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The transfer of energy from a source to a receiver has traditionally needed the use of a physical connection. Recently, there has been much interest into the area of wireless power transfer (WPT), that is, the transmission of power without the need for a physical connection. Research into WPT, however, is nothing new, as experiments in the field took place as far back as Nikola Tesla in the early 20th century. WPT has been made feasible in recent years due to advances in technology and better implementations of transfer techniques, such as microwave power transfer (MPT). The MPT system works by converting power to microwaves through a microwave generator and then transmitting that power through free space where it is received and converted back to power at a device called a rectenna (rectifier antenna).

Modern commercial vehicles incorporate sensors, actuator motors, lighting, switches, and electronic intelligent systems from all sorts of componentry to provide vital information for the electronic control units (ECUs). The ECUs then utilize the input for various control functions and output applications. In the current commercial vehicle architecture, the components are connected to the ECUs via physical wires. As the number of electronic components keep increasing with the development of new features in commercial vehicles, the number of in-vehicle sensors could be more than a few hundred in the near future. Physical wires between the ECUs and components could become problematic due to the following reasons:

• Wires are expensive. Wires are usually shielded so that they are heat and interference resistant. The cost of the materials as well as the engineering efforts to design the layout of the wires will become more significant with the increase in the number of electronic components;

• Wires are heavy. Wires and wiring harness are among the heaviest components in a commercial vehicle and could have a large impact on fuel efficiency in the near future;

• Wires are restrictive. There are several locations in a vehicle where sensors cannot be deployed with the current wired architecture; e.g., steering wheel, tires, and windshields; and finally but not last

• Wires are faulty. They endure corrosion, separation, abrasions, pulls and snags, melting, etc. This leads to time consuming diagnostics where usually the component or ECU is replaced for simplicity and the fault is still active.