subsystem, also
resonant network is given by:
referenced as power receiver, which supplies the final
rechargeable battery. Nowadays LiFePO4 batteries are 8
R r= R L ,(1)
typically employed for E-bike supply. The proposed π2
recharge system complies with a 36V 10Ah LiFePO 4 where RL is the actual load resistance as seen by the
battery, whose dimensions are 64*148*365mm. The rectifier.
battery voltage lies in the range 30V43.8V. The Considering a 48V DC bus level and a 2A load
designed system envisions an about 100W recharge. current, RL value is equal to 24Ω. Therefore, according to
The grid-connected subsystem includes an AC-DC (1), Rr is given by (2):
stage, which converts the grid AC low frequency voltage
into a 72V DC voltage, and an inverter, which converts 8
R r= ∙ 24 ≅19.4 Ω .(2)
the DC voltage into a high frequency AC signal. π2
An active full-wave rectifier bridge has been preferred
to the conventional four-diode configuration, in order to
enhance power conversion efficiency. Indeed, since each
MOSFET features a very low conduction resistance,
power losses are less than using the traditional passive
full-wave rectifier, even in the most efficient Schottky
diode case.
The proposed rectifier, shown in Fig. 2, is
implemented through an innovative “cross-coupled”
topology and a proper driving network, consisting of two
comparators (comp1-comp2) and two not logic gates
Fig. 1. Proposed E-bike recharging system. (inv1-inv2). The cross-coupled configuration consists of
four active switches: two enhancement pMOS (M1-M2)
and two enhancement nMOS (M3-M4). The rectifier AC resistances values are obtained from the proposed
input signal, corresponding to the resonant network magnetic analysis.
output signal, is applied between M1 and M2 gate
terminals. The DC rectified output is sensed between M1-
M2 common source node and ground. M1 and M3 drain
terminals are connected, as well as M2 and M4 drain
terminals. M1 gate terminal is connected to M2-M4 drain
terminals; M2 gate terminal is connected to M1-M3 drain
terminals. All four gate MOSFETs don’t require any
external signal to be driven by: pMOS gates are driven by
the input AC signal polarities (-AC and +AC), while
nMOS ones are driven by two signals which are obtained Fig. 3. SPICE model of the resonant network.
by processing the AC input signal through the driving
network. The comparators convert the analog signals – The magnetic coupling is represented by a mutual
AC and +AC into two digital signals, B1 and B2: when – inductance: L1 and L2 are primary and secondary self-
AC (+AC) is positive to ground, B1 (B2) corresponds to inductances, connected to the source and the load side
logic 1; when –AC (+AC) is negative to ground, B1 (B2) respectively; k is the coupling coefficient.
corresponds to logic 0. The not gates have not only a Primary and secondary self-inductances and their
logic function, but also work as drivers, thus providing equivalent DC resistances have been acquired from
the necessary gate currents to both the nMOS. Therefore, magnetic simulation software femm 4.2.
when the AC signal is positive, G3 and G4 correspond to Two identical planar circular coils have been
logic 1 and 0, thus turning M3 on and M4 off; since M3 introduced in the magnetic simulation file, as shown in
is on, M2 gate terminal is tied to ground connections, Fig. 4. They represent power transmitter and power
thus driving M2 into conduction. When the AC signal is receiver coils and are distant 3cm from each other. Each
negative, G3 and G4 correspond to 0 and 1, thus turning of them consists of 9 copper wire turns. Outer and inner
M3 off and M4 on; since M4 is on, M1 gate terminal is coil diameters are respectively 15cm and 8.8cm. Fig. 4
tied to ground connections, thus driving M1 into shows the axi-symmetric sight of the problem.
conduction. In order to build a more accurate mutual coupling
In brief, during the input AC signal positive half-wave, electric model, skin effect losses have to be considered
the peak voltage is rectified by M2 and M3 while M1 and too. Considering a 3mm wire diameter section, Fig. 5
M4 are off; during the negative half-wave, the peak shows the skin effect losses (Rac) vs. frequency (f) curve,
voltage is rectified by M1 and M4 while M2 and M3 are related to each coil, according to the following equation:
off. Subsequently, the same behavior of the traditional ρl
four-diode configuration is shown by the proposed active R ac = ,(3)
) (2r−δ ( 1−e ) )
−r −r
rectifier, with the substantial benefit of an improved
efficiency.
(
πδ 1−e δ δ

where ρ is the resistivity of the conducting material, equal

to 1.68x10-8Ω∙m in the copper case; l is the wire length; r
is the radius of the round conductor; δ is the skin depth,
which is given by:

δ=
√ ρ
π ∙ μo ∙ μ r ∙ f
,(4)

where µo is the permeability of free space, equal to

4πx10-7 H∙m-1; µr is the relative permeability of the
conducting material, which in the copper case is very
close to 1.

Fig. 2. Active rectifier network.

B. Resonant network
The wireless power transfer from the grid-connected to
the load-connected subsystem is achieved through
magnetic coupling. Fig. 3 shows the SPICE model of the
resonant network, where self-inductances and equivalent

Fig. 4. Femm-based model of the magnetic structure.

 the double goal of a maximum power factor and a
maximum transfer power is obtained.

Therefore it’s convenient to choose both the resonance

frequencies equal to each other, in order to achieve both
the goals.
Provided that the system operates under the common
primary-secondary resonant frequency, the following
frequency-dependent efficiency relationship would be
useful to evaluate best-suited frequencies [43]:
RL
η= ,(7)

(
(R L +R 2 ) 1+
R1 ( R 2 +R L)
( 2 πfM )
2 )
where R1 and R2 are the coils equivalent resistances,
including both DC and AC components, RL is the load
resistance seen by the resonant network, f is the
operating resonant frequency, M is the mutual inductance
coefficient, linked to the self-inductance and the coupling
Fig. 5. Skin effect losses vs. operating frequency curve for the proposed
coefficient according to (8).
magnetic coupling structure.
M =k √ L1 L2 .(8)
The curve has been generated by MATLAB elaboration As shown by Fig. 6, efficiency increases with
of equations (3) and (4), where the values have been frequency. Therefore, an high frequency value is
fixed according to the proposed magnetic structure. desirable to achieve at least a 90% coupling efficiency.
Two “compensation” capacitors are required in source Nevertheless, too high frequency values are not
and load sides in order to respectively minimize the suggested for these power levels. A 100kHz resonance
amount of reactive power drawn from the supply and frequency has been selected, thus bringing to a 92.1%
maximize the amount of transmitted power to the load- coupling efficiency when working under the same
connected subsystem. Note that the operating frequency frequency.
corresponds to resonant frequencies of both primary and Fig. 6 refers to a fixed 3cm distance between
secondary sides. The best capacitive compensation choice transmitter and receiver coils.
for the proposed application proves to be the Series-
Series (SS) topology, consisting in both the capacitors in However, a higher efficiency is achievable if a shorter
series with the self-inductances, as shown in Fig. 3. The primary-secondary air gap is considered, so that the 3cm
primary series compensation is preferred for its design choice could be seen as the “worst-case” in terms
independence of the magnetic coupling. The secondary of power transfer efficiency. Fig. 7 shows the coupling
series compensation results in a voltage source feature, efficiency vs. air gap corresponding diagram. The curve
which is well-suited for the final DC bus level [41]. refers to a fixed operating frequency of 100kHz, which is
Therefore, both the primary and secondary capacitances the resonant frequency. Now the mutual inductance M is
can be chosen independently of the load. Furthermore, a variable, corresponding to air gap structures under test.
the SS topology results in maximum transfer efficiency The figure highlights a maximum 98% efficiency value,
curve which is almost flat with increasing resonant which represents the theoretical “best case”.
frequency [42].
Primary and secondary capacitance values C1 and C2
are related to the resonance frequencies of both primary
and secondary side f1 and f2, according to (5) and (6):
1
f 1= , (5)
2π √ L1 C 1
1
f 2= . (6)
2π √ L2 C 2
As it’s been explained above, if the inverter MOSFETs
switching frequency is equal to the resonance frequency, Fig. 6. Coupling efficiency vs. resonance frequency curve for the
proposed system at a 3cm air gap between the coils.
 Fig. 8. Half-bridge inverter and sensing network.

Fig. 7. Coupling efficiency vs. air gap for the proposed system under a III. COMMUNICATION LINK
fixed 100kHz operating resonance frequency.
In order to properly fulfill the load power
requirements, regulating the wireless transfer is
necessary. A transmitter side control could be an
C. Grid-connected subsystem appropriate technique to efficiently comply with this
The grid-connected subsystem includes the AC-DC goal. Therefore, a communication link between primary
stage, the inverter and the sensing network. The 72V DC and secondary side is needed, so that the load-connected
bus is converted to an AC signal flowing towards the subsystem could inform the grid-connected subsystem
load-connected subsystem by the inverter stage. about the required power amount. The proposed
Due to the choice of high switching frequency, communication channel is implemented through an
switching losses prevail on conduction ones. Therefore, a amplitude modulated signal which is sent from the power
half-bridge topology has been preferred to a four-MOS receiver back to the power transmitter. The amplitude
full-bridge in the proposed inverter circuit, thus reducing modulation is achieved by modulating the equivalent load
power losses. The half-bridge inverter, shown in Fig. 8, of the secondary-side resonant tank. For this purpose, an
generates a square wave between 72V DC supply and additional passive network is alternatively connected to
ground, which is the resonant network input signal. When or disconnected from the resonant tank, according to a
Mup is on and Mdn is off, the resonant primary side is fixed communication protocol. The modulation frequency
connected to the DC 72V supply; when M up is off and Mdn must obviously be lower than the switching frequency in
is on, the resonant primary side is connected to ground. order to produce an actual amplitude modulation signal.
Therefore, by properly driving Mup and Mdn gates the Then, the so-generated modulation signal is sent back to
square wave duty-cycle is adjustable, thus allowing the the transmitter side by the mean of the magnetic coupling
control of transferred power. network. The modulated signal is monitored by the
The sensing network acquires the modulation signal primary-side sensing network and a proper demodulation
sent back from the load-connected subsystem in order to occurs by filtering the switching frequency harmonic. A
inform the grid-connected subsystem about the battery microcontroller decodes this demodulated signal and
power requirements, as it will be further discussed in the generates the proper inverter MOSFETs gates drive
next paragraph. Fig. 8 shows a simple resistor as the signals.
sensing network. Even if a resistive sense is the most
common solutions, in the literature several innovative IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
solutions for current sensing are proposed to improve the The simulation model of the power stage is
power conversion efficiency of a power conversion stage implemented in SPICE-based simulation environment.
[44]. Since a resonant load is connected to the primary- Note that SPICE-based simulation environment is
side inverter, a non-resistive network is not well-suited actually considered the best option for circuit simulation
for the specific application. Further improvement of the of such a system. Thanks to the use of effective device
power conversion efficiency could be achieved by soft models, the power conversion efficiency can be easily
switching control techniques. evaluated. The specific choice is further supported by
The signal across Rsense is then processed, through a considerations on the whole charging equipment.
demodulation network and a microcontroller, in order to Designers aim at modeling the whole system as closely as
properly generate the inverter MOSFETs gate drive possible to its effective behavior, including load and
signals to comply with the required power level. sources [45,46].
 Besides the power stage of both primary and where ηMAG is the magnetic coupling efficiency and ηRX is
secondary sides, the complete wireless battery charging the power receiver efficiency.
station includes a digital section and a control subsystem.
MATLAB/Simulink simulation environment is
reasonably considered the best option for each further
subsystem. Note that to shorten the overall design
process, the whole charging station should be accurately
modeled and tested since the simulation stage. The
simulation of mixed analog-digital-power sections is
achieved by SPICE-MATLAB-ALDEC co-simulation
toolboxes, powerfully integrated in Simulink
environment. Such a co-simulation procedure allows the
designer to test power conversion efficiency of the power
stage, timing of the digital system, stability issues of the Fig. 9. Simulation results under 48V DC bus at the rectifier output. The
control subsystem in an unique simulation setup [47-50]. switching period is set at 10µs.
Accurate analysis of measured data is key to reliability of
measurements [51-52]. V. CONCLUSIONS
Although the experimental prototype will include In this paper, an innovative recharge system for E-bike
charger and battery, in simulation tests a constant 2A batteries has been proposed. Power transfer from the grid
current independent source has been connected to the to the load is achieved wirelessly, through a magnetic
rectifier output. An open loop configuration has been coupling structure. Although an air gap occurs between
tested to evaluate the power transfer efficiency. grid-connected and battery-side coils, the proposed
Tests have been carried out under the 100 kHz wireless solution allows an efficient recharge. Power
resonant frequency. In order to obtain a 48V DC voltage transmitter, magnetic coupling and power receiver have
value at the rectifier output bus, an 8% square wave duty- been accurately designed. Simulation results show
cycle is required. The duty-cycle-based control allows excellent 98.5% power efficiency referred to the receiver
regulating the rectifier output thus keeping constant the rectifier. Considering a 3cm air gap for the magnetic
operating frequency at the resonant values, with great structure, a 91.6% coupling efficiency is obtained. In the
benefits in terms of coupling efficiency. Fig. 9 shows worst-case, the power conversion efficiency including
steady-state waveforms on the secondary-side. As shown magnetic coupling and receiver section results in a 90.2%
in Fig.9, the DC bus level results equal to 48V with a value.
ripple of about 150mV, that is only the 0.3%.
By evaluating the overall power losses on each ACKNOWLEDGMENT
component, the power conversion efficiency of each This publication was partially supported by the PON
section can be obtained. In the rectifier subsystem, the PON04a2_H "i-NEXT" italian research programme. This
total power loss is about 1.35W, corresponding to 1.4% work was realized with the contribution of SDES
with respect to the 96W load power. The following (Sustainable Development and Energy Savings)
expression is used to calculate the power receiver Laboratory - UNINETLAB - University of Palermo.
efficiency:
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