RF Energy Harvesting System for Wireless Sensor Devices: A Review

Abstract

In present era several companies and research groups are developing enhanced technologies which help to increase the operating lifetime of battery used in wireless sensor devices. Energy harvesting from ambient radio frequency becomes an attractive and trendy solution for energizing the devices of wireless sensor networks. Abundant availability of RF power from number of cell phone towers, Wi-Fi networks and DTH transmitters ensure that ample amount of power may be harvested from ISM band and after RF to DC conversion used in various low power applications. In this paper a thorough review on existing techniques of various RF power harvesting circuit comprised of different RF to DC converter and matching network with their characteristics and applications is presented. The possibility of harvesting circuit is also explored. Authors also discussed various design issues for developing the RF energy harvester.