Time-Switching Symmetric Transmitter Array to Increase Sweet Region for Far-Field Wireless Power Transmission Under Receiver Rotation and Location Variation

For wireless power transfer using linear-polarized transmitter (TX) and receiver antennas, the rotation and movement of receiving antenna cause received power variation. The received power pattern is proposed to describe the received power variation from a specific TX antenna under receiver rotation. By placing the peak of the received power pattern of additional TX antennas in null directions of the previous TX antenna, received power variation due to rotation can be compensated. With symmetrically placed TX antennas, the power variation due to location variation can be compensated. This article proposes a time-switching symmetric transmitting array combining both techniques to increase the sweet region for far-field wireless power transfer under rotation and location variation. A sweet region is an area in the 2-D case or volume in the 3-D case, which is defined as an area or a volume inside the TX array that can get guaranteed minimum received power under rotation. The received power calculation using the Friis equation with short dipole antenna pattern shows that a symmetric TX array can achieve a larger sweet region than an asymmetric TX array under the same total transmitted power. The efficiency for the receiver at the origin is 1/2 at the 2-D case and 1/3 at the 3-D case. In the experiment, a linear-polarized TX array at 915 MHz with monopole receiver antenna and power detector is used as the receiver to measure received power under rotation and location variation. Measurement results at 2-D and 3-D cases confirm the received power level predicted by calculation using the Friis equation. The power budget calculation for wirelessly powering a sensor module attached on a bee inside a beehive using the proposed 3-D TX array shows that it is feasible to deliver sufficient power to the sensor module regardless of the orientation and location of the bee inside the beehive.