Highly Sensitive and Compact Quad-Band Ambient RF Energy Harvester

Abstract

A highly efficient and compact quad band energy harvester (QBEH) circuit based on the extended composite right and left handed transmission lines (ECRLHTLs) technique is presented.The design procedure based on ECRLHTLs at four desired frequency bands is introduced to realize a quad band matching network (QBMN).The proposed QBEH operates at four frequency bands f1=0.75 GHz,f2=1.8 GHz,f3=2.4 GHz and f4=5.8 GHz. The simulations and experimental results of the proposed QBEH exhibit overall (end to end) efficiency of 55percent and 70percent while excited at four frequency bands simultaneously with negative 20dBm (10 microWatt) and negative 10dBm (100 microWatt) input power, respectively.Due to applying multi band excitation technique and radio frequency (RF) combining method in the QBEH circuit, the sensitivity is improved, and sufficient power is generated to realize a self sustainable sensor (S3) using ambient low level RF signals.A favorable impedance matching over a broad low input power range of negative 50 to negative 10 dBm (0.01 to 100 microWatt) is achieved, enabling the proposed QBEH to harvest ambient RF energy in urban environments. Moreover, an accurate theoretical analyses based on the Volterra series and Laplace transformation are presented to maximize the output DC current of the rectifier over a wide input power range.Theoretical, simulation and measurement results are in excellent agreement, which validate the design accuracy for the proposed quad band structure.The proposed new energy harvesting technique has the potential to practically realize a green energy harvesting solution to generate a viable energy source for low powered sensors and IoT devices, anytime, anywhere.