Single Versus Multi-Tone Wireless Power Transfer with Physically Large Arrays

Distributed beamforming is a key enabler to provide power wirelessly to a massive amount of energy-neutral devices (ENDs). However, without prior information and fully depleted ENDs, initially powering these devices efficiently is an open question. This work investigates and assesses the feasibility of harvesting sufficient energy to transmit a backscatter pilot signal from the END, which can be then used for coherent downlink transmission. We experimentally evaluated adaptive single-tone and multi-tone signals during initial charging. The results indicate that the response time for ENDs with unknown locations can extend to several tens of seconds. Notably, the adaptive single-tone excitation shows, among others, better performance at lower transmit power levels, providing a faster response. These findings underscore the potential of adaptive single-tone signals in optimizing power delivery to END in future networks.