• Journal of Semiconductor Engineering
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.13-30
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• 2020

Radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting technology have become a reliable and promising alternative to extend the lifetime of power-constrained wireless networks by eliminating the need for batteries. This emerging technology enables the low-power wireless devices to be self-sustaining and eco-friendly by scavenging RF energy from ambient environment or dedicated energy sources. These attributes make RF energy harvesting technology feasible and attractive to an extended range of applications. However, despite being the most reliable energy harvesting technology, there are several challenges (especially power conversion efficiency, output DC voltage and sensitivity) poised for the implementation of RF energy harvesting systems. In this article, a detailed literature on RF energy harvesting technology has been surveyed to provide guidance for RF energy harvesters design. Since signal strength of the received RF power is limited and weak, high efficiency state-of-the-art RF energy harvesters are required to design for providing sufficient DC supply voltage to wireless networks. Therefore, various designs and their trade-offs with comprehensive analysis for RF energy harvesters have been discussed. This paper can serve as a good reference for the researchers to catch new research topics in the field of RF energy harvesting.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.87-93
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• 2016

In this paper, we propose a RF energy harvesting based routing protocol in mobile ad-hoc wireless sensor networks. The main features and contributions of the proposed routing protocol are as follows. First, establishment of routing route based on both remaining energy of mobile sensor nodes and RF energy harvesting. Second, establishment of routing route by considering availability and stability of route based on energy of mobile sensor nodes to increase lifetime of networks and route. The performance evaluation of the proposed routing protocol using OPNET shows that the routing method considering both route availability and route stability based on RF energy harvesting can increase efficiently route lifetime.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.55-59
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• 2016

Conventional RF energy harvesting systems can harvest energy and decode information from same source as an Hybirid-AP (H-AP). However, harvesting efficiency is seriously dependent on distance between users and H-AP. Therefore, in this paper, we proposed a transmission model for RF harvesting consisting of information and power source separately called Decoupled RF Energy harvesting networks. Main purpose of this paper is to maximize energy efficiency under various constraints of transmit power from H-AP and power beacon (PB), minimum quality of service and quality of harvested power of each users. To measure proposed model's performance, we proposed optimal time scheduling algorithms for energy efficiency (EE) maximization using Lagrangian dual decomposition theory that locally maximizes the EE by obtaining suboptimal values of three arguments : transmit power of H-AP, transmit power of PB, frame splitting factor. Experiment results show that the proposed energy-efficient algorithms converge within a few iterations with its optimality and greatly improve the EE compared to that of baseline schemes.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2441-2446
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• 2018

This paper presents a radio frequency-to-direct current (RF-to-DC) converter for special RF power harvesting application at 915 MHz. The major featured components of the proposed RF-to-DC converter is the combination of a cross-coupled rectifier and an active diode: first, the cross-coupled rectifier boosts the input voltage to desired level, and an active diode blocks the reverse current, respectively. A prototype was implemented using $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS technology, and the performance was proven from the fact that the targeted RF harvesting system's full-operation with higher power efficiency; even if the system's input power gets lower (e.g., from nominal 0 to min. -12 dBm), the proposed RF-to-DC converter constantly provides 1.47 V, which is exactly the voltage level to drive follow up system components like DC-to-DC converter and so on. And, maximum power conversion efficiency is 82 % calculated from the 0 dBm input power, 2.3 mA load current.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.6-11
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• 2016

In this paper, we studied a spectrum sensing algorithm for the efficient use of available spectrum in RF energy harvesting system combined with backscatter communication. We first looked for white spaces and then, selected low fading channel among white spaces using spectrum sensing algorithm at a transmitter. The transmitter employing the algorithm alleviates signal interference and improves the received signal strength indication through signals transmitted by low fading channel. The proposed RF energy harvesting system combined with backscatter communication is used the transmitter employing the algorithm. As a result of computer simulations, we can find the performance improvements of RF energy harvesting, BER of backscatter communication, and the received signal strength per distance of backscatter tag.

• IEIE Transactions on Smart Processing and Computing
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.221-225
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• 2014

Low power RF devices, such as RFID and Zigbee, are important for ubiquitous sensing. These devices, however, are powered by portable energy sources, such as batteries, which limits their use. To mitigate this problem, this study developed RF energy harvesting with W-CDMA for a low power RF device. Diodes are required with a low turn on voltage because the diode threshold is larger than the received peak voltage of the rectifying antenna (rectenna). Therefore, a Schottky diode HSMS-286 was used. A prototype of RF energy harvesting device showed the maximum gain of 5.8dBi for the W-CDMA signal. The 16 patch antennas were manufactured with a 10 dielectric constant PTFT board. In low power RF devices, the transmitter requires a step-up voltage of 2.5~5V with up to 35 mA. To meet this requirement, the Texas Instruments TPS61220 was used as a low input voltage step-up converter. From the evaluated result, the achievable incident power of the rectenna at 926mV to operate Zigbee can be obtained within a distance of 12m.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.51-55
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• 2017

This paper aims to maximize the energy harvesting rate and channel capacity in RF-energy harvesting networks (RF-EHNs) under the constraints of maximum transmit power and minimum quality of service (QoS) in terms of rate capacity for each user. We study a multi-user RF-EHN with frequency division multiple access (FDMA) in a Rayleigh channel. An access point (AP) simultaneously transmitting wireless information and power in the RF-EHN serves a subset of active users which have a power-splitting antenna. To gauge the network performance, we define energy efficiency (EE) and propose an optimization solution for maximizing EE with Lagrangian dual decomposition theory. In simulation results, we confirm that the EE is effectively maximized by the proposed solution with satisfying the given constraints.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.24-29
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• 2015

Recently, with developments of various networks, devices and various services, energy efficiency has become one of the most crucial issues with respect to sustainability of mobile devices. For connecting to networks seamlessly to offer services, a scenario of RF energy harvesting which supplies energy to wireless devices with RF signals is assumed. To increase the efficiency of RF energy harvesting, this paper proposes a RF energy harvesting algorithm which is based upon a frequency selective fading map. Through the algorithm, a receiver of mobile device can get fading information at each frequency and select a frequency which has the best quality. At the end, the simulation result demonstrates its superiority by showing a 4.45dB improvement in comparison to a deep fading frequency point.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.41 no.11
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• pp.1574-1579
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• 2016

This paper presents a self-powered sensor-node scheme using a RF wireless power harvesting techniques for improve drone time of flight. Sensor-node that is proposed is turned when two conditions satisfy: The one is input RF ID data from master-node should be same with sensor-node's ID, and the other one is RF wireless power harvesting system is turned on by hysteresis switch. In this paper, master-node's output is 26 dBm at 263 MHz. Maximum RF to DC power conversion efficiency is about 55% at 4-6 dBm input power condition (2 meter from master-node). The maximum RF wireless power harvesting range is about 13 meter form master-node. And power consumption of the sensor-node's load elements such as transmitter, MCU and temperature sensors is approximately average 15 mA at 5.0 V for 10 msec.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.89-96
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• 2018

This study aims to develop a fully passive smart sensing tag utilizing RF (Radio Frequency) energy harvesting technology at UHF (Ultra High Frequency) band of 915MHz. To optimize the power collected under various radiated conditions, an efficient energy harvesting module exploiting a boost circuit with maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is employed. Specifically, the proposed tag features two orthogonal antennas to enhance its capability of both energy scavenging and data transmissions. The experimental result shows that the developed smart sensor tag can scavenge an RF input power of as low as 0.19mW at a distance of 4 meters for a 3.6Vdc output. Furthermore, the proposed smart sensor tag performs the feasibility of completely autonomous monitoring food freshness at 2 meters with a low-power sensor array.