Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Nathan P. Schmidt
Waterloo East High School
214 High Street
Waterloo, Iowa 50703
12/25/2014

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

By Nathan P. Schmidt
Waterloo East High School, Electronic Engineering
Sponsored by Mr. Matthew Tracy
Transmitting power through radio has been proposed many times as an alternative to the
use of wires. The concept which was originally attributed to Nikola Tesla, as well as its current
variants, comes under analysis within this paper. From the results, an equation was derived
which shows the trends of a specific transmitter in its ability to transmit power to a specific area:
GH 2
Pr=E t I t
Where Pr is the power received in watts, G is the antennas gain,
2
4 R
Et is the unloaded Electromotive force which the transmitter is operating at, I t is the
current which the transmitter is supplying, and R is the distance from the transmitter. For an
experiment, a transmitter and receiver were constructed to graph the rate at which power decayed
over a distance and was compared to the rate which was presented by the equation to find that it
matched within tolerances once the emission pattern of the transmitter was accounted for. The
derived equation, backed by the experimentation performed, indicates that wireless power
transfer is too impractical and/or inefficient for a given situation compared to wires or other
methods to be applied.

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

I would like to thank Dr. Paul Shand and the University of Northern Iowa for supplying
multiple objects for this project, including the capacitors and an IGBT used in a test version of
the apparatus. I would also like to thank John Schmidt for allowing me to use his equipment and
property to build and test on and Brian Schmidt for giving constructive criticism on my paper.

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Table of Contents

Introduction.5
Materials and Methods of Testing...7
Results.7
Analysis of Data..8
Conclusions....11
References..11
Appendix I.12

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Introduction to Topic

Transmitting power has been an important issue in modern society. Efficiency, safety, and
convenience must be managed and traded for one another in their deserving proportions. There
have been, and continues to be, efforts to improve these since electricity was given to the public.
One such improvement that has been proposed multiple times in the past is the use of Wireless
Transmission. Wireless Transmission has been notably worked on by students of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the name WiTricity (www.witricity.com), as well as
Nikola Tesla who popularized the idea. Research into Wireless Transmission using modern
technologies is, in itself, not great except for that done by the company WiTricity. At the same
time, looking at the overall amount known on Radio is great, which makes resources such as
ARRLs 2014 Radio Handbook and the MIT-OCW Physics lectures on electromagnetism
invaluable. Both of which I have referenced many times throughout the making of this project.
My hypothesis on the viability of Wireless Transmission is that it, as a wide scale
transmission method, is not viable. A transmitter that directs energy in all directions on a
horizontal axis would, if working properly, not be capable of directing sufficient energy to power
a device without wasting a large quantity of energy both because of the devices inefficiency of
propagating radio waves and the devices tendency to transmit in directions other than where is
needed. The use of a directional antenna would be also problematic because of the lack of
freedom of movement of the object that was the goal of wireless transmission to begin with.
The goal of this project was to derive an equation which allows for the examination of the
properties of a given transmitter within a range shorter than its wavelength. With this, it is

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

possible to determine if wireless power transmission is viable based on range, available power,
and total efficiency of a circuit.
My estimate is that a transmitter will follow an equation derived from the inverse square
law. A transmitter emitting in all directions or in a specific direction based on its gain will be
limited by its dissipation (relating to gain), voltage and amperage (listed separately because they
should remain proportional to what was transmitted), transmitter efficiency, and distance from
transmitter from receiver. Noting that an isotropic radiator emits in all directions equally, the
voltage or amperage picked up at a certain point would be equal to the inverse of the surface area
of a sphere multiplied by the value which the transmitter is operating at. Thus, the value picked

up from an isotropic radiator would follow the equation:

voltage or amperage at a specific point,

Xt

X r =X t

1
2
4 R

In which

X r is

is voltage or amperage the transmitter is operating

at, and R is distance. Being that antennas have a directional element (gain), the equation would

then be

Xr=

Xt G
4 R

where G (gain) is multiplied by the former equation. Also, to be counted

in is the efficiency of the transmitter which is a number between zero and one. Efficiency can be

calculated during testing where the results will be shown as H

Xm
Xr

Where

Xm

is power

measured and H is the transmitter/receiver efficiency. In the end, the equation will be as follows:

Xr=

X t GH
4 R2

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Materials and Methods

The purpose of this test is to find data which would allow for an equation to be found in
order to examine the properties of a transmitter/receiver pair. As voltage and amperage should
decay at an equal rate, only one (voltage) will be measured. Thus it is viable to increase the
voltage of the transmitter at expense to its amperage in order for the collected values to be
measured with a higher level of accuracy.
For testing, a transmitter (shown in detail in Appendix I) was placed at two, four, six,
eight, and ten meters from a receiver (also shown in Appendix I) off of which voltage was
measured. For measurement a Sperry DM-6400 was used. Testing was carried out in the
following fashion for each position:

While transmitter was off, voltage was measured on the receiving antenna.
Transmitter was turned on until the voltage on the receiver stabilized and was measured,

subtracting the voltage previously measured on the receiving antenna

The transmitter was then turned off and the devices were moved to the next position

Results

The results collected from testing are shown in Table 1 below. The range given is due to the
wavering values received and is 10% the mean value received (noted on the table first)

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

counting the possible distance accuracy of .05 meters. The distance range was calculated by
determining the efficiency of the transmitter receiver pair by methods used below for each value
and finding the values for distances 0.05 meters in either direction of the point that was tested at.
Basing the efficiency off of each value for finding the range of values possible due to
inaccuracies in placing the transmitter receiver was deemed to be within the level of accuracy
acceptable for this experiment. The efficiency of transmission was calculated by dividing the
measured value by the value predicted by the equation with the current known values. In the

equation

Xr=

X t GH
4 R2

assuming that the gain of both antennas is that of an ideal loop antenna,

G will be equal to ~1.77 (and will also be corrected by H, but this should be taken into
consideration in the discussion section);

Xt

is equal to 15,000 volts; and R is equal to the

given distance.

Analysis of Data

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

The results found during testing show multiple trends in the decay of voltage as distance
increases. The voltage values collected show that voltage decreases at an exponential rate, but
also seems to fall further between six and eight meters. As there were no structures behind, near,
or blocking the receiver from the transmitter, it may be possible that there was a steep drop of
signal because of the transmitters emission pattern. If this is true, it would explain the sudden
drop in calculated efficiency which declined by over half between six and eight meters as well.
At two, four, and six meters there is a steady yet small increase in calculated efficiency as
distance increases. Due to the level of inaccuracy within the results it is impossible to determine
if it actually exhibits this pattern, but it may also imply a change in results due to the antennas
emission pattern.
Also seen at two, four, and six meters is a rate of decay which shows similarity to the
derived equation mentioned before. Using the equation with the values used during testing and
an efficiency which is the mean value of the efficiencies at two, four, and six meters gives the
results in Table 2 under the header X. Also added is the equation using the mean efficiency of
the transmitter receiver pair at eight and ten meters under the header Y and the results of the
equation using the mean efficiency of all five distances under Z. These are compared to the
possible range calculated previously under Range.

Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

In Table 2 the yellow highlighted values are within the range for their given distance. For
X and Y it is shown that only the values of which the mean efficiency was calculated from are
within the range. This is opposed to Z, where only one value fit within the range out of the five
used to calculate the mean efficiency. Being that the values align to their ranges in separate sets
based before and after the significant drop in efficiency and voltage collected, I will infer that it
may be a viable conclusion that a given antenna will have a pattern that significantly effects how
efficiently a transmitter/receiver pair exchanges power. With this, it also seems that the derived
equation works as a general rule for the given data, albeit not extremely accurate beyond a
notable extent. I would add that the terrain and other factors would make any equation used out
of a non-virtual realm inaccurate, but I have no comparison to give in this case. In the case of
the equation being an effective general model of a given transmitter/receiver pair there are
several generalizations that could be made and are listed below.
Being that the equation is in terms of voltage or amperage the equation could be used to
calculate power by using the equation with voltage as the variable multiplied by the equation
while using amperage as the variable. Disregarding the antennas pattern, the power would fall
much faster than voltage or amperage by itself as a ratio. The equation could be reduced to

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Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

Pr=E t I t

GH
2
4 R

where

Pr is the received power in watts,

unloaded Electromotive force in volts, and

It

Et

is the transmitters

is the transmitters operating current in amps.

One characteristic that should be noted is that the transmitter will emit power regardless
of if an antenna built to receive power from it is operating within its effective range. Thus it is
very easy to waste power regardless of if a transmitter is operating at a high efficiency in terms
of consumed power to radiated power. Being that it would not only be impractical, but also
against the main point of wireless transmission to have stationary antennas within the entire
radiation path of the transmitter, it is inevitable that power will be lost simply from being emitted
away from any receiver.
Another point that should be made is that as directivity is increased for extra efficiency or
range (E.g. Transmitting at a specific target receiver) the freedom of movement will be
significantly less than that of an antenna with less directivity (and thus a higher chance of
wasting power). In the case of an unmoving receiver it would be much more efficient to use
wires both in terms of how much power is lost, as well as its reliability (based on my experience
with electronics, wires are much sturdier then even factory built radio transmitters which will
inevitably decay at a much faster rate).

Conclusions

Due to the formation of an equation capable of predicting the general characteristics of a

given transmitter I successfully completed the goal of the project. I also drew conclusions about
the viability of wireless power transfer through use of the equation I derived. In summary, due to
the need for the receiver to stay within a specific area and the low efficiency of the system, the
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Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

concept of wireless power transfer has shown to be impractical. It has been found that in most
applications, wires or a portable power source are much more efficient and practical.

References

Silver, H. (n.d.). Fundamental Theory: Electrical Fundamentals. In The ARRL handbook for
radio communications, 2014 (Ninety-first ed.). Newington, CT.

Silver, H. (n.d.). Antenna Systems and Radio Propagation: Antennas. In The ARRL handbook for
radio communications, 2014 (Ninety-first ed.). Newington, CT.

Guth, Alan, and Min Chen. 8.07 Electromagnetism II, Fall 2012. (MIT OpenCourseWare:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology), http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-07electromagnetism-ii-fall-2012 (Accessed 2 Jan, 2015). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Appendix I

Within Appendix I, schematics for devices used within testing are given. All schematics
were created by use of the Scheme-It Program.
The transmitter used within testing is as shown here with values listed:

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Viability of Transmitting Power Using Radio

L1 is a helical coil which ANT1 is set within. L1 starts 6cm off of the ground where
ANT1 starts 8cm off of the ground. The device is turned on by a remote which triggers the
activation of the relay RY1 which in turn allows for the device to operate. R1, R2, C5, and C6
are in place to suppress radio frequency interference traveling through the mains or destroying
the transformer.
The Receiver used within testing was built one meter in diameter out of .25 inch in
diameter soft copper tubing. The copper tubing was supported on .3 meter long 1.25 inch in
diameter PVC from which the tubing started two centimeters from the top of the PVC and made
five revolutions which crossed the starting PVC piece three centimeters from the former
revolutions position. The center of the coil is the reference point which was used during testing
to space the transmitter and receiver. During testing measurements were taken of the receiver by
a multimeter (Sperry DM-6400) with leads connected to the ends of the tubing on the coil.

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