This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2682262, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Optimum Design of Wireless Power Transmission
System Using Microstrip Patch Antenna Arrays
Xiaodong Yang, Wen Geyi, Member, IEEE, and Hucheng Sun, Member, IEEE
AbstractThe wireless power transmission (WPT) systems
consisting of two microstrip patch antenna arrays at 5.8 GHz are
investigated. Through maximizing the power transmission
efficiency between the two arrays, the optimized phases and
amplitudes of the excitations for both the transmitting and the
receiving antenna elements can be obtained and then realized by
feeding networks. As a demonstration, two WPT systems have
been designed and fabricated. One uses a 66 array as the
transmitting and a 44 array as the receiving, and the measured
transmission efficiency reaches 39.4% when the two arrays are
separated by a distance of 40 cm. Another one uses 88 arrays as
the transmitting and the receiving, and the measured power
transmission efficiency reaches 46.9% when the two arrays are
separated by a distance of 100 cm.
Index TermsWireless power transmission, optimization,
microstrip patch array, power transmission efficiency.
I. INTRODUCTION
t the end of 19th century, Tesla demonstrated Hertzs
A theory of radio wave transmissionwhich marks the birth
of the concept of wireless power transmission (WPT). The
WPT technology has been further developed with focused
microwave beam [1], which is also called microwave power
transmission (MPT). The concept of the Solar Power Satellite
(SPS) was brought forth with the MPT in 1968s, which was
considered to be the most potential and significant application
of the MPT technology [1][3]. Since 1980s, many countries
have carried out a lot of work in the field of MPT, and have
achieved remarkable results.
For the applications of MPT technology, Japan has made a
series of theoretical and experimental results in SPS and
successfully conducted two microwave wireless power
transmission experiments in March 2015 [4][7]. Recently,
MPT has gradually been applied in other fields, such as the
wireless power distribution system in buildings [8] and the
vehicles powered by microwaves [9][11]. In order to improve
the efficiency of WPT system, many researchers have tried
various methods to increase the performances, efficiency, and
Manuscript received December 20, 2016; accepted March 12, 2017. This
work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (61501243), in part by the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of
Millimeter Waves (No. K201722), and in part by Jiangsu Innovation &
Entrepreneurship Group Talents Plan.
X. D. Yang and G. Y. Wen are with the Research Center of Applied
Electromagnetics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology,
Nanjing 210044, China (e-mail: wgy@nuist.edu.cn).
H. C. Sun is with the Research Center of Applied Electromagnetics, Nanjing
University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China,
and also with the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Nanjing 210096,
China (e-mail: sunhucheng@nuist.edu.cn).
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1
robustness of WPT systems by dealing with the design of
transmitting arrays [12][16]. Gowda et al have presented a
scheme for wireless power transmission in the radiative
near-field region. They have built a WPT system operating
5.8GHz by using an 88 array as the transmitting and a
44array as the receiving, and a power transmission efficiency
of 33.4% has been achieved when a separation distance of 40
cm is assumed [17].The method proposed in [17], however,
cannot guarantee that the power transmission efficiency
between the transmitting and receiving antennas is maximized.
In other words the power transmission system is not optimized.
Recently, an optimization method has been proposed for the
design of WPT systems, which is based on maximizing the
power transmission efficiency between two antenna arrays [18],
[19]. The method has been applied to various antenna array
designs [20][25]. In this letter, we demonstrate the application
of the optimization method to the design of WPT systems
operating at 5.8 GHz. Two systems have been designed and
fabricated. The first system uses a 66 patch array as the
transmitting and a 44 patch array as the receiving, both being
separated by a distance of 40 cm. The measured results indicate
that the power transmission efficiency of the WPT system is
39.4%, which is significantly higher than what is achieved in
[17] in view of the fact that the element number of the
transmitting array in our design is only half of that used in [17]
and the dimensions of the transmitting and receiving antenna
arrays are also smaller than those used in [17]. Our second
system uses 88 arrays as the transmitting and the receiving.
The measured power transmission efficiency reaches 46.9% at
5.8 GHz when the two arrays are separated by a distance of 100
cm.
II. OPTIMAL DESIGN METHOD
The WPT system in our design consists of nt transmitting
antenna elements and nr receiving antenna elements separated
by a distance D in free space as shown in Fig. 1. The whole
system may be considered as a nt nr port network, the power
transmission efficiency T of the WPT system is defined as the
ratio of the total power delivered to the receiving antenna to the
input power of the transmitting antenna array. The power
transmission efficiency T is the objective function of the
optimization method. If the power transmission efficiency
reaches the maximum, we obtain [18]
[ A][at ] T [at ] (1)
where [A] is a matrix determined by the scattering parameters
of the WPT system; [at ] is the normalized incident wave
vector for the transmitting array. The maximum eigenvalue in
(1) gives the maximum power transmission efficiency and the
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2682262, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
2

corresponding eigenvector gives the optimal distribution of
excitations for the transmitting array. The optimal distribution
of excitations for the receiving antenna array can be obtained
similarly. Note that the mutual coupling between the elements
has been included in the matrix [A] .
Fig. 1. WPT system
are listed in the second column of Table I and II. Although the
optimized T is 59.4%, the feeding networks on both
transmitting and receiving sides can not exactly achieve the
optimized excitations. In addition, the board loss and the
fabrication tolerance also have influences on T . For this
reason, the final measured transmission efficiency is less than
its theoretical value.
The feeding networks are then designed and the realized
distributions are listed in the third column of Table I and II.
Note that the antenna arrays are left-right symmetrical. Fig. 2
shows the photographs of the fabricated antenna arrays with
the feeding networks.
TABLE I
DISTRIBUTIONS OF EXCITATION
FORTRANSMITTING ANTENNA ARRAY.

Port No. Optimized Distributions of Realized Excitations of

Excitation Feeding Network
1, 6 0.100 0.101
2, 5 0.12-36 0.12-34
3, 4 0.15-56 0.14-54
7, 12 0.14-30 0.14-31
8, 11 0.16-66 0.15-67
9, 10 0.20-87 0.18-89
13, 18 0.15-55 0.14-56
14, 17 0.20-90 0.19-90
(a) (b) (c) 15, 16 0.24-110 0.22-111
Fig. 2. (a) Element of antenna arrays.(b) Photograph of transmitting antenna 19, 24 0.15-55 0.14-56
array. (c) Photograph of receiving antenna array. 20, 23 0.20-90 0.19-90
21, 22 0.24-110 0.22-110
25, 30 0.14-30 0.14-31
III. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS
26, 29 0.16-66 0.15-67
Our first system chooses a 66 array as the transmitting and 27, 28 0.20-88 0.18-89
a 44 array as the receiving so that it can be compared with 31, 36 0.10 0.101
those used in [17]. The distance between transmitting and 32, 35 0.12-36 0.12-34
33, 33 0.15-56 0.14-54
receiving arrays is assumed to be 40 cm. The patch elements
in both arrays are equally spaced with the separation distance
of 0.63 . As shown in Fig. 2(a), the antenna element is a TABLE II
rectangular microstrip patch with an inset-fed, which is DISTRIBUTIONS OF EXCITATION FOR
operating at 5.8 GHz (One can also use a coaxial-fed RECEIVING ANTENNA ARRAY.
microstrip patch. In this case, an additional substrate layer is
needed to accommodate the feeding network as indicated in Port No. Optimized Distributions of Realized Excitations of
[24]. For simplicity we choose the inset-fed patch as the Excitation Feeding Network
element of the antenna array). Both antenna arrays are 1, 4 0.171 0.160
designed using low-loss 1.524 mm thick Rogers 4003 2, 3 0.22-20 0.20-20
5, 8 0.25-21 0.24-20
substrate (
r
3.55 and tan =0.0027 ). The dimensions of 6, 7 0.33-39 0.31-39
9, 12 0.25-22 0.24-20
the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays are 10, 11 0.33-40 0.31-39
2162161.524 mm3 and 1501501.524 mm3, respectively. 13, 16 0.171 0.160
The whole WPT system is simulated using the Ansoft HFSS 14, 15 0.22-20 0.20-20
(High Frequency Structural Simulator). When the
configuration of whole system is fixed, the maximum T as
well as the optimized distributions of excitations for the The simulated and measured reflection coefficients S11 of
transmitting and receiving antenna arrays can be determined the 66 transmitting antenna array and the 44 receiving
from (1). When the distance D between the transmitting and antenna array are shown in Fig.3. It can be found that both
receiving antenna arrays is 40cm as shown in Fig. 1, the the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays have
optimization method based on the scattering parameters from relatively wide bandwidths with the reflection coefficients
the Ansoft HFSS simulation shows that the maximum T is below -20 dB at 5.8 GHz. There are slight differences
59.4% at 5.8 GHz and the optimized distributions of between the measured and simulated reflection coefficients,
excitations for the transmitting and receiving antenna arrays which could be attributed to the fabrication tolerance of
microstrip patch antenna arrays.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2682262, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
Fig. 3. Simulated and measured S11 (dB) for transmitting and receiving
antenna arrays.
Fig. 4. Simulated and measured S21 (dB) for transmitting and receiving
antenna arrays.
The simulated and measured transmission coefficients
S21 of the WPT system are shown in Fig. 4. A good
agreement between the measured and simulated results can
be observed. The transmission coefficient can be used to
calculate the power transmission efficiency T of the WPT
system through
T 10|S21|/10 100%
The measured value of transmission coefficient at 5.8 GHz
is -4.05 dB. Hence the corresponding transmission
efficiency of the whole WPT system is 39.4% at 5.8 GHz.
Also, the transmission coefficient stays above -5 dB in the
frequency range from 5.67 to 5.86 GHz, indicating that the
power transmission efficiency is higher than 31.6% across
the frequency band. The transmission efficiency reaches
the maximum value of 42% at 5.78 GHz due to the
fabrication tolerance. The transmission efficiency is
increased by 25.7% compared with 33.4% achieved in
[17].
The power transmission coefficients can also obtained
from a direct measurement. As shown in Fig. 5(a), a
combination of vector network analyzer and RF amplifier
is utilized to generate a power of 25 dBm (316.23 mW) for
the transmitting array. The power collected by the receiving
antenna array can be measured by spectrum analyzer, which is
found to be 21.02 dBm (126.47 mW). Hence, the power
transmission efficiency is found to be 39.9%, which is very
close to the value obtained from (2).
To prove the capability of the WPT system, as shown in Fig.
5(b), a power-harvesting rectifier is designed and connected
with an LED. In order to light up the LED, the power input to
the rectifier is required to be above 9.69 dBm (9.31 mW).
After connecting the rectifier to the receiving antenna array in
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3
(a) (b)
Fig. 5. (a) Experimental setup for the WPT system. (b) Lighting up an LED at
a distance of 40 cm.
the WPT system, it is found that the minimum input power to
the transmitting antenna for lighting up the LED is 13.85 dBm
(24.27 mW). Therefore, the power transmission efficiency of
the WPT system can be roughly estimated to be 38.4%, which
is approximately equal to those acquired in the previous
experiments.
The maximized power transmission efficiency and the
optimized distributions of excitations are determined by a
number of factors which define the configuration of the system,
such as antenna element, element spacing, transmission
distance, aperture size, substrate material and so on. All these
factors enter the optimization process and affect the final
optimization results. As a result, the optimized results are only
valid for the specified configuration. It is generally impossible
to have an optimum design which suits for different
configurations, and the optimization has to be done on a case by
case basis. When the configuration is fixed, our design yields
(2) the best possible results in terms of the efficiency.
Our second example for the wireless power transmission
system uses 88 arrays as the transmitting and the receiving,
operating at 5.8 GHz. The transmitting and the receiving
arrays are separated by a distance of 100 cm. Due to the
symmetry, the optimized excitations for the transmitting and
receiving arrays are the same. The measured transmission
coefficient at 5.8 GHz is 3.29 dB, and the corresponding
transmission efficiency of the WPT system is 46.9% (The
optimized transmission efficiency is 65.7%). The simulated
and measured reflection coefficients S11 of antenna arrays and
transmission coefficients S21 of the WPT system are shown in
Fig. 6. The optimized distributions of excitations and the
realized excitations of feeding network are listed in Table III.
(a) (b)
Fig. 6. (a) Simulated and measured S11 for transmitting and receiving
antenna arrays. (b) Simulated and measured S21 for transmitting and
receiving antenna arrays.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LAWP.2017.2682262, IEEE
Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
4

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