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.