LC Resonance in Gleagle Engineering: Why These Designs Use 160-180 kHz

The 160–180 kHz range discussed here is Gleagle engineering experience from a specific wireless-power coil family, resonant layout and levitation-control architecture. It is not a universal frequency law for every magnetic levitation product on the market. Other coil geometries, control loops, power levels and regulatory targets can lead to different design choices.

The LC starting point

Our wireless power stage uses resonant coupling between a transmitter coil in the base and a receiver coil in the floating unit. The familiar relation f = 1 / (2π√LC) explains why inductance, capacitance and operating frequency cannot be chosen independently. Component tolerance, coil temperature and the air gap all move the practical operating point, so the complete assembly—not a bare coil—has to be checked on the bench.

Why this architecture landed near 160–180 kHz

In our sweep tests on this coil family, lower frequencies required a less attractive combination of turns, copper loss and package size for the target gap and power level. Moving higher increased MOSFET switching loss and made gate-drive layout, ferrite loss and electromagnetic compatibility more demanding. Within the range we tested, roughly 160–180 kHz gave the better compromise for this particular design.

The second constraint is separation from the position-control loop. A wireless-power carrier that couples into Hall-sensor conditioning or its harmonics can create false position information. The safe spacing depends on the actual controller, filtering and coil layout; it is not a universal 60–100 kHz exclusion band. In these Gleagle assemblies, keeping the power carrier above the sensitive control region improved stability.

What production tuning means

We tune and test the assembled transmitter and receiver rather than treating 172 kHz as a magic number. A suitable operating point must maintain stable levitation, acceptable transferred power and controlled temperature across component tolerances and the intended load range. For another product family, our engineers may choose a different coil, compensation network or frequency.

The practical takeaway

Use the resonance formula as a design tool, then validate the whole system. The defensible claim is narrow but useful: in the Gleagle architecture described here, 160–180 kHz is an engineering-derived working range supported by our coil and control trade-offs—not an industry-wide constant and not a promise that every Gleagle SKU uses the same frequency.