Enabling IoT applications using RF energy harvesting

PhD students Azamat and Thang demonstrate a novel fractal-based antenna for the first time which enables simultaneous operation at three important frequencies (GSM 900, GSM 1800 and 3 G 2.1 GHz). Complete rectenna system testing in a field has shown decent harvested energy which is suitable to power small sensor nodes of IoT applications.  Rectenna has been implemented by additive manufacturing techniques (combination of 3D printing and screen printing) which enables cost savings as well as future mass manufacturing viability. The Antenna has been implemented on the package of the circuits (rectifier, matching network and battery), which is not typically the case as antennas are implemented on separate PCB. By utilizing System-on-Package (SoP) concept, size and cost of the harvester are reduced, and available space is optimized• The work was accepted at the prestigious Elsevier Nano Energy journal (IF=13). This work is in collaboration with Prof. Atif Shamim.

More details at: Fully Printed 3D Cube-Shaped Multiband Fractal Rectenna for Ambient RF Energy Harvesting

Congratulations Azamat and Thang.

Its worth mentioning that this work builds on our earlier work: