RF Energy-based Smart Harvesting Systems

 Energy and the environment have both become a matter of concern among researchers worldwide. There are several forms of energy present in the environment; therefore, utilizing these resources is preferred. In the modern world, the evolution of energy harvesting has received a lot of attention. Various energy harvesting topologies like solar, vibrational, piezoelectric, RF (radio frequency), etc., are available, but RF energy harvesting has a bright future in generating a small amount of electric power that drives various power-constrained electronic devices due to its easy availability and self-sustainability. The circuitry, which converts RF energy into DC output, is termed the rectenna unit of the model. The rectenna unit consists of receiving antenna followed by the matching network and rectifier. The aim of this chapter is to provide a detailed review of various technical aspects of radio frequency energy harvesting, which have been showing a great proliferation in the designing of the RF energy harvesting model. Comparative analysis of different topologies of each aspect is also performed.

Keywords: Antenna, Energy Harvesting, Impedance, Matching-network, MOSFET, Radio frequency, Rectenna, Rectifier, Threshold, Voltage-Compensation.