Evaluation board for high-efficiency and high-frequency wireless power transfer

Eggtronic has released a new evaluation board that enables engineers to quickly develop and prototype ultra-efficient, low-component count wireless power transfer designs for low-power applications.

The WaveEgg Low-Power (LP) EVB is built on the company's proprietary, high-frequency WaveEgg architecture, which optimises performance and efficiency and lowers component count and form factor in high-performance power converter and wireless power transmission systems. Ideally suited to wirelessly charging and powering small, smart devices and IoT products, WaveEgg delivers powers between 0.5W and 30W and can work at extremely high frequencies (from some MHz to tens of MHz, including ISM 6.78 - 13.56 - 27.12 MHz).

The board provides end-to-end efficiency that is especially high compared to conventional systems while allowing overall BoM to be reduced. Using the WaveEgg LP EVB, engineers will be able to create systems with high low-load to full-load efficiency using fewer components than standard class D, class-E, class F, class Phi, and other resonant wireless power transfer solutions—including Qi—and Airfuel-based technologies.

"Wireless power transfer technology based on conventional designs has limitations in relation to size, bill of materials and efficiency at reduced loads that limits its use for IoT and small smart devices," says Igor Spinella, Eggtronic's founder and CEO. "WaveEgg addresses the historical challenges of efficiency and component count for powers up to 30 W, and the WaveEgg 6W LP evaluation board provides a platform for engineers to quickly and easily realise practical and commercially viable low-power wireless designs."

The board is based on Eggtronic's EPIC (Eggtronic Power Integrated Controller) ICs. These ICs integrate a 32-bit RISC-V core and high-performance digital and analog peripherals and provide a flexible internal structure that supports control of standard and proprietary power conversion architectures. High efficiency over the whole load range is attained through a proprietary design that achieves ZVS and quasi-ZCS on the transmission side and ZVS+ZCS on the receiving side.

At an output of 6W and a switching frequency of 2MHz, WaveEgg achieves an efficiency of 85%. The necessity for fewer components than conventional designs further contributes to efficiency by lowering losses from non-ideal component behaviour. Further component count reduction is possible for battery charging applications as the receiver can also charge a battery through a step-down converter implementing a CC/CV mode algorithm, eradicating the necessity for a battery charger controller.