Wireless power transfer to a small, remote control boat

Over the past few decades, researchers have explored and implemented methods of wireless power transmission to operate devices that traditionally have been powered using plug-in power supplies and batteries. It is with this objective in mind that we built a boat, which is powered wirelessly from a field of harvestable energy. This project sought to develop a wirelessly powered remote control boat to be a proof of concept for the idea of wireless power transfer. Our criteria for success is that the boat should receive sufficient power to run anywhere in a 2.5 meter squared area. Having defined the field in which power will be required by our boat, we will fill this field with microwave RF energy. Finally, using a rectifying antenna, or rectenna, the energy will be harvested and delivered to the boat’s motors. We first developed three different topologies for our motor boat. For each boat, we made the minimization of power consumption a priority, while still maintaining speed and control. Operating between 100 and 200 milliwatts, each of the three topologies has a unique advantages and disadvantages with respect to its power consumption, speed, and controllability, and each has the ability to be powered wirelessly. From here, we plan to combine the rectenna with the boat, and deliver the power to our system. We will then characterize the radiation pattern of our power-receiving monopole antenna, and quantify the efficiencies of our various rectifier topologies

A non-invasive multipoint product temperature measurement for pharmaceutical lyophilization

Abstract Monitoring product temperature during lyophilization is critical, especially during the process development stage, as the final product may be jeopardized if its process temperature exceeds a threshold value. Also, in-situ temperature monitoring of the product gives the capability of creating an optimized closed-loop lyophilization process. While conventional thermocouples can track product temperature, they are invasive, limited to a single-point measurement, and can significantly alter the freezing and drying behavior of the product in the monitored vial. This work has developed a new methodology that combines non-invasive temperature monitoring and comprehensive modeling. It allows the accurate reconstruction of the complete temperature profile of the product inside the vial during the lyophilization process. The proposed methodology is experimentally validated by combining the sensors’ wirelessly collected data with the advanced multiphysics simulations. The flexible wireless multi-point temperature sensing probe is produced using micro-manufacturing techniques and attached outside the vial, allowing for accurate extraction of the product temperature