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IET ENERGY ENGINEERING 95

Retro-reflective
Beamforming Technique
for Microwave Power
Transmission
The ACES Series on Computational and Numerical Modelling in Electrical
Engineering

Andrew F. Peterson, PhD – Series Editor

The volumes in this series will encompass the development and application of numerical
techniques to electrical and electronic systems, including the modelling of electromagnetic
phenomena over all frequency ranges and closely related techniques for acoustic and optical
analysis. The scope includes the use of computation for engineering design and optimization, as
well as the application of commercial modelling tools to practical problems. The series will
include titles for senior undergraduate and postgraduate education, research monographs for
reference, and practitioner guides and handbooks.

Titles in the Series

K. Warnick, “Numerical Methods for Engineering,” 2010.
W. Yu, X. Yang and W. Li, “VALU, AVX and GPU Acceleration Techniques for Parallel FDTD
Methods,” 2014.
A.Z. Elsherbeni, P. Nayeri and C.J. Reddy, “Antenna Analysis and Design Using FEKO
Electromagnetic Simulation Software,” 2014.
A.Z. Elsherbeni and V. Demir, “The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method in
Electromagnetics with MATLAB‡ Simulations, 2nd Edition,” 2015.
M. Bakr, A.Z. Elsherbeni and V. Demir, “Adjoint Sensitivity Analysis of High Frequency
Structures with MATLAB‡,” 2017.
O. Ergul, “New Trends in Computational Electromagnetics,” 2019.
D. Werner, “Nanoantennas and Plasmonics: Modelling, design and fabrication,” 2020.
K. Kobayashi and P.D. Smith, “Advances in Mathematical Methods for
Electromagnetics,” 2020.
V. Lancellotti, “Advanced Theoretical and Numerical Electromagnetics, Volume 1: Static,
stationary and time-varying fields,” 2021.
V. Lancellotti, “Advanced Theoretical and Numerical Electromagnetics, Volume 2: Field
representations and the method of moments,“ 2021.
S. Roy, “Uncertainty Quantification of Electromagnetic Devices, Circuits, and
Systems,” 2021.
Retro-reflective
Beamforming Technique
for Microwave Power
Transmission
Mingyu Lu and Xin Wang

The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Published by SciTech Publishing, an imprint of The Institution of Engineering and
Technology, London, United Kingdom

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is registered as a Charity in England &

Wales (no. 211014) and Scotland (no. SC038698).
† The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2024

First published 2023

This publication is copyright under the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright
Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research
or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, only with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in
the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued
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terms should be sent to the publisher at the undermentioned address:
The Institution of Engineering and Technology
Futures Place
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Hertfordshire, SG1 2UA, United Kingdom
www.theiet.org
While the authors and publisher believe that the information and guidance given in this
work are correct, all parties must rely upon their own skill and judgement when making
use of them. Neither the authors nor publisher assumes any liability to anyone for any
loss or damage caused by any error or omission in the work, whether such an error or
omission is the result of negligence or any other cause. Any and all such liability is
disclaimed.
The moral rights of the authors to be identified as authors of this work have been
asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this product is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78561-803-1 (hardback)

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Typeset in India by MPS Limited

Printed in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Eastbourne
Cover Image: Futuristic illustration of the propagation of waves in the information
medium: Denis Pobytov/Digital Vision Vectors via Getty Images
 Contents

About the authors ix

1 Overview: wireless power transmission, microwave power

transmission, and retro-reflective beamforming 1
1.1 Wireless power transmission to mobile targets 1
1.2 Microwave as the carrier of wireless power transmission to mobile
targets 5
1.3 Employing phased array for microwave power transmission to
mobile targets 9
1.4 Basic scheme of retro-reflective beamforming for microwave
power transmission 17
References 21

2 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission

applications 25
2.1 Basic principles of the phased array as transmitting antenna 25
2.1.1 One-dimensional linear phased array 33
2.1.2 Two-dimensional phased array 36
2.2 Basic principles of the phased array as receiving antenna 38
2.3 Power transmission efficiency in “electrical far zone” 42
2.4 Power transmission efficiency in “electrical near zone” 47
2.5 One numerical example on the performance of a two-dimensional
phased array in the “electrical far zone” and “electrical near zone” 53
2.6 Power transmission efficiency in “geometrical far zone”
and “geometrical near zone” 65
2.7 Mutual coupling among antenna elements in a phased array 73
References 81

3 Theoretical principles and practical implementation of

retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave
power transmission 83
3.1 Retro-reflective beamforming in “electrical far zone” 83
3.2 Retro-reflective beamforming in “electrical near zone” 86
3.3 Retro-reflective beamforming in “electrical far zone” and
“electrical near zone”: comparative studies 90
vi Retro-reflective beamforming technique

3.4 Theoretical analysis of retro-reflective beamforming technique

using a circuit model 105
3.5 Retro-reflective beamforming in “geometrical near zone” and
“geometrical far zone” 111
3.6 Practical implementation of retro-reflective beamforming
technique for microwave power transmission 117
References 130

4 Retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave power

transmission in Internet of Things applications 133
4.1 Microwave power transmission in Internet of Things 133
4.2 Retro-reflective beamforming scheme for microwave power
transmission in the Internet of Things 135
4.3 Two experimental examples of the retro-reflective beamforming
scheme in Section 4.2 139
4.4 Theoretical study of retro-reflective beamforming for wireless
power transmission to multiple targets (with “targets” standing
for “wireless power receivers”) 151
4.5 Experimental study of retro-reflective beamforming for wireless
power transmission to multiple targets (with “targets” standing
for “wireless power receivers”) 164
References 177

5 Retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave power

transmission in space solar power applications 179
5.1 Basic concepts of space solar power 179
5.2 Theoretical model of wireless power transmission from a
geostationary satellite to the Earth based on retro-reflective
beamforming technique 181
5.3 Theoretical analysis of retro-reflective antenna array in SSPS
applications using the formulations of Section 2.1 under the
condition of electrical far zone 188
5.4 Theoretical analysis of retro-reflective antenna array in SSPS
applications using the formulations of Section 2.4 under the
condition of electrical near zone 204
5.5 A bench-scale experimental demonstration of wireless power
transmission from satellite to Earth 213
5.6 Wireless power reception on the Earth 220
References 226

6 Retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave power

transmission in fully-enclosed space 229
6.1 Technical concept of wireless power transmission in
fully-enclosed space 229
 Contents vii

6.2 Feasibility study of efficient microwave power transmission

in fully-enclosed space: theoretical analysis 232
6.3 Feasibility study of efficient microwave power transmission in
fully-enclosed space: measurement results 241
6.4 Retro-reflective beamforming based on phased arrays versus
retro-reflective beamforming based on parasitic arrays: general
theoretical analysis 246
6.5 Retro-reflective beamforming based on phased arrays versus
retro-reflective beamforming based on parasitic arrays: theoretical
analysis of a special case with the wireless power transmitter
including two antenna elements 252
6.6 Preliminary numerical and experimental results of microwave
power transmission in fully-enclosed space based on
parasitic arrays 260
References 271

Appendices 275
Index 283
This page intentionally left blank
 About the authors

Mingyu Lu is a professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,

West Virginia University Institute of Technology, West Virginia, USA. He is a senior
member of the IEEE, a member of the IEEE MTT-25 Technical Committee, and the
treasurer of the IEEE West Virginia Section. He has published three book chapters,
49 journal papers, and more than 100 conference papers.

Xin Wang is a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering, Chongqing

University, Chongqing, China. He received BS and MS degrees in electronic
engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, and the PhD degree in
electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN,
USA. Xin Wang’s research areas include wireless power transmission, reconfi-
gurable antennas, and RF circuits. He has co-authored over 50 academic papers, 1
textbook, and 1 book chapter.
This page intentionally left blank
 Chapter 1
Overview: wireless power transmission,
microwave power transmission, and
retro-reflective beamforming

Wireless power transmission is a broad topic. This book focuses on microwave

power transmission, which is a sub-discipline of wireless power transmission. The
specific focus/scope of this book is discussed in the first two sections of Chapter 1
(i.e., Sections 1.1 and 1.2). The next two sections of Chapter 1 (i.e., Sections 1.3
and 1.4) present a brief narrative on how the retro-reflective beamforming techni-
que could be applied to accomplish efficient microwave power transmission. The
retro-reflective beamforming technique is further elaborated in the other chapters
of this book.

1.1 Wireless power transmission to mobile targets

This section and the next section (i.e., Section 1.2) intend to define the scope of this
book. This section starts with the general concepts of wireless power transmission
and then moves to the specific discipline of wireless power transmission to mobile
targets (with “targets” standing for “wireless power receivers” throughout
this book).
Electricity has two practical meanings in our everyday life: Power and infor-
mation. These two practical meanings can be readily illustrated by two outlets on
the wall in every household. As depicted in Figure 1.1, a television set has cord
connections with two outlets: One is a power outlet and the other is a cable TV
outlet. From the television set’s point of view, the power outlet is a source of power
whereas the cable TV outlet is a source of information. The power delivery over a
power cord and the information delivery over a cable TV cord can both be char-
acterized by the physical quantity of the Poynting vector, which is the cross product
between the electric field vector and magnetic field vector [1]. Thus indeed, the
power transmission over a power cord and the information transmission over a
cable TV cord share the same physical nature. To be more specific, in Figure 1.1
electrical power with high power level is propagating over the power cord, whereas
electrical power with low power level is propagating over the cable TV cord.
Obviously, in the meantime, a television signal is attached to the electrical power
propagation over the cable TV cord, whereas no information/signal is attached to
2 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Figure 1.1 Illustration of electrical power and electrical information

the electrical power propagation over the power cord. Correspondingly, the tele-
vision set has an electrical power receiver at its inlet of the power cord, and it has
another electrical power receiver at its inlet of the cable TV cord. Of course, the
two electrical power receivers do not perform the same task. When electrical power
is received by the television set from the power cord, part of the power is converted
to optical power such that the television set’s display is bright enough for human
vision. When electrical power is received by the television set from the cable TV
cord, the information/signal attached to the power is detached such that the tele-
vision set knows what contents should be displayed.
Electrical information/signals can be transmitted by two possible means:
Wired and wireless (it must be noted that a DC signal cannot be transmitted
wirelessly). For example, landline telephones and cell phones embody wired voice
signal transmission and wireless voice signal transmission, respectively. Electrical
power can also be transmitted either by wired means or by wireless means (as a
note similar to DC signal, DC power cannot be transmitted wirelessly). The elec-
tricity distribution network (i.e., electricity grid) that supplies power to society is
the best example of wired electrical power transmission. As the practical applica-
tions of wireless power transmission, wireless chargers for electric toothbrushes,
cell phones, and smartwatches are popular nowadays. While wired propagation and
wireless propagation are based on the same physical laws (which are described by
Maxwell’s equations [1]), they are governed by different boundary conditions.
Specifically, wired propagation follows the boundary conditions specified by
transmission lines such as a piece of cable TV cord, whereas wireless propagation
satisfies the boundary conditions dictated by the environments such as an urban
environment.
Based on the discussions on “power versus information” and “wired versus
wireless” above, four combinations are tabulated in Table 1.1, including wired
power transmission, wired information transmission, wireless power transmission,
and wireless information transmission. The wireless power transmission technol-
ogy is not highly developed today, compared with the other three in Table 1.1. The
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 3

Table 1.1 Practical applications of wired power transmission, wired information

transmission, wireless power transmission, and wireless information
transmission

Electrical power Electrical information

Example of wired Example of wired

power transmission: information
Wired
Electricity transmission:
distribution network Landline telephone

Example of wireless Example of wireless

power transmission: information
Wireless
Wireless charger for transmission: Cell
smartwatch phone

four items in Table 1.1 rely on the same fundamental physics. Therefore, the
wireless power transmission technology is as feasible as the other three in terms of
fundamental physics. For instance, if strong power were broadcasted by a cell
tower, one might receive sufficient wireless power to charge the battery of his/her
cell phone. Nevertheless, the practical implementation of such a brute-force wire-
less power transmission is prohibitive due to a large number of practical restric-
tions. Three major practical concerns relevant to wireless power transmission
technology are discussed below.
Power transmission efficiency is the top concern pertinent to wireless power
transmission. Power transmission efficiency is defined as the ratio between the
amount of received power and the amount of transmitted power. When wireless
power is delivered from a cell tower to a cell phone over a long distance (say,
200 m), the power transmission efficiency is very poor. A numerical example is
provided in Section 1.3, with the power transmission efficiency calculated to be as
low as 0.00025. Obviously, poor power transmission efficiency is equivalent to
high financial loss. As a matter of fact, power transmission efficiency is an
important metric in virtually every Electrical Engineering application, such as
electricity grid and cellular communication, albeit wireless power transmission
applications are particularly sensitive to the value of power transmission efficiency.
As the second practical concern, wireless power transmission technology will
not be accepted by the general public if it is not safe, that is, if wireless power
transmission may cause biological hazards to human beings. While the potential
hazards of wireless cell phone signals are still under study, it would be simply
unacceptable for a cell tower to boost its broadcasting power in order to charge the
battery of a remote cell phone. In fact, a range of regulations have been established
to safeguard human safety from excessive exposure to wireless technologies [2,3].
Electromagnetic compatibility is the third vital concern the wireless power
transmission technology must take into account. As one example of electromagnetic
4 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

compatibility, there is a National Radio Quiet Zone in the United States, in which cell
phone service is strictly limited in order to protect radio astronomical measurements
from possible interferences [4]. Apparently, wireless power transmission applications
are anticipated to create stronger interferences than wireless signal transmission
applications (cell phone communication, for instance). As a result, the development
of wireless power transmission technology must comply with laws/regulations
enforced by the government, such as those issued by the Federal Communications
Commission of the United States [5].
The practical concerns discussed above do not appear highly challenging when
the target (i.e., wireless power receiver) is stationary at a fixed location. One of the
classic demonstrations of wireless power transmission to a stationary target is
shown in Figure 1.2. In 1975, an experiment carried out by NASA JPL at the
Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex, California demonstrated the
delivery of 30 kW of wireless power over one mile, i.e., 1.6 kilometers [6,7]. As
shown in the photo of Figure 1.2, a narrow power beam was constructed by a large
parabolic antenna toward a stationary wireless power receiver one mile away. Since
the target is stationary and the path of wireless power transmission is fixed, it is
possible to achieve high power transmission efficiency and avoid potential hazards
without tremendous technical difficulties.
When the target is not stationary or when its location is not fixed, the practical
difficulties associated with accomplishing efficient and safe wireless power trans-
mission increase significantly, compared with the scenarios of stationary targets.
As a matter of fact, the rapid development of mobile technologies over the past few
decades created a vital demand for wireless power transmission to mobile targets.
Today, an ordinary person has to manage the rechargeable batteries of multiple
devices such as a cell phone, a tablet computer, a Bluetooth headphone, an electric
toothbrush, and an electric shaver. With the advent of the Internet of Things and
Personal Area Networks, the number of mobile/portable devices is anticipated to
keep growing in the near future. If an individual person possesses more than ten

Wireless power receiver

Wireless power transmitter

Figure 1.2 A photo of 1975 Goldstone demonstration, in which wireless power

was delivered from a stationary transmitter to a stationary receiver.
Reproduced from [6], courtesy of NASA.
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 5

portable devices, wired charging of these devices will become frustrating. Indeed,
the major challenges due to the explosive growth of mobile electronic devices are
in the industrial and commercial settings rather than in everyday life. Suppose an
electronic tag is attached to each piece of merchandise in a supermarket; the total
number of tags the supermarket staff must deal with would be on the order of
millions or ten millions. In front of such a large number of mobile/portable devices,
wired charging would be practically impossible. Therefore, technologies that could
keep track of mobile devices and supply wireless power to them with little human
intervention would open the gate to a massive market. This book is motivated by
the practical demand for wireless power transmission to mobile targets as well as
by the technical difficulties associated with the demand.
The retro-reflective beamforming technique has the potential to address the
practical demand for wireless power transmission to mobile targets, as it includes
the following two technical elements. First, a directional power beam is generated.
Second, the power beam could be steered in real time to aim at a mobile target. The
theory and implementation of the retro-reflective beamforming technique are stu-
died in the rest of this book with the aim of accomplishing efficient wireless power
delivery to mobile targets subject to the various practical concerns.

1.2 Microwave as the carrier of wireless power

transmission to mobile targets

Numerous wireless power transmission technologies have been proposed and are
under research currently. This section does not intend to review the existing tech-
nologies comprehensively. Instead, with “wireless power transmission to mobile
targets” as the goal, the available technologies are assessed and microwave power
transmission is identified to be an excellent candidate.
Today, the term “wireless communication” usually refers to transmitting
electrical information without using wires/cables (such as in cell phone commu-
nication applications), although wireless communication could be fulfilled in non-
electrical forms (for instance, the everyday verbal conversation among people is a
wireless communication in non-electrical form). Similarly, “wireless power trans-
mission” typically stands for transmitting electrical power without using wires/
cables, whereas wireless power transmission does not have to be carried out in the
electrical form. For example, many researchers are interested in employing
acoustic waves to accomplish wireless power transmission [8]. In acoustic power
transmission, electrical power is converted to acoustic power at the transmitter,
then the acoustic power propagates to the receiver, and finally, the receiver con-
verts the acoustic power back to electrical power. As far as the theme of this book is
concerned (which is wireless power transmission to mobile targets), acoustic power
transmission does not appear highly advantageous. For instance, Chapter 5 of this
book is pertinent to wireless power transmission in outer space, in which scenario
acoustic waves are absent. Acoustic power transmission is particularly appealing in
certain media (such as conductive media like human organs and tissues) where
6 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

wireless transmission in the electrical form may suffer from heavy attenuation. As
the applications of delivering wireless power to embedded/implanted devices are
not covered by this book, this book places emphasis on “transmitting wireless
power in the electrical form” rather than “transmitting wireless power in the
acoustic form.” It is worth noting that, however, all the basic principles covered by
this book (such as those of the phased array technique and retro-reflective beam-
forming technique) are applicable to not only electromagnetic waves but also
acoustic waves.
The technologies for transmitting power in the electrical form wirelessly can
be roughly classified into the following three categories.
(i) Technologies based on low-frequency (below 100 MHz, typically) magnetic
fields or electric fields.
(ii) Technologies based on high-frequency (above 100 MHz, typically) electro-
magnetic waves in the microwave, millimeter wave, and Terahertz
frequency bands.
(iii) Technologies based on optical waves such as infrared laser and visible laser.
Next, these three categories of technologies are discussed separately.
Inductive coupling is the best-known wireless power transmission technology
[9]. Various products based on inductive coupling are commercially available. As
an example, wireless charging pads for mobile devices (like cell phones) shown in
Figure 1.3(a) are popular nowadays. The inductive coupling technology relies on
the low-frequency magnetic flux to achieve the coupling between a wireless power
transmitter (a wireless charging pad, for instance) and a wireless power receiver (a
cell phone, for instance) [10]. Since low-frequency magnetic fields and low-
frequency electric fields are dual to each other in physics, it is unsurprising that
capacitive coupling can achieve wireless power transmission as well. For instance,
many researchers are endeavoring to charge electric vehicles wirelessly using a
low-frequency electric field as demonstrated by Figure 1.3(b) [11]. The coupling
efficiency based on low-frequency magnetic field or electric field drops quickly
with the increase in distance. Consequently, the mobility of mobile devices (such as
cell phones and electric cars) is highly limited when they are charged, as depicted

Copper - Plate
Glass
Mobile device Indium Tin Oxide
Rx coil Magnetic flux
Tx coil
Charging pad

Energy is transmitted from the Tx coil to the Rx coil

by the electromagnetic induction between them.
(a) (b)

Figure 1.3 Wireless power transmission technologies based on low-frequency

magnetic field and electric field. (a) Reproduced from [12], courtesy
of JAK Electronics. (b) Reproduced from [11], courtesy of MDPI.
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 7

in Figure 1.3. To charge mobile/portable target devices without limiting their

mobility in practice, it appears that the wireless charging apparatus has to be bulky
and intricate [13–15].
Laser propagation is highly directional and thus could carry wireless power
over long distances. As proposed in Figure 1.4(a), a laser beam can be used as the
carrier of wireless power to charge cell phones in an indoor environment [16]. A
group of German researchers successfully demonstrated delivering wireless power
to a rover vehicle through laser in 2004 [17]. In October 2019, the US Naval
Research Laboratory demonstrated laser power beaming to the general public at
Bethesda, Maryland for 3 days; as shown in Figure 1.4(b), 400 Watts of laser power
traveled over 325 m. Although laser power transmission can reach long distances,
optical waves suffer from poor penetration capability and poor conversion effi-
ciency between electrical power and optical power. As far as wireless power
transmission to mobile targets is concerned, a laser beam, as the carrier of wireless
power, is required to be steered in real-time to keep track of mobile targets’ loca-
tion. Though the most straightforward resolution is mounting a laser transmitter
over a turn table and then steering the laser beam’s direction mechanically, it is not
optimal in practice obviously. Numerous techniques of steering laser beams with-
out resorting to mechanical motion (i.e., steering laser beams by electronic means)
are under research [18,19], but are not as mature as the phased array technique for
steering radio-wave beams.
Compared with the low-frequency regime (i.e., below 100 MHz) and optical
regime (i.e., above infrared), the frequency range in between them is an excellent
candidate to accomplish efficient wireless power transmission to mobile targets.
Enormous research efforts have been reported on employing microwave, millimeter
wave, and Terahertz wave frequency bands for wireless power transmission [21–23].

Microphones
Photodiodes Guard ring lasers
High Power Laser

Power Cell
Array
Retroreflectors

(a) (b)

Figure 1.4 Wireless power transmission technologies based on optical wave. (a) A
concept of using laser to charge cell phones. Used with permission of
ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), from Charging a
smartphone across a room using lasers, Vikram et al., 2017,
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and
Ubiquitous Technologies, vol. 1, no. 4, article 143, permission conveyed
through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (b) A demonstration in 2019.
Reproduced from [20], courtesy of the US Naval Research Laboratory.
8 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Directional electromagnetic beams can be constructed in these frequency bands,

which are analogous to laser beams. More importantly, the phased array technique is
well developed to steer the electromagnetic beams via electronic control signals, that
is, without any mechanical motion. Beam steering or beamforming by electronic
means enables keeping track of mobile targets in real-time, maintaining high power
transmission efficiency, and avoiding possible hazards. Particularly, the focus of this
book is wireless power transmission based on microwave carriers. Relative to mil-
limeter wave and Terahertz wave, microwave offers better penetration capability and
less vulnerability to atmospheric constituents. In addition, a large number of low-cost
and mature fabrication processes, components, and circuit schemes are readily
available in the microwave frequency band for beam steering or beamforming.
Generally speaking, microwave appears more appropriate for wireless power trans-
mission applications than millimeter wave or Terahertz wave, although the situation
may evolve with the development of technologies in the future.
Microwave-based wireless power transmission technology, or simply micro-
wave power transmission technology, has a rich history. As a far-from-exhaustive
review of the history of microwave power transmission, several historical experi-
ments are highlighted next. In the 1960s, Brown demonstrated supplying micro-
wave power from a ground station to a helicopter (shown in Figure 1.5(a)), which is
probably the first impactful and well-documented demonstration of microwave
power transmission in history [24,25]. In an experiment carried out at the labora-
tories of Raytheon in 1975, 54% of power transmission efficiency was measured

(a) (b)

Figure 1.5 Two demonstrations of microwave power transmission technology. (a)

A demonstration in 1965. Reproduced from [24], courtesy of NASA.
(b) A demonstration in 2009. Reprinted from Journal of Sound and
Vibration, vol. 329, Mascarenas et al., Experimental studies of using
wireless energy transmission for powering embedded sensor nodes, pp
2421–2433, Copyright (2010), with permission from Elsevier.
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 9

[26]. The famous Goldstone demonstration in Figure 1.2 was also conducted in
1975 [6,7]. The Stationary High Altitude Relay Program (SHARP) initiated in
Canada in the 1980s aimed to provide microwave power to small aircraft [27]. A
program similar to SHARP, named MIcrowave Lifted Airplane eXperiment
(MILAX), was active in Japan in the 1990s [28]. In 1993, International Space Year -
Microwave Energy Transmission (ISY-METS) experiments were conducted in Japan
to achieve microwave power transmission between spacecraft [29]. A case study
from 1997 to 2004 is reported in [30] to construct a point-to-point wireless electricity
transmission to a small isolated village called Grand-Bassin in France. In 2009, the
feasibility of using a car-borne power broadcaster to power sensors installed over a
bridge was studied in [31], as demonstrated by a photo in Figure 1.5(b). In the 2010s,
a range of experiments of microwave power transmission on the ground as well as
from ground to a drone were reported [21,32–34]. Quite a few companies are pur-
suing the commercialization of microwave power transmission technology, although
no commercial products based on microwave power transmission have been devel-
oped to date [35–38].
While microwave power transmission technology has the potential to accom-
plish efficient wireless power delivery to mobile targets, its practical implementa-
tion involves a large number of technical/engineering problems, which can be
roughly classified into the following three groups.
● Technical problems on efficient conversion from DC power to microwave
power at the wireless power transmitter.
● Technical problems in generating and reconfiguring a narrow microwave beam
from the wireless power transmitter to the wireless power receiver.
● Technical problems on efficient conversion from microwave power to DC
power at the wireless power receiver.
This book focuses on the beamforming problems of the second group above. The
readers are referred to [39], a book authored by Professor Naoki Shinohara in 2014,
for the other technical issues of microwave power transmission.

1.3 Employing phased array for microwave power

transmission to mobile targets

As discussed in Section 1.2, phased array is the primary enabling technique for
microwave power transmission to be an excellent candidate to accomplish wireless
power delivery to mobile targets. Specifically, the phased array technique enables
generating a narrow microwave beam and then reconfiguring the microwave beam
via electronic control. In this section, the underlying theory of the phased array
technique is presented. A more systematic narrative of phased array for microwave
power transmission applications is provided in Chapter 2. This section can be
considered a succinct version of Chapter 2.
As depicted in Figure 1.6, one antenna element resides at the spatial origin and
the entire space is composed of free space. The antenna element is excited by a
10 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Outgoing direction
of plane wave
z
y
At Point A
electric field E0

One antenna element

d Plane wave
located at the spatial origin propagation
in free space
x

Power P0

Time-harmonic source @ f

Figure 1.6 Radiation of one antenna element located at the spatial origin

time-harmonic source at a frequency f with a time-average power of P0. At an

observation point A, the electric field radiated by the antenna element is denoted by
a phasor vector E0. It is assumed that Point A is located in the far zone; in other
words, d, the distance between Point A and the origin, is large enough. “Far zone”
will be defined explicitly in Chapter 2. Under the far zone condition, the electro-
magnetic field in the neighborhood of Point A resembles a plane wave traveling in
the outgoing direction. The time-average power density at Point A is

jE0 j2 Watt
; with unit of (1.1)
2h0 m2
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
In (1.1), the operator “jj” selects the magnitude of the argument, h0 ¼ m0 =e0 is
the intrinsic impedance of free space, e0 ¼ 8.85  1012 (F/m) is the permittivity of
free space, and m0 ¼ 4p  107 (H/m) is the permeability of free space. Following
[40], the gain value of the antenna element toward Point A is
 2
jE0 j
2h0
G0 ¼  P0
 (1.2)
4pd 2

The denominator on the right-hand side of (1.2) stands for the “isotropic power
density,” which is the power density when power P0 is uniformly distributed over a
fictitious spherical surface centered at the origin and with d as the radius. Thus,
antenna gain value is usually characterized by the unit of “dBi” in the decibel scale,
with “i” standing for “isotropic radiator.” If a receiving antenna terminated by a
matched load is placed at Point A, the power Pr at the receiving antenna’s circuit
port is

jE0 j2
Pr ¼ Ae ; (1.3)
2h0
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 11

where Ae is the effective aperture of the receiving antenna. The effective aperture
and gain value of the receiving antenna are related to each other [40]:

Ae ðl0 Þ2
¼ ; (1.4)
Gr 4p
where Gr is the gain value of the receiving antenna toward the spatial origin, l0 ¼ c/f
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
is the wavelength in free space, and c ¼ 1= e0 m0 is the speed of light in free space.
After (1.2) and (1.4) are substituted into (1.3), the Friis transmission equation is
arrived at:
 
Pr Pr l0 2
¼ ¼ G0 Gr : (1.5)
Pt P0 4pd
In (1.5), Pr/Pt is the power transmission efficiency between the received power Pr
and transmitted power Pt ¼ P0 when there is only one antenna element in the
transmitter.
As depicted in Figure 1.7, an array composed of two antenna elements resides
around the spatial origin. The two antenna elements are both identical to the
antenna element in Figure 1.6. Each antenna element is excited by a time-harmonic
source at a frequency f with a power of P0. The observation point A is located in the
far zone of the antenna array. Under the far zone condition, the total electro-
magnetic field at Point A is the superposition of two plane waves radiated by the
two antenna elements, respectively. Suppose there is no coupling between the two
antenna elements. The electric field produced by the first antenna element, E1, is
different from E0 by a certain phase, and the phase difference is determined by the
time-harmonic source attached to the first antenna element. Similarly, E2, the
electric field produced by the second antenna element is different from E0 by a

Outgoing direction
of plane wave
P
z Q
y
At Point A,
electric field |E1 + E2| = 2|E0|
Two antenna elements located if E1 and E2 are in phase
around the spatial origin

P0 with a certain phase

P0 with a certain phase
Source @ f
Source @ f

Figure 1.7 Radiation of an array composed of two antenna elements located

around the spatial origin
12 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

certain phase, and the phase difference is determined by the time-harmonic source
attached to the second antenna element. When the two time-harmonic sources are
adjusted such that E1 and E2 are in phase (i.e., E1 and E2 share the same phase),
|E1 þ E2| ¼ 2|E0|. The gain value of the antenna array toward Point A is
 2
  2
jE1 þE2 j 4jE0 j
2h 2h
G2 ¼  2P00  ¼  2P00  ¼ 2G0 : (1.6)
4pd 2 4pd 2

In (1.6), the total transmitted power is 2P0, under the assumption that there is no
power coupling between the two antenna elements. As a result of (1.6), the power
transmission efficiency increases by a factor of 2, compared with the scenario in
Figure 1.6.
   
Pr Pr l0 2 l0 2
¼ ¼ G2 Gr ¼ ð2G0 ÞGr : (1.7)
Pt 2P0 4pd 4pd

Compared with (1.5), the enhancement of power transmission efficiency in (1.7) is

because the two antenna elements’ radiations are in phase at Point A. As illustrated
in Figure 1.7, suppose there are two other observation points, namely Point P and
Point Q. Point P is located along the direction from the origin to Point A, i.e., along
the direction of the plane wave’s propagation direction. It is not difficult to show
that, under the far zone condition, the two elements’ radiations are in phase at
Point P when they are in phase at Point A (as detailed in Chapters 2 and 3 of this
book). However, since Point Q deviates from the plane wave’s propagation
direction, it is unlikely that the two antenna elements’ radiations are still in phase.
Therefore, the electromagnetic field distribution produced by the two antenna
elements behaves like a directional beam toward Point A. The beam width is
dictated by the gain value: The larger the gain value is, the narrower the beam is.
In addition, the beam can be steered toward another direction if the two time-
harmonic sources’ phases are adjusted to another set of values.
With more antenna elements included, the antenna array will have greater beam
steering or beamforming capabilities. As portrayed in Figure 1.8, a two-dimensional
array is constructed with M  N antenna elements that are identical to one another. In
Figure 1.8, the antenna elements are assumed to be planar antennas like patch antennas
and slot antennas. As a result, the array has a low profile and can be conformal to the
mounting surface, which is highly desirable in practice. Each antenna element is
excited by an individual time-harmonic source; in other words, there are M  N time-
harmonic sources in total. The excitation power generated by each time-harmonic
source is P0. When the phase values of the time-harmonic sources are adjusted such
that all the elements’ radiations are in phase at Point A, the magnitude of the electric
field at Point A is MN|E0|, where E0 is the electric field when there is only one antenna
element active. The gain value associated with the directional beam toward Point A is
 2 2 2
M N jE0 j
2h
Garray ¼ MNP0 0  ¼ MNG0 : (1.8)
4pd 2
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 13

Mobile electronic device,

Stationary array of planar antenna elements, as wireless power receiver
as wireless power transmitter @ Point A

One set of electronic Microwave beam

excitations

One planar
antenna element

N columns
M rows
Mobile electronic device,
as wireless power receiver
Another set of @ Point B
electronic excitations
Microwave beam

Figure 1.8 Illustration of a two-dimensional phased array with M  N antenna

elements

Apparently, with the increase of M  N (i.e., the number of antenna elements),

Garray becomes larger and the beam becomes narrower. The power transmission
efficiency between the array and a wireless power receiver located at Point A is
   
Pr Pr l0 2 l0 2
¼ ¼ Garray Gr ¼ ðMNG0 ÞGr : (1.9)
Pt MNP0 4pd 4pd
If the beam is required to be steered (toward Point B in Figure 1.8, for instance),
adjusting the phase values of the M  N time-harmonic sources suffices while the
antenna array stays stationary. The technique illustrated by Figure 1.8 is therefore
termed the phased array technique.
The inter-element spacing is an important parameter of a phased array [41]. As
derived in Chapter 2 of this book, grating lobes (which are undesired beams as
strong as the desired beam) may appear if the inter-element spacing is larger than
l0/2. When the inter-element spacing is larger than l0, the range of beam steering
would be highly limited to avoid grating lobes. Consequently, it is not common for
the value of inter-element spacing to be greater than l0 in practice. On the other
hand, small inter-element spacing may cause various practical complications as
well. Specifically, if the inter-element spacing is smaller than l0/2, each antenna
element is forced to have a small electrical size and the coupling among antenna
elements may become strong [42,43]. Thus in practice, the value of inter-element
14 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

spacing is not smaller than l0/2 typically. In the several experimental studies pre-
sented in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of this book, the inter-element spacing is chosen
between l0/2 and l0. In Figure 1.9, the inter-element spacing is assumed to be
0.7  l0, which is the center of the range (l0/2, l0) roughly. The physical dimen-
sions of the phased array are characterized by L ¼ M  0.7  l0 and
W ¼ N  0.7  l0 approximately. Equation (1.9) can be re-arranged to be
 
Pr l0 2
¼ ðMNG0 ÞGr
Pt 4pd
 2
1 ðM  0:7l0 Þ  ðN  0:7l0 Þ
¼ G0 Gr (1.10)
4pd 0:7  0:7
 2
1
ffi ð2LW ÞG0 Gr
4pd
When a phased array is applied to wireless power transmission, Equation (1.10) can
be used to estimate the power transmission efficiency. Two numerical examples are
presented below.

Numerical example 1
Suppose a phased array with physical dimensions of 10 m by 10 m is set up at a cell
tower for the purpose of wireless power transmission. Specifically, the power level
of the cell phone signal is boosted to charge a cell phone that is 200 m away from
the tower and has line-of-sight interaction with the tower. Each antenna element of
the phased array is assumed to be a planar antenna with a gain value of G0 = 4 = 6
dBi. The antenna of a cell phone is assumed to have a gain value of Gr = 2 = 3 dBi.
Following (1.10), the power transmission efficiency is
 
Pr 1 2
¼ ð2LW ÞG0 Gr
Pt 4pd
 2
1
¼ ð2  10  10Þ  2  4
4p  200
 0:00025
Array of M u N planar antenna elements,
as wireless power transmitter

Wireless power receiver

W
Pr : received power
Pt : transmitted
power

L 0.7 u O0
d

Figure 1.9 Illustration of Equation (1.10)

 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 15

If the cell phone needs 2.5 Watts of power to charge its rechargeable battery, the
power transmitted by the cell tower ought to be 10,000 Watts. The difference
between the transmitted power and received power, 10,000  2.5 = 9,997.5 Watts,
not only constitutes a tremendous financial loss but also may pollute the
environment.

Numerical example 2
In an indoor environment, a phased array with physical dimensions of L by W is
employed to deliver wireless power to a mobile electronic device. The phased array
and mobile device have line-of-sight interaction. Each antenna element of the
phased array is assumed to be a planar antenna with a gain value of G0 = 4 = 6 dBi.
The antenna of the mobile device is assumed to have a gain value of Gr = 2 = 3 dBi.
Following (1.10), the power transmission efficiency is
 
Pr 1 2
¼ ð2LW ÞG0 Gr
Pt 4pd
 
1 2
¼ ð2LW Þ  2  4
4pd
1 L W
¼ 2 
p d d
If Ld ¼ Wd ¼ 0:3, the power transmission efficiency is approximately 1%. This
numerical example echoes the conclusion of the previous numerical example: It is
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to deliver wireless power to remote power-
hungry devices in practice, such as cell phones. If a cell phone demands 2 Watts of
wireless power, the transmitted power would be as prohibitive as 200 Watts in an
indoor environment. Meanwhile, this numerical example indicates that wireless
charging for low-power mobile devices is highly feasible. If 10 mW of power is
needed by a low-power device, the transmitted power is about 1 Watt. The power
loss of (1 W  10 mW = 990 mW) is tolerable in most of the practical scenarios. At
the same time, the possible negative impact associated with a 1-Watt wireless
power transmitter is not a serious concern, as it is very common that the power
level radiated by a regular cell phone is higher than 1 Watt. Remote delivery of
wireless power on the order of milli-Watts, though not sounding extremely excit-
ing, is still valuable in practice. As discussed in Section 1.1, a large number of low-
power electronic devices in industrial and commercial settings, such as radio fre-
quency identification tags and wireless sensors, may benefit from wireless power
transmission, particularly when wired charging is intractable [44]. In an indoor
environment, d would not exceed 10 m typically. With d being 10 m, L = W = 3 m if
1% of power transmission efficiency is demanded. As illustrated in Section 1.4, the
aperture of 3  3 = 9 m2 can be decomposed into multiple smaller apertures dis-
tributed in space if one piece of 9-m2 aperture cannot be accommodated by an
indoor environment.
In fact, the validity of the second numerical example above is questionable.
The condition of “far zone” is mentioned several times during the derivation of
16 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

(1.10) in this section. In the second numerical example above, however,

d ¼ d ¼ 0:3 does not appear to be “far enough.” As a matter of fact, the well-
L W

known far-field condition of antenna engineering is not satisfied in the first numerical
example either (the far-field condition is derived in Chapter 2). Chapter 2 of this book
is devoted to investigating the validity of (1.10). As a conclusion of Chapter 2, the
well-known far-field condition is not a necessary condition of (1.10). Rather, the
validity of (1.10) relies on the following four conditions.
● At the receiving antenna, the electromagnetic field intensity of a phased array
with M  N elements is greater than the electromagnetic field intensity of one
single antenna element by a factor of M  N.
● There is no mutual coupling among the antenna elements of the phased array.
● The physical dimension of the wireless power receiver does not exceed a plane
wave region (the “plane wave region” is defined in Chapter 2).
● The distance between the wireless power transmitter and wireless power
receiver (that is, d) is greater (but does not have to be much greater) than the
physical size of the wireless power transmitter and wireless power receiver.
As elaborated in Chapter 2, as long as the above four conditions hold true, Equation
(1.10) can be used to estimate the power transmission efficiency between a phased
array and a mobile target. In Chapter 2, extensive analysis is conducted for the
scenario of the second numerical example above, which is “d = 10 m, L = 3 m, and
W = 3 m.”
Although frequency f does not appear in (1.10), Equation (1.10) provides
certain insights toward the selection of operating frequency. The wavelength in free
space, l0, is determined by the frequency through l0 ¼ c/f. Typically, the physical
size of an antenna element in a phased array is close to l0/2, and the inter-element
spacing is between l0/2 and l0. If the frequency is too low, the physical dimension
of the phased array would be unreasonably large in practice. For instance, when the
frequency is 100 MHz, the corresponding l0 is 3 m, and thus the size of an array
with as few as 2 by 2 elements would probably reach 5 m by 5 m. On the other
hand, if the frequency is too high, there would be too many antenna elements. As
indicated by (1.10), the power transmission efficiency is directly dependent on the
area of L  W. Given a certain desired power transmission efficiency, it is possible
that L and W must be as large as 3 m in practice. If 30 GHz is selected as the
operating frequency, which corresponds to l0 ¼ 0.01 m, the number of antenna
elements would be more than 100,000. Controlling such a huge number of antenna
elements calls for complicated and expensive circuitries. In this book, the operating
frequency is selected between 2 GHz and 6 GHz, which is probably the close-to-
optimal frequency range for microwave power transmission after numerous issues/
factors are taken into account [45].
In this section, the phased array is assumed to be part of a transmitter.
Reciprocal to the beam steering or beamforming when a phased array is used in a
transmitter, the receiving pattern of a phased array exhibits a reconfigurable beam
when it is used in a receiver. To be specific, a phased array as a receiving antenna is
only sensitive to the signal incoming from a certain direction, and the incoming
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 17

direction to which the phased array is sensitive can be reconfigured via electronic
control. Consequently, a phased array is capable of detecting the incoming direc-
tion of signals, or the direction of arrival. Reciprocal to the fact that the beam
radiated by a phased array becomes narrower when more antenna elements are
included in the array, the beamwidth in the receiving pattern decreases when the
number of antenna elements in the array increases. In the numerical examples of
this section, the value of “Gr = 2” is based on two assumptions: The target only has
one antenna element, and the receiving pattern of the target’s antenna is almost
isotropic. Incorporating an antenna array at the target may increase Gr, and in turn,
may enhance the power transmission efficiency. Because a mobile target does not
have a large physical size typically, incorporating an antenna array over a mobile
device does not appear probable in the frequency range of [2 GHz, 6 GHz] but may
be possible in higher frequency bands.

1.4 Basic scheme of retro-reflective beamforming for

microwave power transmission
This section presents a brief description of how the retro-reflective beamforming
technique could enable efficient microwave power transmission to mobile targets.
The theory and implementation of retro-reflective beamforming are detailed in
Chapter 3 of this book.
Retro-reflectivity has widespread applications in numerous disciplines,
whereas its basic concept can be understood readily in optics. In Figure 1.10, the
difference between ordinary reflectivity and retro-reflectivity is illustrated using
optical waves. When an incident light ray impinges upon an ordinary surface, the
reflected light ray’s direction is determined by both the incident light ray’s direc-
tion and the direction normal to the surface. For a retro-reflective surface, however,
the direction of the reflected light ray always follows the direction of the incident
light ray and does not depend on the direction normal to the retro-reflective surface.
One of the applications of retro-reflectivity in optical engineering is traffic
signs, as demonstrated in Figure 1.11. When a car sheds light onto a traffic sign at
night, the reflected light is desired to be returned to the driver rather than toward
any other direction. Therefore, traffic signs made of retro-reflective surfaces appear
more bright/visible at night.

Reflected
light ray
Incident light ray
Reflected
light ray
Incident light ray

Ordinary surface Retro-reflective surface

Figure 1.10 An ordinary surface versus a retro-reflective surface in optics

18 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Figure 1.11 Traffic signs made of retro-reflective surfaces appear bright at night

Fully-enclosed retro-reflective surface Normalized

power density
1
Retro-reflected
wave

Broadcasted
by target
Target

Broadcasted
by target

Retro-reflected 0
wave Power density of retro-reflected wave
in a region around the target

Figure 1.12 Conceptual illustration of retro-reflective beamforming technique

The retro-reflective beamforming technique is inspired by the concept of retro-

reflectivity. As illustrated in Figure 1.12, suppose a point target emits waves toward
all the directions in the space. If a fully enclosed retro-reflective surface is built
around the target, the retro-reflected waves would converge onto the target’s
location. The technical scheme depicted in Figure 1.12 is sometimes referred to as a
“time-reversal sink,” that is, it appears that the retro-reflected waves are absorbed
by the target. The functionality of the retro-reflective surface can be appreciated by
the “rewind” button of a movie player. If the propagation of waves broadcasted by
the point target is considered as a movie, the propagation of retro-reflected waves
appears like the rewound movie. Specifically, the waves broadcasted by the target
diverge in the space whereas the retro-reflected waves converge onto the target. It
is worthwhile noting that the retro-reflective beamforming scheme in Figure 1.12 is
not limited to optical waves or electromagnetic waves; for instance, an acoustic
time-reversal sink is researched in [46].
If the retro-reflective surface in Figure 1.12 is active, i.e., if the retro-reflective
surface is attached to a power supply, the retro-reflected waves would be stronger than
the waves broadcasted by the target. The resultant retro-reflective beamforming
scheme has the potential to achieve efficient wireless power transmission. When a
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 19

certain target is in need of wireless power, it broadcasts a signal in all directions as a

“request for wireless charging”; in this book, the signal that requests wireless charging
is termed a pilot signal. When the pilot signal hits the retro-reflective surface, the retro-
reflected waves are employed as the carrier of wireless power. As shown in
Figure 1.12, the spatial distribution of wireless power carried by the retro-reflected
waves demonstrates a focal point at the target. In other words, the wireless power
transmission resulting from retro-reflective beamforming is dedicated to the target in
space. Obviously, the spatially-dedicated wireless power transmission displayed in
Figure 1.12 is the key to addressing the efficiency, safety, and electromagnetic com-
patibility issues raised in Section 1.1. In terms of power level, the retro-reflected waves
are much stronger than the pilot signal. Overall, when the retro-reflective beamforming
technique is applied to accomplish wireless power transmission, the propagation of
wireless power is guided or “ushered” by the propagation of the pilot signal.
An active retro-reflective surface can be implemented by phased arrays in the
microwave frequency band. Thus, it is practically viable to achieve efficient
microwave power transmission by using the retro-reflective beamforming techni-
que. The retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave power transmis-
sion is illustrated in Figure 1.13. The wireless power transmitter includes one or
more than one phased array. A target (i.e., a wireless power receiver) receives
wireless power from the wireless power transmitter via the following two steps.
Step (i) The target broadcasts a pilot signal. The pilot signal is received and
analyzed by the phased array(s) of the wireless power transmitter.
Step (ii) Based on the outcome of analyzing the pilot signal, the phased array(s)
construct focused microwave power beam(s) onto the location of the
target.
The phased arrays’ aperture in Figure 1.13 behaves as a retro-reflective sur-
face. A phased array could fulfill the functionality of a retro-reflective surface as it
is capable of detecting the incoming direction of the pilot signal and then con-
structing microwave power beam(s) accordingly. When a phased array is active
(that is, when it is attached to a power supply), the power beam(s) in Step (ii) have a
higher power level than the pilot signal in Step (i). If the target is not stationary, the
microwave power beam(s) would follow the target’s location dynamically as long
as the target periodically broadcasts the pilot signal. Intuitively, the larger the
phased arrays’ aperture is, the better the performance of wireless power transmis-
sion would be (although building a fully-enclosed retro-reflective surface as
depicted in Figure 1.12 using phased arrays is prohibitive in practice).
The underlying principle of retro-reflective beamforming in Figure 1.13 is
time-reversal, which takes advantage of channel reciprocity to accomplish a space-
time matched filter [47]. Specifically, the propagation of the pilot signal follows the
channel from the target to the wireless power transmitter, whereas the propagation
of microwave power follows the channel from the wireless power transmitter to the
target. If these two channels are reciprocal to each other and if the microwave
power excitation is configured to be the time-reversed version of pilot signal
reception, the microwave power propagation would be spatially focused onto the
20 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Target device (wireless power receiver)

Pilot signal Pilot signal

(with low power level) (with low power level)

Phased array
Phased array

(a)

Target device (wireless power receiver)

Microwave power beam Microwave power beam

(with high power level) (with high power level)

Phased array
Phased array

(b)

Figure 1.13 Two-step procedure of retro-reflective beamforming for wireless

power transmission (a) Step (i): Pilot signal is broadcasted by target
and detected by phased arrays and (b) Step (ii): Microwave power
transmitted by phased arrays converges onto target.

location from which the pilot signal stems, that is, the location of the target.
Furthermore, spatial focusing due to retro-reflection/time-reversal does not suffer
from multi-path in environments [48,49].
The retro-reflective beamforming technique for microwave power transmission
applications is elaborated in the rest of this book. It should be noted that retro-reflective
beamforming has widespread applications (in wireless communication and radar, for
instance), albeit this book focuses on wireless power transmission applications.
 Wireless power transmission and microwave power transmission 21

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This page intentionally left blank
 Chapter 2
Phased array technique for microwave power
transmission applications

The retro-reflective beamforming technique constitutes the theme of this book, and
the theory of phased array is the foundation of the retro-reflective beamforming
technique. In Sections 2.1 and 2.2, the classic theory of phased array is reviewed. In
Sections 2.3–2.7, the power transmission efficiency is analyzed when a phased
array is employed to transmit microwave power to a mobile target. Based on this
chapter, the retro-reflective beamforming technique is discussed in Chapter 3 for
microwave power transmission applications.

2.1 Basic principles of the phased array as transmitting

antenna

The classic theory of phased array is reviewed in this section and the next section.
The contents of this section and the next section follow [1] to a large extent.
As depicted in Figure 2.1, one antenna element is radiating in free space. The
antenna element is excited by a time-harmonic source with a frequency of f. The
electromagnetic fields radiated by the antenna element are also time-harmonic with
the frequency of f. In this book, a time-harmonic physical quantity
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi is represented by
a phasor with ejwt as the time-dependence factor, where j ¼ 1 is the imaginary
unit and w ¼ 2pf is the angular frequency. In addition, a time-harmonic power
quantity is always characterized by its time-average power value in this book.
In Figure 2.1, the excitation voltage at the antenna element’s circuit port is
assumed to be 1 Volt. The location of the antenna element is denoted by a position
vector rs. The electromagnetic fields radiated by the antenna element are observed
at an observation point denoted by a position vector ro. Assume that ro is located in
the far zone of the antenna element (“far zone” will be defined in Section 2.3
explicitly). Under the far zone assumption, the electromagnetic fields around ro
behave as a plane wave [2]. Specifically, the electric field E0 and magnetic field H0
observed at ro are
ejk0 ros
E0 ¼ U0
ros
(2.1)
r os U0 ejk0 ros
b
H0 ¼
h0 ros
26 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

U0 ^
ros
z Free space
y Observation point
located at ro

One antenna element

located at rs

Figure 2.1 Configuration with one antenna element and one observation point

In (2.1), ros ¼ jrosj is the distance between rs and ro, ros ¼ ro  rs is the spatial
vector starting from rs and ending at ro, b ros ¼ros =ros is the unit vector representing
the propagation direction of the plane wave, the operator “jj” selects the magnitude
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
of the argument, k0 ¼ w e0 m0 is the wavenumber in free space, h0 ¼ m0 =e0 is
the intrinsic impedance of free space, e0 ¼ 8.85  1012 (F/m) is the permittivity of
free space, and m0 ¼ 4p  107 (H/m) is the permeability of free space. The
direction of the electric field (which is along U0), the direction of the magnetic field
(which is along bros U0 ), and b ros are perpendicular to each other. The Poynting
vector at ro, which embodies the “time-average power flow,” is

1 jU0 j2 1
RefE0 ðH0 Þ g ¼ b
ros ; (2.2)
2 2h0 ðros Þ2

where the operator “Refg” selects the real part of the argument and the superscript
“*” stands for the complex conjugation operation.
If the antenna element’s input impedance at its circuit port is Z0, the time-
average power transmitted by the antenna element associated with “excitation
voltage being 1 Volt” is
 
1 1
Pt ¼ Re : (2.3)
2 Z0

If the antenna element were a lossless isotropic radiator, it would distribute the
transmitted power Pt uniformly toward all directions, resulting in the isotropic
Poynting vector at ro with magnitude of

Pt
: (2.4)
4pðros Þ2
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 27

The gain value of the antenna element at ro is defined by comparing the Poynting
vector in (2.2) with the isotropic Poynting vector in (2.4):
jU0 j2 1
2h0 ðros Þ2 4p j U0 j2
G0 ¼ Pt ¼ n o: (2.5)
4pðros Þ2 h0 Re Z10

The definition in (2.5) assumes that the antenna element in Figure 2.1 is lossless. It
should be noted that antenna loss is inevitable in practice. In this book, the antenna
elements are not electrically small; to be specific, all the antenna elements in
the experimental demonstrations of this book have a physical size close to half
wavelength. In addition, this book is concerned with the frequency range of
[2 GHz, 6 GHz]. It is well known that the antenna loss in the frequency range of
[2 GHz, 6 GHz] is not serious typically when the antenna is not electrically small.
The antenna elements are therefore assumed to be lossless throughout this book,
which makes the narratives/derivations more succinct. In practice, nevertheless, it
is possible that the antenna loss must be characterized and taken into account
rigorously.
Suppose a receiving antenna is placed at ro. Also, suppose the receiving
antenna has an effective aperture of Ae and it is terminated by a matched load. The
time-average power received by the matched load is

1 j U0 j2 1
Pr ¼ RefE0  ðH0 Þ g  b
ros Ae ¼ Ae : (2.6)
2 2h0 ðros Þ2

The effective aperture and gain value of the receiving antenna are related to each
other by

Ae ðl0 Þ2
¼ ; (2.7)
Gr 4p
where Gr is the gain value of the receiving antenna along the direction of b ros and
l0 ¼ 2p/k0 is the wavelength in free space. After the substitution of (2.5) and (2.7),
Equation (2.6) becomes

j U0 j2 1 Pt 1 Pt 1 ðl0 Þ2
Pr ¼ 2
Ae ¼ G0 2
Ae ¼ G0 Gr : (2.8)
2h0 ðros Þ 4p ðros Þ 4p ðros Þ2 4p

Re-arrangement of (2.8) leads to the Friis transmission equation:

 
Pr l0 2
Power transmission efficiency ¼ ¼ G0 Gr : (2.9)
Pt 4pros

Based on the configuration of Figure 2.1, consider the radiation of an array of

antenna elements in Figure 2.2. As depicted in Figure 2.2, the radiator or trans-
mitter includes N antenna elements, each of which is identical to the antenna ele-
ment in Figure 2.1. The location of the antenna elements is denoted by position
28 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Direction of electric field ^

ros

z Free space
Observation point
y located at ro

rs
Transmitter region
r'n with radius Dt / 2

Figure 2.2 Configuration with one antenna array and one observation point

vector r0 n , n ¼ 1, 2, 3, . . . , N. The antenna elements reside within a spherical region

centered at rs and with a diameter of Dt. Each of the antenna elements is excited
individually by voltage Xn e jyn , n ¼ 1, 2, 3, . . . , N. If the mutual coupling among
the antenna elements is neglected, the electric field E observed at an observation
point ro is the linear superposition of electric fields radiated by the individual
antenna elements:

X
N
ejk0 ron
Eðro Þ ¼ Xn e jyn Un : (2.10)
n¼1
ron

In (2.10), the direction of Un represents the polarization direction radiated by the n-

th element and ron ¼ j ro  r0 n j is the distance between ro and the n-th antenna
element. If ros  Dt, the following two relationships are approximately valid.

1 1 1 1 1
¼ ¼ ¼  ¼ ¼ U1 ¼ U2 ¼ U3 ¼    ¼ UN ¼ U0
ro1 ro2 ro3 roN ros
(2.11)

In addition, assume that

X 1 ¼ X 2 ¼ X3 ¼    ¼ X N ¼ X0 ; (2.12)

that is, the antenna elements are excited with a uniform amplitude of X0.
Substituting (2.11) and (2.12) into (2.10) yields

X
N
ejk0 ron X0 U0 X
N
Eðro Þ ¼ Xn e jyn Un ¼ ejyn ejk0 ron : (2.13)
n¼1
ron ros n¼1
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 29

Delicate derivations are required for the phase term ejk0 ron in (2.13). Specifically,
the distance ron in (2.13) can be expressed as
ron ¼ j ro  r0 n j
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ ½ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ  ½ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ j ro  rs j2  2ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þþ j r0 n  rs j2 (2.14)
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j r0 n  rs j2
¼ ros 1  þ
ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2

By making sure of the following Taylor series

pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi x x2 x 3
1 þ x ¼ 1 þ  þ þ oðx3 Þ; (2.15)
2 8 16
Equation (2.14) becomes
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j r0 n  rs j2
ron ¼ ros 1  þ
ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2
8 " # 9
>
> 1 2ðr  r Þ  ðr 0
 r Þ j r 0
 r j 2 >
>
>
>1þ 
o s n s
þ
n s >
>
>
> 2 2 >
>
>
> 2 ðros Þ ðros Þ >
>
>
> >
>
>
> " #2 >
> (2.16)
< 1 0
2ðro  rs Þ  ðr n  rs Þ j r n  rs j 0 2 =
¼ ros   þ
> 8
> ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2 >
>
>
> >
>
>
> " # >
>
>
> 3 >
>
>
> 1 2ðr  r Þ  ðr 0
 r Þ j r 0
 r j 2 >
>
>
> þ 
o s n s
þ
n s
þ    >
>
: 16 ðros Þ 2
ðros Þ 2 ;

Straightforwardly, Equation (2.16) can be rewritten as

j r0 n  rs j2
ros ðr0 n  rs Þþ
ron ¼ ros b
2ros
" #2
ros 2ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j r0 n  rs j2
  þ (2.17)
8 ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2
" #3
ros 2ðro  rs Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j r0 n  rs j2
þ  þ þ 
16 ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2

On the basis of Figure 2.2, consider the configuration shown in Figure 2.3.
There is only one difference between Figures 2.2 and 2.3: The observation point is
fixed at ro in Figure 2.2 whereas the observation point r resides in a certain
“receiver region” in Figure 2.3. To be more specific, the observation point r resides
within a spherical region centered at ro and with a diameter of Dr in Figure 2.3. It is
30 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

^
ros
Free space
z r
y ro
Receiver region
with radius Dr / 2

rs
Transmitter region
r'n with radius Dt / 2

Figure 2.3 Configuration with one antenna array and one receiver region

obvious that under the conditions of ros  Dt and ros  Dr, the expression of (2.13)
can be extended to Figure 2.3:
X0 U0 X
N
0
EðrÞ ¼ e jyn ejk0 jrr n j : (2.18)
ros n¼1

Next, derivations similar to (2.14) are conducted for the term of j r  r0 n j in (2.18)
j r  r0 n j
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ ðr  r0 n Þ  ðr  r0 n Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
¼ ½ðro  rs Þþðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ  ½ðro  rs Þþðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (2.19)
¼ j ro  rs j2 þ 2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þþ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
¼ ros 1 þ þ
ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2

By making use of the Taylor series in (2.15), Equation (2.19) becomes

j r  r0 n j
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
¼ ros 1 þ þ
ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2
8 " # 9
> 0
> 1 þ 1 2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr n  rs Þ þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr n  rs Þj
0 2 >
>
>
> >
>
>
> 2 ðr Þ 2
ðr Þ 2 >
>
>
> os os >
>
>
> >
>
>
> " # >
>
< 1 2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
2 =
¼ ros  þ
>
> 8 ðros Þ 2
ðros Þ 2 >
>
>
> >
>
>
> " # >
>
>
> 3 >
>
>
> 1 2ðr  r Þ  ½ðr  r Þ  ðr 0
 r Þ  j ðr  r Þ  ðr 0
 r Þj 2 >
>
>
> o s o n s o n s
þ >
>
: þ 16 2
þ 2 ;
ðros Þ ðros Þ
(2.20)
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 31

Straightforwardly, Equation (2.20) can be rewritten as

j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
j r  r0 n j ¼ ros þ bros ðr  ro Þ  bros ðr0 n  rs Þþ
2ros
" #2
ros 2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
 þ
8 ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2
" #3
ros 2ðro  rs Þ  ½ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þ j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2
þ þ þ 
16 ðros Þ2 ðros Þ2
(2.21)

When the far zone condition is satisfied between the transmitter region and receiver
region, the first three terms on the right-hand side of (2.21) are retained and the
other terms are neglected. According to the classic theory of antenna engineering,
the far zone condition is determined by the fourth term on the right-hand side of
(2.21) [1]. Specifically, the transmitter region and receiver region are in each
other’s far zone if
j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2 p
k0 < : (2.22)
2ros 8

The value of jr  roj does not exceed Dr/2 and the value of j r0 n  rs j does not
exceed Dt/2, which are obvious from Figure 2.3. Moreover, the maximum value
of j ðr  ro Þ  ðr0 n  rs Þj2 is ðDt þ Dr Þ2 =4. Therefore, the far zone condition in
(2.22) can be rewritten as
2p ðDt þ Dr Þ2 1 p
< : (2.23)
l0 4 2ros 8

Since “ros” stands for the distance between the transmitter and receiver, it is also
termed as “d” in this book. Straightforwardly, (2.23) can be re-arranged to be
2ðDt þ Dr Þ2
d> : (2.24)
l0

Equation (2.24) is usually referred to as the far-field condition in antenna engi-

neering. When the far-field condition in (2.24) is satisfied, only the first three terms
on the right-hand side of (2.21) are retained, and thus (2.18) becomes

X0 U0 X
N
0
EðrÞ ¼ e jyn ejk0 jrr n j
ros n¼1

X0 U0 X
N
e jyn ejk0 ros ejk0bros ðrro Þ e jk0bros ðr n rs Þ
0
¼ (2.25)
ros n¼1

X0 U0 ejk0 ros jk0bros ðrro Þ XN

e jyn e jk0bros ðr n rs Þ
0
¼ e
ros n¼1
32 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

If the antenna array is desired to generate a radiation beam toward rb that is

located in the far zone of the antenna array, the excitation phases should be
chosen as
rbs ðr0 n  rs Þ; n ¼ 1; 2; 3; . . .; N ;
yn ¼ k0b (2.26)
where brbs ¼ðrb  rs Þ=rbs and rbs ¼ jrb  rsj. When the electric field is observed at
ro ¼ rb, electric fields contributed by the antenna elements are in phase (that is,
share the same phase), and thus
ejk0 rbs
Eðrb Þ ¼ NX0 U0 : (2.27)
rbs
Meanwhile, the magnetic fields contributed by the antenna elements are in phase at
ro ¼ rb as well. As a result, the Poynting vector at rb is

1 j U0 j2 1
RefE  H g ¼ b
rbs N 2 ðX0 Þ2 : (2.28)
2 2h0 ðrbs Þ2

When the observation point r is in the neighborhood of rb, the electromagnetic

fields behave as a plane wave traveling toward the direction of b rbs , as evidenced by
the term ejk0bros ðrro Þ in (2.25) with ro replaced by rb. When r is not in the neigh-
borhood of rb, the terms ignored in (2.21) may become not negligible, which would
invalidate (2.25).
When there is only one antenna element in free space, the input impedance at
its circuit port was assumed to be Z0 in this section. If an array of antenna elements
reside within a compact region, the mutual coupling among the antenna elements is
unavoidable and the input impedance at each antenna element’s circuit port devi-
ates from Z0. In this section, it is assumed that there is no mutual coupling among
the antenna elements and the input impedance at each antenna element’s circuit
port remains to be Z0, which facilitates the narrative of this section. Section 2.7 is
devoted to investigating the impact of mutual coupling among antenna elements.
Because the antenna elements are excited by a uniform voltage amplitude of X0, the
total amount of power transmitted by the antenna array is
 
ðX0 Þ2 1
Pt ¼ N Re : (2.29)
2 Z0
The gain value of the antenna array toward rb, Garray, is obtained by comparing the
Poynting vector in (2.28) with the isotropic Poynting vector:
 
N 2 ðX0 Þ2 2hjUðr0 j Þ2
2

4p j U0 j2
Garray ¼  
0 bs
¼N n o ¼ NG0 ; (2.30)
Pt
4pðr Þ2 h0 Re 1
Z0
bs

where G0 is the gain value of one antenna element in (2.5) with ro ¼ rb. Equation
(2.30) indicates that the gain value of an N-element antenna array is N times larger
than the gain value of one antenna element toward rb. The enhancement of gain
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 33

value is because the N antenna elements’ contributions are in phase at rb, resulting
from the choice of excitation phases in (2.26). At an observation point other than
rb, nevertheless, it is very likely that the fields radiated by the N antenna elements
are no longer in phase and the gain value is smaller than NG0. Thus, the radiation
pattern of the antenna array exhibits a beam toward rb. Since the beam can be
steered by adjusting the values of the excitation phase, the technique presented
above is usually termed as the “phased array technique.”
When a receiving antenna is placed at rb and terminated by a matched load, the
received power Pr is
   
l0 2 l0 2
Pr ¼ Pt Garray Gr ¼ Pt ðNG0 ÞGr ; (2.31)
4prbs 4prbs
where Gr is the gain value of the receiving antenna toward brbs direction. Because
Garray ¼ NG0 at rb, the power transmission efficiency (that is, Pr/Pt) associated
with the antenna array is N times greater than that associated with one single
antenna element with ro ¼ rb in (2.9).
To illustrate the basic principles of phased array, two specific scenarios are
discussed in Sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2, respectively. The first scenario is a one-
dimensional linear array, and the second scenario is a two-dimensional array.

2.1.1 One-dimensional linear phased array

Suppose an array of N antenna elements is deployed along the x-axis, as illustrated in
Figure 2.4. The N antenna elements are identical to one another. The spacing between
any two adjacent antenna elements is s. The N antenna elements are located at
 
N þ1
x0 n ¼ n  s; n ¼ 1; 2; 3; . . .; N (2.32)
2

ϕb

Half-power
beamwidth

ϕR
ϕL

x
s

Excitation phase ψ1 ψ2 ψ3 ψ(N-1) ψN

Figure 2.4 Illustration of a one-dimensional phased array

34 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

The electric field radiated by the antenna array is observed at an observation point
ro in the x-y plane. The cylindrical coordinates of ro are (ro, fo, 0); equivalently,
the Cartesian coordinates of ro are xo ¼ ro cos ðfo Þ, yo ¼ ro sin ðfo Þ, and zo ¼ 0. It
is assumed that ro ! ?.
When there is only one antenna element located at the spatial origin and it is
excited by a voltage with an amplitude of 1 Volt and phase of zero, the electric field
radiated by the antenna element is

ejk0 ro
E0 ðro Þ ¼ U0 ðfo Þ : (2.33)
ro
Following (2.25), when the N antenna elements are excited by X0 ejyn , n ¼ 1, 2,
3, . . . , N, the electric field radiated by the antenna array is

X0 U0 ðfo Þejk0 ro XN
e jyn e jk0bro r n
0
Eðro Þ ¼
ro n¼1
(2.34)
U0 ðfo Þejk0 ro XN
0
¼ X0 e jyn e jk0 xn cosðfo Þ
ro n¼1

where r0 n ¼ x0nbx is the position vector of the n-th antenna element and
b
ro ¼ cos ðfo Þb
x þ sin ðfo Þb
y embodies the direction from the array’s center to the
observation point. Usually, the term

X
N
0
e jyn e jk0 xn cosðfo Þ (2.35)
n¼1

is defined as the “array factor.” It is interesting to note that the electric field radi-
ated by the antenna array in (2.34) is the product between E0 and the array factor
mathematically.
The excitation phases are chosen as formulated in (2.26):

rb r0 n ¼ k0 x0n cos ðfb Þ; n ¼ 1; 2; 3; . . .; N

yn ¼ k0 b (2.36)

where b rb ¼ cos ðfb Þb

x þ sin ðfb Þb
y . Consequently, the array’s radiation pattern
exhibits a beam along fb. Specifically with the excitation phases in (2.36), the array
factor is

X
N X
N
e jk0 ðn Þs½cosðfo Þ cosðfb Þ :
0 N þ1
e jk0 xn ½cosðfo Þ cosðfb Þ ¼ 2 (2.37)
n¼1 n¼1

Due to the following mathematical identity

X
N
sin Nx
N þ1
e jnx ¼ 2
ej 2 x ; (2.38)
x
n¼1 sin 2
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 35

the array factor in (2.37) is a Dirichlet function:

X
N X
N
e jk0 ðn 2 Þs½cosðfo Þ cosðfb Þ
0 N þ1
e jk0 xn ½cosðfo Þ cosðfb Þ ¼
n¼1 n¼1
 
Nk0 s½cos ðfo Þ  cos ðfb Þ (2.39)
sin
2
¼  
k0 s½cos ðfo Þ  cos ðfb Þ
sin
2
When fo ¼ fb, the value of the array factor is N. When fo deviates from fb, the
ffiffiffi array factor exhibits a beam along fb. If
array factor’s value drops. As a result,pthe
the array factor’s value drops to N = 2 at fo ¼ fL and fo ¼ fR as depicted in
Figure 2.4, the half-power beamwidth is defined as fL  fR. Obviously, the
beamwidth decreases with the increase of N.
With the choice of excitation phases in (2.36), the following relationship is
satisfied.

y1 þ k0 x01 cos ðfo Þ ¼ y2 þ k0 x02 cos ðfo Þ ¼   

¼ yN þ k0 x0N cos ðfo Þ; when fo ¼ fb : (2.40)

In other words, the excitation phases in (2.36) ensure that the N antenna elements’
contributions are in phase at fo ¼ fb. Equation (2.40) is equivalent to

k0 x0n cos ðfb Þ  k0 x0ðn1Þ cos ðfb Þ ¼ ðyn  yn1 Þ; n ¼ 2; 3; 4; . . . ; N :

(2.41)
Because cos ðfb Þ ¼ cos ðfb Þ, the N antenna elements’ contributions are in phase
at fo ¼  fb as well. Consequently, the array factor exhibits a beam along fb
when a beam is desired along fb. In practice, the beam along fb is usually
eliminated by minimizing U0( fb), that is, by minimizing the radiation of indi-
vidual antenna elements toward fb. If the following relationship is satisfied at fg,

k0 x0n cos ðfg Þ  k0 x0ðn1Þ cos ðfg Þ ¼ ðyn  yn1 Þ  2p;

n ¼ 2; 3; 4; . . . ; N (2.42)
the N antenna elements’ contributions are in phase, and as a result, a grating lobe
appears along fg. A grating lobe is as strong as the beam desired along fb, and thus
should be avoided typically. Evaluating the difference between (2.41) and (2.42)
leads to

k0 s cos ðfb Þ  cos ðfg Þ ¼ 2p: (2.43)

If s < l0/2 ¼ p/k0, the relationship in (2.43) would never be satisfied in practice,
because j cos ðfb Þ  cos ðfg Þ j 2 with any real values of fb and fg. As a
result, grating lobes can be avoided when the inter-element spacing s is smaller
36 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

than half wavelength. However, s < l0/2 is not very common in practice as small
inter-element spacing causes various complications. For instance, each antenna
element is forced to have a small electrical size when s < l0/2, which would lead to
lower antenna efficiency (or higher antenna loss, equivalently). As another harmful
consequence of small s, the coupling among antenna elements would become
strong (the impacts of strong mutual coupling among antenna elements are studied
in Section 2.7). The specific technical issues pertinent to s < l0/2 are not elaborated
in this book. When the inter-element spacing is greater than half wavelength, the
occurrence of a grating lobe becomes possible. It is well known that the beam-
steering capability of a phased array would be highly restricted in order to avoid the
occurrence of grating lobes when s > l0 (the issues pertinent to s > l0 are not ela-
borated in this book, either). In this book, the value of s is always chosen between
l0/2 and l0.

2.1.2 Two-dimensional phased array

The configuration of the one-dimensional phased array in Section 2.1.1 can be
extended to the configuration of the two-dimensional phased array in Figure 2.5. As
shown in Figure 2.5, antenna elements are deployed into N columns along the x
direction and M rows along the z direction. The N  M antenna elements are
identical to one another; in Figure 2.5, each of them is assumed to be a microstrip
patch printed over a printed circuit board. The inter-element spacing values are sx
along the x direction and sz along the z direction, respectively. Specifically, the
antenna elements are located at
r0 nm ¼ b
x x0 n þ b
z z0 m   
N þ1 M þ1 n ¼ 1; 2; 3;    ; N (2.44)
¼bx n sx þb
z m sz ; :
2 2 m ¼ 1; 2; 3;    ; M

^
rb
M rows
Excitation
phase ψnm
y

One antenna element

N columns

Figure 2.5 Illustration of a two-dimensional phased array

 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 37

The electric field radiated by the antenna array is observed at an observation point
ro with coordinates (ro, qo, fo) in the spherical coordinate system. It is assumed that
ro ! ?.
When there is only one antenna element located at the spatial origin and it is
excited by a voltage with an amplitude of 1 Volt and phase of zero, the electric field
radiated by the antenna element is

ejk0 ro
E0 ðro Þ ¼ U0 ðqo ; fo Þ : (2.45)
ro

When the N  M antenna elements are excited by X0 ejynm , n ¼ 1, 2, 3, . . . , N,

m ¼ 1, 2, 3, . . . , M, the electric field is

X0 U0 ejk0 ro XN X M
e jynm e jk0bro r nm ;
0
Eðro Þ ¼ (2.46)
ro n¼1 m¼1

following the derivation of (2.25). In (2.46),

b x sin ðqo Þcos ðfo Þ þ b

ro ¼b y sin ðqo Þsin ðfo Þ þ b
z cos ðqo Þ; (2.47)

ro r0 nm ¼ x0n sin ðqo Þcos ðfo Þ þ z0m cos ðqo Þ;

b (2.48)

and the term

N X
X M
e jynm e jk0bro r nm
0
(2.49)
n¼1 m¼1

is the array factor.

Following (2.26), the excitation phases are chosen as

rb r0 nm
ynm ¼ k0b

n ¼ 1; 2; 3;    ; N
¼ k0 x0n sin ðqb Þcos ðfb Þ  k0 z0m cos ðqb Þ; (2.50)
m ¼ 1; 2; 3;    ; M

where

b
rb ¼ b
x sin ðqb Þcos ðfb Þ þ b
y sin ðqb Þsin ðfb Þ þ b
z cos ðqb Þ (2.51)

is the direction of a beam desired in the radiation pattern. With the excitation
phases in (2.50), the array factor is
X
N X
M X
N X
M
e jynm ejk0bro r nm ¼
0 0 0
e jk0 xn ½sinðqo Þcosðfo Þ sinðqb Þcosðfb Þ e jk0 zm ½cosðqo Þ cosðqb Þ :
n¼1 m¼1 n¼1 m¼1
(2.52)
38 Retro-reflective beamforming technique

Due to (2.38), the array factor in (2.52) is the product of two Dirichlet
functions:
X
N X
M
e jynm e jk0bro r nm
0


n¼1 m¼1   
Nk0 sx ½sin ðqo Þcos ðfo Þ  sin ðqb Þcos ðfb Þ Mk0 sz ½cos ðqo Þ  cos ðqb Þ
sin sin
2 2
¼     
k0 sx ½sin ðqo Þcos ðfo Þ  sin ðqb Þcos ðfb Þ k0 sz ½cos ðqo Þ  cos ðqb Þ
sin sin
2 2
(2.53)
The array factor exhibits a beam along (qb, fb), as the N  M antenna elements’
contributions are in phase when qo ¼ qb and fo ¼ fb. The beam radiated by the
phased array can be steered via adjusting the excitation phase values ynm.
If the radiation pattern of a phased array only includes one narrow beam, the
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
value of beamwidth can be estimated by the formulation of 41; 253=Garray (in
degree), where Garray is the peak gain value of the beam [1]. When M ¼ N ¼ 5 and
G ¼ 4, Garray ¼ NMG0 ¼ 100 and the beamwidth is estimated to be
p0ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
41; 253=100 ffi 20 degrees. If a fictitious planar screen is placed 10 m away from
the phased array and is geometrically perpendicular to the beam’s propagation
direction, the beam’s footprint over the screen is a circular region with a radius of
approximately 10  tanð10 Þ ¼ 1:8 m. Thus, if a wireless power receiver is loca-
ted 10 m away from the phased array and it is desired to collect most of the power
carried by the beam, the wireless power receiver’s physical dimension should be on
the order of meters. If a wireless power receiver with a small physical size resides
10 m away from the phased array, a beamwidth narrower than 20 is necessary in
order to yield high power transmission efficiency, which requires the phased array
(as a wireless power transmitter) to include more than 5  5 antenna elements.

2.2 Basic principles of the phased array as receiving

antenna
When a phased array is employed by a wireless transmitter, its radiation pattern can
be reconfigured by adjusting the excitation phase to the array’s elements, as
described in Section 2.1. In this section, a phased array is employed by a wireless
receiver with its reception pattern reconfigured via phase adjustment.
As depicted in Figure 2.6, there is one antenna element residing in free space
as a receiving antenna. Suppose a transmitting antenna is in the far zone of the
receiving antenna. As a result, the electromagnetic wave radiated by the transmit-
ting antenna behaves as a plane wave when it reaches the receiving antenna. The
Poynting vector of the incident plane wave is assumed to be W inc kb inc , where k
b inc is
the propagation direction of the incident plane wave and Winc is the power density
carried by the incident plane wave with unit of Watt per m2. The incident plane
wave has planar wavefronts, as illustrated in Figure 2.6. To be specific, the incident
plane wave’s phase is unchanged over each planar wavefront. When the receiving
 Phased array technique for microwave power transmission applications 39

Incident plane wave

Free space with power density W inc

Ae

Fictitious pipe with

cross-section of Ae

Planar
wavefronts

Power Pr = W inc × Ae

Matched load

Figure 2.6 Illustration of one antenna element as a receiving antenna

antenna element is terminated by a matched load, the amount of power delivered to

the load is termed Pr. The effective aperture Ae of the receiving antenna element is
defined as
Pr
Ae ¼ ; with a unit of m2 : (2.54)
W inc
As illustrated in Figure 2.6, it appears that the power flowing along a fictitious
“pipe” with a cross-section area of Ae is absorbed by the receiving antenna.
Because the value of Pr depends on the incident plane wave’s propagation direc-
tion, Ae is also dependent on the incident plane wave’s propagation direction.
The effective aperture is related to the antenna gain through the following
relationship,

ðl0 Þ2
Ae ¼ Gr ; (2.55)
4p
where Gr is the gain value toward the kb inc direction when the antenna element is
used as a transmitting antenna.
Consider an array of N antenna elements deployed along a straight line, as
illustrated in Figure 2.7. Each of the N antenna elements is identical to that in
Figure 2.6. The spacing between any two adjacent antenna elements is s. If the
value of spacing s is small, there might be strong mutual coupling among the
antenna elements in the array, which is harmful in practice typically. The magni-
tude of mutual coupling among antenna elements can be estimated by Ae roughly.
Suppose each antenna element is a microstrip patch with a broadside gain value of
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 Clive shook his head. “He would know better than that. He would
know that what she really needed was Chicago, and friends, and
work, and adventure....”
Felix reflected that Clive could have offered her all these things....
“And what happened?” asked Rose-Ann.
“He couldn’t persuade her to take the plunge into life in Chicago
without some kind of preparation.... She’s terribly afraid of
Chicago.... So she’s worked out a solution of her own. She’s gone off
to a normal school, to learn to be a school-teacher; and get a job in
Chicago that way.... Worse than that—she’s going to teach
somewhere else first, for some damned reason, and later go to
Chicago. I tell her, yes, when she’s forty, she’ll be ready to begin
life!”
“So that,” Felix said, “was what was troubling you all winter. I
thought you were trying to get some girl to marry you; and you
were merely trying to get her to go to Chicago and get a job!”
“Am I to be given no credit for the disinterested and unselfish
character of my worrying?” Clive asked gaily.
“I don’t imagine the girl gives you much credit for it,” said Felix.
“Why don’t you marry her and be done with it?”
“Good heavens!” said Clive. “Must one marry a girl because he has
talked to her about Bernard Shaw?”
“Must St. George marry the girl he has rescued from the dragon?”
Felix retorted. “I only know it always happens in the story-books that
way.”
“A fine realist you are, young man! Fortunately, there are other St.
Georges in the world.—Why this sudden passion of matrimonial
propaganda? Misery loves company?”
“I wouldn’t worry about Phyllis if I were you,” Rose-Ann said to
Felix coolly. “She’s perfectly able to take care of herself. Her plan is
all right. She’s very young, and it won’t do her any harm to wait a
year or two and learn a trade before she comes here to live. I think
she’s a very sensible young woman, myself.”
It was time for Clive to go, for he was living out at Woods Point
again. They discussed the studio for a few minutes, and then Felix
put on his hat and accompanied Clive to the platform of the Illinois
Central station a block away.
“Spring!” said Clive, sniffing the mild March breeze. “Tomorrow will
be warm.”
“Clive,” said Felix, “what’s the matter with you, anyway? You’re
really in love with Phyllis!”
“Who knows?” said Clive. “Sometimes I think I am, myself!”
“Well, then?”
“But there’s another question you haven’t considered. Is she in
love with me?”
“Ask her and find out!”
“Oh, I’ve no doubt she thinks she is, at this moment. Just because
I don’t seem to care whether she is or not! She’s a queer girl, Felix.
You don’t understand her at all....”
“You exasperate me,” said Felix. “Marry her, and put an end to all
this foolishness.”
“But why should you assume that my intentions—if I have any—
are honourable, young man! What makes you think I want to get
married to anybody? I think I’ll wait and see how your marriage
turns out first!”
Felix walked home slowly, but it seemed only an instant before he
opened the door of the studio. “Who is it?” called Rose-Ann from
behind the screen. “It’s me,” he said, and locked the door, and stood
there for a moment.... He felt a kind of vague bewilderment.
He had been so immersed in the story of these other unhappy
lives, so poignantly concerned with their tangled doubts and fears,
that it was strange to return to this scene of his own untroubled
happiness. The sense of those other tormented lives burned at this
moment more vividly in his imagination than his own life and Rose-
Ann’s....
“Coming to bed?” Rose-Ann called from behind the screen.
“No,” he said vaguely, “I think I’ll write for a while.”
“All right, then I won’t bother you. Good-night!”
“Good-night, Rose-Ann.”
He went over to his desk, and turned on the electric light, and
dipped his pen in the ink, and then sat dreaming before a white
sheet of paper.
XXVI. What Rose-Ann Wanted

“W HY don’t you want me to get a job, Felix?”

It was mid-April, and the Park across the way had, all at
once, turned that lovely young green of beginning grass and
burgeoning trees. It was dusk, and Rose-Ann and Felix were sitting
in their cushioned window-seat—a new addition to the household
furnishing—arguing a point which had been coming up from time to
time since their marriage.
“You have your work,” she went on.
“Yes,” he said, “and I’m doing all Hawkins’s work now, and in the
fall I will get a respectable salary, I expect, so why need we—”
“I don’t mean that,” she said. “I mean your writing.” Ever since
that morning at the St. Dunstan, Felix had been writing at odd
times, at—heaven knew just what, he wasn’t sure himself—
something that might perhaps be called a play, but so fantastic a
thing as yet that he had not even ventured to show any of the
fragments of it to Rose-Ann; she had been very nice about it, too,
never asking him to let her see what he had done the night before
... to furnish the justification, as it were, for staying up until all
hours. Felix wasn’t at all certain that they constituted such a
justification. They were probably mere folly: but, so far, they were all
he could attempt.
“You have your writing,” Rose-Ann was saying. “And I haven’t
anything.”
“You used to write, Rose-Ann,” he said.
“I know. Not much.”
“You need not have given up your class at Community House,” he
suggested.
“It wasn’t enough, any longer. I want something else.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Something to use up my energies. I can’t stay here
and play keeping house in a studio. There’s no excuse for it. That’s
why we have a studio, Felix! So we can each be free. Why are you
so stubborn about it?”
“I’m not being stubborn, Rose-Ann. I’m just being candid. I can’t
stop you from going out and getting a job. But I can tell the truth
and say I don’t like the idea! And that’s all I can do. If it means so
much to you, you’ll have to do it in spite of my not liking it, that’s
all.... It isn’t as if there were some particular thing you wanted to do
—I wouldn’t say a word against that. But work in general—work for
the sake of work—that just means a little more money, which we
don’t need, and your coming home tired at night.... After all, Rose-
Ann, I want a wife....”
She grew suddenly cold. “Then you should have married
somebody else,” she said. “I don’t want to be—a wife!”
 And they went out to dinner in an estranged silence.

These silences, inexplicable and impenetrable, would spring up

between them, and then as inexplicably dissolve—sometimes in
tears, sometimes in laughter.
That night when they came home to their studio and started to
undress for bed, Rose-Ann changed back suddenly to her
accustomed self; and his own mood, a moment ago puzzled and
angry, could not withstand the influence of her smile. Then both of
them were sorry, and accused themselves inwardly of the fault....
Felix could see why she objected to being merely “a wife,” and
wondered that he had been so crass as to say such a thing ... and
they sought with passionate tenderness to make each other
forget....
“Do I make you happy, Felix?”
“Yes.... And are you happy?”
“Yes,”—a little sadly, in spite of herself.
“Sometimes,” he said, “you seem for a moment to go far away
from me, even when you are here in my arms. I can’t bear that.” He
held her more closely, as though to reassure himself of the reality of
her presence. “Then it all begins to seem like a dream again.... I’ve
always been lonely for you, all my life, wanting you always ... and
not believing I was ever going to find you ... trying to adjust myself
to a world in which you didn’t exist. And sometimes, even now—But
you are real, aren’t you?”
 “I dreamed of you, too, Felix....”
“Isn’t it strange? And strangest of all, that the story should have a
happy ending.”
“This—is just the beginning, Felix....”
A faint sadness in her tone, that he had heard before in the very
midst of their happiness, frightened him.
“The beginning, yes,” he said. “The beginning of happiness.”
“And—afterward, Felix?”
“More happiness.... Doesn’t that satisfy you?”
“Yes, but—Oh, of course it’s beautiful and wonderful to me, Felix.
But I’m afraid....”
“Of what, darling?”
“We love just being together, now. But will we always? I mean—
doesn’t something happen to happiness, after a while? I know it
sounds absurd. I don’t mean we’ll fall out of love—not that—but
won’t we lose the beauty of this—this intimacy, in time? You know
how other people sometimes seem—cooped up and used to each
other—just that. It’s ugly, to me ... I suspect we are rather awful,
Felix, talking about such things!...”
“No,” he said. “It isn’t enough to feel—we must know why we
feel.”
She sighed. “I guess we are like that. We can’t even take
happiness without asking why.”
It was true; they encouraged each other in what would have
seemed, to some people, an exaggerated curiosity about things of
no importance—and, to many lovers, a prying into matters best left
alone. Do not all charms fly at the mere touch of cold philosophy?
They did not seem to fear it.
“I suppose,” said Felix reflectively, “people must care a great deal
for each other.... It would be dreadful, this closeness, if one didn’t
want it.”
“But does one keep on wanting it?... Yes, Felix, that’s what I’m
afraid of. If this is only for a while—and then we were to be just like
other people—sunk in a greasy domesticity—Felix, I couldn’t keep on
living.”
He took her hand tenderly. “But we aren’t like those other people,
Rose-Ann,” he said. He had a baffling sense of this speech
contradicting something he had said or thought before....
“Do you really think our marriage is so different from other
people’s, Felix?”
They seemed to have exchanged places in the argument—that
argument, so absurd and yet so poignant, which kept arising, neither
of them knowing why, nor quite what it was all about....
“Of course our marriage is different,” he was saying. “How many
married people really want to know each other? How many of them
can really talk to one another about what is going on in their inmost
minds—as we do!”
“Yes, we do, don’t we,” said Rose-Ann, comforted to find in this
complete candour of theirs an authentic superiority to the common
destiny of tragic and ridiculous mutual misunderstanding.
“We shall always be finding out new things about one another,”
Felix went on bravely. “That is what our marriage means—a knitting
together of our whole lives, a marrying of our memories.”
“And our hopes, too, Felix,” said Rose-Ann. “And a creating of
something new and beautiful—books, plays, poems.... But I forgot!”
she laughed. “I mustn’t talk about your literary works till you let me.
Must talk about something else!...
“Yes, Felix, we are different. We can say things to each other that
ordinary lovers couldn’t. I wouldn’t have dared speak of my silly
fears to anybody but you.... And—you can tell me things.... What
you wrote to me, when I was home in Springfield, you remember,
about that girl, Felix—I loved you for it. A sonnet you read me last
night reminded me of her and you. I made you read it over twice—I
didn’t tell you why. I still remember the way it begins.” Softly she
said the lines:
“We needs must know that in the days to come
No child, that from our summer sprang, shall be....

“It made me love you all the more to know you felt so about your
boyish love-affair—that you wanted to be married, that you really
wanted your girl-sweetheart to have a baby, hers and yours.... I’m
glad it didn’t happen that way, but I think you were a lovely, foolish,
beautiful boy-lover to want it....
“Of course,” she added, “artists shouldn’t have families to
support.... They are children themselves.—Do you know why I want
to get a job, Felix? You mustn’t be angry at me—but if anything
should happen, if you should lose your place on the Chronicle, or if
you should get to feel that you need all your time for your writing, I
would want to be able to make enough money so you could go on
with your own work. You don’t mind my wanting that, do you, Felix?
We’re not the conventional married couple, the wife sitting at home
doing nothing while the man goes out to work every day! I want to
be a real helpmeet—an artist’s wife, not an ordinary wife.”
“You’re a darling,” said Felix. “But—” a little uncomfortably—“I
guess I can take care of myself; I shan’t need to be supported. Why
don’t you go ahead and be an artist yourself?”
“Oh, Felix, I can’t!...”
“Why not? What kind of artist do you want to be?”
“Something I can’t be, Felix. If I tell you, you’ll understand.... But
you won’t laugh at me?”
“Of course not, Rose-Ann.”
“But it’s really funny! Especially if you had seen me when I was a
girl—shy, awkward, prudish—yes, prudish, Felix. When I was
eighteen, I was the worst little old maid you ever saw. I read
romantic books all the time, and real people seemed to me coarse
and horrible. I hated everybody. I wouldn’t go to boy-and-girl
parties, because of the—it still seems an ugly word to me
—‘spooning’ that went on in the corners. I wouldn’t dance, I
wouldn’t hold hands. I wouldn’t keep company. Oh, I was terrible.
For a while I wanted to be a missionary in some savage country—”
“And teach the natives to wear clothes?—is that your secret
ambition?” he laughed.
“No—for I got converted ... to paganism. When I was twenty-one
years old. It was a book that converted me.”
“I really know very little about you, don’t I? All this seems so
strange.... I’ve imagined you as always being what you are now.
What book was it converted you?”
“It was ‘Leaves of Grass.’ You remember I told you how I decided
to be a librarian, and took a course of training, and was made an
assistant in the library at Springfield.... Well, there was a shelf of
forbidden books—and one day I opened one of those forbidden
books, and read a passage.... I’ll tell you: it was ‘A woman’s body at
auction’—do you remember it? Uncouth, wonderful lines—not so
much poetry to me as a revelation. I remember I stood there
reading some of those lines again and again, and I went back to the
desk saying them over and over to myself—just rough, plain phrases
naming over one by one the joints and muscles and parts of the
body, like an anatomy text-book—but making me feel, as no text-
book had ever done, that these wonderful things were my body!
Those lines still have a thrill for me—” And she chanted, solemnly,
like a litany:
“Upper arm, armpit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews, arm-bones,
Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, forefinger, finger-joints, finger-
nails,
Ribs, belly, back-bone, hips, hip-sockets....
O I say these are not parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul!”
 She paused, and smoked her cigarette silently, remembering. “I
went around the rest of that day,” she said presently, “in a dreaming
ecstasy.... I had read in some of my father’s books about the
mystics, and I knew that I felt like them when they had seen God....
I looked every now and then with a kind of awe at my wrist or my
finger-nail, saying to myself, These are not parts of the body only,
but of the soul! And that night I took the book home, and read it in
bed, happy and afraid....
“And now comes the part that is funny. There always is something
funny, isn’t there, in trying to put a revelation into practice! But don’t
laugh at me, Felix. Think what it would mean to a young-lady-
librarian, a clergyman’s daughter, to discover that her body was a
poem.... I got out of bed and took off my nightgown to look at
myself in the glass. But it was a modest glass, fastened sideways to
the top of the bureau, and it refused to show me all of myself at
once; so I unfastened it, and wrestled it down from the bureau, and
stood it upright against the wall. I was rather disappointed, Felix—
my body wasn’t as beautiful as a poem ought to be; it was just a
slim, awkward, twenty-one-year-old girl’s body, that was all.
“But there had been something beautiful about it for a moment—
in the glimpses I had of it in the glass as I pulled it down from the
bureau; then it had been—well, yes, beautiful, with the beauty of—
flexed muscles and purposeful movement.... And I had a kind of
vision.... Yes, really, Felix ... a wonderful and terrible moment, in
which I seemed to see myself wrestling with life, in a kind of agony
of creation ... and for a moment I seemed to know what my
woman’s body was for. And then I sort of waked up, wondering what
it was all about. I was thrilled and afraid....
“And then an idea came to me—I’m glad I can tell you this part,
Felix—I said to myself: I will be a dancer! Yes, I decided to go to
Chicago and learn to be a dancer....
“There was a boy who wanted to marry me—though I don’t know
what this has to do with it; anyway, I would get away from him at
the same time, by going to Chicago.... I was all on fire with the idea.
I wanted to start right away with dancing. I couldn’t go to sleep.
And—this is the part that seems to me the most terribly ridiculous of
all—I went downstairs and brought back the Dan-Emp volume of
father’s encyclopedia to read the article about Dancing....
“And there, in that article, Felix, I learned why I could never be a
really-truly dancer—it seems that one must begin in one’s cradle!
“Well—I cried. I could cry now when I think about it. I’m a perfect
fool, Felix.... But what’s the use of having a vision of one’s purpose
in life, if one can’t do anything about it?... There seemed to be
nothing to do except stay in Springfield and—marry that boy. And I
couldn’t, I couldn’t do that. I thought of other things besides
dancing that I might do, but they didn’t interest me. An artist’s
model? Somehow I didn’t like that idea—not in modern terms—not
at so much an hour; after all, I was a clergyman’s daughter, and it
just didn’t seem respectable! I thought—if I had lived in Ancient
Greece, I might have been a friend of Phidias or somebody, and
seen myself carved upon the frieze of a temple ... or been one of the
marble maidens of Keats’ Grecian Urn. Oh, I dreamed of all the
lovely and impossible things in the world. And I decided—at least I
wouldn’t stay in Springfield!”
“And so you came to Chicago....”
“Yes, and became a settlement-worker. It seems a pitiful climax to
my story, doesn’t it? And yet, if one lives in twentieth-century
America instead of in Ancient Greece, what is one to do? It seemed
to me a good pagan life, to try to bring about a better world for
everybody—a world in which beauty would count for something.... At
one time I thought I was a socialist, but I found that I couldn’t bear
to attend stuffy meetings, and that I couldn’t understand Marx and
didn’t want to. And I wasn’t interested in woman suffrage, either. My
life had to be centred around something personal. So—”
“So you taught those children how to play....”
“It was the Greekliest thing I knew to do.... If Aspasia had been
born in Springfield, Illinois, she might have taken a class in a
Chicago settlement!” Rose-Ann said defiantly—and then, doubtfully,
“What do you think of it all?”
“I don’t know,” he said—“it leaves me bewildered—except that I
think you’re a wonderful child.”
“It’s you who are wonderful,” she said, “to understand. I am a
child, I suppose—and I want to stay one always. I don’t want to
grow up. That’s very foolish, isn’t it? Do you know that horrible habit
some married people have of addressing each other as ‘Pa’ and
‘Ma’—as soon as they have a baby, I mean? I suppose it’s meant as
a joke. And I suppose it’s a joke, too, when a man refers to his wife
as ‘the old woman.’ When I was a little girl, I vowed to myself that
no man would ever have the right to call me his ‘old woman.’ Or ...
but then, we shan’t ever have any children, shall we? You remember
what I said—the talk we had in the hospital that day. I meant that,
Felix.”
Felix’s mind was fumbling for the lost thread of their discourse.
Rose-Ann’s talk had a disconcerting way of suddenly leaping from
one idea to another. How did they come to be talking about
children? She had brought them in, without rhyme or reason, more
than once tonight. And each time he had remembered with a sense
of discouragement and vague shame that moment at the hospital
when he had not had the courage to tell her that he wanted to be—
everything that it seemed he need not be after all. He wanted now
to say something—but what could he say? Some other time,
perhaps, when he had a chance to think things out more clearly.... It
did not need to be settled now.
“Why,” he said confusedly, “we did talk about it, yes. I don’t
suppose we can afford to—” He was going to add “right away,” but
Rose-Ann interrupted him.
“Oh, dear!” she said, “I’ve forgotten—I promised to let my father
know our address, as soon as we found a place to live, so he could
come and see us, and I forgot all about it! Felix, will you bring me
pencil and paper, please? I’ll write to him now.”
 Rose-Ann’s troubled mind—too troubled to be aware of itself—had
been seeking an answer to a question ... the question for which she
had unconsciously sought the answer in “Leaves of Grass,” in the
“Dan-Emp” volume of her father’s encyclopedia, in settlement work,
and now in her marriage. There was an answer which she dreaded—
and perhaps hoped—to hear. But in his chance phrase she had heard
instead the definite ratification of their casual agreement that she
was never to bear him a child ... and the question, which neither of
them knew had been discussed, of whether the meaning of her
vision, of her search, of her unsatisfied yearning, might not perhaps
be found in the common, ordinary, the all too obvious rôle of
motherhood, was answered No....
Felix brought the pencil and a writing pad, and she sat and wrote,
and smiled, and wrote again. She had become once more remote—a
figure, it seemed to him as she sat there on the bed in the lamplight
with her red-gold hair falling over her white shoulders, like a girl in a
painting, as eternally lovely and unapproachable.
She stopped writing. “We’ve utterly forgotten the world ever since
we moved into this studio,” she murmured.
“And a good thing, too,” said Felix, feeling in her words some
threat against their peace and quiet.
“But we must let our friends know where we are—and that they
can come to see us.... We might give a kind of house-warming.”
“A house-warming?” Felix repeated doubtfully.
“Yes—a big party—one of the kind you hate. But I’ll make it up to
you by giving some cozy little parties.... There are people you ought
to know, Felix.... Yes, I’m going to be a real artist’s wife!” She put
her arms about him and kissed him, fiercely and tenderly.
XXVII. Parties

R OSE-ANN decided to give at least one or two of her “little” parties

immediately; perhaps to encourage Felix to meet the larger
ordeal. And to the first of these little parties, she planned to invite,
with what seemed to Felix a reckless defiance of congruity, Clive,
Dorothy Sheridan (who had in the meantime been in to see “what
they had done to her old studio” and appeared to be satisfied that
they had not turned it into what she called “a Christian home”)—and
the Howard Morgans!
A more ill-assorted company, Felix felt, had never been invited to
sit at the one table—a poet who was also (or at least so Felix
considered him) a social lion, a rough-mannered Bohemian girl-artist,
a satirical young newspaper writer; and he, a frightened young
husband giving his first dinner, was doubtless expected by his
infatuated bride to bring music out of this discord! Well, let her find
out.... It was a relief, anyway, to be told that he need not wear his
evening clothes.
The party went off amazingly well. There was a certain constraint,
at first, it was true; but it was not of the sort he had expected.
Dorothy Sheridan had turned up with her bobbed hair elaborately
and beautifully curled and wearing a gaily embroidered Russian
smock. “I never wear smocks when I paint,” she said, “painters
never do—but I like to wear them everywhere else. What kind of
folks are these Morgans?” And being told by Rose-Ann—rashly, Felix
thought—that they were “all right,” she said, “Then I can smoke,”
and lighted a cigarette with an air of relief.... And when the Howard
Morgans came, the great man was dressed in an old suit of
corduroys, concerning which he appeared to be nervous. He looked
at Felix’s clothes anxiously, and then at Dorothy Sheridan with her
cigarette, and seemed reassured. He must have been reassured, for
when the introductions were accomplished, he took out an old sack
of tobacco from his coat-pocket and a crumpled package of straw-
coloured paper, and rolled himself a cigarette.... Yes, that was all
they were afraid of—that the occasion might not be sufficiently
informal! And after they had ceased to be afraid of that, they got on
vastly well, drank Felix’s cocktails with gusto, ate Rose-Ann’s dinner
(it was, though one might not have known it, a delicatessen dinner)
with unabashed appetite, and talked like old friends. Later in the
evening, Clive turned to Dorothy Sheridan and demanded, “Come,
you are not really one of the Sheridans, are you? I can’t believe it!”—
And she answered: “Well, I’m the black sheep of the family; I don’t
live their life—I paint, and mind my own business—so you ought not
to hold that against me!” From her manner, one would have thought
that the Sheridans were a band of notorious criminals, but Rose-Ann
told him afterward—what it seemed she had suspected all along—
that Dorothy belonged to one of the—well, as Clive had said, one of
“the”—families of Chicago.... Yes, they got along very well indeed,
and Felix talked about everything in the world with complete
unselfconsciousness....
 2

Yes, that party was all right.... But a dinner for Will Blake of
Community House, and Paul, their old scenic-genius friend, now a
prosperous designer of musical comedy settings in New York and
just back in Chicago for a few days—and (yes!) old Mrs. Perk ... that
was simply, Felix felt, defying the gods. And yet it turned out to be
an even more successful party than the other. Mrs. Perk was as
delightful a dinner companion as any one could wish, and really
made the party a “go.”... Or perhaps it was the studio: apparently
everybody liked a touch of bohemia; apparently anybody in such a
place could be completely human, natural, and at ease.... Or perhaps
it was Rose-Ann: there was no doubt about it, she was a wonderful
hostess....
And Rose-Ann had only just started, it seemed, on her social
career. After the “house-warming,” which came next on their
program, she intended to ask some of her “bourgeois” friends in to
dinner, before they went away for the summer. “You haven’t been
miserable at these parties, have you?” she said. “Well, you’ll find the
others just as easy. Everybody’s human—even in evening clothes,
Felix. We’ll have to go to dinner at these other people’s houses, too,
you know—and once you make up your mind to it, you can have as
good a time there as you can here!”
All right.... He would try to enjoy himself, he promised obediently.
But this house-warming presented difficulties. They were inviting
everybody they knew—everybody!—people from Community House,
from the Chronicle office, from Canal street, et cetera.... Such a
crowd! “I shall have to introduce them to each other, and I won’t
remember their names,” he said forlornly. “I never remember
people’s names!”
 “It’s all right!” said Rose-Ann. “After a cocktail or two, half of them
won’t know their own names. Besides, this will be our last big party,
ever. I promise!”
Well, it was a satisfaction to know that. But—cocktails, and
Community House residents; Felix was not sure (even after seeing
Will Blake flushed and merry with their California wine sherbert the
other night!) how these two elements would mix. Eddie Silver after
his ninth cocktail would scarcely be an edifying spectacle. “Don’t
worry,” said Rose-Ann. “People are not so Puritanical as you think.
Anyway, our respectable friends will come early and go early—and
the others vice-versa.”
“I thought,” said Felix, “when I went to the hospital, that I had
finished with boozing....”
“So you have,” said Rose-Ann cheerfully. “This is quite different!”
“And you a clergyman’s daughter!” said Felix.

Rose-Ann’s father was somewhat on Felix’s mind, because she had

said he might come to see them any day. And if Felix felt some
awkwardness in adapting himself to the convivial life, he felt still
more embarrassment at the prospect of acting the difficult rôle of
the son-in-law of a clergyman.... One had to, it seemed, be so many
different things to get along with people! But he was learning. When
these parties were over, he would commence to think about how to
make himself agreeable to his father-in-law.
And then, late in the afternoon of the day of the house-warming,
when Rose-Ann had gone out to buy something she had forgotten,
and Felix was busy squeezing lemons, a tall, gentle, stooping man
with a slight greying beard walked into the studio, looked about,
smiled, and extended his hand.
“I suppose you are my son-in-law,” he said. “I see you’re getting
ready for a party, so I’m just in time. Rose-Ann didn’t specially invite
me, but I guess she’ll let her old dad come anyway.”
XXVIII. A Father-in-Law

F ELIX stood still for a moment with a lemon suspended in mid-

squeeze.
“I know just how you feel,” said the old gentleman. “At such a
moment as this, a father-in-law would be just the last straw!”
Felix laughed, and shook the extended hand. “Did I give away my
dismay as plainly as all that?” he asked.
“I don’t blame you,” said the old gentleman, taking off his hat and
overcoat, and sitting down. “Go right on with what you were doing,
and we’ll talk. I feel rather well acquainted with you from what I’ve
already heard about you. No, Rose-Ann didn’t say much, but I sort
of always know what she’s up to. The marriage wasn’t exactly a
surprise to me. And I shouldn’t have thought of coming down here
to bother you, except that I thought it would be better for me to
come than one of the boys. You see, I’ll have to report to them that
it’s all right, or they’ll go on thinking that Rose-Ann has married
some perfectly disreputable person.” He smiled.
“How do you know,” Felix asked, laughingly, “that I’m not a
disreputable person!”
 “Well,” said Rose-Ann’s father gravely, taking out a cigar, “perhaps
you are. Will you have one of these? No? They’re very good Havana
cigars—I can recommend them; oh, I see you smoke cigarettes....
Perhaps you are a disreputable person. But of a certain type that I
can very well sympathize with, because I belong to it myself.
Impractical. Yes, I can see you’re that. Not interested in making
money. All that sort of thing. Yes, I’m afraid my sons would consider
you a poor match for Rose-Ann. What they don’t understand is that
she was bound to marry that sort if she married anybody. I’ll have to
misrepresent you when I get back home. I’ll tell them that you’re an
enterprising young newspaper man. You won’t mind that?”
“I should be delighted to have somebody think that of me,” said
Felix.
“Well, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t.... I’ll be a little sad
when I get home, and tell them that I’m afraid Rose-Ann will never
be really happy with you—that you are too practical to appreciate
the poetic side of her nature. Then they’ll be convinced that it’s all
right.... I suppose it sounds odd to you, my speaking this way of my
own sons?”
“Well—yes,” said Felix, “it does rather! But it’s refreshing.”
“I haven’t a scrap of family sentiment,” said Rose-Ann’s father. “I
am interested in people only as individuals. And I must say that I
have been cursed with four of the most practical and unimaginative
sons that a ne’er-do-well father ever had. They will all end up as
millionaires, I’m sure. By the way, I hope you’ve no prejudice against
preachers?”
“Not your kind, anyway!” Felix laughed.
“I was reading a book the other day,” said the old man, “about
women in the Middle Ages. It said that women often went into
convents then, not because they felt particularly religious, but
because they wanted to escape from the humdrum ways of ordinary
life. A woman who went into a convent might become—a scholar, a
ruler, a politician, the peer of princes! She could have friendships
with distinguished men. She could be, in a sense that her married
sister wasn’t, free.... And I thought how well all that applied to
myself. If I had lived in a Catholic country, I would probably have
gone into a monastery, and written a history of something. I did the
next best thing, it seems to me now. I went into a profession where
nobody is expected to succeed. I escaped from the bedevilment of
business; I started out in business, you know, and left it for the
ministry. Now I can be a little odd, and nobody minds very much. I
am very fortunate, I think. The pulpit is a wonderful refuge. For
instance—do you like to drink?”
“No—not really,” Felix said.
“No, I thought not,” said the old gentleman. “But you have to. You
will have to consume your share of that enormous quantity of vile-
tasting medicine you are preparing for your guests. Now, I am free
from any such social necessity. It’s an enormous relief.”
Felix thought of his Eddie Silver parties in the past, and all the
parties he seemed committed to in the future—and it seemed to him
that Rose-Ann’s father was indeed very fortunate.
“I assume,” said the old man, “that you don’t particularly relish the
idea of this party, anyway?”
“No, to tell the truth, I don’t,” said Felix.
“Of course not. What sane human being would want to spend an
evening talking to forty people without saying anything to any of
them? And yet ordinary people are supposed to like that sort of
thing.”
“Rose-Ann promises that this will be the last one of this kind.”
“Hold her to her promise, young man!” said Rose-Ann’s father.
“And be stern about it. Be ruthless. Rose-Ann,” he observed
reflectively, “means well. But after all, she’s a woman. And when you
know as much about women as I do, you will know that they are the
natural ally of the world against the human soul. Now I have always
had my sermon as an excuse for getting out of everything I didn’t
want to do. I always managed to make the writing of that sermon
last me nearly all week. I locked myself in my study, and let the
world rush past outside. In my study I could read and dream and
think; I could be by myself. Aren’t you going to write a novel or
something? A play, I believe it was Rose-Ann spoke of.”
“I’m—thinking about something of the sort,” said Felix. It was
true, he reflected, he had not been able to get any writing done
lately! One could not write with parties going on all the time....
“Well, you’d better get down to work on it right away. And get a
room of your own somewhere to do it in. You’re just married, and
your head is full of all sorts of romantic nonsense about Rose-Ann,
who is a very fine young woman, but, after all, a woman; and the
time to establish your right to be by yourself some of the time is at
the very beginning. I see you have two desks up there in front. Do
you expect to work there?”
“Yes. That one is Rose-Ann’s—”
“And the other is yours. And when you are in the middle of a
sentence, you find that Rose-Ann has come over and put her arms
around your neck. Very natural. Very charming. But how in the name
of Prince Beelzebub are you going to get any work done under those
circumstances?”
Felix smiled. It certainly was odd, to have one’s wife’s father take
your side against her. But it was easy to see that he was thinking of
his own case. He had doubtless had to lock himself in his study to be
free from the encroachments of domesticity. But Rose-Ann was
different; Rose-Ann did not come over and kiss him in the middle of
a sentence....
“I see you don’t take my warnings seriously,” said the old man.
“Well, don’t say I didn’t do my best for you. Here she is now.”
Rose-Ann came in, crying out, “Dad!”—and running up to him
flung her arms about him. “You didn’t tell me you were coming!”
Her father set her on his knees.
 “No, Rosie, I didn’t—and I see I’ve intruded on a wild party. But if
you’ll not tell anybody I’m a preacher they won’t know it. I won’t
spoil your party!”
“It’s only our house-warming, and of course I’m glad you came.
How do you like my husband?” She looked proudly at Felix.
“We’ve become very well acquainted,” said her father. “I’ve been
warning him against you.”
“And you’ve been getting cigar-ashes all over my nice clean floor,
too,” said Rose-Ann. “Why will you never, never learn to use an ash-
tray?”
“I’m sorry, my dear,” said her father with a twinkle at Felix, “but I
thought this was a studio, and that people in studios did just as they
pleased.”
“Well,” said Rose-Ann, “if you’re not going to be a preacher
tonight, you can help Felix get things ready for the cocktails. I have
a million sandwiches to fix, myself. Take off your coat and put on
this apron. How do you like our studio?”
“I was very much impressed by those desks up in the front there,”
he said disingenuously, smiling at Felix.
“Yes, that’s where Felix is going to write his play, and I’m going to
do—I don’t know just what, yet. But isn’t it all—wonderful, father!”
“Wonderful!” said Rose-Ann’s father.

2
 Whether it was the effect of that talk or not, all Felix’s recent
social sophistication had vanished utterly, and the party passed after
the usual fashion of such events to a shy and bewildered person. He
made desperate efforts to remember people’s names, and succeeded
once or twice; at other times Rose-Ann intervened and performed
that painful feat for him; and once when he saw two people beside
him who had not yet been introduced, and whose names he knew as
well as he knew his own, but which he could not to save his life
think of, he slunk away in guilty crimson shame. An old lady—it
seemed to him that he was a favourite prey of old ladies—got him
into a corner and talked to him for a long time about telepathy, and
the life beyond the grave. He could not recall ever having seen her
before, and he wondered what she was doing at his house-warming.
“Yes,” he said earnestly to her—“yes!” So convincingly, that Rose-
Ann, who wanted him to meet Professor Hedding of the University of
Chicago, left him alone until at last she caught his piteous glance of
appeal and came and bore him away. Howard Morgan was there, at
ease as always, his leonine grey head the centre of a
phantasmagoria which he seemed to understand, to rule with a
glance, a smile, a word. He was enjoying it all.
“No,” Felix said to himself, “I shall never be like that!”
His father-in-law wandered up to him as he stood helplessly aside.
He seemed to Felix to be about to ask, “And is this the kind of life
you are going to lead?” But instead, he remarked, “Your friend Mr.
Bangs is a very interesting young man. We had a good talk. I like
the way his mind works.”
It struck Felix as the oddest aspect of his fantastic fortunes that
he should have a father-in-law—out of all possible fathers-in-law!—
who so heartily approved of him, approved of his very weakness,
and of his maddest friends! What he might have expected was: “If I
were you, I don’t think I’d see too much of that young man—he has
queer ideas.” But queer ideas, his own and Clive’s, were, it seemed,
not merely tolerable, but commendable....
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