Design of Wireless Power and Information Transfer Systems Considering Figure of Merit for Information

Abstract

Inductively coupled resonant wireless power transfer (WPT) systems can be used as a wireless power and information transfer (WPIT) system by properly adding the function of varying Rx loads. A new metric for the figure of merit for information transfer from Rx to Tx is proposed as the ratio of Tx input impedances for the Rx shorted and optimum loads to systematically assess the information transfer. While most of WPT and near-field communication (NFC) devices have been adopted for very short distances between Tx and Rx, this work shows that the WPIT systems using inductively coupled resonant structures with high Q-factor coils enable much longer working distances with the best power transfer efficiency and information transfer capability. Several design examples show that the newly proposed figure of merit for information transfer is an essential metric in the understanding and design of WPIT systems. The theory is validated with circuit and electromagnetic simulations for various system configurations.