Wireless power transfer empowered by reconfigurable intelligent surfaces

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) represent a significant advancement in hardware technology, enhancing both wireless energy and spectral efficiency within wireless communication systems. Comprising a programmable metasurface, RIS can adeptly manipulate the wavefronts of incident signals - encompassing parameters such as phase, amplitude, frequency, and polarisation - without necessitating complex signal processing techniques. The integration of RIS into wireless communication networks enables the strategic manipulation of radio waves, thereby mitigating the adverse effects associated with natural wireless propagation. This study examines a multi-user (MU) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless power transfer (WPT) system augmented by multiple RISs, wherein the transmitter is equipped with a constant-envelope beamformer. The optimisation of the phase shifts of the RIS and the beamformer of the transmitter is conducted jointly to maximise the total power received by users. An alternating optimisation approach is proposed, utilising the semidefinite relaxation (SDR) method. Additionally, a problem is formulated to maximise the total received power while adhering to constraints on the minimum power received by users, thereby addressing issues of user fairness. To resolve this problem, an iterative algorithm based on the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) is introduced. Analysis and simulation results indicate a significant enhancement in total received power when employing the proposed methodology compared to existing algorithms documented in the literature. Furthermore, in scenarios involving multiple users, a detailed analysis of the system's transmission performance, facilitated by RIS, is conducted. The numerical results substantiate the validity of the analysis and demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed algorithms.