Ambient RF energy harvesting system: a review on integrated circuit design

This paper presents a comprehensive review of ambient RF energy harvester circuitry working on integrated circuits. The review covers 3 main blocks in an RF energy harvesting system implemented on chip. The blocks are the rectifier, impedance matching circuit and power management unit. The review of each block includes its operational principle, reported state-of-the-art circuit enhancement techniques, and design trade-offs. We compare the circuits in each block with respect to the techniques adopted to improve the performances for RF energy harvesting. To identify the benefits and limitations associated with the architecture we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the circuit topologies in each block of an ambient RF energy harvester.     

A battery-less BLE smart sensor for room occupancy tracking supplied by 2.45-GHz wireless power transfer

Wireless power transfer (WPT) has emerged as a solution for supplying smart sensors for long-term battery-less deployment. Because the amount of power harvested by the smart sensor is limited due to WPT path loss, the optimization objective is twofold: achieving ultra-low-power operation for the sensing task and improving the harvesting efficiency even at low incident power. In this paper, we focus on the use case of a Bluetooth LE-connected motion detection system supplied by 2.45-GHz RF power. The full system (RF energy harvester, power management, sensor transducer and interface, control, data processing and wireless transmission) is implemented using low-power off-the-shelf components. In the sensing sub-system, ultra-low-power operation is achieved by the duty-cycling of the sensor interface and by an event-driven scheme for communication. In the harvesting sub-system, the design of the matching network and rectifier, combined with maximum power point tracking (MPPT), is optimized for increasing the power harvesting efficiency (PHE) at low incident power. Measurements show a total reduction in the power consumption for the sensing sub-system by a factor 20. When using custom WPT waveform with high peak-to-average power ratio, the RF energy harvester is functional with an incident RF power starting from −20 dBm. The smart sensor is able to perform its motion-detection task with an incident power as low as −17.3 dBm.     

Statistical analysis on ambient RF energy harvesting for low‐power wireless applications

Renewable energy sources from the earth constitute another option apart from the available ones for wellspring of energy for economizing on cost of power supply. The energy obtained from ambient sources is called energy harvesting. Energy‐harvesting low‐power systems have acquired a remarkable consideration as a viable hotspot for expanding both energy efficiency and spectral efficiency. Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting from ambient source is a promising technique for fulfilling the irreplaceable power prerequisites for powering the low‐power devices. Hence, it requires the development of an antenna for harvesting RF energy. In this paper, a coplanar waveguide (CPW) antenna has been designed and fabricated using FR4 lossy substrate. This CPW antenna covers frequency bands from the most important RF patrons (GSM 900, GSM 1800, 3G, and Wi‐Fi) within the frequency range from (0.58 to 3 GHz) with a percentage fractional bandwidth of 116% with the center frequency of 1.65 GHz. The fabricated antenna then has been experimentally validated at SSN College of Engineering campus. The effects on the RF power density level for CPW antenna are examined by statistical approach known as Taguchi method. The L9 and L8 orthogonal arrays and analysis of variance are implemented to analyze the execution qualities. The CPW antenna control factors are distance, time, and number of receivers. Then, statistical test (P) are used to determine the significant factors on RF power density.     

宽带圆极化整流天线的研究与设计

针对空间微弱射频能量收集,提出了一种宽带圆极化整流天线,其主要由射频能量接收天线和多频整流电路构成.为了获得宽频带特性,接收天线的辐射贴片采用对数周期交叉偶极子.同时,两对交叉偶极子均由环形的90°相位延迟线连接,且相互正交,从而实现天线的圆极化特性.多频整流电路由两个单阶电压倍压整流电路并联而成,为了提高整流电路的性能和效率,引入了具有两个枝节的新型阻抗匹配电路.仿真结果表明:接收天线的阻抗带宽和3 dB轴比带宽分别为1 100 MHz和350 MHz;多频整流电路的功率灵敏度达到-35 dBm,最大RF-DC整体转换效率可达76.5%.在辐射强度为6.02 μT,负载电阻为700 Ω时,测得整流天线负载端的输出电压约为139 mV,因此该整流天线适用于低功率射频能量收集应用.     

RF to DC micro-converter in standard CMOS process for on-chip power harvesting applications

In this paper a radio frequency (RF) to direct current (DC) voltage converter with multi-stage rectifiers is reported for micro power conversion in RF power harvesting systems. The purpose of this paper is to select an appropriate structure for the micro power-converters, operating in high frequencies. The main idea is to convert RF range sinusoidal signals to a DC voltage to produce power for the rest of the electrical circuit or a system. The reported rectifier demonstrated an efficiency of 10% at large span of frequency for input signal of 350 mV. In the presented work, an analytical and numerical study of the micro power-converters is reported for various applications. Different design parameters have been investigated for an efficient structure design including, number of MOSs, DC current of a known load, size of MOSFETs capacitors, and frequency of the operation. Consequently, optimized parameters have been reported in order to improve the RF to DC conversion efficiency. Reported circuits were designed and simulated in 180 nm twin-well CMOS process with low threshold metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETS); this multistage rectifier occupied an area of 0.23 mm × 0.146 mm and it produced an output voltage of 2 V at its output. This output voltage can provide the supply voltage required to operate the RFID processing circuitry. Post layout simulations demonstrated that for thirteen stages of the rectifiers, the efficiency of 10% for a capacitive load of 10 pF has been achieved.     

低功耗自供电压电能量管理电路的研究

为了提高压电能量采集系统的采集效率,该文提出了一种用于压电能量采集的自供电能量管理电路。采用基于并联同步开关感应(PSSHI)技术的有源全桥整流电路来提高压电采能器的功率,降低整流电路上的导通损耗;采用低功耗稳压降压集成芯片配合超级电容器,实现能量的高效采集存储。仿真结果表明,在模拟输出电压幅值为20 V时,该整流电路的输出功率为1.084 6 W,比传统整流电路的平均输出功率提高了16.8%,在最高输出电压为5 V时,30 s内储存能量可以达到4.137 1 J。     

An Ultra-Low-Power Integrated RF Energy Harvesting System in 65-nm CMOS Process

In recent years, radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting systems have gained significant interest as inexhaustible replacements for traditional batteries in RF identification and wireless sensor network nodes. This paper presents an ultra-low-power integrated RF energy harvesting circuit in a SMIC 65-nm standard CMOS process. The presented circuit mainly consists of an impedance-matching network, a 10-stage rectifier with order-2 threshold compensation and an ultra-low-power power manager unit (PMU). The PMU consists of a voltage sensor, a voltage limiter and a capacitor-less low-dropout regulator. In the charge mode, the power consumption of the proposed energy harvesting circuit is only 97 nA, and the RF input power can be as low as \(-\)21.4 dBm \((7.24\,\upmu \hbox {W})\). In the burst mode, the device can supply a 1.0-V DC output voltage with a maximum 10-mA load current. The simulated results demonstrate that the modified RF rectifier can obtain a maximum efficiency of 12 % with a 915-MHz RF input. The circuit can operate over a temperature range from \(-40\hbox { to }125\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\) which exceeds the achievable temperature performance of previous RF energy harvesters in standard CMOS process.     

Analyzing lifetime of energy harvesting underwater wireless sensor nodes

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are utilized to monitor underwater environments that pose many challenges to researchers. One of the key complications of UWSNs is the difficulty of changing node batteries after their energy is depleted. This study aims to diminish the issues related to battery replacement by improving node lifetime. For this goal, three energy harvesting devices (turbine harvester, piezoelectric harvester, and hydrophone harvester) are analyzed to quantitate their impacts on node lifetime. In addition, two different power management schemes (schedule‐driven and event‐driven power management schemes) are combined with energy harvesters for further lifetime improvement. Performance evaluations via simulations show that energy harvesting methods joined by power management schemes can improve node lifetime substantially when actual conditions of Istanbul Bosporus Strait are considered. In this respect, turbine harvester makes the biggest impact and provides lifetime beyond 2000 days for most cases, while piezoelectric harvester can perform the same only for low duty cycle or event arrival values at short transmission ranges.     

环境射频能量收集技术的研究进展及应用

随着超低功耗集成电路技术的发展,电子微系统的功耗已进入微瓦（μW）级范围,使其利用周围环境中的射频能量为自身供电成为可能。在回顾无线能量传输的历史以及介绍环境射频能量收集的可行性及其应用研究成果和进展的基础上,分析环境射频能量收集在超低功耗电子微系统中广泛应用所面临的关键技术、难点以及可能的解决方法;最后讨论了环境射频能量收集技术的发展方向,使该领域有待于研究的问题和方向更加具体化、明确化。     

射频/微波能量收集系统的整流电路研究进展

射频/微波能量收集系统以可持续、环保等优点在无线传感器网络、可穿戴设备等领域具有广泛应用前景。对近年来射频/微波能量收集系统的整流电路的研究进展进行了概述。分析并讨论了整流电路的技术指标和电路结构,分别从器件研究和电路设计两个方面对整流电路的研究进展进行分析、归纳。从原理、性能提升等方面分析具有低的零偏压电阻值的自旋二极管应用于微瓦量级信号整流电路的潜力;从微弱信号整流、宽输入功率范围信号整流、高功率转换效率整流、阻抗去敏感化4个方面分析了整流电路设计的关键问题,归纳出有效的解决途径并对整流电路的发展趋势进行了展望。     

射频能量捕获传感网移动能量源的布置策略研究

射频能量捕获传感网（RF Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Network,RFEH-WSN）由专用射频能量源设备（Energy Transmitter,ET）和具有射频能量捕获功能的传感器节点（Energy Harvesting Recevier,简称EHR）组成.该网络解决了传感器网络中电池不易更换与节点能量容易耗尽的问题,使得RFEH-WSN应用前景更加广阔.RFEH-WSN应用中一个值得研究的问题是如何布置ET的充电位置,降低ET能耗且提高覆盖率.已有的工作主要考虑ET布置中单目标优化问题,如最小充电时间、最小功耗、最大覆盖率等.本文以时间最小和覆盖率最大为目标建立多目标优化模型,并提出利用粒子群算法（Particle Swarm Optimization,PSO）求解多目标函数（Multiple Object Program,MOP）的低复杂度近似算法,获得了最优Pareto解集.仿真结果表明,多目标优化可以满足不同情况的需求,提高充电效用.     

A self-powered piezoelectric energy harvesting interface circuit with efficiency-enhanced P-SSHI rectifier

The key to self-powered technique is initiative to harvest energy from the surrounding environment.Harvesting energy from an ambient vibration source utilizing piezoelectrics emerged as a popular method.Efficient interface circuits become the main limitations of existing energy harvesting techniques.In this paper,an interface circuit for piezoelectric energy harvesting is presented.An active full bridge rectifier is adopted to improve the power efficiency by reducing the conduction loss on the rectifying path.A parallel synchronized switch harvesting on inductor (P-SSHI) technique is used to improve the power extraction capability from piezoelectric harvester,thereby trying to reach the theoretical maximum output power.An intermittent power management unit (IPMU) and an output capacitor-less low drop regulator (LDO) are also introduced.Active diodes (AD) instead of traditional passive ones are used to reduce the voltage loss over the rectifier,which results in a good power efficiency.The IPMU with hysteresis comparator ensures the interface circuit has a large transient output power by limiting the output voltage ranges from 2.2 to 2 V.The design is fabricated in a SMIC 0.18μm CMOS technology.Simulation results show that the flipping efficiency of the P-SSHI circuit is over 80％ with an off-chip inductor value of 820 μH.The output power the proposed rectifier can obtain is 44.4μW,which is 6.7× improvement compared to the maximum output power of a traditional rectifier.Both the active diodes and the P-SSHI help to improve the output power of the proposed rectifier.LDO outputs a voltage of 1.8 V with the maximum 90％ power efficiency.The proposed P-SSHI rectifier interface circuit can be self-powered without the need for additional power supply.     

一种悬臂梁式MSMA振动能量采集器研究

振动能量在自然界中广泛存在,利用智能材料收集振动能量为微电子系统供电是新能源领域的发展趋势。该文利用新型智能材料磁控形状记忆合金（MSMA）的逆效应研究设计了一种基于悬臂梁式的MSMA振动能量采集器,对采集器的各部分结构进行理论分析和系统设计,并建立了振动能量采集器的结构模型。利用ANSYS软件对磁场进行有限元分析,验证了磁场回路和磁感应强度满足采集振动能量的要求。在此基础上,研制了采集器样机,并通过搭建实验平台对采集器进行实验测试,结果表明,该悬臂梁式MSMA振动能量采集器具有较宽的振动能量采集频带,输出电压可达220 mV,为振动能量的收集利用提供了参考依据。     

Study of Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester with non-linear conditioning circuit using an integrated model

Piezoelectric vibration energy harvester (PVEH) consists of a cantilever bimorph with piezoelectric layers pasted on its top and bottom, which can harvest power from vibrations and feed to low power wireless sensor nodes through some power conditioning circuit. In this paper, a non-linear conditioning circuit, consisting of a full-bridge rectifier followed by a buck–boost converter, is employed to investigate the issues of electrical side of the energy harvesting system. An integrated mathematical model of complete electromechanical system has been developed. Previously, researchers have studied PVEH with sophisticated piezo-beam models but employed simplistic linear circuits, such as resistor, as electrical load. In contrast, other researchers have worked on more complex non-linear circuits but with over-simplified piezo-beam models. Such models neglect different aspects of the system which result from complex interactions of its electrical and mechanical subsystems. In this work, authors have integrated the distributed parameter-based model of piezo-beam presented in literature with a real world non-linear electrical load. Then, the developed integrated model is employed to analyse the stability of complete energy harvesting system. This work provides a more realistic and useful electromechanical model having realistic non-linear electrical load unlike the simplistic linear circuit elements employed by many researchers.     

RF calibration of on-chip DfT chain by DC stimuli and statistical multivariate regression technique

The problem of parameter variability in RF and analog circuits is escalating with CMOS scaling. Consequently every RF chip produced in nano-meter CMOS technologies needs to be tested. On-chip Design for Testability (DfT) features, which are meant to reduce test time and cost also suffer from parameter variability. Therefore, RF calibration of all on-chip test structures is mandatory. In this paper, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are employed as a multivariate regression technique to architect a RF calibration scheme for DfT chain using DC- instead of RF (GHz) stimuli. The use of DC stimuli relaxes the package design and on-chip routing that results in test cost reduction. A DfT circuit (RF detector, Test-ADC, Test-DAC and multiplexers) designed in 65 nm CMOS is used to demonstrate the proposed calibration scheme. The simulation results show that the cumulative variation in a DfT circuit due to process and mismatch can be estimated and successfully calibrated, i.e. 25% error due to process variation in DfT circuit can be reduced to 2.5% provided the input test stimuli is large in magnitude. This reduction in error makes parametric tests feasible to classify the bad and good dies especially before expensive RF packaging.     

A wideband high gain dielectric resonator antenna for RF energy harvesting application

A novel high gain and broadband hybrid dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is designed and experimentally validated. To obtain the wide impedance bandwidth, the proposed antenna geometry combines the dielectric resonator antenna and an underlying slot with a narrow rectangular notch, which effectively broadens the impedance bandwidth by merging the resonances of the slot and DRA. An inverted T-shaped feed line is used to excite both antennas, simultaneously. It supports amalgamation of different resonant modes of the both, DRA and slot antenna. The measured results show that the proposed antenna offers an impedance bandwidth of 120% from 1.67 to 6.7 GHz. The antenna gain is next enhanced by a reflector placed below the antenna at an optimum distance. On engineering the height and dimension of this reflector the antenna gain is improved from 2.2 dBi to 8.7 dBi at 1.7 GHz. Finally, antenna operation is attested experimentally with a rectifier circuit in the frequency range of 1.8–3.6 GHz, where various strong radio signals are freely available for RF energy harvesting. The measured maximum efficiency of the rectifier and rectenna circuit were found to be 74.4% and 61.4%, respectively.     

可编程RF收发器CC1100的原理及开发

介绍了Chipcon公司推出的一款具有极低功耗的可编程RF收发器CC1100的功能特点,给出了CC1100的应用电路设计及芯片配置方法,最后讨论了RF开发中常见的问题及解决方案.     

Novel miniaturized folded UWB microstrip antenna‐based metamaterial for RF energy harvesting

This paper presents a design of an ultra‐wideband (UWB) cylindrical metamaterial (MTM) antenna for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting to suit the fields of Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The patch circuitry is based on 3×5 Hilbert‐shaped MTM unit cells array to enhance the antenna bandwidth. While, the antenna ground plane is defected with an electromagnetic band gap structure to enhance the gain. The antenna is mounted on a polytetrafluoroethylene cylindrical substrate of an outer diameter of 15 mm and length of 32 mm with 1 mm in thickness. The substrate relative permittivity is 2.04, and the loss tangent is 0.0002. The antenna patch and the ground plane structures are printed with silver nanoparticles ink using a ^2.5D CNC plotter machine. The fabricated prototype provides an UWB over the frequency range from 3.77 up to 13.89 GHz with a first separate resonant mode at 3 GHz. The antenna performance is tested numerically using two different software packages of CST MWS and HFSS. Then, an experimental validation is conducted to realize the performance of the proposed antenna in harvesting the RF energy. Excellent conversion efficiency, about 90%, is achieved at 5.8 GHz. Finally, the antenna radiation patterns and S₁₁ spectrum are measured and compared against their simulated results to achieve good agreements.     

拨动式上变频压电俘能器的设计与研究

该文提出了一种基于弹簧振动平台的上变频压电俘能器,解决了低频振动能量收集效率低的问题。分析了压电悬臂梁输出功率与激励频率的三次方正相关,解释了采用上变频收集低频振动能量的原因。应用赫兹接触理论分析了拨片与压电悬臂梁的接触力,建立了拨动式激励的压电俘能器机电耦合模型。在综合考虑重叠长度和拨片厚度等影响因素后,选取厚度0.1 mm矩形不锈钢拨片。实验表明,在1g（g=9.8 m/s²）、5.67 Hz的激励信号下,单拨动式上变频V25W型压电悬臂梁输出功率可达9.6 mW,具有很强的低频能量收集性能。     

Cognitive radio network with continuous energy‐harvesting

In this paper, the performance of a cooperative cognitive radio (CR) network is investigated under continuous energy harvesting scenario. A CR node harvests energy from both the sources: non‐radio frequency (RF) signal (ambient sources) or from RF signal (primary user signal). It harvests from non‐RF signal during sensing time of its detection cycle, and from both the sources, RF signal and non‐RF signal, during transmission time as per sensing decision. Several novel analytical expressions are developed to indicate the harvested energy, energy reward, energy cost in a detection frame, and throughput. The performance of the CR network is investigated to maximize the throughput considering energy causality constraints and collision constraints. Analytical results are validated through extensive simulation results. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.