Title: Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Systems
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Title: Radio frequency energy harvesting for autonomous systems Name: Ivan K. Ivanov This is a digitised version of a dissertation submitted to the University of Bedfordshire. It is available to view only. This item is subject to copyright. RADIO FREQUENCY ENERGY HARVESTING FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS by IVAN K. IVANOV A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2018 Declaration of Authorship I, Ivan Ivanov declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are my own and has been generated by me as the result of my own original research. Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Systems I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have cited the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Either none of this work has been published before submission, or parts of this work have been published as indicated in Section 4.2. Name of candidate: Signature: Date: Abstract Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting (RFEH) is a technology which enables wireless power delivery to multiple devices from a single energy source. The main components of this technology are the antenna and the rectifying circuitry that converts the RF signal into DC power. The devices which are using Radio Frequency (RF) power may be integrated into Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), biomedical implants, Internet of Things (IoT), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), smart meters, telemetry systems and may even be used to charge mobile phones. Aside from autonomous systems such as WSNs and RFID, the multi-billion portable electronics market – from GSM phones to MP3 players – would be an attractive application for RF energy harvesting if the power requirements are met. To investigate the potential for ambient RFEH, several RF site surveys were conducted around London. Using the results from these surveys, various harvesters were designed and tested for different frequency bands from the RF sources with the highest power density within the Medium Wave (MW), ultra- and super-high (UHF and SHF) frequency spectrum. Prototypes were fabricated and tested for each of the bands and proved that a large urban area around Brookmans park radio centre is suitable location for harvesting ambient RF energy. Although the RFEH offers very good efficiency performance, if a single antenna is considered, the maximum power delivered is generally not enough to power all the elements of an autonomous system. In this thesis we present techniques for optimising the power efficiency of the RFEH device under demanding conditions such as ultra-low power densities, arbitrary polarisation and diverse load impedances. Subsequently, an energy harvesting ferrite rod rectenna is designed to power up a wireless sensor and its transmitter, generating dedicated Medium Wave (MW) signals in an indoor environment. Harvested power management, application scenarios and practical results are also presented. V Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to many people who supported me during the course of my studies. I would like to first say a very big thank you to my first supervisor Dr. Ben Allen for all the support and encouragement he gave me from the beginning until the very end of my study. Thanks to Dr. Vladan Velisavljevic for his support and supervisory role and also to Dr. Masood UrRehman for his input. My deep appreciation goes also to David Jazani. His excellent support during the field trials has made an invaluable contribution towards my PhD. I am grateful to all my friends and colleagues in Milton Keynes who were always so helpful in numerous ways during my time at UCMK. I am happy that I have had the opportunity to meet them. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my family for supporting me throughout writing this thesis. They are the most important people in my world and I dedicate this thesis to them. VI Publications 1. Ivanov, I., Rehman, M. U., & Allen, (2016) B. Printed Microstrip Antenna for Harvesting Energy from Mobile Phone Base Stations. In Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2016 10th European Conference on (pp. 2–6). 2. Allen, B., Jazani, D., Dyo, V., Ajmal, T., & Ivanov, I. (2014). Design and optimisation of compact RF energy harvesting device for smart applications. Electronics Letters, 50(2), 111–113. 3. Dyo, V., Allen, B., Jazani, D., Ivanov, I., & Ajmal, T. (2013). Design of a ferrite rod antenna for harvesting energy from medium wave broadcast signals. The Journal of Engineering, 1–8. 4. Ivanov, I, Allen, B., Rehman, M. U. (2013). Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting from medium waves AM broadcast signals. ARSR-SWICOM 2013 Conference VII Table of contents Abstract ........................................................................................................... V Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ VI Publications ................................................................................................... VII Table of contents ............................................................................................ IX List of Figures ................................................................................................ XIII List of Tables ................................................................................................ XVII Acronyms .................................................................................................... XVIII Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................... 1 1.1. Aim and objectives ......................................................................... 3 1.2. System description ......................................................................... 5 1.3. RF energy sources .......................................................................... 7 1.4. RFEH applications ......................................................................... 10 1.5. RF power density of MW transmissions ...................................... 13 1.6. RF signal duty cycle ...................................................................... 18 1.7. Structure of the thesis and contributions .................................... 21 Chapter 2 State-of-the-art in RF Energy Harvesting .............................. 24 2.1. History of RFEH ............................................................................. 25 2.2. Literature review of RFEH ............................................................ 27 2.2.1. RFEH from dedicated energy sources .............................. 32 2.2.2. RFEH from ambient energy sources ................................. 34 2.2.3. RFEH from an information-theoretic perspective ............ 36 2.3. RF power density measurements ................................................ 38 2.4. Voltage rectification and multiplication ...................................... 40 2.5. Energy storage technologies ........................................................ 41 IX Chapter 3 Antennas for RF Energy Harvesting from MW Transmissions 45 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 47 3.2. RFEH antenna types and design ................................................... 48 3.3. Quality factor of ferrite rod antennas .......................................... 50 3.4. Maximum acceptable Q-factor value ........................................... 53 3.5. Ferrite rod antenna optimisation ................................................. 58 3.5.1. Copper quality characteristics of the coil wire ................. 60 3.5.2. Capacitor’s type influence on RFEH performance ............ 63 3.5.3. Coil position along the ferrite rod ..................................... 64 3.5.4. Coil diameter to rod length ratio ...................................... 65 3.5.5. Rod diameter to coil internal diameter ............................ 65 3.6. MW experiments .......................................................................... 67 3.6.1. Site surveys for harvesting ambient RF energy ................ 67 3.6.2. Experiments for RFEH from dedicated energy sources .... 76 3.7. Summary ....................................................................................... 84 Chapter 4 RF Energy Harvesting Antennas for SHF Operation .............. 85 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................. 86 4.2. Printed microstrip antenna for harvesting energy from mobile phone base stations .................................................................................... 86 4.3. Rectenna elements ....................................................................... 88 4.4. Transmission line .......................................................................... 90 4.4.1. Coplanar stripline .............................................................