SCVT 2017 – Keynote speech

14 November 2017 – University of Leuven (BE)

Prof dr. Bruno Clerckx

Title: “Towards A Signal Theory for Wireless Transmission of Information and Power”

Abstract: Wireless communication has shaped our society. Wireless is however not limited to communication. Far-field wireless power has recently become recognised as feasible for energising low-power devices due to reductions in power requirements of electronics. As wireless has disrupted communication, wireless will also disrupt the delivery of energy.

Interestingly, radio waves carry both energy and information. Nevertheless, energy and information have traditionally been treated separately. Imagine instead a wireless network where information and energy flow together through the wireless medium. Wireless communication, or Wireless Information Transfer (WIT), and Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) would then refer to two extreme strategies respectively targeting communication-only and power-only. A unified Wireless Information and Power Transfer design would on the other hand have the ability to softly evolve in between those two extremes to make the best use of the RF spectrum and radiations and the network infrastructure to communicate and energize.

In this talk, I will discuss recent progress on laying the foundations of the envisioned network by establishing a novel and unified signal theory for transmission over the nonlinear wireless power channel and the linear wireless communication channel and identifying the fundamental tradeoff between conveying information and power wirelessly. Recent results on the prototyping and experimentation of those new signals will also be discussed.