Adhoc mobile power connectivity using a wireless power transmission grid

Wireless charging of devices has significant outcomes for mobile devices, IoT devices and wearables. Existing technologies consider using Point to Point type wireless transfer from a transmitter Tx (node that is sending Power) to a receiver Rx (node that receives power), which limits the area of coverage for devices. As a result, existing systems are forced to use near field coupling to charge such devices. Fundamental limitation is also that such methods limit charging to a small hotspot. In partnership with Wireless Electrical Grid LANs (WiGL pronounced “wiggle”), we demonstrate patented Ad-hoc mesh networking method(s) to provide wireless recharging at over 5 feet from the source, while allowing significant lateral movement of the receiver on the WiGL (Wireless Grid LAN or local area network). The transmitter network method leverages a series of panels, operating as a mesh of transmitters that can be miniaturized or hidden in walls or furniture for an ergonomic use. This disruptive technology holds the unique advantage of being able to provide recharging of moving targets similar to the cellular concept used in WiLAN, as opposed to prior wireless charging attempts, which only allow a hotspot-based charging. Specifically, we demonstrate the charging of a popular smartphone using the proposed system in the radiating near field zone of the transmitter antennas, while the user is free to move in the space on the meshed network. The averaged received power of 10 dBm is demonstrated using 1W RF-transmitter(s), operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. The proposed hardware consists of antennas arrays, rectennas, power management and USB 2.0 interfaces for maintaining a voltage between 4.2 and 5.3 V and smooth charging. We also show extending the wireless grid coverage with the use of multiple transmitting antennas, and mechanical beam-steering even further an increased coverage using the proposed system

Integrated SWIPT Receiver with Memory Effects: Circuit Analysis and Information Detection

Wireless power transfer has been proposed as a key technology for the foreseen machine type networks. A main challenge in the research community lies in acquiring a simple yet accurate model to capture the energy harvesting performance. In this work, we focus on a half-wave rectifier and based on circuit analysis we provide the actual output of the circuit which accounts for the memory introduced by the capacitor. The provided expressions are also validated through circuit simulations on ADS. Then, the half-wave rectifier is used as an integrated simultaneous wireless information and power transfer receiver where the circuit's output is used for decoding information based on amplitude modulation. We investigate the bit error rate performance based on two detection schemes: (i) symbol-by-symbol maximum likelihood (ML); and (ii) ML sequence detection (MLSD). We show that the symbol period is critical due to the intersymbol interference induced by circuit. Our results reveal that MLSD is necessary towards improving the error probability and achieving higher data rates.Comment: ICC. \{copyright} 2024 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other work

Next-generation IoT devices: sustainable eco-friendly manufacturing, energy harvesting, and wireless connectivity

This invited paper presents potential solutions for tackling some of the main underlying challenges toward developing sustainable Internet-of-things (IoT) devices with a focus on eco-friendly manufacturing, sustainable powering, and wireless connectivity for next-generation IoT devices. The diverse applications of IoT systems, such as smart cities, wearable devices, self-driving cars, and industrial automation, are driving up the number of IoT systems at an unprecedented rate. In recent years, the rapidly-increasing number of IoT devices and the diverse application-specific system requirements have resulted in a paradigm shift in manufacturing processes, powering methods, and wireless connectivity solutions. The traditional cloud-centering IoT systems are moving toward distributed intelligence schemes that impose strict requirements on IoT devices, e.g., operating range, latency, and reliability. In this article, we provide an overview of hardware-related research trends and application use cases of emerging IoT systems and highlight the enabling technologies of next-generation IoT. We review eco-friendly manufacturing for next-generation IoT devices, present alternative biodegradable and eco-friendly options to replace existing materials, and discuss sustainable powering IoT devices by exploiting energy harvesting and wireless power transfer. Finally, we present (ultra-)low-power wireless connectivity solutions that meet the stringent energy efficiency and data rate requirements of future IoT systems that are compatible with a batteryless operation

Textile-Integrated Wearable Radio Frequency (RF) Wireless Power Transfer and Harvesting for Battery-Free Medical Sensing

Body-worn sensing is becoming increasingly important for patient monitoring, particularly the elderly. The vital signs can be directly transferred to their physicians, personal caregivers or used for self-diagnosis. To achieve this, wireless, wearable, and self-powered sensors are required. Wireless RF powering/charging, implemented into clothing, upholstery, and smart dressing presents itself as a convenient and practical solution for powering wearable sensors. In this dissertation, the implementation of such wireless charging platforms that are integrated into clothing, and the integration of medical sensor electronics is shown. Fabric-based wireless charging allows for lightweight, scalable, flexible, battery- less, and comfortable wearing. It is also important to address misalignment issues as users may not always be aligned with the RF transmitters used for charging. In this work, we develop wireless power transfer modalities with the receiving antennas integrated into clothing. The proposed antenna and circuits are realized by embroidering conductive threads onto fabric substrates. The dissertation begins with a characterization of the conductive textiles and microwave circuits used to optimize the substrate materials. Best design guidelines suggested the use of organza fabrics and the conductive textiles embroidered in the direction of the RF currents for up to 10 GHz. These design guidelines are used to develop textile-based rectifying circuits exhibiting RF-to-DC efficiency of 77.23% with 22.5 dBm illumination and RF-to-DC efficiency of 70% when illuminated with 8 dBm. Three clothing-integrated wireless charging platforms are presented. The first configuration used a near-_eld power transfer for ergonomic charging application. For this specific case, wireless charging was achieved by integrating the receiving antennas and rectifiers into clothing. The transmitters into items such as chairs and bedsheet. This system employed anchor-shaped antennas connected to a rectifying circuit resonant at 360 MHz to collect DC power up to 10 mW across an area of 4 ft X 4 ft with the near-field transmitting power at 1 W. A second configuration used a far-field transmitter illuminating a 2 X 3 textile-based patch rectenna array (antenna + rectifier) resonating at 2.45 GHz. This setup exhibited a DC power collection of 0.6 mW from a boosted Wi-Fi signal. In this case, the transmitter was within 10 cm of the receiver. In the third configuration, an electrochemical sensor, data-modulation and transmitter antenna blocks were added. This sensor system was illuminated by an interrogator transmitting RF power to the bandaid at 2.45 GHz. The bandaid featured a rectifying circuit to convert the external RF power into DC to power a textile-based electrochemical sensor and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The subject electrochemical sensor was uric acid detector whose uric acid concentration was translated into a frequency shift in the response of the VCO. Uric acid concentrations from 0.2 mM to 1 mM were detected and can be used to assess the health status of chronic wounds. The VCO outputted an RF signal whose frequencies are modulated by the uric acid sensor, and was found to be between 1089 MHz and 1120 MHz. The average sensitivity of the system was 44.67 MHz/mM and the maximum power used was 0.38 mW

Sustainable RF wireless power transfer and energy harvesting and their applications

In the last two decades, energy harvesting technologies have generated significant interest, attributed to the decline in the power consumption of digital electronics. Electromagnetic (EM) power harvesting and delivery mechanisms, across the frequency spectrum, have been researched. In this chapter, we start by introducing the state-of-the-art in RF-enabled energy harvesting and wireless power transfer (WPT) technologies. Moving from device-level to system-level perspectives, the key enabling platforms are discussed with their environmental impact evaluated to assess their potential use enablers of net-zero intelligent systems

Data supporting the article "Microwave-enabled wearables: Underpinning technologies, integration platforms, and next-generation roadmap".

This dataset summarizes the WPT comparison data reported in Figures 5 and 6 of the article Microwave-enabled wearables: Underpinning technologies, integration platforms, and next-generation roadmap Published in IEEE Journal of Microwaves </span