RF Energy

Harvesting
Electromagnetics Term Paper
Abderaouf Badjadja @48907

In the past few decades, Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvesting has
established itself as a prominent technology for energy renewal of wireless
sensor networks in low power electronics. Radio Frequency energy is
basically the electric energies ionize the surrounding medium to flow through
air. The idea of wireless energy transfer is rather old as it was first presented
by Tesla a century ago. Nowadays, we can see implementation of this type of
energy in radio frequency identity tags as well as other systems. In this
paper, RF energy harvesting system design and techniques will be presented
along with the different application depending on this kind of energy as well
as the various benefits and drawbacks of integrating it in different systems.
RF Energy Harvesting: System Design and Techniques
The RF energy harvesting system consists of different subsystems.
First is the application, a low-power microcontroller to route the information
from the application, a low-power RF transceiver that handles data
transmission and reception, an energy harvester that works on converting
the RF signals energy into electricity, a power management module which
chooses either to store the electricity attained from the RF harvester or use it
for data transmission directly, and lastly, an energy storage unit or a battery
[1]. The received energy flow is handled by the power management module
in two different ways, either harvest-use or harvest-store-use. In the first
technique, the gathered energy is instantly processed to enable the network
node. Hence, the energy converted has to always surpass the least energy
demand of the node in order for the network node to be powered on. Whilst
in the harvest-store-use technique, the excess energy that is left after the
nodes consumption is stored in a rechargeable battery or an energy storage
unit for later use [1].

Fig. 1. A general design of an RF energy harvesting system

A radio frequency energy harvester consists of three different core

components [1]. The first module being the receiving antenna which
basically acts to receive the ambient RF energy in order to enable the
integrated system within. An antenna can be optimized to work on a number

of frequency bands which enables RF energy harvesting from a number of

sources at the same time. Nonetheless, the RF energy harvester functions
over a band of frequencies because of the diversity of frequencies amongst
energy density of RF signals [1]. The second component is the rectifier circuit
which functions to extract and convert the power of radio frequency signals
into direct current voltage. Diodes are the main component of the rectifier
circuit as they convert the AC signals into DC voltage and the lower the builtin voltage of the diode, the higher the conversion efficiency is [1]. Whilst the
capacitor in the rectifier is responsible for smoothing the delivery of power
into the load. Also, whenever RF energy is unobtainable, the capacitor could
act as a reserve for a short period of time [1]. The third component of the
energy harvester is the matching network which is a resonator circuit that
works on minimizing the transmission losses between the antenna and the
rectifier as well as increasing the input voltage of the rectifier. The matching
circuit consists of reactive parts like capacitors and coils which are not
dissipative. To achieve maximum power transfer, the impedances of both the
antenna output and the load have to be conjugates to each other. For the
moment, there are only three matching circuits for RF energy harvesting that
are available, the transformer, the LC network and the shunt inductor [1].
The need to design an antenna and a rectifier circuit with high efficiency is
critical in order to optimize an RF harvesting system. In a study conducted by
[2], it was found that connecting a high Q capacitor in parallel to the
magnetically coupled antenna, as well as coiling the rectangular antenna in a
recurrent eight times sequence had resulted in a very efficient transfer of
energy. It was also found that when designing a rectifier circuit, determining
the proper number of rectification stages is vital, the less the rectification
stages were, the less the output DC voltage was. However, increasing the
number of stages beyond an optimal point, that was determined through
experimentation, had resulted in a reduced system Q and DC output voltage.

Fig. 2. A basic RF energy harvester module

Another research done in [3] looked at different types of antennas and

rectifiers in terms of efficiency and drawbacks. The paper reflects on systems

presented by other studies in which circuits were able to convert input power
at -20 dBm level. Furthermore, different antenna and rectifier designs were
considered. The presented research compared RF energy harvesting in (0.22.4) GHz frequency range between three diverse designs of the spiral
antenna, a Hexagonal spiral antenna, an Archimedean spiral antenna and a
Square spiral antenna. Obtaining 5dB and 4.8dB consecutively at 2.4 GHz
frequency, both the Archimedean and Square antennas attained higher gain
than the hexagonal antenna. However, the hexagonal spiral antennas form
is close to a circular shape which has a better coverage area in terms of the
printed circuit board (PCB) since it accommodates several spirals. The
hexagonal spiral also had better broadband generation though upholding its
packing conformity. The paper went on to discuss different types of rectifier
circuits, the basic rectifier, the voltage doubler and the voltage multiplier.
The Cockroft Walton voltage multiplier was presented as an example that
could be implemented in the RF harvesting circuit. This voltage multiplier is
able to convert the radio frequency signal energy into DC voltage through a
circuit of various capacitors and diodes. The main advantage of this voltage
multiplier was the fact that it could obtain a DC voltage which is tens of
times the peak AC input voltage. However, this type of rectifier is limited in
terms of current capacity and regulation [3].
RF energy harvesting can distinguish itself from other sources such as
solar and wind energy with a number of features. First off, RF sources can
deliver well-regulated and continuous energy transfer at a distance for the
energy harvesters. To add on, because of the fixed distance, the gathered
energy is foreseeable and fairly steady over time. Additionally, RF energy
harvesting network nodes can have different harvested energies in different
sites since the amount of energy mainly depends on the distance from the
source [1]. The RF energy sources are generally categorized into two kinds,
dedicated RF energy sources and ambient RF energy sources. To start off,
dedicated RF sources can be installed in order to provide energy to enable
the RF energy harvesting nodes whenever a more foreseeable energy source
is required. Dedicated RF energy sources can be mobile and hence could
move occasionally and transmit energy to network nodes. However, this type
of sources faces some disadvantages which will be discussed later in this
paper. The second kind of RF energy sources is the ambient RF source.
Ambient RF sources are basically radio frequency transmitters that,
unintentionally, transfer RF energy. The rage of the transferred power
6
extends drastically TV towers with 10 W transmitted to 10 W for RFID
systems, to about 0.1 W for cellular devices and WiFi systems [1]. Ambient
RF sources are also categorized into two types, static ambient sources and
dynamic ambient sources. The static ambient sources are ones that transfer
a fairly steady power over time, they include both radio and TV towers [1].
However, as much as static ambient RF sources can transmit foreseeable RF
energy, there could be fluctuations because of TV and radio schedule.
Whereas the dynamic ambient RF energy sources only work every period of

time such as a WiFi access point. In order to harvest energy in a range of

frequencies from these sources, RF energy harvesting systems have to be
intelligent and be able to adapt [1].
Applications
RF energy harvesting has grown to accommodate a number of
applications. Perhaps one of the most used applications for this technology is
the wireless sensor networks. To exemplify, the authors in [1] review an
experiment conducted in which a transmitter powered by RF signals energy
was designed, the transmitter supported two bands of frequencies, 915 MHz
downlink and 2.45 GHz uplink. The device was able to achieve an average
data rate of 5 kbps and a maximum instantaneous rate of 5 Mbps. Another
attractive application for RF energy harvesting lies in the healthcare/medical
domain. Low power medical devices could attain real-time power from
dedicated RF energy sources. This kind of application provides a battery-free
device which basically helps in reducing the size of the circuit. Radio
frequency identification (RFID) is also being used broadly in identification and
tracking of inventory. The recent progress in RF energy harvesting can
prolong both the operation and lifetime of customary RFID tags. Furthermore,
one of the most exciting research areas in the topic of RF energy harvesting
is the possibility of integrating the technology to add a charging capability to
low power electronics like MP3 players, wireless mouse and keyboard,
hearing aids, as such devices only consume small amounts of power.
Moreover, one paper [1] has stated the possible use of the harvested RF
energy in monitoring the levels of pollution by constructing a wireless
environmental pollution sensor. One major benefit would be the fact that
such a sensor would not require a power supply/battery as they can be
powered from the scattered RF energy that is emitted from cellular devices
and hence they would be switched on when enough energy to run the
pollution sensors is gathered and stored [4]. Remote activation is also a
prominent application of RF harvesting technology since its integration would
allow a non-continuous broadcast and it could also save the power that
otherwise would have been consumed because of the unceasing broadcast.
Having mentioned all these different applications, there is one system that
could surely make use of this energy harvesting technique in a big way [4].
One of the most intriguing features of smart homes are its automation
systems. RF energy harvesting could eliminate the need for wiring in this
kind of houses since RF energy will handle powering the different systems,
with each system in every room acting independently and having their own
source [4].

Fig. 3. RF-energy-powered smart-home

Advantages and Drawbacks

There is no doubt that RF energy harvesting has a great potential in
terms of applications and uses [4]. This type of energy is omnipresent, it can
be found anywhere. Therefore, it can be used in powering small electronics,
whilst different systems that rely on solar power for example could be
restricted to certain locations. To add on, RF energy could be considered as a
renewable/feasible power source and even as a substitute for electricity in
some cases [4]. Also, it could reduce the need for batteries as it could be
used to charge low power electronics. However, it is inevitable to have
disadvantages for any modern technology nowadays. One of the major
issues standing in the face of RF energy harvesting is its effect on human
health [4]. Signal power of high frequency especially those transmitted by
dedicated RF sources are regulated which limits the transferred power and
hence needing multiple dedicated RF sources to provide the power needed.
And that causes another problem which is high cost, since the installment of
dedicated RF sources is costly [4]. Another drawback to this technology is
that up till now RF harvester do not deliver enough power for mechanical
movements as there is not any technology that can harvest energy that
efficiently [4].
RF energy harvesting remains a young yet a most intriguing energy
source. It is still in the phase of development but so are solar power, wind
energy and many others. Constant improvement on efficacy of the RF energy

harvesting network system and circuit design is critical in order to achieve

maximum power converted and received. Current applications on this
technology are far-reaching, the fact that this energy source can be
accessible anywhere and everywhere makes it easier to fabricate devices
like the environmental pollution sensor and the wireless network sensors.
Also, ambient RF energy sources could pave the way for RF powered medical
devices and even RF energy based automation for smart homes. Drawbacks
such as the effects human health, the low power provided and the high cost
of installing ambient RF energy sources have to be tackled in order for this
technology to be used in a wide range.

Refrences

[1] X. Lu, P. Wang, D. Niyato, D. Kim and Z. Han, 'Wireless Networks With RF
Energy Harvesting: A Contemporary Survey', IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutorials,
vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 757-789, 2015.
[2] T. Beng Lim, N. Lee and B. Poh, 'Feasibility study on ambient RF energy
harvesting for wireless sensor network', 2013 IEEE MTT-S International
MicrowaveWorkshop Series on RF and Wireless Technologies for Biomedical
and Healthcare Applications (IMWS-BIO), 2013.
[3] Z, Zakaria et al., Current Developments of RF Energy Harvesting System
for Wireless Sensor Networks, AISS, vol. 5, no. 11, pp. 328-338, 2013.
[4] Deep, P., Rohan, M., Rhythm, P., Sahil, T., Shivani, C.,"RF Energy
Harvesting", International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology
(IJETT), vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 382-385, Oct 2014.