In the near future Wireless Autonomous Transducer Solutions (WATS) will make it possible for many objects to have sensing and actuating functionalities. These systems will be applicable in areas like body area networks and health monitoring of machine, industrial and civil structures. All these WATS need a compact, low-cost and lightweight energy source, which enables the desired portability and achieves a certain level of energy autonomy. With low-power consumption and energy harvesting from the environment, autonomy can be guaranteed. The type of harvesting depends on the desired application. Some applications cannot be powered by heat, light or vibration. An alternative source can be radio frequency energy, either ambient RF energy (e.g. from public broadcasting services like TV, GSM) or RF energy which is intentionally transmitted at close proximity. In this paper we show solutions for harvesting RF energy using rectennas, i.e. rectifying antennas.
展开▼
