Wireless power transfer

Wireless power transfer (WPT), wireless power transmission, wireless energy transmission (WET), or electromagnetic power transfer is the transmission of electrical energy without wires as a physical link. In a wireless power transmission system, a transmitter device, driven by electric power from a power source, generates a time-varying electromagnetic field, which transmits power across space to a receiver device, which extracts power from the field and supplies it to an electrical load. Wireless power transfer is useful to power electrical devices where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or are not possible.

Wireless power techniques mainly fall into two categories, non-radiative and radiative. In near field or non-radiative techniques, power is transferred over short distances by magnetic fields using inductive coupling between coils of wire, or by electric fields using capacitive coupling between metal electrodes. Inductive coupling is the most widely used wireless technology; its applications include charging handheld devices like phones and electric toothbrushes, RFID tags, and wirelessly charging or continuous wireless power transfer in implantable medical devices like artificial cardiac pacemakers, or electric vehicles.

In far-field or radiative techniques, also called power beaming, power is transferred by beams of electromagnetic radiation, like microwaves or laser beams. These techniques can transport energy longer distances but must be aimed at the receiver. Proposed applications for this type are solar power satellites, and wireless powered drone aircraft.

An important issue associated with all wireless power systems is limiting the exposure of people and other living things to potentially injurious electromagnetic fields.

Field regions
Electric and magnetic fields are created by charged particles in matter such as electrons. A stationary charge creates an electrostatic field in the space around it. A steady current of charges (direct current, DC) creates a static magnetic field around it. The above fields contain energy, but cannot carry power because they are static. However time-varying fields can carry power. Accelerating electric charges, such as are found in an alternating current (AC) of electrons in a wire, create time-varying electric and magnetic fields in the space around them. These fields can exert oscillating forces on the electrons in a receiving "antenna", causing them to move back and forth. These represent alternating current which can be used to power a load.

The oscillating electric and magnetic fields surrounding moving electric charges in an antenna device can be divided into two regions, depending on distance D_range from the antenna. The boundary between the regions is somewhat vaguely defined. The fields have different characteristics in these regions, and different technologies are used for transferring power:

Near-field or nonradiative region – This means the area within about 1 wavelength (λ) of the antenna. In this region the oscillating electric and magnetic fields are separate and power can be transferred via electric fields by capacitive coupling (electrostatic induction) between metal electrodes, or via magnetic fields by inductive coupling (electromagnetic induction) between coils of wire. These fields are not radiative, meaning the energy stays within a short distance of the transmitter. If there is no receiving device or absorbing material within their limited range to "couple" to, no power leaves the transmitter. The range of these fields is short, and depends on the size and shape of the "antenna" devices, which are usually coils of wire. The fields, and thus the power transmitted, decrease exponentially with distance, so if the distance between the two "antennas" D_range is much larger than the diameter of the "antennas"D_ant very little power will be received. Therefore, these techniques cannot be used for long range power transmission.

Resonance, such as resonant inductive coupling, can increase the coupling between the antennas greatly, allowing efficient transmission at somewhat greater distances, although the fields still decrease exponentially. Therefore the range of near-field devices is conventionally divided into two categories:

Short range – up to about one antenna diameter: D_range ≤ D_ant. This is the range over which ordinary nonresonant capacitive or inductive coupling can transfer practical amounts of power.

Mid-range – up to 10 times the antenna diameter: D_range ≤ 10 D_ant. This is the range over which resonant capacitive or inductive coupling can transfer practical amounts of power.

Far-field or radiative region – Beyond about 1 wavelength (λ) of the antenna, the electric and magnetic fields are perpendicular to each other and propagate as an electromagnetic wave; examples are radio waves, microwaves, or light waves. This part of the energy is radiative, meaning it leaves the antenna whether or not there is a receiver to absorb it. The portion of energy which does not strike the receiving antenna is dissipated and lost to the system. The amount of power emitted as electromagnetic waves by an antenna depends on the ratio of the antenna's size Dant to the wavelength of the waves λ, which is determined by the frequency: λ = c/f. At low frequencies f where the antenna is much smaller than the size of the waves, D_ant << λ, very little power is radiated. Therefore the near-field devices above, which use lower frequencies, radiate almost none of their energy as electromagnetic radiation. Antennas about the same size as the wavelength D_ant ≈ λ such as monopole or dipole antennas, radiate power efficiently, but the electromagnetic waves are radiated in all directions (omnidirectionally), so if the receiving antenna is far away, only a small amount of the radiation will hit it. Therefore, these can be used for short range, inefficient power transmission but not for long range transmission.

However, unlike fields, electromagnetic radiation can be focused by reflection or refraction into beams. By using a high-gain antenna or optical system which concentrates the radiation into a narrow beam aimed at the receiver, it can be used for long range power transmission. From the Rayleigh criterion, to produce the narrow beams necessary to focus a significant amount of the energy on a distant receiver, an antenna must be much larger than the wavelength of the waves used: D_ant >> λ = c/f. Practical beam power devices require wavelengths in the centimeter region or below, corresponding to frequencies above 1 GHz, in the microwave range or above.

Near-field (nonradiative) techniques
At large relative distance, the near-field components of electric and magnetic fields are approximately quasi-static oscillating dipole fields. These fields decrease with the cube of distance: (D_range/D_ant)−3 Since power is proportional to the square of the field strength, the power transferred decreases as (D_range/D_ant)−6. or 60 dB per decade. In other words, if far apart, doubling the distance between the two antennas causes the power received to decrease by a factor of 2⁶ = 64. As a result, inductive and capacitive coupling can only be used for short-range power transfer, within a few times the diameter of the antenna device D_ant. Unlike in a radiative system where the maximum radiation occurs when the dipole antennas are oriented transverse to the direction of propagation, with dipole fields the maximum coupling occurs when the dipoles are oriented longitudinally.

Inductive coupling
In inductive coupling (electromagnetic induction or inductive power transfer, IPT), power is transferred between coils of wire by a magnetic field. The transmitter and receiver coils together form a transformer (see diagram). An alternating current (AC) through the transmitter coil (L1) creates an oscillating magnetic field (B) by Ampere's law. The magnetic field passes through the receiving coil (L2), where it induces an alternating EMF (voltage) by Faraday's law of induction, which creates an alternating current in the receiver. The induced alternating current may either drive the load directly, or be rectified to direct current (DC) by a rectifier in the receiver, which drives the load. A few systems, such as electric toothbrush charging stands, work at 50/60 Hz so AC mains current is applied directly to the transmitter coil, but in most systems an electronic oscillator generates a higher frequency AC current which drives the coil, because transmission efficiency improves with frequency.

Inductive coupling is the oldest and most widely used wireless power technology, and virtually the only one so far which is used in commercial products. It is used in inductive charging stands for cordless appliances used in wet environments such as electric toothbrushes and shavers, to reduce the risk of electric shock. Another application area is "transcutaneous" recharging of biomedical prosthetic devices implanted in the human body, such as cardiac pacemakers and insulin pumps, to avoid having wires passing through the skin. It is also used to charge electric vehicles such as cars and to either charge or power transit vehicles like buses and trains.
However the fastest growing use is wireless charging pads to recharge mobile and handheld wireless devices such as laptop and tablet computers, cellphones, digital media players, and video game controllers.

The power transferred increases with frequency and the mutual inductance between the coils, which depends on their geometry and the distance between them. A widely used figure of merit is the coupling coefficient . This dimensionless parameter is equal to the fraction of magnetic flux through the transmitter coil that passes through the receiver coil when L2 is open circuited. If the two coils are on the same axis and close together so all the magnetic flux from passes through , and the link efficiency approaches 100%. The greater the separation between the coils, the more of the magnetic field from the first coil misses the second, and the lower and the link efficiency are, approaching zero at large separations. The link efficiency and power transferred is roughly proportional to . In order to achieve high efficiency, the coils must be very close together, a fraction of the coil diameter , usually within centimeters, with the coils' axes aligned. Wide, flat coil shapes are usually used, to increase coupling. Ferrite "flux confinement" cores can confine the magnetic fields, improving coupling and reducing interference to nearby electronics, but they are heavy and bulky so small wireless devices often use air-core coils.

Ordinary inductive coupling can only achieve high efficiency when the coils are very close together, usually adjacent. In most modern inductive systems resonant inductive coupling is used, in which the efficiency is increased by using resonant circuits. This can achieve high efficiencies at greater distances than nonresonant inductive coupling.

Resonant inductive coupling
Resonant inductive coupling (electrodynamic coupling, strongly coupled magnetic resonance) is a form of inductive coupling in which power is transferred by magnetic fields (B, green) between two resonant circuits (tuned circuits), one in the transmitter and one in the receiver (see diagram, right). Each resonant circuit consists of a coil of wire connected to a capacitor, or a self-resonant coil or other resonator with internal capacitance. The two are tuned to resonate at the same resonant frequency. The resonance between the coils can greatly increase coupling and power transfer, analogously to the way a vibrating tuning fork can induce sympathetic vibration in a distant fork tuned to the same pitch.

Nikola Tesla first discovered resonant coupling during his pioneering experiments in wireless power transfer around the turn of the 20th century, but the possibilities of using resonant coupling to increase transmission range has only recently been explored. In 2007 a team led by Marin Soljačić at MIT used two coupled tuned circuits each made of a 25 cm self-resonant coil of wire at 10 MHz to achieve the transmission of 60 W of power over a distance of 2 meters (6.6 ft) (8 times the coil diameter) at around 40% efficiency. Soljačić founded the company WiTricity (the same name the team used for the technology) which is attempting to commercialize the technology.

The concept behind resonant inductive coupling systems is that high Q factor resonators exchange energy at a much higher rate than they lose energy due to internal damping. Therefore, by using resonance, the same amount of power can be transferred at greater distances, using the much weaker magnetic fields out in the peripheral regions ("tails") of the near fields (these are sometimes called evanescent fields). Resonant inductive coupling can achieve high efficiency at ranges of 4 to 10 times the coil diameter (D_ant). This is called "mid-range" transfer, in contrast to the "short range" of nonresonant inductive transfer, which can achieve similar efficiencies only when the coils are adjacent. Another advantage is that resonant circuits interact with each other so much more strongly than they do with nonresonant objects that power losses due to absorption in stray nearby objects are negligible.

A drawback of resonant coupling theory is that at close ranges when the two resonant circuits are tightly coupled, the resonant frequency of the system is no longer constant but "splits" into two resonant peaks, so the maximum power transfer no longer occurs at the original resonant frequency and the oscillator frequency must be tuned to the new resonance peak. The case of using such a shifted peak is called "single resonant". The "Single resonant" systems have also been used, in which only the secondary is a tuned circuit. The principle of this phenomenon is also called "(Magnetic) phase synchronization" and already started practical application for AGV in Japan from around 1993. And now, the concept of highly resonant presented by researcher of MIT is applied only to the secondary side resonator, and high efficiency wide gap high power wireless power transfer system is realized and it is used for induction current collector of SCMaglev.

Resonant technology is currently being widely incorporated in modern inductive wireless power systems. One of the possibilities envisioned for this technology is area wireless power coverage. A coil in the wall or ceiling of a room might be able to wirelessly power lights and mobile devices anywhere in the room, with reasonable efficiency. An environmental and economic benefit of wirelessly powering small devices such as clocks, radios, music players and remote controls is that it could drastically reduce the 6 billion batteries disposed of each year, a large source of toxic waste and groundwater contamination.

Capacitive coupling
In capacitive coupling (electrostatic induction), the conjugate of inductive coupling, energy is transmitted by electric fields between electrodes such as metal plates. The transmitter and receiver electrodes form a capacitor, with the intervening space as the dielectric. An alternating voltage generated by the transmitter is applied to the transmitting plate, and the oscillating electric field induces an alternating potential on the receiver plate by electrostatic induction, which causes an alternating current to flow in the load circuit. The amount of power transferred increases with the frequency the square of the voltage, and the capacitance between the plates, which is proportional to the area of the smaller plate and (for short distances) inversely proportional to the separation.

Capacitive coupling has only been used practically in a few low power applications, because the very high voltages on the electrodes required to transmit significant power can be hazardous, and can cause unpleasant side effects such as noxious ozone production. In addition, in contrast to magnetic fields, electric fields interact strongly with most materials, including the human body, due to dielectric polarization. Intervening materials between or near the electrodes can absorb the energy, in the case of humans possibly causing excessive electromagnetic field exposure. However capacitive coupling has a few advantages over inductive coupling. The field is largely confined between the capacitor plates, reducing interference, which in inductive coupling requires heavy ferrite "flux confinement" cores. Also, alignment requirements between the transmitter and receiver are less critical. Capacitive coupling has recently been applied to charging battery powered portable devices as well as charging or continuous wireless power transfer in biomedical implants, and is being considered as a means of transferring power between substrate layers in integrated circuits.

Two types of circuit have been used:
Bipolar design: In this type of circuit, there are two transmitter plates and two receiver plates. Each transmitter plate is coupled to a receiver plate. The transmitter oscillator drives the transmitter plates in opposite phase (180° phase difference) by a high alternating voltage, and the load is connected between the two receiver plates. The alternating electric fields induce opposite phase alternating potentials in the receiver plates, and this "push-pull" action causes current to flow back and forth between the plates through the load. A disadvantage of this configuration for wireless charging is that the two plates in the receiving device must be aligned face to face with the charger plates for the device to work.

Unipolar design: In this type of circuit, the transmitter and receiver have only one active electrode, and either the ground or a large passive electrode serves as the return path for the current. The transmitter oscillator is connected between an active and a passive electrode. The load is also connected between an active and a passive electrode. The electric field produced by the transmitter induces alternating charge displacement in the load dipole through electrostatic induction.

Resonant capacitive coupling
Resonance can also be used with capacitive coupling to extend the range. At the turn of the 20th century, Nikola Tesla did the first experiments with both resonant inductive and capacitive coupling.

Magnetodynamic coupling
In this method, power is transmitted between two rotating armatures, one in the transmitter and one in the receiver, which rotate synchronously, coupled together by a magnetic field generated by permanent magnets on the armatures. The transmitter armature is turned either by or as the rotor of an electric motor, and its magnetic field exerts torque on the receiver armature, turning it. The magnetic field acts like a mechanical coupling between the armatures. The receiver armature produces power to drive the load, either by turning a separate electric generator or by using the receiver armature itself as the rotor in a generator.

This device has been proposed as an alternative to inductive power transfer for noncontact charging of electric vehicles. A rotating armature embedded in a garage floor or curb would turn a receiver armature in the underside of the vehicle to charge its batteries. It is claimed that this technique can transfer power over distances of 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) with high efficiency, over 90%. Also, the low frequency stray magnetic fields produced by the rotating magnets produce less electromagnetic interference to nearby electronic devices than the high frequency magnetic fields produced by inductive coupling systems. A prototype system charging electric vehicles has been in operation at University of British Columbia since 2012. Other researchers, however, claim that the two energy conversions (electrical to mechanical to electrical again) make the system less efficient than electrical systems like inductive coupling.

Far-field (radiative) techniques
Far field methods achieve longer ranges, often multiple kilometer ranges, where the distance is much greater than the diameter of the device(s). High-directivity antennas or well-collimated laser light produce a beam of energy that can be made to match the shape of the receiving area. The maximum directivity for antennas is physically limited by diffraction.

In general, visible light (from lasers) and microwaves (from purpose-designed antennas) are the forms of electromagnetic radiation best suited to energy transfer.
The dimensions of the components may be dictated by the distance from transmitter to receiver, the wavelength and the Rayleigh criterion or diffraction limit, used in standard radio frequency antenna design, which also applies to lasers. Airy's diffraction limit is also frequently used to determine an approximate spot size at an arbitrary distance from the aperture. Electromagnetic radiation experiences less diffraction at shorter wavelengths (higher frequencies); so, for example, a blue laser is diffracted less than a red one.

The Rayleigh criterion dictates that any radio wave, microwave or laser beam will spread and become weaker and diffuse over distance; the larger the transmitter antenna or laser aperture compared to the wavelength of radiation, the tighter the beam and the less it will spread as a function of distance (and vice versa). Smaller antennae also suffer from excessive losses due to side lobes. However, the concept of laser aperture considerably differs from an antenna. Typically, a laser aperture much larger than the wavelength induces multi-moded radiation and mostly collimators are used before emitted radiation couples into a fiber or into space.

Ultimately, beamwidth is physically determined by diffraction due to the dish size in relation to the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation used to make the beam.
Microwave power beaming can be more efficient than lasers, and is less prone to atmospheric attenuation caused by dust or water vapor.

Here, the power levels are calculated by combining the above parameters together, and adding in the gains and losses due to the antenna characteristics and the transparency and dispersion of the medium through which the radiation passes. That process is known as calculating a link budget.

Microwaves
Power transmission via radio waves can be made more directional, allowing longer-distance power beaming, with shorter wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, typically in the microwave range. A rectennamay be used to convert the microwave energy back into electricity. Rectenna conversion efficiencies exceeding 95% have been realized. Power beaming using microwaves has been proposed for the transmission of energy from orbiting solar power satellites to Earth and the beaming of power to spacecraft leaving orbit has been considered.

Power beaming by microwaves has the difficulty that, for most space applications, the required aperture sizes are very large due to diffraction limiting antenna directionality. For example, the 1978 NASA study of solar power satellites required a 1-kilometre-diameter (0.62 mi) transmitting antenna and a 10-kilometre-diameter (6.2 mi) receiving rectenna for a microwave beam at 2.45 GHz. These sizes can be somewhat decreased by using shorter wavelengths, although short wavelengths may have difficulties with atmospheric absorption and beam blockage by rain or water droplets. Because of the "thinned-array curse", it is not possible to make a narrower beam by combining the beams of several smaller satellites.

For earthbound applications, a large-area 10 km diameter receiving array allows large total power levels to be used while operating at the low power density suggested for human electromagnetic exposure safety. A human safe power density of 1 mW/cm2 distributed across a 10 km diameter area corresponds to 750 megawatts total power level. This is the power level found in many modern electric power plants.

Lasers
In the case of electromagnetic radiation closer to the visible region of the spectrum (tens of micrometers to tens of nanometers), power can be transmitted by converting electricity into a laser beam that is then pointed at a photovoltaic cell. This mechanism is generally known as 'power beaming' because the power is beamed at a receiver that can convert it to electrical energy. At the receiver, special photovoltaic laser power converters which are optimized for monochromatic light conversion are applied.

Advantages compared to other wireless methods are:
Collimated monochromatic wavefront propagation allows narrow beam cross-section area for transmission over large distances.
Compact size: solid state lasers fit into small products.
No radio-frequency interference to existing radio communication such as Wi-Fi and cell phones.
Access control: only receivers hit by the laser receive power.

Drawbacks include:
Laser radiation is hazardous. Low power levels can blind humans and other animals. High power levels can kill through localized spot heating.
Conversion between electricity and light is limited. Photovoltaic cells achieve 40%–50% efficiency. (The conversion efficiency of laser light into electricity is much higher than that of sun light into electricity).
Atmospheric absorption, and absorption and scattering by clouds, fog, rain, etc., causes up to 100% losses.
Requires a direct line of sight with the target. (Instead of being beamed directly onto the receiver, the laser light can also be guided by an optical fiber. Then one speaks of power-over-fiber technology.)

Atmospheric plasma channel coupling
In atmospheric plasma channel coupling, energy is transferred between two electrodes by electrical conduction through ionized air. When an electric field gradient exists between the two electrodes, exceeding 34 kilovolts per centimeter at sea level atmospheric pressure, an electric arc occurs. This atmospheric dielectric breakdown results in the flow of electric current along a random trajectory through an ionized plasma channel between the two electrodes. An example of this is natural lightning, where one electrode is a virtual point in a cloud and the other is a point on Earth. Laser Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) research is presently underway using ultrafast lasers to artificially promote development of the plasma channel through the air, directing the electric arc, and guiding the current across a specific path in a controllable manner. The laser energy reduces the atmospheric dielectric breakdown voltage and the air is made less insulating by superheating, which lowers the density p of the filament of air.

This new process is being explored for use as a laser lightning rod and as a means to trigger lightning bolts from clouds for natural lightning channel studies, for artificial atmospheric propagation studies, as a substitute for conventional radio antennas, for applications associated with electric welding and machining, for diverting power from high-voltage capacitor discharges, for directed-energy weapon applications employing electrical conduction through a ground return path, and electronic jamming.

Energy harvesting
In the context of wireless power, energy harvesting, also called power harvesting or energy scavenging, is the conversion of ambient energy from the environment to electric power, mainly to power small autonomous wireless electronic devices.The ambient energy may come from stray electric or magnetic fields or radio waves from nearby electrical equipment, light, thermal energy (heat), or kinetic energy such as vibration or motion of the device. Although the efficiency of conversion is usually low and the power gathered often minuscule (milliwatts or microwatts), it can be adequate to run or recharge small micropower wireless devices such as remote sensors, which are proliferating in many fields. This new technology is being developed to eliminate the need for battery replacement or charging of such wireless devices, allowing them to operate completely autonomously.

Source from Wikipedia