An Innovative Design of RF Energy Harvester for Wireless Sensor Devices

Abstract

Due to growing demand of energy, green technologies are highly attractive among researchers because of their non-conventional nature. Energy harvesting is one of their best parts. Very low cost of maintenance and non-polluting nature are major reasons behind their growing demand. However, for ultra-low power applications, such as in wireless sensor devices, the energy scavenging from RF signal is another alternative. In the last few years, a great interest has been seen in microwave power scavenging for charging wireless devices. This chapter presents a RF energy harvesting circuit with tuned π-matching network that resonates at desired incident RF frequency to boost these signals. Various computer intelligent techniques have been used to optimize parameters value of matching circuit. The designed circuit has been analyzed for input power range from -30 dBm to 0 dBm. Approximately 80% maximum PCE is achieved at RF input of 0 dBm with 4 KΩ load. It is also demonstrated that better output power is produced for power range -15 dBm to 0 dBm at higher load values.