Wireless Power Transfer Solutions and Their Effectiveness [Georgia Institute of Technology]

Abstract

My research focuses on the problems related to the creation of a wireless power transfer system designed for energy transmission at a distance of at least one meter. The project was created to provide data for the advancement of wireless power, specifically via radio frequency transmission. Previous research efforts that attempted to develop this technology have run into unforeseen obstacles that have hindered its consumer and commercial adoption. This research will yield more information into those barriers and what can be done to assist wireless power in its future development as an applied technology. To begin producing data, a wireless power system first must be created. The central design element of the transmitter was a Texas Instruments PLL and integrated VCO wideband frequency synthesizer programmed to output a 3.6GHz sine wave. That signal was then passed into a GaN amplifier integrated circuit from Analog Devices and finally transmitted via a wideband Molex antenna. The receiver circuit was much simpler, simply consisting of a second Molex antenna and a bridge rectifier circuit to convert the AC signal to DC. A multipurpose ATmega328 programs the frequency synthesizer on the transmitter and reads the voltage and current from the receiver with its integrated ADC. The research is currently still in progress, but the data that has been accumulated shows that transmission is possible but with lower power yields than initially expected. The maximum range of received power was one meter, but because the transmitted voltage and current did not meet the calculated values, the project must have reached one or more of the unknown obstacles in wireless power design. To isolate and learn more about them, the project will be revised to gather more data. It will change into different models of power transfer and be tested for their effectiveness for the benefit of future research in this topic.