0000000000076073
AUTHOR
Roberto La Rosa
Improving the efficiency of a standard compliant wireless battery charger
In this paper, a wireless charger for portable electronics devices is presented. A power transmitter, also known as the magnetic pad, and a power receiver are magnetically coupled. A receiver architecture which improves the power conversion efficiency is proposed. All advantages brought by the proposed architecture are discussed and standard constraints are presented as well. The receiver is fully standard-compliant. A wireless station for mobile application is designed and tested. Simulation and experimental results are compared. As shown by experimental results, thanks to the proposed architecture the power conversion efficiency of the receiver section is really close to a unit value. Pow…
Speed detection of battery-free nodes based on RF Wireless Power Transfer
In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are rapidly increasing in terms of relevance and pervasiveness thanks to their notable real-time monitoring performance across several fields, including industrial, domestic, military, biomedical, commercial, environmental, and other sectors. A highly attractive implementation of WSNs is asset tracking with accurate data regarding the location and transportation conditions of goods, equipment, and the like. One highly promising application of WSNs along these lines is the remote speed monitoring of goods, ideally with battery-free sensor nodes that do not require any maintenance. This, however, represents a major challenge…
Advanced Monitoring Systems Based on Battery-Less Asset Tracking Modules Energized through RF Wireless Power Transfer
Asset tracking involving accurate location and transportation data is highly suited to wireless sensor networks (WSNs) featuring battery-less nodes that can be deployed in virtually any environment and require little or no maintenance. In response to the growing demand for advanced battery-less sensor tag solutions, this article presents a system for identifying and monitoring the speeds of assets in a WSN with battery-less tags that receive all their operating energy through radio frequency (RF) wireless power transfer (WPT) architecture, and a unique measurement approach to generate time-domain speed readouts. The assessment includes performance characteristics and key features of a syste…
Strategies and Techniques for Powering Wireless Sensor Nodes through Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer
The continuous development of internet of things (IoT) infrastructure and applications is paving the way for advanced and innovative ideas and solutions, some of which are pushing the limits of state-of-the-art technology. The increasing demand for Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs) able to collect and transmit data through wireless communication channels, while often positioned in locations that are difficult to access, is driving research into innovative solutions involving energy harvesting (EH) and wireless power transfer (WPT) to eventually allow battery-free sensor nodes. Due to the pervasiveness of radio frequency (RF) energy, RF EH and WPT are key technologies with the potential to power …
Advanced Techniques for Powering Wireless Sensor Nodes through Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer
This paper presents three different techniques for efficiently powering an energy-autonomous wireless sensor (EAWS) through both energy harvesting (EH) and RF wireless power transfer (WPT). The aim of the paper is to provide effective strategies and techniques to reduce, as far as possible, the cost of wiring of the automotive production process due to the continuous and constant increase in the use of sensors. The techniques employ a highly integrated state-of-the-art, ultra-low power 2.5 mu W system-on-chip (SoC) system, designed for multi-source RF wireless energy harvesting and power transfer and are designed with the goal of minimizing and, where possible, eliminating the costly mainte…
An Energy-Autonomous Wireless Sensor with Simultaneous Energy Harvesting and Ambient Light Sensing
Wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are generally powered by batteries, which results in a substantial limitation to the places where the nodes can be installed, to the maximum number of deployable devices, and to the node lifetime. To meet the demand for Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications that require a large number of maintenance-free, low cost, wireless sensor nodes, this paper proposes a wireless sensor platform with a single photovoltaic transducer that performs the dual role of harvesting energy and sensing ambient light. This dual use allows even smaller and cheaper nodes that do not require any form of supporting external power, with a reduced component count. The device implements off-…
Self-Powered Measurement System for Remote Monitoring of Human Metabolism
Continuous and minimally invasive measurements of metabolism are the key to the understanding and proper treatment of various pathologies. In this context, this paper deals with an innovative concept of a wireless measurement system that monitors glucose concentration and is simultaneously powered by self-measurement. The measurement system directly generates a radio transmission at a frequency proportional to the measured glucose concentration, acting de facto as a glucose concentration to time converter. In that way, a remote base station can indirectly detect glucose concentration by measuring the frequency of received radio signals. The outcome is a wireless measurement system, which us…
Intrinsically Self-powered, Battery-free, and Sensor-free Ambient Light Control System
This paper deals with an energy-autonomous wireless sensing system with an indirect measurement of the light energy for ambient lighting sensing. The system can perform power measurements without battery or external power sources and generates time-domain data. The advantage of the proposed solution consists of greater energy efficiency, a reduced number of components, higher miniaturization, and a reduction in implementation costs. The device is implemented using off-the-shelf components on a printed circuit board (PCB) with the size of 2 x 2 cm(2) and the thickness of 0.45 cm, it can harvest and detect sunlight ambient light as low as 200 lux.
A wireless battery charger architecture for consumer electronics
In this paper, an innovative design of a wireless battery charger for portable electronic devices is proposed. The wireless power transfer is implemented through the magnetic coupling between a power transmitter, which is connected to the grid, and a power receiver, which is integrated inside the load device. An innovative receiver architecture which heavily improves the power conversion efficiency is presented. The proposed solution is standard compliant and suitable for IC implementation. A comparison between a conventional and the proposed receiver architectures is carried out by SPICE simulations. As shown by simulation results, a power efficiency increase by 40% is provided by the prop…
A Self-powered Ambient Light Power Measurement Platform with Time-domain Readout
Internet of Things (IoT) provides more and more adequate infrastructures for many applications and advanced services. This scenario promotes the ability to satisfy the growing demand for innovative measuring systems, increasingly popular consisting of intelligent nodes, totally wireless, easy to install, and that requires the least possible maintenance. In this context, this paper aims to contribute to state of the art with an energy-autonomous and battery-free measurement platform designed to measure the ambient light power when its level exceeds the sensitivity threshold. The measurement platform utilizes a single transducer to scavenge energy and concurrently measure the ambient light in…
A Battery-Free Wireless Smart Sensor platform with Bluetooth Low Energy Connectivity for Smart Agriculture
Smart agriculture systems, which integrate sensors and data analysis into agricultural production processes, are increasingly proving an effective solution for reducing food production waste, yield production increase, and product quality improvement. In this context, this paper deals with a wireless sensors platform for humidity, temperature, and light detection that has the peculiarity to be self-powered and battery-free. The main advantage of the proposed solution is the elimination of maintenance interventions due to battery replacement. Therefore, the availability of install-and-forget sensors allows an easy diffusion for a capillary detection of plant health and growth parameters thro…
An RF Wireless Power Transfer system to power battery-free devices for asset tracking
Internet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) infrastructures are becoming more and more available and diffused. One major outcome is the development of new services that help to make everyday life easier and better. One of those to which this paper reserves special attention is asset tracking which refers to the method of tracking physical assets. This service is very well based on IoT infrastructure and, due to the enormous number of objects to be traced, desperately needs the availability of inexpensive tags with sensing capabilities, that can be conveniently monitored from a long distance and require no maintenance. For this, engineers are called to face very challenging i…
A Battery-free Asset Monitoring System based on RF Wireless Power Transfer
In the Internet of Things (IoT) era, asset monitoring represents an appealing implementation of Wireless Sensor Networks due to the enormous benefits associated with being able to monitor and record the exact position and transportation conditions of assets, personal objects, and the like. This kind of infrastructure enables the provision of increasingly advanced services, including the ability to measure the movement speed of a monitored asset using relatively inexpensive nodes with sensing capabilities and wireless transmission and reception. These nodes would ideally employ battery-free sensors that do not require any maintenance, but conventional power supply management systems cannot s…
An energy autonomous and battery-free measurement system for ambient light power with time domain readout
Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) provides more and more adequate infrastructures for many applications and advanced services. This context promotes the ability to satisfy the growing demand for innovative measuring systems, increasingly popular with intelligent nodes, totally wireless, easy to install that require the least possible maintenance. This paper aims to contribute to the state-of-the-art with an energy-autonomous and battery-free measurement platform designed to measure the ambient light power when its level exceeds the Limit of Detection (LoD) threshold. The proposed system consists of a single photovoltaic transducer to harvest energy and simultaneously detect ambient light. T…