Hybrid wireless power transfer system for sensor applications in harsh environments

Ma, Yufei (2025) Hybrid wireless power transfer system for sensor applications in harsh environments. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is a promising solution to eliminate the dependence of low-power devices on batteries and cables. WPT technologies, including electric field coupling (EC-WPT), magnetic field coupling (MC-WPT), radio frequency (RF-WPT), laser (L-WPT), and ultrasound (U-WPT), each have inherent limitations. EC-WPT, MC-WPT, and U-WPT are restricted to short distances, L-WPT is limited by precise alignment, while metal, water and biological tissues are harsh transmission environment for RF-WPT. These constraints make powering devices in harsh environments, such as underwater, underground, within metal enclosures, distributed over long distances, ormobile, a significant challenge. Traditional battery-based, wired and independent WPT solutions are often impractical due to high maintenance costs, accessibility issues, and size limitations.

This study proposes a hybrid wireless power transmission system integrating RF-WPT and U-WPT to establish a dual-path energy transfer framework in air and metallic environments. The RF link enables long-range and omnidirectional energy transmission, while the ultrasonic link supports power safe penetration through metal, water, and biological tissues. However, integrating these two technologies is challenging due to their fundamentally different transmission mechanisms, necessitating distinct circuit architectures and components. This work develops a combined radio frequency and ultrasonic wireless power transfer (CRFU-WPT) architecture, analyses the link loss between RF and ultrasonic transmission, and establishes a power budgeting model for various application scenarios. An experimental validation demonstrates the system’s capability to power a low-power Bluetooth sensor through a 10 mm metal plate with 0 dBm input, achieving a conversion circuit efficiency of 39.7%.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
• Supervisor's Name: Li, Professor Chong
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85310
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 08 Jul 2025 09:05
• Last Modified: 08 Jul 2025 09:08
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85310
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85310

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