Wireless Power Transfer Systems With Supercapacitor Energy Management: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

Wireless power transfer (WPT) provides a contactless and flexible energy delivery interface for supercapacitor-based and hybrid energy storage systems. However, unlike conventional resistive loads or batteries, supercapacitors exhibit continuously varying terminal voltage, voltage-dependent capacitance, and equivalent series resistance, which lead to dynamic reflected impedance at the WPT receiver. This impedance variation can shift the resonant operating point, degrade soft-switching conditions, and reduce power transfer efficiency during charging. This paper presents a comprehensive review of WPT-enabled supercapacitor and hybrid energy storage systems from a system-integration perspective. First, the interaction between WPT front-end characteristics and supercapacitor charging dynamics is analysed. Then, resonant compensation networks, inverter and rectifier interfaces, DC/DC conversion stages, and battery–supercapacitor hybrid architectures are systematically compared in terms of load shaping, efficiency, controllability, and scalability. Energy management and control strategies, including constant-current, constant-power, phase-shift, bilateral, model predictive, and intelligent control methods, are further reviewed with emphasis on dynamic impedance regulation and stable power coordination. Finally, key research gaps are identified, including adaptive impedance-aware control, thermal- and aging-aware energy management, predictive resonance tracking, and cross-layer co-design of WPT and storage interfaces. This review highlights that supercapacitors should be treated not merely as storage devices, but as dynamic impedance-shaping elements in WPT-based energy storage systems.