Patent Grant
9559605
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of wireless power transfer; more particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to radio-frequency (RF) energy harvesting devices that harvest ambient RF energy and store the received RF energy.
Next generation sensor networks may be powered by energy harvesting techniques to avoid requiring battery maintenance. Energy harvesting is a process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., radio frequency energy, solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, or kinetic energy), captured and stored.
Energy may be harvested from radio frequency signals propagating wirelessly. With RF harvesting, wireless energy comes from a radio frequency transmitting device that is some distance away from a device that harvests energy from the radio frequency transmission. Properties of an energy harvester include its ability to harvest energy efficiently from available RF signals, its ability to store the harvested energy efficiently with minimal storage loss, and its ability to make the stored energy available to meet the voltage, current, and duty cycle requirements of a desired application.
One of the more popular forms of RF used today is Wi-Fi (also referred to as IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n etc.) communications. Today, most Wi-Fi communications are in the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz frequency bands and there are many local area networks that are based on Wi-Fi in which access points enable Wi-Fi clients to gain access to networks such as the Internet. Furthermore, the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands also support other networking standards, such as Zigbee and Bluetooth, and other proprietary networks, each transmitting energy by communicating in this same frequency band. Additionally there are other frequency bands that support different communication protocols, each of which transmit energy when they are communicating. These include, for example, digital television (DTV) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) signals.
In a traditional RFID-like setup the RFID readers (interrogators) usually deliver RF power as a continuous wave (CW), i.e. a sinusoidal signal of a particular frequency. In contrast to systems designed for use with continuous wave (CW) signals such as RFID, some RF energy harvesters are designed for use with non-CW signals such as WiFi and GSM. These waveform aware harvesters include ambient energy harvesters that harvest signals of opportunity that are already present in the environment. For these types of harvesters, the system designer must work around the waveforms and power levels that are already present in the environment.
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for harvesting ambient energy. In one embodiment, an energy harvester comprises: a first RF rectifier to output a first voltage determined by rectified RF energy in response to received RF energy; a first energy reservoir coupled to the first RF rectifier to store energy at the first voltage; a DC/DC converter coupled to the first energy reservoir to convert the first voltage to a second voltage; a second reservoir coupled to the DC/DC converter to store energy at the second voltage, the second voltage being greater than the first voltage; and a third reservoir coupled to the second reservoir to receive energy transferred from the second reservoir periodically.
The present invention will be understood more fully from the detailed description given below and from the accompanying drawings of various embodiments of the invention, which, however, should not be taken to limit the invention to the specific embodiments, but are for explanation and understanding only.
A system for ambient energy harvesting and method for doing the same are described. In one embodiment, the energy harvesting system includes three DC reservoirs to store energy generated from ambient radio frequency (RF) input signals. These reservoirs are coupled together in a cascaded fashion to provide DC energy to a load.
In one embodiment, the ambient RF energy harvester is part of a sensor/tag device and is used to provide energy to one or more components of the sensor/tag device such as, for example, the sensor, a controller, a communication unit a processing device, etc.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth to provide a more thorough explanation of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than in detail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the data processing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the computer system memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a computer system bus.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structure for a variety of these systems will appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read only memory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storage media; optical storage media; flash memory devices; etc.
In one embodiment, RF energy harvester 101 harvests ambient RF power to run ultra-low power tags and/or sensors 102, micro-controller 103, and/or communication unit 104, based on received RF input energy received by an antenna (not shown) of sensor device 100. There are a number of sources of ambient RF power, including, but not limited to WiFi, DTV and GSM signals. Other sources of ambient RF power include, for example, toys, proprietary communication protocols, and even stray energy leakage from devices, such as microwave ovens. The antenna receiving the RF energy input may be part of communication unit 104 or a separate antenna. The antenna(s) may be designed to receive the energy in multiple frequency bands, or there may be separate antenna(s) for these different frequency bands.
In one embodiment, sensor 102 comprises an ultra-low-power (ULP) sensor and/or tag and micro-controller 103 comprises an ultra-low-power (ULP) micro-controller. Sensor 102 may comprise a temperature sensor, a light sensor, a motion sensor, air flow sensor, image sensor, accelerometer, gyroscope, gas detector, microphone, atmospheric pressure sensor, humidity sensor, mechanical pressure sensor, etc. In one embodiment, sensor 102, as a ULP sensor, has a power requirement of 1-20 uW and a duty cycle of 1% to 10% (where the duty cycle varies in response to available energy over a period of time or the specific sensing needs, usually seconds to hours).
In one embodiment, micro-controller 103 performs control operations and/or processing for the sensor device 100. In one embodiment, controller 103 is responsive to and receives sensor data from sensor 102 and provides it to communication unit 104 for transmission (e.g., wireless transmission) from device 100. Controller 103 may also log sensor data for a time, and transmit the entire log to communication unit 104 for transmission later. Note that in this case the sensing rate and the communication rate can be different.
Communication unit 104 provides a communication mechanism for sensor device 100. In one embodiment communication unit 104 is a wireless communication unit. In one embodiment, communication unit 104 has an RF transmission along with an antenna for receiving and transmitting RF signals, including RF signals transmitted with an access point or other locally positioned device.
In one embodiment, the ambient RF energy harvester is optimized for overall efficiency and a minimum of start-up power. These optimizations improve the range at which energy can be usefully harvested and improve the number of places where ambient energy is practical, particularly in view of the fact that ambient RF energy levels are small and often bursty (traffic-dependent), rectified voltages are very low (<100 mV) at typical ranges, and typical Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) loads such as MCU etc. require 800+ mV to operate.
An energy harvester and method for performing energy harvesting are described. In one embodiment, the energy harvester converts incident radio frequency (RF) energy, or ambient RF energy, to direct current energy. In one embodiment, the energy harvester comprises: a first RF rectifier to output a first voltage determined by rectified RF energy in response to received RF energy; a first energy reservoir coupled to the first RF rectifier to store energy at the first voltage; a DC/DC boost converter coupled to the first energy reservoir to convert the first voltage to a second voltage; a second reservoir coupled to the DC/DC converter to store energy at the second voltage, where the second voltage is greater than the first voltage; and a third reservoir (e.g., a longer-term energy storage device such as a low-leakage capacitor or battery, etc.) coupled to the second reservoir to receive energy transferred from the second reservoir periodically.
In one embodiment, the RF rectifier comprises one selected from a group consisting of: a Schottky diode, a P-N junction diode, a diode-connected field effect transistor, and a tunnel diode.
In one embodiment, the first reservoir comprises a capacitor with a capacitance value determined at least in part by the envelope of the received RF energy. In one embodiment, the first reservoir comprises a capacitor having a value based on stored energy above a threshold voltage given ambient RF input power and a duty cycle of the input power. In another embodiment, the first reservoir comprises a first capacitor and the second reservoir comprises a second capacitor, wherein capacitance of the second capacitor is approximately equal to a product of the first capacitor capacitance times a square of a ratio of an expected value of the second voltage divided by an expected value of the first voltage.
In one embodiment, the second reservoir comprises an inductor used to boost the voltage, wherein energy stored in the inductor is approximately equal to energy stored in the first reservoir.
In one embodiment, the DC/DC boost converter comprises a self-excited oscillator. In one embodiment, the self-excited oscillator comprises a transistor coupled to a transformer. In one embodiment, the frequency of the self-excited oscillator is controlled at least in part by an envelope of the received RF energy. In one embodiment, the DC/DC converter is a switch mode converter with switching intervals controlled at least in part by an envelope of the received RF energy.
In one embodiment, the third reservoir is coupled to the second reservoir via a switch, which is closed periodically to transfer energy from the second reservoir to the third reservoir. In one embodiment, the switch is controlled at least in part by the envelope of the received RF energy. In one embodiment, the third reservoir is coupled to a load, and the first voltage is insufficient to operate the load directly, and the third voltage is sufficient to operate the load. In one embodiment, the third reservoir has an energy storage capacity that is greater than an energy storage capacity of the second reservoir.
RF rectifier 201 receives ambient RF energy input received from an antenna and rectifies the RF energy to produce a DC voltage.
First DC reservoir 202 stores the voltage generated from the rectified RF signals received by device 100. In one embodiment, reservoir 202 comprises a capacitor. In one embodiment, the size (value) of the capacitor that is selected for use is based on the stored energy above a voltage threshold for the ambient RF input power.
Second DC reservoir 203 receives the voltage and increases the voltage. To increase the voltage, second DC reservoir 203 includes a DC/DC converter. In one embodiment, the DC/DC converter comprises a boost converter which includes a self-excited oscillator for operation. The self-excited oscillator includes a junction field effect transistor (JFET) coupled with a transformer. In one embodiment, the amount of the boost conversion is a function of the input energy, and the DC/DC converter is designed to maximize the output voltage as a function of input voltage in this low-energy environment.
The upconverted voltage from the DC/DC converter is stored in a storage device of second reservoir 203. In one embodiment, second reservoir 203 uses a capacitor to store the upconverted voltage. In another embodiment, second reservoir 203 uses an inductor to store the upconverted voltage, but this is a much shorter-term storage option.
When the energy stored in second reservoir 203 reaches a certain level, the energy is transferred to a third reservoir (not shown). Thus, the transfer occurs periodically at a rate determined by the amount of input energy. In one embodiment, the third reservoir comprises a battery, a capacitor, a supercap, etc. The third reservoir provides DC energy to a load.
In one embodiment, the load comprises a sensor, processor or microcontroller, and/or a communication unit. In one embodiment, the DC voltage from the third reservoir is able to run the load, while the voltage produced by rectifier 201 would not be able to do so.
Control logic 205 controls the energy harvesting process. In one embodiment, control logic 205 comprises a separate unit that generates control signals to control each of the reservoirs 202-3203. In another embodiment, the control is distributed through various discrete gating components such that a separate control unit is not necessary but the function is still performed.
In one embodiment, the stored energy from reservoir 302 is transferred to second reservoir 303 via a transistor 311, self-gated as the voltage rises in reservoir 302. In one embodiment, second reservoir 303 comprises a boost converter 303A. The boost converter 303A operates to upconvert the voltage stored in reservoir 302 and store that upconverted voltage into reservoir 303B.
The energy stored in second reservoir 303 is transferred to third reservoir 304. In one embodiment, third reservoir 304 comprises a tantalum capacitor, supercap 100 uF to 1 F or a battery. In one embodiment, transistor 312 (e.g., a FET) couples second reservoir 303 to third reservoir 304, which turns on when second reservoir 303 reaches an optimal voltage. In one embodiment, transistor 312 is controlled at least in part by the envelope of the received RF energy such that when the voltage stored in reservoir 303B reaches a certain watermark level, transistor 312 closes/turns on and the energy is transferred. In one embodiment, through the selection of high gate-threshold transistors, the voltage can build up fairly high in reservoir 303 (as much as 1-2V) before the transistor 312 closes/turns on. Transistor 312 closes/turns on automatically when the gate threshold of the transistor design is reached in reservoir 303. As soon as transistor 312 closes/turns on, the energy is transferred from reservoir 303 into reservoir 304, thus depleting the energy in reservoir 303, and the gate threshold falls below the watermark level and the transistor 312 closes/opens again. The process then repeats when the voltage in reservoir 303 becomes sufficiently high.
Note that transistor 311 and 312 may be replaced with other types of switches.
Waveform Aware Harvesting
In one embodiment, the RF waveform harvester comprises a RF to DC converter that is optimized for use with non-continuous wave (CW) signals. In another embodiment, the RF waveform harvesters are waveform aware and are able to perform ambient energy harvesting based on a waveform model, where the available RF energy is in the form of communication waveforms of a variety of types. Examples of commonly-harvested ambient RF energy sources with non-continuous wave signals include, but are not limited to, digital television (DTV) broadcasts, cellular base station transmissions (e.g., GSM, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)), Wi-Fi transmissions, etc.
For example, in one embodiment, WiFi is the communications waveform that is the ambient form of energy to be harvested. WiFi is bursty and has low amplitude compared to other sources of energy, where a bursty signal has a high peak to average ratio over ms to s time scale. For example, some WiFi signals have WiFi transmission burst times on the order of 1 ms. For a bursty signal, the harvester can only contribute energy to the reservoir capacitor (Cx) when the ambient source is transmitting.
The purpose of capacitor CX in
If the usable energy is defined as the portion of the stored energy above some threshold voltage VTH, the following describes how to find a value of CX given the ambient RF input power and the signal's duty cycle. This is based on the maximum power point curve for the harvester, the typical burst timings for the ambient signal of interest (e.g., WiFi with some traffic model), and a time domain response for the harvester as a function of CX. Thus, in one embodiment, the storage capacitor selection CX is optimized on the time scale of network traffic for the signal being harvested.
Referring to
An expression is derived for the useful-energy-maximizing reservoir capacitance CX as a function of ambient RF signal duty cycle and the load impedance RL at a diode harvester's maximum power point. The expression may be used to calculate the usable energy as a function of the known parameters and the unknown capacitance CX.
The total energy in CX may be expressed as follows:
where C is the capacitance and V is the terminal voltage of CX. It is assumed that the energy stored on the capacitor is only usable when the capacitor voltage is above the desired threshold VTH. The usable energy is thus the difference between the stored energy at the end of an RF transmission (at time t=Tp) and the stored energy when CX is charged only to VTH and is expressed as follows:
where VTp is the terminal voltage on CX at the end of an RF transmission (e.g., at the end of each burst) of duration Tp and is expressed as:
VT
By substitution, the equation for the usable energy may be re-written in terms of C and the known values of RL, VTH and Tp as follows:
The equation may be solved for Eusable as a function of CX.
Thus, a new class of RF energy harvesters, referred to herein as waveform aware harvesters, have been described. These RF energy harvesters are RF to DC converters that are optimized for their performance with non-CW signals.
Whereas many alterations and modifications of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art after having read the foregoing description, it is to be understood that any particular embodiment shown and described by way of illustration is in no way intended to be considered limiting. Therefore, references to details of various embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims which in themselves recite only those features regarded as essential to the invention.
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