Near-Field Beam Focusing for Wireless Power Transfer With Dynamic Metasurface Antennas

Radio frequency wireless power transfer enables charging low-power mobile devices without relying on wired infrastructures. Current existing wireless power transfer systems are typically designed assuming far-field propagation, where the radiated energy is steered to towards given angles, resulting in limited efficiency and possible radiation in undesired locations. An emerging technology for wireless signaling is based on dynamic metasurface antennas (DMAs), which efficiently realize electrically large arrays. When such arrays are employed at high frequencies, wireless power transfer might take place in the radiating near-field (Fresnel) region, where spherical wave propagation holds, providing more degrees-of-freedom and improved performance. In this article, we study wireless power transfer systems charging multiple devices in the Fresnel region, where the energy transmitter is equipped with a DMA, exploring how the antenna configuration can exploit the spherical wavefront to generate focused energy beams. In particular, after presenting a mathematical model for DMA-based radiating near-field wireless power transfer systems, we characterize the weighted sum-harvested energy maximization problem of the considered system, and we propose an efficient solution to jointly design the DMA weights and digital precoding vector. Then, by accounting for hardware constraints, we further extend our study to encompass practical scenarios with discrete phase shifts in DMA elements. Simulation results show that our design generates focused energy beams capable of improving energy transfer efficiency in the radiating near-field with minimal energy pollution.