RF Energy Harvesting for WSNs

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), one of the prominent areas of research, provide a key background framework for the Internet of things (IoT). The key components of WSNs are sensors/actuators, embedded controllers, and connectivity devices (wireless/wired) through which data/information is communicated. One major challenge is to provide incessant supply to these enormous smart connected devices, which are mainly battery operated. RF harvesting energy provides an encouraging and economically friendly solution to provide low power DC supply from the harvested RF energy sources such as Wi-Fi, GSM, radio/TV broadcasting stations, radar, and so on. Quite a few research studies are on-going in the development of RF energy harvesting (RFEH) systems, which pose various challenges as compact antenna design, wide bandwidth, and overall DC conversion efficiency. An overview of the different RFEH systems with the challenges in designing the antenna, rectifier design, and matching circuit design is reported to afford the readers/researchers a general framework for designing RFEH systems.