90% power efficiency from contactless distributed power supply system

According to the researchers, the system uses magnetic induction to facilitate the transfer of power and data between an input coupling device and a number of physically separate devices distributed along the length of a 'backbone'. The power supply is intended for industrial control and instrumentation applications, where it will be used for powering and communicating with remote I/O sensors and actuators. The system is being developed by the university's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology under a publicly funded research programme, and is about to move from design concept to prototype evaluation. The system is said to comprise of a ferrite backbone with an E-shape cross sectional geometry and a coil wound around its central pillar, together with a power input coupling device and a number of pick up modules. Researchers claim it is capable of achieving up to 90% power transfer efficiency with 10 pick up modules, each demanding between 1 and 2W, and data transfer rates of up to 2Mbps.