After it was invented by Nicola Tesla that the electricity can be transmitted wirelessly, many experiments were and are conducted to enhance the wireless power technology for its use in the day-to-day life. One such successful attempt is done by researches of the Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Using a set of multiple coils and arranged in a specific format can transmit the power wirelessly at a much greater distance then the size of the transmitter.
To make this happen, the researcher’s team created a square superlens, which looked like square boxes aligned together in a pattern. Each wall of the box has a spiraling copper wire. The geometry of the coils and their repetitive nature form a metamaterial that interacts with magnetic fields in such a way that the fields are transmitted and confined into a narrow cone thus increasing the intensity.
The other side of the superlens, the researchers placed a small copper coil with an alternating electric current running through it to create a magnetic field around the coil. We know that the field, however, drops in intensity and power transfer efficiency reduces extremely quickly as per the distance. With help of the superlens the magnetic field can be focused at a point almost a foot away which can have good strength to generate electric current in the receiver coil.
The superlens is small in size and can induce the electricity at a greater distance then any existing transmitter – receiver setup. Achieving to charger the device at a greater distance with a device smaller then the distance is what could be the next generation of wireless charging devices. It removes the dependency from the contact of the receiver-transmitter coils and gives more space for the device to be placed in for charging.
Yaroslav Urzhumov, assistant research professor said, “Previous commercial products like the PowerMat™ have not become a standard solution exactly for one reason; they lock the user to a certain area or region where transmission works, which, in effect, puts invisible strings on the device and hence on the user. It is those strings – not just the wires – that we want to get rid of.”
Currently, Duracell Powermat and Starbucks have created charging hotspots in few Starbucks coffee shops, where in the phone capable of receiving the wireless electricity can be placed on the spot to get charged. But with successful commercial usage of the Superlens oriented device will give the freedom from placing the receiving device on the charging pad.