Wireless power transfer: a review

The ubiquitous nature and the proliferation of mobile devices has made wireless power transfer (WPT) a very important area of research. The flexibility and cost effectiveness of charging these enormous devices in our world without having to connect physically to any electrical port especially when the user is indisposed to do so is a very attractive characteristic of WPT. Conventional means of charging the batteries of these mobile devices are wired which invariably meansthey requirephysical connection to power sources through electrical cables. Electric power istransmitted wirelessly when a magnetic field produced by the inductive coupling of coils or electrical field produced by the capacitive coupling between electrodes is transferred over a short distance through the air interface and later received by an antenna for utilisation. This article gives a detailed review of the existing wireless power transfer technologies, principles of operation, applications and the opportunities for future research in this area of emerging technology. However, WPT has some drawbacks but it is a disruptive technology with the ability to revolutionise the dynamics of mobile wireless systems, internet of things and otherallied future technologies.