Wireless energy transfer

Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power
source to an electrical load without interconnecting wires. Wireless transmission is useful in cases
where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible. The problem of
wireless power transmission differs from that of wireless telecommunications, such as radio. In the
latter the proportion of energy received becomes critical only if it is too low for the signal to be
distinguished from the background noise.[1] With wireless power, efficiency is the more significant
parameter. A large part of the energy sent out by the generating plant must arrive at the receiver or
receivers to make the system economical.

The most common form of wireless power transmission is carried out using direct
nduction followed by resonant magnetic induction. Other methods under consideration
includeelectromagnetic radiation in the form of microwaves or lasers

Contents

• 1 Electric energy transfer

o 1.1 Electromagnetic induction

 1.1.1 Electrodynamic induction method

 1.1.2 Electrostatic induction method

o 1.2 Electromagnetic radiation

 1.2.1 Beamed power, size, distance, and efficiency

 1.2.2 Microwave method

 1.2.3 Laser method

o 1.3 Electrical conduction

 1.3.1 Disturbed charge of ground and air method

 1.3.1.1 Terrestrial transmission line with atmospheric return

 1.3.1.2 Terrestrial single-conductor surface wave transmission line

Electric energy transfer

In a direct current circuit, if the current is continuous, the fields are constant; there is a condition of
stress in the space surrounding the conductor, which represents stored electric and magnetic energy,
just as a compressed spring or a moving mass represents stored energy. In an alternating
current circuit, the fields also alternate; that is, with every half wave of current and of voltage, the
magnetic and the electric field start at the conductor and run outwards into space with the velocity of
light.[4] Where these alternating fields impinge on another conductor a voltage and a current are
induced.[3]

Any change in the electrical conditions of the circuit, whether internal[5] or external[6] involves a
readjustment of the stored magnetic and electric field energy of the circuit, that is, a so-
called transient. A transient is of the general character of a condenser discharge through an inductive
circuit. The phenomenon of the condenser discharge through an inductive circuit therefore is of the
greatest importance to the engineer, as the foremost cause of high-voltage and high-
frequency troubles in electric circuits.[7]

Electromagnetic induction is proportional to the intensity of the current and voltage in the conductor
which produces the fields and to the frequency. The higher the frequency the more intense the
induction effect. Energy is transferred from a conductor that produces the fields (the primary) to any
conductor on which the fields impinge (the secondary). Part of the energy of the primary conductor
passes inductively across space into secondary conductor and the energy decreases rapidly along the
primary conductor. A high frequency current does not pass for long distances along a conductor but
rapidly transfers its energy by induction to adjacent conductors. Higher induction resulting from the
higher frequency is the explanation of the apparent difference in the propagation of high frequency
disturbances from the propagation of the low frequency power of alternating current systems. The
higher the frequency the more preponderant become the inductive effects that transfer energy from
circuit to circuit across space. The more rapidly the energy decreases and the current dies out along
the circuit, the more local is the phenomenon.

The flow of electric energy thus comprises phenomena inside of the conductor and phenomena in the
space outside of the conductor—the electric field—which, in a continuous current circuit, is a condition
of steady magnetic and dielectric stress, and in an alternating current circuit is alternating, that is, an
electric wave launched by the conductor to become far-field electromagnetic radiation traveling
through space with the velocity of light.
In electric power transmission and distribution, the phenomena inside of the conductor are of main
importance, and the electric field of the conductor is usually observed only incidentally. Inversely, in
the use of electric power for radio telecommunications it is only the electric and magnetic fields outside
of the conductor, that is electromagnetic radiation, which is of importance in transmitting the message.
The phenomenon in the conductor, the current in the launching structure, is not used.

The electric charge displacement in the conductor produces a magnetic field and resultant lines of
electric force. The magnetic field is a maximum in the direction concentric, or approximately so, to the
conductor. That is, a ferromagnetic body tends to set itself in a direction at right angles to the
conductor. The electric field has a maximum in a direction radial, or approximately so, to the
conductor. The electric field component tends in a direction radial to the conductor and dielectric
bodies may be attracted or repelled radially to the conductor. The electric field of a circuit over which
energy flows has three main axes at right angles with each other:

1. The magnetic field, concentric with the conductor.

2. The lines of electric force, radial to the conductor.

3. The power gradient, parallel to the conductor.

Where the electric circuit consists of several conductors, the electric fields of the conductors
superimpose upon each other, and the resultant magnetic field lines and lines of electric force are not
concentric and radial respectively, except approximately in the immediate neighborhood of the
conductor. Between parallel conductors they are conjugate of circles. Neither the power consumption
in the conductor, nor the magnetic field, nor the electric field, are proportional to the flow of energy
through the circuit. However, the product of the intensity of the magnetic field and the intensity of the
electric field is proportional to the flow of energy or the power, and the power is therefore resolved into
a product of the two components i and e, which are chosen proportional respectively to the intensity of
the magnetic field and of the electric field. The component called the current is defined as that factor of
the electric power which is proportional to the magnetic field, and the other component, called the
voltage, is defined as that factor of the electric power which is proportional to the electric field.
In radio telecommunications the electric field of the transmit antenna propagates through space as
a radio wave and impinges upon the receive antenna where it is observed by its magnetic and electric
effect.[11] Radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X rays and
gamma rays are shown to be the same electromagnetic radiation phenomenon, differing one from the
other only in frequency of vibration