Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The principle of power transmission was first introduced by Hertz and Tesla. Today, Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) technology offers to cut the last cord and allow users to charge devices with true spatial freedom and as easily as data is transmitted through the air. With the explosion in the use of wireless devices, i.e. laptops, smartphones and wearables, the need for accessing power in real-time is no longer a luxury but rather a necessity and is fueling the need for WPT technology. This interdisciplinary research program seeks to address the need for adaptive WPT and energy harvesting by providing power on-the-go in real-time and to areas where it would be otherwise inaccessible. Both inductive resonant and long-range RF wireless power transfer will be addressed as well as a new generation of integrated adaptive RF power harvesters. For the first time, two competing power transmission/harvesting technologies, mid-range inductive and long range RF, will be combined to form a single reconfigurable and adaptive WPT system. The use of active metamaterials and reconfigurable magnetic concentrators will optimize Power Transmission Efficiency (PTE) by offsetting losses in magnetic field strength and RF power as range and location vary. In addition, the proposed novel power harvesters will feature both inductive and RF power reception capabilities with dual function resonant coil/low-gain antenna arrays to form inductive beamforming as well as metamaterial based RF energy concentrators and superlenses. Applications for mid-range inductive resonant WPT include next-generation zero-emission electric vehicle (EV) technology, medical implants such as pacemakers, non-invasive surgical devices, power tools, laptops, smartphones, UAVs and more. Long-range RF WPT truly promises to unlock spatial freedom to ranges from 5 meters to 100 meters with battery-less, self-powered wireless sensor networks and applications potentially include the Internet of Things (IoT), MMIDs and RFIDs, smart homes, Real-Time Localization Systems (RTLS), UAVs, aerospace and space applications where power is unavailable. Finally, power harvesters find applications in smart homes, connected vehicles, IoTs, medical sensors, telemetry and much more.