Physicist Hatam Zeine has invented a new wireless power transmission system. The Cota system uses intelligently steered phased array antennas to focus a beam of microwaves on a receiver module. The system can cleverly prevent any of the radiation from hitting obstacles in the way, resulting in a completely safe charging method.

This safe technology can deliver electrical power up to 30 foot from a central transmitter without any line of sight requirement and without causing interference with other hardware. The release date for the technology is said to be in 2015.

The microwave transmitter operates in the 2.4 or 5.8ghz bands that are also used by Wi-Fi routers. The Ossis transmitter can provide effective charging to distances of around 9 meters/30 foot. A single unit could effectively charge items in other rooms of a house.

The charger is housed inside an 18 inch cube and the receiver is stored on a chip and uses a chip antenna for operation. The commerical version of the receiver will be able to fit inside a phone or even an AAA battery, according to Zeine. The amount of electrical power available at the start will be around 1W, which is around 30% of the power transmitted by a USB port.

In a room without obstacles, the RF radiation from the locator beacon travels directly from the receiver to the walls of the room. Some of that radiation will hit the transmitter unit. The electrically steerable phased array antennas will detect the radiation and the direction it is coming from. The transmitter uses the information to get a beam of microwave power which is focused onto the receiver. This is achieved by using a physical property of RF fields called time reversal symmetry.

This time reversed microwave transmission means the radiation changes course, bouncing off the walls in the right way to focus on the charging receiver – which avoiding, for example a person in the room. The same principle will work for rooms with multiple objects or people in the way.
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Kitguru says: The Cota system seems ideal for recharging and directly charging tablets and smartphones. The price point for the device is said to be around that of a Wi-Fi router.

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