Ambient RF Energy-Harvesting Technologies for Self-Sustainable Standalone Wireless Sensor Platforms

Author

Sangkil Kim ; Vyas, Raul ; Bito, Jo ; Niotaki, Kyriaki ; Collado, Ana ; Georgiadis, Anthimos ; Tentzeris, Manos M.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

102

Issue

11

fYear

2014

fDate

Nov. 2014

Firstpage

1649

Lastpage

1666

Abstract

In this paper, various ambient energy-harvesting technologies (solar, thermal, wireless, and piezoelectric) are reviewed in detail and their applicability in the development of self-sustaining wireless platforms is discussed. Specifically, far-field low-power-density energy-harvesting technology is thoroughly investigated and a benchmarking prototype of an embedded microcontroller-enabled sensor platform has been successfully powered by an ambient ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) digital TV signal (512-566 MHz) where a broadcasting antenna is 6.3 km away from the proposed wireless energy-harvesting device. A high-efficiency dual-band ambient energy harvester at 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz and an energy harvester for on-body application at 460 MHz are also presented to verify the capabilities of ambient UHF/RF energy harvesting as an enabling technology for Internet of Things and smart skins applications.

Keywords

Internet of Things; UHF radio propagation; broadcast antennas; embedded systems; energy harvesting; microcontrollers; multifrequency antennas; power engineering computing; radio broadcasting; sustainable development; telecommunication power management; wireless sensor networks; Internet of Things; ambient UHF-RF energy harvesting technology; ambient ultrahigh frequency digital TV signal; broadcasting antenna; dual band ambient energy harvester; embedded microcontroller enabled sensor; frequency 2.45 GHz; frequency 460 MHz; frequency 512 MHz to 566 MHz; frequency 915 MHz; self-sustainable standalone wireless sensor; smart skins applications; wireless energy harvesting device; Ambient networks; Charge pumps; Digital TV; Energy harvesting; Radio frequency; Renewable energy sources; Temperature sensors; Voltage measurement; Wireless communication; Wireless sensor networks; Ambient energy harvesting; RF–dc conversion; RF??dc conversion; autonomous sensors; charge pump; digital TV; dual-band rectenna; embedded microcontroller; energy harvesting; power scavenging; radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting; ultrahigh frequency (UHF); voltage multiplier; wireless power;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPROC.2014.2357031

Filename

6922609