Journal of Communications Engineering and Networks Apr. 2014, Vol. 2 Iss. 2, PP.

84-91

Design and Performance Analysis of 10-Stage

Voltage Doublers RF Energy Harvesting
Circuit for Wireless Sensor Network
Nahida Akter1, Bellal Hossain2, Humayun Kabir3, Amran Hossen Bhuiyan4, Mahbuba Yeasmin5, Sadia Sultana6
Department of Computer Science & Telecommunication Engineering, Noakhali Science &
Technology University, Bangladesh
1
akhi_ust@yahoo.com; belal.nstu@gmail.com; 3hkabir269@gmail.com; 4amran_apece@yahoo.com
2

Abstract- Continuous power supply is very important issue in the purpose of the application of wireless sensor networks. But in the
power system of WSN, the battery has a very limited lifetime and is not replaced yet by any other continuous power system. Many
researchers are performing several analyses about the energy harvesting circuit of WSNs power system. In this paper, such
approach was also performed, with radio frequencies used as input power of energy harvesting circuit for wireless sensor networks.
RF energy harvesting technology is not new, but it is able to harvest a minute amount of energy which is not sufficient to continuous
power to the node of WSN. In this work, an optimization of the voltage doublers stages in an energy conversion module for Radio
Frequency (RF) energy harvesting system at 950 MHz band is presented. Advanced design system (ADS) simulator was used to
design a 10-stage voltage multiplier RF energy harvesting circuit, which produces approximately 5 Volt at 0 dBm and maximum
36.489 Voltage. Two 10 stage voltage multipliers were designed and the Agilent diode HSMS-2850 and HSMS-2822 were compared,
and finally, it was confirmed that the HSMS-2850 works much better than HSMS-2822 diode. The proposed system can be used to
power low power sensors in sensor networks ultimately in place of batteries.
Keywords- Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs); Radio Frequency (RF); Ambient Energy; Harvesting; Voltage Multiplier

I. INTRODUCTION
The life of WSN is its node which consists of several device-controllers, memory, sensors/actuators, transceivers and
battery. The transceiver can operate in four states, i.e. 1) Transmit 2) Receive 3) Idle and 4) Sleep. The major energy problem
of a transmitter of a node is its receiving in idle state, as in this state it is always being ready to receive, consuming great
amount of power. On the other hand, for the purpose of using nodes in several applications such as structural health monitoring,
human health monitoring, security surveillance in military and battlefields, industrial diagnosis or to measure the temperature,
the pressure of a typical area-continuous power supply is very important. However, the battery has a very short lifetime and
moreover in some deployments, owing to sensor location, battery replacement may be both practically and economically
infeasible or may involve significant resists to human life. That is why energy harvesting for WSN in replacement of battery is
the only and unique solution.
Due to unpredictability of sources like light, wind, vibration and other sources, radio frequency became a more popular
source in harvesting energy for WSN for its availability and easy scavenging system. However, the system cannot gather a
huge amount of energy as the maximum power would loss for the nature of transmission medium and the distance from source
to destination. Due to transmission medium limitation, radio waves sometimes are reflected, diffracted and scattered. Each
effect occurs to a different extent in various media, depending on factors such as wavelength and intensity of the wave, and
thickness and physical composition of the medium. Consequently, it is very difficult to estimate the amount of RF power that
can be harvested at any location ahead of time [1].
In this paper, the energy from commercial RF broadcasting stations like GSM, TV, WIFI, cellular tower or Radar to supply
energy for wireless sensor nodes or other applications have been proposed. Although, only the GSM 950MHz was used in the
simulation, Fig. 1 [2] shows the GSM frequency architecture for RF radiation. This powering method can be planned
especially for sensor nodes settled in remote places, where other energy sources like solar or wind energies are not available.
The DC power depends on the available RF power and conversion efficiency RF/DC.

Fig. 1 Schematic view of a RF energy harvesting system

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II. WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS POWERED BY AMBIENT ENERGY HARVESTING (WSN-HEAP)

In WSN-HEAP, each sensor node uses one or more energy harvesting devices to harvest ambient energy, such as light,
vibration and heat from the environment and stores the harvested energy in a storage device.
Harvesting energy from the environment is not new; it has been in use for decades. The most common form of ambient
energy sources include water (hydro-electric power generation), light (solar panels), wind (wind mills) and thermal
(particularly in areas with volcanic activities). Harvesting energy for low-power (and possibly embedded) devices like wireless
sensors poses a new challenge as the energy harvesting device has to be comparable in size (i.e. small enough) with the sensors.
Furthermore, the placement of the sensors may not be in locations that will allow optimal energy harvesting performance.
There are complex tradeoffs to be considered when designing energy harvesting circuits for WSNs arising from the interaction
of various factors like the characteristics of the energy sources, energy storage devices used, power management functionality
of the nodes and protocols, and the applications requirements. Currently, the main sources of ambient energy considered
suitable for uses by WSNs are solar, mechanical (vibration or strain), thermal and electromagnetic energy [3].
Besides the energy harvesting component, another critical component of a WSN-HEAP node is the energy storage device.
Baring wear-and-tear and other forms of physical damage, the goal is to substantially minimize, or ideally, totally eliminate the
need to physically replace the energy storage device or manually replenish the energy. The primary candidates for energy
storage in WSN-HEAP are rechargeable battery and super capacitor. The key advantage that super capacitor has over
rechargeable battery is its virtually unlimited recharge cycles in the order of a million cycles as compared to less than 1000
cycles for rechargeable batteries. This makes super capacitors the more viable energy storage option for WSN-HEAP [3].
In a battery-powered node, the total energy reduces over time and the sensor remains operational until the energy level
drops to an unusable level. At this stage, either the battery needs to be replaced or the node is deemed to be unusable/dead. On
the other hand, the energy in a WSN-HEAP node is replenished with energy harvested from the environment. The energy
needs to be accumulated over time to a certain level before it can be used. Due to technology limitations and the unpredictable
nature of the environment, the rate of harvesting and charging is unlikely to be able to support continuous sustained node
operation. A WSN-HEAP node is normally awake and operates for a short duration before it needs to shut down to recharge
[3].

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

There have been many works done on RF energy harvesting. Most works are related to antenna design, antenna return loss
and optimization of voltage doubler stages. Many authors tried to develop the patch antenna and spiral antenna to capture large
amount of RF power [4, 5] and the authors in [6] had showed that the maximum RF power that the spiral antenna can capture
is in the order of -42dBm (63nW). Some authors [2] & [7] simulated and designed 1,7 & 9-stage voltage multipliers which led
to the final statements that :1) Higher voltage can be achieved by increasing the number of circuit stages; and 2) Voltage gain
decreases with increasing number of stages [8].
The authors of [2] used eight zero bias Schottky surface-mount Agilent HSMS-285X series, and HSMS-2850 diodes for
stage 7. In their work, the DC output voltages obtained through simulation and measurement at 0 dBm were 2.12 V and 5.0 V
respectively. These results are comparatively much better than the results in [9], where at 0 dBm, 900 MHz, 0.5 V and 0.8 V of
voltages were obtained through simulation and measurement.
In this paper, a 10-stage voltage multiplier and comparing between the Agilent diode HSMS-2850 and HSMS-2822 was
proposed. In [8], the authors referred 7-stage HSMS-2852 for LPD and 10-stage HSMS-2822 for HPD. In this study, the
Agilent HSMS-2850 diode for 10-stage diode was also proposed and comparative study was done.

IV. RF ENERGY HARVESTING CIRCUIT

Since the energy harvesting circuit consists of diodes, which are nonlinear devices, the circuit itself exhibits nonlinearity.
This implies that the impedance of the energy harvesting circuit varies with the amount of power received from the antenna.
Since the maximum power transfer occurs when the circuit is matched with the antenna, the impedance matching is usually
performed at the particular input power. The impedance matching network performs impedance transformation to assure
maximum power delivery. A matching circuit (Fig. 2) that operates at 950MHz and input impedance of 50 and load
resistance of 100K was made.

Fig. 2 Matching circuit

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In this paper, only the simulation result of matching circuit at 0 dBm is presented (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3 Simulated output voltage as a function of time in matching circuit, which is similar to the input voltage, achieved at the output (Agilent ADS)

In this circuit design (Fig. 2), zero bias Schottky diodes (Vj = 0.35V) HSMS-2850, and HSMS-2822 (Figs. 4(a) and 4(b)
respectively) from Agilent were used. Attractive features of these Schottky diodes are their low substrate losses and very fast
switching, which however, leads to a fabrication overhead. Since the energy harvesting circuit operates at high frequencies,
diodes with very fast switching need to be used. Schottky diodes use a metalsemiconductor junction instead of a
semiconductor junction. This allows the junction to operate much faster, and gives a forward voltage drop of as low as 0.15 V.

(a) (b)

Fig. 4 (a) Agilent HSMS-2850 schottky diode; (b) Agilent HSMS-2822 schottky diode

A. Single Stage Voltage Multiplier

For designing the 10-stage voltage multiplier for RF energy harvesting circuit, first a single stage voltage multiplier [6] was
designed so that comparison among voltage doubler stages can be done.

Fig. 5 Single stage voltage multiplier using diode HSMS- 2850 from ADS at 950 MHz

Fig. 5 represents a single stage voltage multiplier circuit. The circuit is also called a voltage doubler because in theory, the
voltage that arrived at the output is approximately twice that at the input. The circuit consists of two sections; each comprises a
diode and a capacitor for rectification. The RF input signal is rectified in the positive half of the input cycle, followed by the
negative half of the input cycle. However, the voltage stored in the input capacitor during one half cycles is transferred to the
output capacitor during the next half cycle of the input signal. Thus, the voltage in the output capacitor is roughly two times the
peak voltage of the RF source minus the turn-on voltage of the diode.
The most interesting feature of this circuit is that when these stages are connected in series, this method behaves akin to the
principle of stacking batteries in series to get higher voltage at the output.

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Fig. 6 Input and output voltages as a function of time for input power of 950 MHz. [VCC = input AC voltage, V_load = output voltage]

From this simulation (Figs. 6 and 7), it can be easily observed that the output voltage is twice of the input. Schottky diode
HSMS-2850 was used in the circuit for this simulation.

Fig. 7 Output Voltage versus PIN (-40 to 40dBm) Single stage RF energy harvesting circuit (here PIN=Input Power)

From the ADS Harmonic balance simulation, it can be observed that the output of the first stage is 1.156 V at 0 dBm and
the maximum is 3.668 V at 10 to 40 dBm. The output is not exactly pure DC voltage; it is basically an AC signal with a DC
offset voltage. This is equivalent to a DC signal superimposed by ripple content. Due to this distinctive feature, succeeding
stages in the circuit can get more voltage than the preceding stages. If a second stage is added on top of the first multiplier
circuit, the only waveform that the second stage receives is the noise of the first stage. This noise is then doubled and added to
the DC voltage of the first stage. Therefore, the more stages that are added, theoretically, the more voltage will come from the
system regardless of the input. Each independent stage with its dedicated voltage doubler circuit can be seen as a single battery
with open circuit output voltage V0, internal resistance R0 with load resistance RL, and the output voltage is expressed as
the following Eq. (1) [2].
0
=
(1)
+ 0
When n number of these circuits are put in series and connected to a load of RL in Eq. (1), the output voltage obtained
given by this change in RC value will make the time constant longer which in turn retains the multiplication effect of two in
this design of seven-stage voltage doubler.
0 1
= = 0 0 1
+ 0 +
(2)

The number of stages in the system has the greatest effect on the DC output voltage, as shown in Eqs. (1) and (2) [2].
It is therefore inferred that the output voltage is determined by the addition of R0/RL and 1/n, if V0 is fixed. From this
analysis it is observed that V0, R0 and RL are all constants. Assuming that V0= 1 V, R0/RL = 0.25, n = 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, the
output voltages are = 1.33 V, 1.72 V, 2.0 V, 2.22 V, 2.43 V and 2.56 V respectively when substituted analytically in Eq.
(2). As n increases, the increase in output voltage will be almost double of the input voltage up to some number of stages. But
at some point, the output voltage gained will be negligible with the increases of the number of stages [2].

B. RF Energy Harvesting Circuit Using 10-Stage Voltage Multiplier: Diode-HSMS-2850.

To design the 10-stage Voltage multiplier using diode HSMS-2850 & HSMS-2822 for RF energy harvesting circuit, the
following components in Table 1 were used. The circuit design (Figs. 8 and 10) uses a capacitor across the load to store and

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provide DC leveling of the output voltage and its value only affects the speed of the transient response. Without a capacitor
across the load, the output is not a good DC signal, but more of an offset AC signal. An equivalent load resistor is connected at
the final node. The output voltage across the load decreases during the negative half cycle of the AC input signal. The voltage
decrease is inversely proportional to the product of resistance and capacitance across the load. Without the load resistor in the
circuit, the voltage would be hold indefinitely in the capacitor and look like a DC signal, assuming ideal components. The
capacitors are charged to the peak value of the input RF signal and discharge to the series resistance (Rs) of the diode. Thus the
output voltage across the capacitor of the first stage is approximately twice that of the input signal. As the signal swings from
one stage to another, there is an additive resistance in the discharge path of the diode and increase of capacitance due to the
stage capacitors [2]. Finally, the results will show that the output is multiplication of the input voltage.
TABLE 1 COMPONENT USED IN 10-STAGE VOLTAGE MULTIPLIER FOR BOTH HSMS-2850 & HSMS-2822

Name of components Label Value

Stage capacitors C1-C20 3.3nF

Stage diodes D1-D20 HSMS-2850,HSMS-2822

Filter Capacitor CL 100nF
Load resistor RL 100K

Fig. 8 Schematic diagram of RF harvesting circuit using 10-stage voltage doubler diode HSMS-2850 (Agilent ADS)

Fig. 9 Simulated Value of PIN Vs When Load is 100 Kohm and Diode-HSMS-2850 (PIN = Input Power)

Fig. 9 shows the simulation result of the 10-stage voltage multipliers using HSMS-2850 schottky diode. The maximum
output voltage shows 36.489 V and the power gain is approximately good.

C. RF Energy Harvesting Circuit Using 10 Stage Voltage Multiplier: Diode-HSMS-2822

Fig. 10 shows the circuit design of the 10-stage voltage multiplier for HSMS-2822 schottky diode and Figs. 11, 12 and 13
show the simulation results with different parameters.

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Fig. 10 Schematic diagram of RF harvesting circuit using 10-stage voltage doubler diode HSMS-2822 (Agilent ADS)

Fig. 11 Simulated Value of output voltage, input voltage as functions of time at 0 dBm [VCC = input AC voltage, Vload = Output DC voltage].

Fig. 12 Simulated Value of output voltage, input voltage as functions of time at PIN = 40 dBm

Fig. 13 Simulated Value of PIN Vs (V) when Load is 100Kohm with Diode-HSMS-2822

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V. RESULT AND ANALYSIS

The simulation results of RF energy harvesting circuit for 1-stage (Fig. 5) and 10-stage for HSMS-2850 diode (Fig. 8) and
10-stage for HSMS-2822 diode (Fig. 10) are shown. The simulation results of RF energy harvesting circuit for 7-stage can be
found in [2]. From these simulations, the following graph in Fig. 14 for PIN of -40 to 40 dBm versus output voltage can be
drawn.

300
250
200
10stage HSMS-2850
Vout(V)

150
1 stage HSMS-2850
100
7stage HSMS-2850
50
10 stage HSMS-2822
0
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
PIN(dBm)

Fig. 14 The output voltages of 1-, 7-, 10- stage for HSMS-2850 and 10-stage for HSMS-2822 for RF energy harvesting circuit

It is evident in the above figure that the voltage increases when the number of stages increases for both diode HSMS-2850
and HSMS-2822, but in the case of 10- stage for diode HSMS-2822, the voltage gain is high but power gain is less than that
for diode HSMS-2850.
(Fig. 15) shows the output voltages of 1-, 7-, 10-stage for HSMS-2850 for RF energy harvesting circuit. For diode HSMS-
2850, the power gain is almost the same for 7- and 10-stage but voltage gain of 10-stage is much higher than that of 7- stage.

40

30
Vout(V)

20 10stage HSMS-2850
1 stage HSMS-2850
10
7stage HSMS-2850
0
-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40
PIN(dBm)

Fig. 15 The output voltages of 1-, 7-, 10-stage for HSMS-2850 for RF energy harvesting circuit

Table 2 shows the achieved voltage from the simulation of -20 to 20 dBm for 1-, 7-, 10-stage for HSMS-2850 and 10-stage
for HSMS-2822.
TABLE 2 THE ACHIEVED VOLTAGES FROM THE SIMULATION

1stage HSMS-2850 diode 7 stages HSMS-2850 10 stages HSMS-2850 10 stages HSMS-2822

PIN(dBm)
(V) diode (V) diode (V) diode (V)
-20 0.061 0.155 0 0
-10 0.307 1.158 0.737 0
0 1.156 6.299 4.742 0
10 3.668 25.022 22.376 1.592
20 3.668 25.563 36.068 22.303

It can be observed that by using HSMS-2850 diode for the 10-stage circuit, maximum power can be obtained where the
gain is similar to that for the 7-stage circuit. It can also be observed from the above table that for 1-stage circuit, the maximum
output voltage is 3.668 Vo. At 0 dBm, it is 1.156 Volt. But considering the wireless sensor node, whose lowest operating
voltage is 1.8V, 1-stage RF harvesting circuit will fail to operate it.
On the other hand, 10-stage RF energy harvesting circuit with HSMS-2822 was selected for high-power design (HPD). But
after simulation, it was observed that it gave the maximum power at up to 25 dBm and 950MHz, but the gain was negligible.

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However, with HSMS-2850 diode for 10-stage circuit, 4.742 V at 0 dBm can be achieved and the highest voltage at 20 dBm is
36.068 V. Therefore, 10-stage HSMS-2850 will be better for the RF energy harvesting circuit than can be used in wireless
sensor network.

VI. CONCLUSION
The lifetime constraint of WSNs imposed by the use of batteries as power source can be eliminated with the use of
renewable energy techniques like ambient energy harvesting. However this introduces new challenges in the like uncertainty of
the energy supply, which is dependent on environmental factors. Energy-on-demand provided by RF energy harvesting has
been actively studied as a viable solution to provide energy to WSN nodes in a more deterministic manner but the minute
amounts of energy that can be harvested from RF signals present a daunting challenge to WSN protocol design. In this paper, a
10-stage voltage doubler (HSMS-2850) for RF energy harvesting was implemented for WSNs and successfully achieved a
large amount of power with average gain. A comparative study was also depicted for different diodes for RF energy harvesting
circuit for WSNs, and finally, a conclusion was reached that 10-stage HSMS-2850 performs better than 10-stage HSMS-2822.

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