Metallic Environmental Effect on RF-Based Energy Transmission

Radio frequency (RF)-based energy transmission enables controllable and simultaneous power delivery to wireless sensors. In such applications, RF energy transmission is likely to be affected by highly conductive (metallic) environments. Understanding metal's influence on power delivery will help improve practical implementation. This letter studies the behavior of RF energy transmission in selected scenarios by measuring return loss and peak received power. Visualized energy flow is simulated to obtain the direct picture of such scenarios. The simulation results are consistent with conclusions drawn from experimental results measured using return loss and peak received power.