Abstract
Radio frequency (RF) based wireless power transfer provides an attractive solution to extend the lifetime of power-constrained wireless sensor networks. Through harvesting RF energy from surrounding environments or dedicated energy sources, low-power wireless devices can be self-sustaining and environment-friendly. These features make the RF energy harvesting wireless communication (RF-EHWC) technique attractive to a wide range of applications. The objective of this article is to investigate the latest research activities on the practical RF-EHWC design. The distribution of RF energy in the real environment, the hardware design of RF-EHWC devices and the practical issues in the implementation of RF-EHWC networks are discussed. At the end of this article, we introduce several interesting applications that exploit the RF-EHWC technology to provide smart healthcare services for animals, wirelessly charge the wearable devices, and implement 5G-assisted RF-EHWC.
Highlights
Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting has been envisioned as a promising method to drive low-power wireless systems [1]
Devices typically have light-weight structures compared to conventional facilities that collect renewable energy from wind, tide, and biomass. They can be small in size, which allows them to work in applications where space and costs are critical [2,3]
Early results published in [28] show that in the very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) TV bands, the RF radiation power is lower than 0.1 μW/cm2 for 95% population in US cities; only less than 1% population receive exposures higher than 1 μW/cm2
Summary
Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting has been envisioned as a promising method to drive low-power wireless systems [1]. The RF energy harvesting wireless communication (RF-EHWC) technique introduces several attractive features into communication and sensing networks. It gives low-power wireless devices the self-sustainability, which allows those devices to operate semi-perpetually. RF-EHWC devices typically have light-weight structures compared to conventional facilities that collect renewable energy from wind, tide, and biomass. They can be small in size, which allows them to work in applications where space and costs are critical [2,3]
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