Professor Ron Hui received his Ph.D degree at Imperial College London in 1988. Previously he held academic positions at the University of Nottingham, University of Sydney, and University of Hong Kong. Presently, he is the MediaTek Endowed Professor at Nanyang Technological University and Chair Professor of Power Electronics at Imperial College London. His research covers power electronics, wireless power, smart grid and lighting technology. He has over 120 patents adopted by industry and published over 320 refereed journal papers with five IEEE Transactions Prize Paper Awards. His inventions underpin the key dimensions of the world’s first wireless charging standard “Qi” launched in 2010 by the Wireless Power Consortium. He is the recipient of the 2010 IET Crompton Medal, 2010 IEEE Rudolf Chope R&D Award and 2015 IEEE Technical Field Award (IEEE William Newell Power Electronics Award). He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K., Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, the US National Academy of Inventors and the IEEE. He chaired the Selection Committee of the IEEE Medal in Power Engineering in 2020-2022.

Plenary Address Title: WPT: A Paradigm Shift for the Next Generation

Abstract: The first generation of wireless power transfer (WPT) standard Qi, launched in 2010, contains a wide range of transmitter and receiver designs with the aim of maximizing compatibility to attract many manufacturers to share the same standard.  Such compatibility feature (i.e., interoperability) has not only attracted over 400 company members in the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), but also facilitated a fast-growing wireless power market for a decade. The WPC is now expanding the scope of WPT applications to mid-power and high-power applications up to several kilowatts. Airfuel Alliance also proposes its standard at 6.78MHz while the Society for Automobile Engineers (SAE) sets the SAE standard for wireless charging of electric vehicles (EVs) up to tens of kilowatts at 85kHz. Without compromising compatibility, the speaker will share his views on the need for a paradigm shift from compatibility to optimal performance in terms of maximum energy efficiency for the entire charging process and minimum charging time. This paradigm change is imminent and important in view of the increasing power of WPT applications. It is applicable to different WPT standards for a wide range of applications. Several enabling technologies essential to the paradigm shift will be addressed and presented with practical results. Emerging technologies for WPT in the high-frequency (>10MHz) and high-power (kilowatts) WPT regime based on high-speed gate drive and soft-switched full-bridge inverters will be described.