Implementation of Digital Beamforming System for Microwave Power Transfer With Real-Time Beam Scanning

Abstract

In this study, we propose a digital beamforming system for microwave power transfer with a real-time beam-scanning algorithm for tracking a moving receiver. To perform scanning, each channel in the transmitter generates and converts a baseband signal for the allocated beam direction based on the pilot slots in a frame structure. An initial timer reset process and a preamble are included in the algorithm to maintain time synchronization among units of the scanning period in a wireless environment. The average received power is simulated, and the optimal frame configuration is derived by considering the proportion of an energy transmission slot in the frame. For experimental verification, we design a 4 × 4 digital beamforming system operating at 5.8 GHz and a receiver. The scanning performance is experimentally validated with various numbers of scanning beams and placements of the receiver. Moreover, when radiating 16 W of RF power, an RF power of 100 mW or more is received in all sections for the scenario of the receiver moving in a 1 m distance using 1 second period beam scanning. The proposed microwave power transfer system with a realtime beam scanning algorithm is verified to track the moving receiver in a wireless environment and perform optimal microwave power transfer.INDEX TERMS Beam scanning, digital beamforming, frame structure, microwave power transfer.