Energy harvesting from cellular mobile technology and Wi-Fi signals

• Main Author: Lee, Dexter Ming Liang
• Other Authors: Sheel Aditya
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/75008
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Energy harvesting has been a hot topic for many years. In this project, electromagnetic waves has been identified to be the energy source for harvesting, particularly on using cellular mobile technology and Wi-Fi signals. These signals are available anytime and anywhere, and it would be good to recycle such energy if they are not in used. To harvest this energy, the project objective was to construct a high efficiency rectenna to produce an output voltage of 1-3V. Various methods has been accomplished to achieve the project’s objective. These methods includes spectrum measurement, simulations for various rectifier topologies, impedance matching, and the multiple input single output (MISO) approach. With these methods accomplished, several printed circuit boards were fabricated and experiment was done on them. The measured results show some dissimilarities with the simulation results, and possible factors that contributed in the difference in the results was identified and discussed. With the factors identified, possible future works were recommended so as to achieve the project’s objective in the future. In general, this project could be used to charge up Internet of Things device, and may have an impact of how humans charge their devices in the future. Humans may not need to find a power point, or carry bulky portable charger to charge their device. They may be able to charge their devices anywhere and anytime, which is an innovation they can look forward to.