A Novel Circuit Topology for Underwater Wireless Power Transfer

This work presents a new topology for the matching networks of an underwater wireless power transfer system. A class-D driver is used in resonance at fundamental and third harmonic frequencies. The double resonance helps reducing the reverse voltage stress at the diode rectifier. We present the analytical derivation of the proposed network and demonstrate the design procedure with an example. We also show that additional degrees of freedom can be acquired with the proposed topology, which improves the design space for time-varying operation conditions of our application, such as the load changing when a battery is being recharged. The performance of our topology is compared to most conventional approaches, such as the series-series and series-parallel networks, revealing a good compromise between power delivery and efficiency across a wide load range.