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An Ambient RF Powered Wireless Sensor System
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  • Ming-Tai CHIU ,
  • Chi-Yuk CHIU ,
  • Charles NG ,
  • Lap-On WONG ,
  • Shanpu Shen ,
  • Ross Murch
Ming-Tai CHIU
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Chi-Yuk CHIU
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Charles NG
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Lap-On WONG
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Shanpu Shen
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Ross Murch
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Abstract

The development of an ambient radio frequency (RF) powered Internet of Things (IoT) wireless sensor system is reported. The system integrates all major components including multiple antennas, rectifiers, a power management unit (PMU), a microcontroller unit (MCU) with RF transceiver module and sensing unit. A novelty of this applied engineering innovation is the design and use of multi-band dual-polarized multiple antennas to handle the low ambient RF power density found in the everyday environment. Our prototype has demonstrated that it is able to sense temperature, pressure and humidity and wirelessly transmit these signals to a central server with a duty cycle of approximately 15 minutes, when the background ambient RF signals are as low as −28.6 dBm at 950 MHz. The proposed system can address the important issue of energy supply in the development of IoT providing an alternative energy source to batteries or solar cells. Ambient RF powered IoT devices do not require periodic replacement of their batteries or to be placed visible regions which makes them suitable for wall, ceiling and floor applications. Our ambient RF powered IoT wireless sensor system provides concrete proof, through demonstration, that harnessing ambient RF energy for powering IoT sensor systems is feasible.
2022Published in IEEE Open Journal of Antennas and Propagation volume 3 on pages 1382-1393. 10.1109/OJAP.2022.3225169