Wireless Power Transfer: From Directional Power to Omni-directional Power

Abstract

In traditional wireless power transfer applications, wireless power is usually directed to the targeted loads placed in well-defined locations or regions. The power flow is usually directional, meaning the wireless power is controlled to flow from the transmitter to the receiver in one direction. Recently, research in transmitting power wireless in all directions on the 2-D and 3-D planes has been addressed. Omni-directional wireless power transfer in the past has low energy efficiency. The speaker will describe a new way of achieving omni-directional wireless power in an efficient manner. In this presentation, a brief update of new techniques for directional wireless power transfer is firstly presented. Then various omni-directional wireless power transfer techniques reported in the literature and their limitations will be described. Then, the use of the “non-identical current control” for generating magnetic field in an omni-directional manner will be explained. This patent-pending technology can be used to wirelessly charged a multiple of loads placed anywhere in the proximity of the omni-directional wireless power transmitter. This omni-directional wireless power transfer technology has been successfully demonstrated in both 2-D and 3-D systems. The successful implementation of 2-D and 3-D omni-directional power transfer systems operating at about 500kHz (sub-Mega-Hertz regime) and less than 10W will be illustrated in video demonstration.