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Contactless energy transfer (CET) is a technology that is particularly relevant in applications where wired electrical contact is dangerous or impractical. Furthermore, it would enhance the development, use, and reliability of low-power sensors in applications where changing batteries is not practical or may not be a viable option. One CET method that has recently attracted interest is the ultrasonic acoustic energy transfer, which is based on the reception of acoustic waves at ultrasonic frequencies by a piezoelectric receiver. Patterning and focusing the transmitted acoustic energy in space is one of the challenges for enhancing the power transmission and locally charging sensors or devices. We use a mathematically designed passive metamaterial-based acoustic hologram to selectively power an array of piezoelectric receivers using an unfocused transmitter. The acoustic hologram is employed to create a multifocal pressure pattern in the target plane where the receivers are located inside focal regions. We conduct multiphysics simulations in which a single transmitter is used to power multiple receivers with an arbitrary two-dimensional spatial pattern via wave controlling and manipulation, using the hologram. We show that the multi-focal pressure pattern created by the passive acoustic hologram will enhance the power transmission for most receivers.
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Electrode pattern definition in ultrasound power transfer systems
We use a high pattern-fidelity technique on piezoelectric electrodes to selectively excite high-order vibration modes, while isolating other modes, in multi-layered through-wall ultrasound power transfer (TWUPT) systems. Physical mechanisms, such as direct and inverse piezoelectric effects at transmitting and receiving piezoelectric elements, as well as wave propagation across an elastic barrier and coupling layers, all contribute to TWUPT. High-order radial modes in a TWUPT system feature strain nodes, where the dynamic strain distribution changes sign in the direction of disks' radii. This study explains theoretically and empirically how covering the strain nodes of vibration modes with continuous electrodes results in substantial cancelations of the electrical outputs. A detailed analysis is given for predicting the locations of the strain nodes. The electrode patterning for creating the transmitter and receiver shapes is determined by the regions where local force and charge cancelation do not occur, i.e., the two modal principal stress components have the same sign. Patterning for creating the electrode shapes is performed by high-fidelity numerical modeling supported by experiments. Using differential excitation on the transmitter side while monitoring transmitted power and efficiency on the reception side at various vibration modes is made possible by the unique nature of TWUPT systems. Due to an improvement in system quality and power factors, it is determined that employing the proposed electrode pattern designs enhances overall device efficiency and active power. The suppression of other modes makes up a filter feature that is paired with the enhancement at the mode under consideration.
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- PAR ID:
- 10436242
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Volume:
- 122
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 0003-6951
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 124101
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0139866
