Design, Modeling and Experimental Verification of Flexible PCB Coil and Shielding Material for Smartwatch Strap Wireless Power Transfer

Abstract

Wireless power transfer (WPT) technology is becoming popular with applications in delivering power to target devices which range from few watts class wearable devices to megawatt class transportations. Existing wireless power transfer technology employs flat wireless charging coils and shielding materials which cannot be applied to flexible devices and curved section of the devices. To apply the wireless power transfer technology on the curved section of the devices, wireless charging coil and shielding material must have the flexibility to fit in the device. In this thesis, we discussed change in electrical properties of the WPT coil as the mechanical properties of the wireless charging coil change. Furthermore, we implemented Smartwatch wireless charging system by implementing the flexible PCB coil and shielding material in a Smartwatch strap for the system level experimental verification of the proposed flexible coil and shielding modeling methods.