ELECTRICITY FROM ELECTROMAGNETIC WASTE

Paper presented by:

Abhishek Gupta
Lecturer
BITS College Bhiwani

Swati Jha
Assistant Professor
Dronacharya College of Engineering

Ritu Sharma
Student (M.Tech)

Ishan Khurana
Student (M.Tech)

E-mail – earthat2005@gmail.com

• Wireless communication networks

INTRODUCTION
Energy Harvesting is the process of
capturing minute amounts of energy from
one or more of these naturally-occurring
energy sources, accumulating them and
storing them for later use. Energy-harvesting
devices efficiently and effectively capture,
accumulate, store, condition and manage
this energy and supply it in a form that can
be used to perform a helpful task.
Our environment is filled with heavy
amount of electromagnetic radiations from
natural as well as man made sources. The
natural sources include lightning, solar
radiations, cosmic radiations, etc. Man-
made sources of electromagnetic radiations
are associated with the following;
• Mobile phones and related network
of cell towers
• Wi-Fi environments
• Bluetooth communication devices
• T.V and radio transmission towers
• Low tension and high tension power
transmission lines
• Power line carrier communication
devices
• Air traffic controls
• Many defense related applications
• Space related applications
• Various industrial activities
• Automobiles, railways and other
transport systems
• Microwave cooking and
communication
The range of frequencies emanated from the
above sources is from below 50 Hz to nearly 3
GHz and above. This range of
electromagnetic radiation constitutes the
radio spectrum and corresponds to the
frequency of alternating current electrical
signals used to produce and detect radio
waves.
Major source of EMR waste occurs from
mobile and other communications. The
reason is that though the communication is
taking place between two fixed points, the
transmission has to take place spherically in
all directions. The useful part of
electromagnetic energy is only between the
two fixed points. The rest of them go as
waste. One can very easily imagine the
amount of electromagnetic energy created
and wasted. Only a very small fraction of
the radiations is utilized. Therefore we have
got lot of wasted electromagnetic radiations
throughout the day and night available
around us, under all weather conditions.
Further the quantum of wasted radiations
particularly in cell phones communications
seems to be very high. The wastage seems to
be directly proportional to the population
density of a place. That is to say the metros
have the highest level EMR pollution
followed by other major cities, smaller
towns and then rural areas.
The radio frequency energy harvesting is a
relatively new area of research within the
field of electrical engineering. To date, RF
energy harvesting technology has focused
mostly on low powered applications.
However, as the efficiency of the designed
harvesting circuitry is increased, use with
device’s requiring high power demands,
such as an unmanned aerial vehicle,
becomes a possibility. A high efficiency
also allows for the possibility of harvesting
ambient radio frequency energy to power
certain wireless devices. According to Dr.
Marlin H. Mickle, Professor of Electrical
Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh
and researcher in the area of wireless
networks and energy harvesting- “When we
talk about ambient radio frequency energy…
we’re showing that we can make it work”
. •
Project Concept
The design contains two main subsystems,
each having very specific purposes. Using a
custom designed micro strip patch antenna
optimized specifically for a narrow portion
of the S--‐Band (3.25 GHz), the device
captures electromagnetic energy from the
surrounding environment. Then, the
alternating current signal is efficiently
rectified via a 7--‐stage charge pump circuit
that utilizes S--‐Band Schottky diodes. A
secondary subsystem acts as a backup power
supply by storing energy in super capacitors.
Then, when insufficient energy is captured
from the receiving antenna to directly power
the device, this secondary subsystem
distributes stored energy. A block diagram
of the designed system is shown below in
Figure 1.
Figure 1. Block Diagram of System
Functional Specifications
The following were the minimum design
goals that were agreed upon:
• An antenna will be custom designed,
built, and tested that effectively
captures an appropriate amount of
RF energy
The antenna will be optimized for
the frequency band selected
• A rectification circuit will be
designed, built, and tested that
converts the input AC signal into a
DC signal

• The rectification circuit will be
optimized to have the highest
efficiency possible to increase
overall system performance
• An energy storage and distribution
subsystem will be designed that
utilizes electric Double layer
capacitors (super capacitors)
• The energy storage subsystem will
be able to provide a constant output
voltage/current
Overview of Final System Design
The RF energy harvesting device consists of
two primary subsystems and a secondary
subsystem. The first primary subsystem is
the receiving antenna, which is solely
responsible for capturing all of the RF
energy that is used to power the integrated
embedded system. The second primary
subsystem is the rectification circuitry,
which will efficiently convert the time
varying input energy into a constant output
voltage. The secondary subsystem is the
energy storage and distribution system,
which is responsible for acting as a power
backup by storing captured energy in super
capacitors. The overall device can operate
effectively without the secondary
subsystem, although some flexibility is lost
in its operation.
Antenna Subsystem
Overview of Technical Description
The antenna subsystem consists of a custom
designed single patch antenna with a Quarter
wave edge fed micro strip transmission line.
The linearly polarized antenna was
optimized to resonate efficiently at 3.25
GHz. within the context of the overall
system design. The antenna subsystem
harvests the radio frequency power and
transfers this power to the rectification
circuitry.
Design Approach
A micro strip patch antenna consists of a
radiating patch that rests above a dielectric
substrate backed by a thin conductive
ground plane. The radiating patch element
can be designed to take the form of any
number of planar geometries, including
squares, rectangles, circles, and ellipses.
These planar shapes have also been
successfully wrapped around a three
dimensional structure. Since an antenna is a
reciprocal device, it can be used to radiate
(i.e. transmit) electromagnetic energy or
capture (i.e. receive) electromagnetic
energy. A basic conceptual model of a
standard rectangular patch antenna is shown
in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Basic model of an edge fed
patch antenna
For a typical patch antenna, the width
dimension represents the two radiating
edges, whereas the length represents the non
radiating edges of the conductive patch.
Note that fringing fields exist along both of
the radiating edges, and they add in phase.
The current distribution is the highest at the
center of the width (i.e. all along the length
dimension). The current becomes smaller as
the width approaches each non radiating
edge. Moreover, the electric field is zero in
the center of the patch, maximum at the left
radiating edge, and minimum at the right
radiating edge. As a result, the antenna
experiences maximum directivity
perpendicular to the radiating element.
Unfortunately, besides micro strip patch
antennas, the possibility for a compact Figure 4. Three Dimensional View of Micro
antenna array of multiple elements simply strip Patch Antenna
did not exist for any other antenna type
studied. A two dimensional view of the Primary Subsystem (Rectification
designed patch antenna is shown below in Subsystem)
Figure3.
Overview of Technical Description

The rectification subsystem consists of a

7--‐stage charge pump utilizing Schottky
diodes. A Linear Technology LT1965 Low
Dropout Linear Regulator is placed at the
output to the charge pump circuitry to
ensure a proper voltage across the input to
the energy storage and distribution
subsystem. Within the context of the overall
system design, the rectification subsystem
converts the time varying input sinusoid
from the antenna subsystem and converts the
signal to a direct current (DC) form . During
Figure 3. Two Dimensional View of
this conversion, the voltage is also
Microstrip Patch Antenna
increased. Before entering the energy
storage and distribution subsystem, the
A three dimensional view of the micro strip
output voltage is regulated to a steady value.
patch antenna is shown below in Figure 4.
Figure 5 below is a schematic of the overall
rectification design.

Figure 5. Rectification
Subsystem
Design's Approach
This design is based on the principles behind
diodes and capacitors, and their behaviors
when configured into a charge pump circuit.
Charge pumps work in stages that
progressively increase the output voltage in
a DC form. By increasing the number of
stages of the charge pump it is theoretically
possible to deliver any needed output
voltage. The only constraint is that the
circuit must obey Ohm’s law. In other
words, by increasing voltage, current is
sacrificed.
The first stage of the design is shown in
Figure 6. This circuit is voltage doublers that
operate as follows:
1. Assume a sinusoidal input,
Vin=A sin (wt) and a peak amplitude
larger than Vth of the two diodes.
2. With the first positive semi cycle
after Vin = Vth capacitor C1 begins
to charge and continues to charge
until the peak voltage of A- Vth is
reached. At that moment Vc1=A-
Vth.
3. When the semi cycle begins to
decrease, the capacitor C1 retains its
charge because it has no discharge
path. At this point both diodes are
behaving as open circuits.
4. When Vin enters the negative semi
cycle diode D2 operates as a short
circuit allowing the negative terminal
of capacitor C1 to connect to Vin
and begins to charge the same way
that the other plate of C1 charged.
5. At this point capacitor C1 has the
charge of Vin on both plates and a
total charge of 2Vin.
6. To accommodate a load at the
output, an output capacitance, C2
must be added. Capacitor C2
removes the ripple from the output
when a load is present.
Figure 6. One--‐Stage Voltage
Doublers
Technical Description
The rectification system was self fabricated
onto a printed circuit board that also
includes the micro strip patch antenna. A
Faraday cage separates the antenna from the
rectification circuitry, ensuring that neither
subsystem electrically interferes with the
other.
The antenna loop L1 is actually printed on the
copper side of the PCB. The tuning network in
its simplest form as shown here is a variable CONCLUSION
trimmer capacitor C1. The size & shape of
L1and rating of C1 determine the capture Energy production from electromagnetic
frequency range. The voltage generated across waste is still a developing field and it can
C1 is rectified through a schottky diode. solve the energy problem of every country.
Schottky and tunnel diodes are useful in
Popularity of this field can be seen from
rectifying very high frequency signal. Capacitor
C2, C3 will have a variable A.C. pulsation lifted here that Nokia is trying to design a device
above zero level across them. This variable that produce energy from cell phone
pulsation is rectified through a compact and radiations and keep continually charging cell
efficient rectifier block RB1. Across the (+) and phone.
(–) terminals of RB1. A set of storage capacitor
tank consisting of C4, C5 and C6 is connected.
This is the place where captured energy is stored
in the form of a voltage. The maximum voltage
we could attain was 16 volts. Size of the
capacitors will determine the quantity energy
stored. I our case a total value of 100 mfd was
able to light up a red LED. Once the tank
capacitor is fully charged a LED could be kept
on continuously for three seconds. We also used
it in pulse mode for a long duration using the
switch SW1. The resistance connected in series
with the LED limits the peak current flowing to
a safe value. We used several combinations of
antenna / tuning circuits and during experiments
we were able to see peak to peak capture voltage
of 160 to 200 volts. Due to the non availability
of high voltage high frequency diode for
rectification we discarded this voltage range.