Operation of battery-less and wireless sensor using magnetic resonance based wireless power transfer through concrete

Although the deployment of wireless sensors for structural sensing and monitoring is becoming popular, supplying power to these sensors remains as a daunting task. To address this issue, there have been large volume of ongoing energy harvesting studies that aimed to find a way to scavenge energy from surrounding ambient energy sources such as vibration, light and heat. In this study, a magnetic resonance based wireless power transfer (MR-WPT) system is proposed so that sensors inside a concrete structure can be wirelessly powered by an external power source. MR-WPT system offers need-based active power transfer using an external power source, and allows wireless power transfer through 300-mm thick reinforced concrete with 21.34% and 17.29% transfer efficiency at distances of 450 mm and 500 mm, respectively. Because enough power to operate a typical wireless sensor can be instantaneously transferred using the proposed MR-WPT system, no additional energy storage devices such as rechargeable batteries or supercapacitors are required inside the wireless sensor, extending the expected life-span of the sensor.