Conventional wireless power transfer systems consist of a microwave power
generator and a microwave power receiver separated by some distance. To realize
efficient power transfer, the system is typically brought to resonance, and the
coupled-antenna mode is optimized to reduce radiation into the surrounding
space. In this scheme, any modification of the receiver position or of its
electromagnetic properties results in the necessity of dynamically tuning the
whole system to restore the resonant matching condition. It implies poor
robustness to the receiver location and load impedance, as well as additional
energy consumption in the control network. In this study, we introduce a new
paradigm for wireless power delivery based on which the whole system, including
transmitter and receiver and the space in between, forms a unified microwave
power generator. In our proposed scenario the load itself becomes part of the
generator. Microwave oscillations are created directly at the receiver
location, eliminating the need for dynamical tuning of the system within the
range of the self-oscillation regime. The proposed concept has relevant
connections with the recent interest in parity-time symmetric systems, in which
balanced loss and gain distributions enable unusual electromagnetic responses.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figure
