A High-Efficiency and Wide-Input Range RF Energy Harvester Using Multiple Rectenna and Adaptive Matching

Abstract

In this paper, a Radio Frequency (RF) energy harvester (EH) system for Internet of Things (IoT)-related applications is presented. The proposed EH architecture operates at 5.2 GHz band and utilizes multiple rectenna. This approach enhances the efficiency of the whole system over a wide dynamic RF input range. In the presented circuit, configuration of the rectenna is controlled by Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with respect to the input power level of the received RF input signal. In addition, an automatic adaptive matching based on the configuration of the rectenna, level of the received signal, and load current adjusts the matching network. The rectenna is realized through the Radio Frequency-Direct Current (RF-DC) converter composed of two Schottky diodes and generates the output DC voltage. Finally, a buck-boost converter provides the flattened and fixed voltage for the IoT and wearable devices. The 5.2 GHz band reconfigurable system demonstrates 67% high efficiency and 6.1 V output DC voltage where the power level of RF input is +20 dBm. The main application of the proposed structure is for charging wearable smart devices such as a smart watch and bracelet.

Keywords

• rf energy harvester
• power conversion efficiency
• rectenna
• iot/wearable devices
• adaptive matching
• wide input range