A performance predictor of beamforming versus time-reversal based far-field wireless power transfer from linear array

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Wireless Communication Systems
• Electromagnetics

Background:

• Far-field wireless power transfer (WPT) faces challenges in complex environments.
• Conventional beamforming (BF) has limitations in multipath scenarios.
• Time-reversal (TR) WPT leverages multipath effects for improved performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the peak received power ratio (PRPR) for linear array-based WPT.
• To provide a generalized performance metric for comparing BF and TR in WPT.
• To validate PRPR's effectiveness in predicting WPT performance based on environmental complexity.

Main Methods:

• Detailed theoretical analysis of the PRPR metric.
• Experimental verification of PRPR in free space and indoor environments.
• Comparison of TR and BF WPT performance using PRPR.

Main Results:

• PRPR directly correlates with environmental complexity and WPT capability.
• Higher environmental complexity leads to a greater PRPR value.
• TR outperforms BF in peak power transmission under specific conditions, as indicated by PRPR.

Conclusions:

• PRPR is an effective metric for predicting WPT performance in varying environments.
• PRPR enables informed mode selection between BF and TR for efficient WPT.
• The findings support the use of PRPR for optimizing far-field WPT in dynamic conditions.