Closed-Loop Wireless Power Transfer With Adaptive Waveform and Beamforming: Design, Prototype, and Experiment

A closed-loop far-field wireless power transfer (WPT) system with adaptive waveform and beamforming using limited feedback is designed, prototyped, and experimented. Spatial domain and frequency domain are jointly exploited by utilizing waveform and beamforming at the transmitter in WPT system to adapt to the multipath fading channel and boost the output dc power. A closed-loop architecture based on a codebook design and an over-the-air limited feedback with low complexity is proposed. The codebook consists of multiple codewords where each codeword represents particular waveform and beamforming. The transmitter sweeps through the codebook and the receiver then feeds the optimal codeword index back to the transmitter, so that the waveform and beamforming can be adaptive for maximizing the output dc power without requiring explicit channel estimation and the knowledge of accurate Channel State Information. The proposed closed-loop WPT with adaptive waveform and beamforming using limited feedback is prototyped using a Software Defined Radio equipment and measured in two real indoor environments. It is experimentally shown that the proposed closed-loop WPT with adaptive waveform and beamforming is able to enhance the output dc power by up to 14.7 dB in comparison with conventional 1-tone 1-antenna WPT system.