Waveform Impact on Wireless Power Transfer Efficiency using Low-Power Harvesting Devices

The paper addresses the impact of peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) and spectrum of the waveform, as well as load resistance on the performance of low-power harvesting device in a real-life wireless power transfer (WPT) scenario. In the current study, a combination of the classic voltage doubler circuit for RFDC conversion and premanufactured device for DC-DC conversion is used. For the investigation of conversion efficiency and harvesting device performance, three types of waveforms are used: single tone, multicarrier signals with low PAPR and multicarrier signal with high PAPR. In order to generate high-PAPR signal, subcarriers with the same amplitude and phase are summed, whereas for generation of low PAPR signal the phases of the subcarriers are chosen pseudo-randomly. Over-the-air transmission in 865 MHz ISM band is made using directional antennas and all multicarrier waveforms have equal 5 MHz bandwidth. To evaluate the performance of harvesting device and conversion efficiency, the average voltages at the input and output of the RF-DC converter as well as at the output of the DC-DC converter with corresponding input and load impedance are measured. The experiments have shown that the employed multicarrier signals can greatly improve the performance of harvesting device during WPT under certain conditions, which are discussed in the paper.