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Advances in Wireless Power Transfer Technologies and Applications

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F: Electrical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 1567

Special Issue Editor

School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Interests: microwave power transmission; rectenna; rectifier circuit

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Existing Internet of Things (IoT) devices face a significant challenge in terms of power consumption due to their limited battery life. The use of wires and batteries to power such massive number of electrical devices wastes time and is inconvenient and environmentally unfriendly. Capturing and utilizing ambient radio-frequency (RF) energy has emerged as a promising solution for powering low-power sensors and electronic devices, given its unique spatial and temporal distributions. 

To maintain the power autonomous devices, diverse wireless power harvesters have been proposed to supply the power from the ambient environment, e.g., light, radio frequency (RF) waves, vibration, and piezoelectricity. To fully leverage these opportunities, such systems require inter-disciplinary expertise ranging from fundamental rectennas and propagation research, advanced rectennas with applied microwave technologies along with circuits and systems, hybrid energy harvesters, wireless power transmission theory and system design, rectifying metasurfaces, etc. We welcome emerging and well-established antenna-enabled technologies, such as RFID and RF power transfer,  that highlight the inter-disciplinary applications of wireless power harvesters, with a focus on IoT, healthcare, and industrial applications.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Advanced rectenna designs for sensors;
  • Rectifying metasurfaces;
  • Simultaneous wireless information and power transmission;
  • Soft, flexible, and stretchable rectennas;
  • Hybrid energy harvesters;
  • Advanced wireless power transmission theory and systems;
  • Self-matching and auto-tuning rectennas;
  • Advanced materials and metasurfaces with rectifiers.

Dr. Ping Lu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • wireless power transmission
  • rectennas
  • impedance matching
  • hybrid energy harvesters
  • rectifying metasurfaces

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5956 KiB  
Article
Transmitting Double-D Coil to Wirelessly Recharge the Battery of a Drone with a Receiving Coil Integrated in the Landing Gear
by Wassim Boumerdassi, Tommaso Campi, Silvano Cruciani, Francesca Maradei and Mauro Feliziani
Energies 2025, 18(10), 2587; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18102587 - 16 May 2025
Viewed by 113
Abstract
The aim of this work is the design of a 200 W transmitting coil for a high-power wireless power transfer (WPT) system based on magnetic resonant coupling (MRC) to charge the battery of a drone in 1 h equipped with a WPT receiving [...] Read more.
The aim of this work is the design of a 200 W transmitting coil for a high-power wireless power transfer (WPT) system based on magnetic resonant coupling (MRC) to charge the battery of a drone in 1 h equipped with a WPT receiving coil integrated into the landing gear. This innovative solution is based on the use of the landing gear as the receiving coil, thereby obviating the need for an additional component (e.g., separate receiving coil). The proposed landing gear is fabricated from aluminum, to reduce weight, and to improve mechanical robustness and electrical performance. Consequently, the design reduces overall weight and system complexity while minimizing potential destabilization of the drone’s flight dynamics. However, a specific design of the primary coil is required to ensure high efficiency even in case of an inaccurate landing of the drone on a ground pad. To this aim, a double-D configuration is here proposed and optimized for the transmitting coil, while a double coil receiver in combination with a charge controller that uses a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is integrated into the landing gear. The results obtained from the simulations demonstrate that the proposed WPT system has excellent electrical efficiency and very high tolerance to coil misalignment in terms of the coupling coefficient due to imprecise landing. The transmission efficiency of the final test prototype can reach 95% with a coupling coefficient of k = 0.16, and it can drop to a minimum of 85% when misalignment occurs resulting in k = 0.06. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wireless Power Transfer Technologies and Applications)
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17 pages, 4697 KiB  
Article
Modeling and Analysis of Current-Carrying Coils Versus Rotating Magnet Transmitters for Low-Frequency Electrodynamic Wireless Power Transmission
by Vernon S. Crasto, Nicolas Garraud, Matthew G. Stormant and David P. Arnold
Energies 2025, 18(10), 2506; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18102506 - 13 May 2025
Viewed by 171
Abstract
Current-carrying coils and rotating permanent magnets can be used to create time-varying excitation magnetic fields for electrodynamic wireless power transmission (EWPT). Both types of transmitters produce low-frequency, time-varying fields at the locations of the receiver, but with fundamental differences. A coil transmitter produces [...] Read more.
Current-carrying coils and rotating permanent magnets can be used to create time-varying excitation magnetic fields for electrodynamic wireless power transmission (EWPT). Both types of transmitters produce low-frequency, time-varying fields at the locations of the receiver, but with fundamental differences. A coil transmitter produces a uniaxial magnetic field, where the direction of the field is along a single axis, but the amplitude varies in a bipolar fashion. In contrast, a rotating magnet transmitter produces a rotating magnetic field, with the amplitude varying in two orthogonal directions. Building on prior work for coil transmitters, this manuscript presents the modeling and a simulation framework for rotating magnet transmitters. The performance of an EWPT system is then studied both theoretically and experimentally for both transmitter types. For the same B-field amplitude (501 µT) and a fixed transmitter-receiver distance of 12 cm, a receiver driven by a coil transmitter produces 38 mW, whereas the same receiver driven by a rotating magnet transmitter produces 149 mW, nearly four times higher. This power increase is a result of 50% higher receiver rotation speeds using the rotating magnet transmitter. The power transfer efficiency is also six times higher for the rotating magnet transmitter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wireless Power Transfer Technologies and Applications)
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14 pages, 5299 KiB  
Article
Multi-Frequency Solar Rectenna Design for Hybrid Radio Frequency–Solar Energy Harvester
by Xue Luo, Ping Lu, Ce Wang and Kama Huang
Energies 2025, 18(9), 2372; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18092372 - 6 May 2025
Viewed by 187
Abstract
This paper put forward a hybrid energy harvester for collecting RF and solar energy in quad-band (GSM-900/1800, ISM-2400 and WiMAX-3500). By introducing diverse parasitic structures, good impedance matching with unidirectional radiation is achieved in the multi-band. Below the solar antenna, a low-power rectifier [...] Read more.
This paper put forward a hybrid energy harvester for collecting RF and solar energy in quad-band (GSM-900/1800, ISM-2400 and WiMAX-3500). By introducing diverse parasitic structures, good impedance matching with unidirectional radiation is achieved in the multi-band. Below the solar antenna, a low-power rectifier circuit is employed to achieve broadband rectification. Under the input power of 0 dBm, and maximum RF-DC conversion efficiency of 56.94% is realized. Accordingly, the hybrid energy harvester collects RF and solar energy individually or simultaneously, and then converts it into DC for power supply. With a light intensity of 1500 lux, the solar cell obtains 1.732 mW, and the rectenna can harvest additional 0.37–0.405 mW power. The proposed RF–Solar energy harvester has the advantages of multi-frequency operation, high gain, and high energy harvesting conversion efficiency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wireless Power Transfer Technologies and Applications)
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Review

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24 pages, 7734 KiB  
Review
The State of the Art of Research on Power Supply Technologies for Moving Targets
by Man Ruan, Xudong Wang, Wanli Xu, Mengyi Wang, Peiqiang Chen and Jinmao Chen
Energies 2025, 18(5), 1174; https://doi.org/10.3390/en18051174 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 576
Abstract
With the advancement of power electronics, control systems, and related technologies, devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), airships, and electric vehicles (EVs) have become integral to modern life and industry. However, limited battery capacity, short battery life, attenuated battery performance, environmental sensitivity, [...] Read more.
With the advancement of power electronics, control systems, and related technologies, devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), airships, and electric vehicles (EVs) have become integral to modern life and industry. However, limited battery capacity, short battery life, attenuated battery performance, environmental sensitivity, and long charging time result in range anxiety in electrically driven devices, which has become an important factor restricting their development. This paper reviews the current status of power supply technologies for moving targets, categorizing them into contact charging, autonomous power supply, and wireless power transfer (WPT) methods. The principles, advantages, disadvantages, and applications of each approach are thoroughly analyzed. Comparative analysis highlights that WPT technology, which eliminates the need for electrical connections between the transmitter and receiver, offers notable advantages, including high flexibility, extended charging distances, and simultaneous power delivery to multiple targets. These features make it particularly well suited for the energy requirements of moving devices. Accordingly, this paper emphasizes the key technologies and future development directions of microwave WPT (MWPT) and laser WPT (LWPT) to facilitate the broader adoption of dynamic wireless power supply systems for moving targets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wireless Power Transfer Technologies and Applications)
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