The Realities of RF Power Harvesting

12 Oct 2015

It all seems so simple, and at first glance, it makes a lot of sense. We live in a world run wild with
electronic signalsradio, TV, Wi-Fi and cell phone signals, just to state a few of the obvious. Thanks
to the advent of mobile devices, wearables and the Internet of Things (IoT), one of the major thrusts of
R&D in electronics has been to develop applications that run on very little power.
Why not set up a little antenna to capture some of that Radio Frequency and rectify it? Itll be easy to
get a microwatt or so, and use it to slowly charge a battery or supercapacitor. That will be just enough
to power an IoT device that only needs to turn on once in a while, transmit a reading, and then go back
to sleep. Then, after our IoT device turns in again, the harvesting resumes, and plenty of stored energy
awaits the next awakening.
Well at least, thats the theory. And it sounds pretty good. After all, a TV station radiates an enormous
amount of RF. Only a tiny fraction of it is dissipated in the detector stages of the combined totals of all
the TV receivers that are tuned in. The rest of it is out there, waiting to be harvested.

In the Research Lab

RF power harvesting begins with an antenna. A given antenna can only efficiently harvest power
radiated from a close bank of frequencies. A good place to start is with the example of UHF and VHF
TV. Even at 500 mHz, a dipole would be 0.3 meters long. This already presents a red flag, because
thats a fairly large amount of real estate spent to harvest what will be a rather tiny amount of power. In
addition, the antenna must be placed in a specific spatial orientation with respect to the TV stations
transmitting antenna. And both of these requirements make it impractical for a wearable device.
The harvesters receiving antenna presents a 50-ohm impedance, which has to be matched to the input
impedance of the rest of the device. The voltage harvested at the antenna then has to be increased to at
least a volt so it can be rectified into DC. This can be done with an arrangement called a charge pump,
which increases the voltage but, of course, cant increase the total power.
An interesting series of experiments centers on harvesting RF power generated by a Tokyo, Japan TV
broadcast station at a distance of 6.5 km. The block diagram for the project is as follows.

Figure 1: Representation of a system-level description of an energy harvesting device. (Source: A

Battery-Less, Energy Harvesting Device for Long Range Scavenging of Wireless Power from
Terrestrial TV Broadcasts, Georgia Institute of Technology)
The project was conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology in conjunction with researchers from
the University of Tokyo. In this implementation, the aforementioned charge pump is contained within
the RF-DC block.
Important results of the project are summarized in the next diagram. The green blocks represent the
amount of powerin microwattscaptured at the relevant 6.5 km distance by the antenna from
emissions at UHF frequencies characteristic of Japanese TV. The blue and red bands represent the
power needed to charge the supercapacitor mentioned in the block diagram to 1.8 volts and 3.0 volts,
respectively.

Figure 2: The supercapacitor was charged to 2.9 volts in a reasonable amount of time. (Source: A
Battery-Less, Energy Harvesting Device for Long Range Scavenging of Wireless Power from
Terrestrial TV Broadcasts, Georgia Institute of Technology)

The Impracticalities of Power Harvesting

The backers of remote harvesting for IoT devices claim that this approach would be useful in powering
a remote sensor in an urban area. But, as we have seen, a relatively long antenna is required, and it
must be tightly oriented to a TV station or another power source. And, if the power source shifts or
changes, all of the corresponding IoT devices must be realigned. This defeats the whole purpose of
deploying power harvesting for the IoT, which is to avoid the task of physically accessing the device
being powered. The antenna requirements alone make remote power harvesting for wearable devices
impractical.
When one considers that the incidence of solar energy is so much greater than the amount of RF
permitted in general population areas anywhere in the developed world, its hard to justify deployment.
In addition, the situation is not likely to change, because there is a limit to how much RF power can be
incident in any space open to the general public. If anything, the limits are likely to be scaled back, as
RF exposure is being looked at with concern because of possible health risks to people.

The Practical Applications of Power Harvesting

Directed RF for Power Harvesting
There are situations where a sensor is deployed in an area that is hard to access, or perhaps the area
itself is hazardous to humans. In these instances, a method has been developed whereby a sensor is
powered not through the harvesting of random power, but from harvesting power specifically aimed at
the sensor. Instead of depending on the vagaries of a tricky antenna or the presence or absence of a TV
signal, a technician can shine an RF transmitter on the unit from a safe distance.
Powercast Corporation offers an evaluation kit to help organizations explore the possibilities of this
technology. The companys P2110-EVAL-02 evaluation kit is available from Arrow Electronics. The
datasheet reveals that it includes an RF transmitter and receiver, an antenna, and a charging board to
harness the transmitted power. And certainly, another important area to explore is RFID.
RFID - Remote Frequency Identification
Remote frequency identification, or RFID, uses radio wave signals to identify a tagged object. The
device that reads the tag bathes it in an RF signal that serves two purposes. First, the taga tiny
electronic deviceharvests the incident RF power, which it uses to power itself on. Then the tag,
which contains stored digital identification information, transmits that data back to the reader.
The reader now knows the identity of the item it scanned. The tags can be quite tiny compared to visual
barcode tags. In addition, a human clerk can do the identification from a distance, and the approach
easily lends itself to automation.

The Bottom Line

So, unless you are designing an IoT or wearables regime for operation in the same building that houses
a TV transmitter, the evidence strongly leads to the conclusion that it will be a quixotic and ultimately
impractical effort. On the other hand, there are situations where RF power harvesting of specifically
directed radio waves can be eminently practical.

RF-based Wireless Charging and Energy Harvesting Enables New Applications

and Improves Product Design
By Harry Ostaffe, VP of Marketing and Business Development, Powercast Corporation
RF energy is currently broadcasted from billions of radio transmitters around the world, including
mobile telephones, handheld radios, mobile base stations, and television/ radio broadcast stations. The
ability to harvest RF energy, from ambient or dedicated sources, enables wireless charging of lowpower devices and has resulting benefits to product design, usability, and reliability. Battery-based
systems can be trickled charged to eliminate battery replacement or extend the operating life of systems
using disposable batteries. Battery-free devices can be designed to operate upon demand or when
sufficient charge is accumulated. In both cases, these devices can be free of connectors, cables, and
battery access panels, and have freedom of placement and mobility during charging and usage.
Energy Sources

Click to view larger image

The obvious appeal of harvesting ambient RF energy is that it is essentially free energy. The
number of radio transmitters, especially for mobile base stations and handsets, continues to increase.
ABI Research and iSupply estimate the number of mobile phone subscriptions has recently surpassed 5
billion, and the ITU estimates there are over 1 billion subscriptions for mobile broadband. Mobile
phones represent a large source of transmitters from which to harvest RF energy, and will potentially
enable users to provide power-on-demand for a variety of close range sensing applications. Also,
consider the number of WiFi routers and wireless end devices such as laptops. In some urban
environments, it is possible to literally detect hundreds of WiFi access points from a single location. At
short range, such as within the same room, it is possible to harvest a tiny amount of energy from a
typical WiFi router transmitting at a power level of 50 to 100 mW. For longer-range operation, larger
antennas with higher gain are needed for practical harvesting of RF energy from mobile base stations
and broadcast radio towers. In 2005, Powercast demonstrated ambient RF energy harvesting at 1.5
miles (~2.4 km) from a small, 5-kW AM radio station.
RF energy can be broadcasted in unlicensed bands such as 868MHz, 915MHz, 2.4GHz, and 5.8GHz
when more power or more predictable energy is needed than what is available from ambient sources. At
915MHz, government regulations limit the output power of radios using unlicensed frequency bands to
4W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), as in the case of radio-frequency- identification (RFID)
interrogators. As a comparison, earlier generations of mobile phones based on analog technology had
maximum transmission power of 3.6W, and Powercasts TX91501 transmitter that sends power and
data is 3W.
RF Harvesting Receivers

RF energy harvesting devices, such as Powercasts Powerharvester receivers, convert RF energy

into DC power. These components are easily added to circuit board designs and work with standard or
custom 50-ohm antennas. With current RF sensitivity of the P2110 Powerharvester receiver at
-11dBm, powering devices or charging batteries at distances of 40-45 feet from a 3W transmitter is
easily achieved and can be verified with Powercasts development kits. Improving the RF sensitivity
allows for RF-to-DC power conversion at greater distances from an RF energy source. However, as the
range increases the available power and rate of charge decreases.
An important performance aspect of an RF energy harvester is the ability to maintain RF-to-DC
conversion efficiency over a wide range of operating conditions, including variations of input power
and output load resistance. For example, Powercasts RF energy-harvesting components do not
require additional energy-consuming circuitry for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) as is
required with other energy-harvesting technologies. Powercasts components maintain high RF-to-DC
conversion efficiency over a wide operating range that enables scalability across applications and
devices. RF energy-harvesting circuits that can accommodate multi-band or wideband frequency
ranges, and automatic frequency tuning, will further increase the power output, potentially expand
mobility options, and simplify installation.
Typical Applications
RF energy can be used to charge or operate a wide range of low-power devices. At close range to a
low-power transmitter, this energy can be used to trickle charge a number of devices including GPS or
RLTS tracking tags, wearable medical sensors, and consumer electronics such as e-book readers and
headsets. At longer range the power can be used for battery-based or battery-free remote sensors for
HVAC control and building automation, structural monitoring, and industrial control. Depending on the
power requirements and system operation,
Harvesting Ambient RF Enegry from an iPhone
power can be sent continuously, on a
scheduled basis, or on-demand. In large-scale
sensors deployments significant labor cost
avoidance is possible by eliminating the
future maintenance efforts to replace
batteries.
Available power from a 3W transmitter will
be low milliwatts within a few feet and tens
of microwatts at around 40 feet. This amount
of power is best used for devices with lowpower consumption and long or frequent
charge cycles. Typically, devices that operate
for weeks, months, or years on a single set of
batteries are good candidates for being
wirelessly recharged by RF energy. In some
applications simply augmenting the battery Unable to view this video? Click to send a link to another
source.
Object 1

For more RF Energy harvesting news visit Powercast's

blog - RF-Powered Wireless Sensors

life or offsetting the sleep current of a microcontroller is enough to justify adding RF-based wireless
power and energy harvesting technology.
A network of transmitters can be positioned in a facility to provide wireless power on a room-by-room
basis, or for a many-to-many charging topology. Mobile phones can be used as portable power sources
for a number of battery-free wireless devices. Imagine a mobile phone powering a battery-less, bodyworn sensor that sends data to the phone via a commonly used protocol such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or
ZigBee. This data can be displayed locally on the handset or transmitted by the phone to a monitoring
service. Powercast has already demonstrated this application using ambient RF energy from an iPhone
(see video to right).
Improved Product Design
Products with embedded wireless power technology can be sealed from environmental conditions
such as moisture and from user access. In addition, connectors and cables can be eliminated. Product
reliability and lifecycle can be significantly improved as a result. When in range of a suitable RF
source, charging is automatic and transparent to the end-user which provides increased convenience of
use. With Powercasts components, multiple battery chemistries and charge voltages can be supported
which allows for maximum power storage flexibility.
Conclusion
Ambient radio waves are universally present over an ever-increasing range of frequencies and power
levels, especially in highly populated urban areas. These radio waves represent a unique and widely
available source of energy if it can be effectively and efficiently harvested. The growing number of
wireless transmitters is naturally resulting in increased RF power density and availability. Dedicated
power transmitters further enable engineered and predictable wireless power solutions. With continued
decreases in the power consumption of electronic components, increased sensitivity of passive
receivers for RF harvesting, and improved performance of low-leakage energy storage devices, the
applications for wire-free charging by means of RF-based wireless power and energy harvesting will
continue to grow.
Harry Ostaffe is vice president, marketing & business development at Powercast. He has 20-plus years
of experience in the fields of data communications and wireless networking, industrial controls, and
computing. Before joining Powercast, Ostaffe held positions with Ericsson, Marconi, Lucent
Technologies, AT&T Network Systems, Bayer, and IBM. He holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon
University and earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Penn State University