A tuned rectifier for RF energy harvesting from ambient radiations

Abstract

A circuit topology based on accumulate-and-use philosophy has been developed to harvest RF energy from ambient radiations such as those from cellular towers. Main functional units of this system are antenna, tuned rectifier, supercapacitor, a gated boost converter and the necessary power management circuits. Various RF aspects of the design philosophy for maximizing the conversion efficiency at an input power level of 15μW are presented here. The system is characterized in an anechoic chamber and it has been established that this topology can harvest RF power densities as low as 180μW/m2 and can adaptively operate the load depending on the incident radiation levels. The output of this system can be easily configured at a desired voltage in the range 2.2–4.5V. A practical CMOS load – a low power wireless radio module has been demonstrated to operate intermittently by this approach. This topology can be easily modified for driving other practical loads, from harvested RF energy at different frequencies and power levels.