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Wireless Power Transmission

Students:

  1. Daniel DeChiara,
  2. Matthew Loewenstein,
  3. Alex Manoski,
  4. Nicholas Steponako,

Advisor: A. Katz

This project examines the theory and application of wireless energy harvesting of ambient radio frequency (RF) signals at frequencies of 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz using a light-weight rectena. The design is made to compete in the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2014 Student Design Competition for RF energy harvesting. This competition has judging criteria that favor compact and effective power harvesting designs. A weight limit of 15 grams is a main design restraint.

Two Yagi-Uda antennas were designed for highest gain. To keep them lightweight, the boom was made of thin basswood while the parasitic and driving elements were made of brass wire. These antennas are fed directly into a 5-stage voltage multiplier to rectify the low power RF signal into a constant DC voltage.

For the multiplier, Schottky diodes were chosen for their fast switching speed and low voltage drop of 150 mV compared to the 700 mV drop of a silicone diode. Microstrip antenna designs were also considered for their compact profile and ability to be easily mass-produced. Ultimately, they do not achieve a high enough gain compared to a Yagi-Uda antenna for the desired size and weight. Beyond the competition, this design will be used to examine the implementation of wireless energy harvesting in low-powered micro controller applications.

Contact

Armstrong Hall, Room 165
The College of New Jersey
P.O. Box 7718
2000 Pennington Rd.
Ewing, NJ 08628

609.771.2538
engineer@tcnj.edu

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