Modelling and performance analysis of power efficient rf energy harvesting system

Abstract

The use of Radio frequency (RF) Energy Harvesting System (EHS) has been increased day by day as it can harvest the ambient RF energy. It refers to an energy conversion technique which converts the electromagnetic energy to Direct Current (DC) energy. With the advancement of the communication systems and VLSI technology, RF EH has been emerged as an upcoming area in the recent past. Though other nonconventional energy sources such as, solar, wind, tidal etc. are already in race, RF EHS can also be considered as a good alternative of battery having immense potential to come up as an environmental friendly solution. The main reason of selecting this topic is the abundance of RF energy in the surrounding medium. Also, RF EHS can reduce the wastage of battery and increase the lifespan. Though few works have been carried out in this area, there is enough scope to explore this domain of work in the near future. The above background has motivated to designing an RF EHS with the requirement of low power as well as low area which could be successfully used in various applications. In VLSI domain use of small chips are increasing day by day. The prime objective of the present research work is to propose RF EHS improved performance in terms of dc output voltage, output power, power consumption and time delay. In order to achieve this, NMOS based Schottky diode and PMOS based Schottky diode models will be proposed for the design of the RF EHS. Moreover, other design modules such as, p-n junction model file, half wave rectifier model file etc. will also be incorporated in the design process to compare the performance of the proposed design with the existing designs. The design of RF EHS has been done by RF sources, matching circuit, transformer, rectifier and filter. The design has been carried out using T-SPICE simulator. The design of the proposed model of RF EHS has been carried out using Schottky diode, where it is developed using MOS technology, both NMOS and PMOS. The design has also been developed using p-n junction diode model and half wave rectifier model for the purpose of comparison. The performance of RF EHS is analyzed through a number of parameters such as, output dc voltage, output power, power consumption and time delay.