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INVITED
PAPER
RF Energy Harvesting and
Transport for Wireless Sensor
Network Applications:
Principles and Requirements
By Hubregt J. Visser, Senior Member IEEE , and Ruud J. M. Vullers, Senior Member IEEE
ABSTRACT | This paper presents an overview of principles and
requirements for powering wireless sensors by radio-frequency
(RF) energy harvesting or transport. The feasibility of harvest-
ing is discussed, leading to the conclusion that RF energy
transport is preferred for powering small sized sensors. These
sensors are foreseen in future Smart Buildings. Transmitting in
the ISM frequency bands, respecting the transmit power limits
ensures that the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) exposure limits are not exceeded.
With the transmit side limitations being explored, the propa-
gation channel is next discussed, leading to the observation that
a better than free-space attenuation may be achieved in indoors
line-of-sight environments. Then, the components of the
rectifying antenna (rectenna) are being discussed: rectifier,
dc–dc boost converter, and antenna. The power efficiencies of
all these rectenna subcomponents are being analyzed and
finally some examples are shown. To make RF energy transport
a feasible powering technology for low-power sensors, a
number of precautions need to be taken. The propagation
channel characteristics need to be taken into account by
creating an appropriate transmit antenna radiation pattern.
All subcomponents of the rectenna need to be impedance
matched, and the power transfer efficiencies of the rectifier and
the boost converter need to be optimized.
Manuscript received February 6, 2012; revised January 29, 2013; accepted
February 10, 2013.
The authors are with the IMEC/Holst Centre, Eindhoven 5605 KN, The Netherlands
(e-mail: huib.visser@ imec-nl.nl; ruud.vullers@imec-nl.nl).
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/JPROC.2013.2250891
0018-9219/$31.00 Ó 2013 IEEE
KEYWORDS | Antenna; energy harvesting; rectenna
I. INTRODUCTION
Wireless radio-frequency (RF) energy transmission dates
back to the experiments of Heinrich Hertz, in the 1880s,
proving Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetics. The modern
history of RF free-space power transmission may be
considered to find its origin in the late 1950s [2] with
applications in microwave powered aircraft [3] and the
Solar Power Satellite Concept [4]. After a quiet period in
the 1980s and 1990s, we may observe a regained interest in
the field. This interest seems to be initiated by short-range
(G 2 m [5]) radio-frequency identification (RFID) applica-
tions, focusing on the available industry–science–medical
(ISM) frequency bands around 0.9, 2.4, 5.8 GHz, and
higher. Especially for the higher frequencies, the wave-
lengths become small enough for the realization of minia-
ture wireless autonomous transducer systems (WATSs).
These systems could be powered by incident RF radiation.
Thereto, an antenna is connected to a rectifier to form a
so-called rectenna that converts the incident RF power
into usable direct current (dc) power. This dc power will,
in general, pass through an energy storage system (ESS)
before being delivered to the load. The schematic of a
general wireless RF power transmission system is shown
in Fig. 1.
It should be noted that we are talking about far-field RF
energy transmission, which is different from (close con-
tact) inductive RF energy transmission [6] or nonradiative
RF energy transmission [1].
| Proceedings of the IEEE 1
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

Fig. 1. Wireless RF power system, with the rectenna in the dashed box. Pinc is the incident power upon the receive antenna; Pacc is the
accepted power after impedance matching; z , z1 , and z2 are the impedance matching efficiencies; con is the rectifier power conversion
efficiency; and dcdc is the boost converter power efficiency.

Wireless power transport (WPT) is actively researched
by groups in Finland [7], United States [8]–[10], Korea
[11], Japan [12], Belgium [13], Germany [14], and at many
other places.
Considering the source in Fig. 1, we may ask if we may
use ambient RF energy as a source or if we have to employ
a dedicated RF source. Using the first source variant, we
will refer to it as ‘‘RF energy harvesting’’; using the second
variant, we will refer to it as ‘‘RF energy transport.’’
ical Effects of Electromagnetic Fields’’ [15], [16] has been
used. Fig. 2 shows single-frequency GSM900 peak power
density levels as a function of distance to the nearest base
station. These data have been gathered in Austria,
Germany, and Hungary between November 1996 and
November 2000 in the downlink frequency range 935–
960 MHz. The transmitting power densities and traffic
densities are unknown [16]. Data gathered outdoors on

II. RF ENERGY HARVESTING

AND T RANSPORT
The answer to the above question is not unique and is
related to the frequency being used, the available RF power
density, the size of the application to be powered, and the
power consumption of this application.

A. RF Energy Harvesting
For employing ambient RF energy, i.e., RF energy
harvesting, the most interesting systems to be explored are
GSM900 in Europe (downlink: 935–960 MHz) and
GSM1800 (downlink: 1805.2–1879.8 MHz) and WiFi
(2.4 GHz). These systems are omnipresent in an urban en-
vironment and use frequencies that allow resonant antennas
of sizes in the order of 10–50 cm2 . Broadcasting systems Fig. 2. Measured GSM900 peak power density levels as a function of
operate at (much) lower frequencies and would require distance to the nearest base station. Data are taken from [15]. Code
‘‘XY-a’’ indicates area and measurement site characteristics.
(very) large antennas for an efficient rectenna operation.
XY: IC ¼ inner city; OC ¼ outer country; IR ¼ industrial area; ST ¼ small
For assessing the power density levels supplied by GSM town; R ¼ rural or countryside area; 1 ¼ outdoors on roof, terrace,
base stations, the data gathered within Cooperation in or balcony; 2 ¼ indoors, close to windows, 1.5 m or less; 3 ¼ indoors,
Science and Technology (COST) Action 244 bis ‘‘Biomed- not close to windows.

2 Proceedings of the IEEE |

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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Table 1 Frequency Band Allocations and Transmit Power Restrictions for RFID Applications
ground level are not included in Fig. 2. The large variation
in power densities for this measurement subset would
obscure the figure [16].
From Fig. 2, we may conclude that in between 25 and
100 m from a GSM900 base station, we may expect,
indoors everywhere or outdoors on an elevated level, a
power density between 0.01 and 1.0 mW/m2 (103 –
101 W/cm2 ).
The power density integrated over the downlink
frequency band (935–960 MHz), i.e., the summed power
density, leads to the conclusion that [16] in between 25
and 100 m from a base station, we may expect, indoors
everywhere or outdoors on an elevated level, a summed
power density between 0.1 and 3.0 mW/m2 (102 –3 
101 W/cm2 ).
The power density levels received from GSM1800
base stations are, up to 100 m, in the same order of
magnitude as those received from GSM900 base stations
at a single frequency or summed for low traffic density
situations [16]. Measurements performed in a wireless
local area network (WLAN) environment indicate power
density values that are at least one order of magnitude
lower [16].
The measurements show that for obtaining an incident
RF power of, for example, 100 W, an area is required of
about 330–1000 cm2 , which is equivalent to an area of
about half to one and half A4 (letter) pages. Of this
incident, 100-W RF power, parts will be lost in the
antenna to rectifier impedance mismatch, the RF to dc
conversion, and the rectifier to load impedance mismatch;
see Fig. 1. Thus, RF energy harvesting is not feasible for
powering applications a few square centimeters in size,
requiring about 100 W.1 For those, we have to employ a
dedicated RF source in the vicinity of the devices to be
powered wirelessly, i.e., we have to employ RF energy
transport.
B. RF Energy Transport
Since no special regulations do exist for rectenna
systems, it makes sense to operate these systems in the
license-free ISM frequency bands. They should be classi-
fied then as either nonspecific short-range devices, or,
especially when used in combination with sensing func-
tions, as wideband data transmission systems or RFID
devices.
Taking antenna size in consideration as well as allowed
transmit power levels, the frequency bands of interest
within the allocations and regulatory parameters, includ-
ing allowed transmit power levels, for RFID are shown in
Table 1 [17]–[19].
For Table 1, national restrictions do apply. Frequency
band a is in France restricted to a maximum EIRP of
500 mW and in Sweden to a maximum of 25 mW. Fre-
quency band b2 is in France restricted to a maximum ERP
of 500 mW within defined zones around military camps
1
For applications requiring substantially less power, recent work by
Imperial College London (London, U.K.) has shown the feasibility of RF
energy harvesting at London underground stations [53].
| Proceedings of the IEEE 3
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
and in the Russian Federation the ERP is restricted to
100 mW within the frequency band 866.6–867.4 MHz.
With the restricted transmission power levels as stated
in Table 1, we may now proceed with designing small-size
rectennas for powering small-size applications. Those
small-size applications may be nodes in a wireless sensor
network. Wireless sensor networks are the key compo-
nents for the success of smart building integration (SBI)
initiatives.
III . S MART B UI LDI NG INTEGRATION
To halt climate change by reducing energy consumption,
smarter buildings are necessary.2 In these buildings, wire-
less sensors will measure temperature, light conditions,
and presence of persons. Lighting and heating will be
adjusted based on the readings. This SBI concept [20]
relies on the widespread use of wireless sensors. SBI will
also contribute to a higher wellbeing of an aging popula-
tion in an assisted living scenario, allowing the aged to live
at home for a longer period [21], [22]. Both aspects of SBI,
sustainable energy and living in health, may be associated
with a large economical drive. In 2007, the European
home automation market earnings were estimated at
C186.1 ($245.7) million and expected to reach C357.3
($471.6) million in 2013 [23]. The European (retrofit)
smart homes and assisted living market was in January
2010 expected to reach a size of C152.2 ($200.9) million
in 2014 [24]. The widespread use of wireless sensors in
the office and the house has, however, been severely
slowed down due to the cost of cabling.3 This is especially
true for offices, that are, on average, reconfigured every
five years [25].
The use of battery-powered sensors (for sensing mo-
tion, presence, door bell, light switch, smoke, etc.) may cut
these costs severely (up to 80% in offices [6]). The main-
tenance issues associated with these sensors, however, will
not be tolerated by the market [26]: For every 50 battery-
operated sensors, having a battery life of one year each, on
average, every week a battery needs to be replaced and one
sensor will be down [27].
Energy harvesting may provide a solution to this main-
tenance problem. Possible sources for energy harvesting
are: vibration, ambient light, temperature gradients, and
ambient radio waves. The availability of energy harvesting
sources of sufficient power cannot be guaranteed under all
circumstances however. A means of powering the wireless
sensors is through employing rechargeable batteries that
are being recharged by means of radio waves that are
generated by a dedicated RF source. This RF recharging
2 close to a transmit antenna. This can be understood by
Artificial lighting, for instance, contributes approximately 30% of
electricity consumption in a commercial building, and buildings
collectively account for 40% of total world energy use [51].
3 4
Cabling an average office unit or a four bed house is estimated at
?7000–11 000 ($9000–15 000) [52].
4 Proceedings of the IEEE |
will be applied remotely while the rechargeable batteries
are placed in the wireless sensors.
Transmit power restrictions, for preventing inter-
ference problems, are set by the U.S. Federal Com-
munications Commission (FCC) and the European
Radiocommunications Commission (ERC). An abstract
for frequencies of interest is stated in Table 1. Next to
these legal transmit power restrictions, also potential
health issues should be considered.
I V. RF RADIATION AND HEALTH
With a growing public concern about potential health
hazards caused by RF and microwave radiation, we need to
address this topic in relation to RF energy transport. We
need to distinguish between known heat effects and not
yet fully understood possible long-term effects.
The effect of heating of tissue by RF and microwave
radiation has been known since the 1930s and has become
well known since World War II with the introduction of
radar.
Microwave heating is caused by dipole rotation.
Molecules having an electrical dipole moment (like water)
will align themselves in an electromagnetic field. When
this field alternates, the molecules will reverse direction
and, in this process, distribute energy to adjacent mole-
cules in the form of heat. This principle is used in micro-
wave ovens.
The first exposure guidelines were already developed
by the U.S. military in the 1950s and have evolved in
today’s exposure limits. These limits are based on the fact
that the human body can handle heat up to 4 W/kg without
risking permanent damage.4 The 4 W/kg is for the whole
body. For limbs or parts of the body, the limit may rise up
to 80 W/kg due to the cooling effect of blood circulation.
For the eyes and male’s testes, the exposure limit is the
same as for the whole body due to the limited blood flow in
these organs.
Based on these limits and applying a safety factor of
10, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) has issued guidelines for
limiting exposure to time-varying electric, magnetic, and
electromagnetic fields up to 300 GHz [28] The ICNIRP
exposure limits for frequencies we identified as being
relevant for wireless power transmission are stated in
Table 2.
When transmitting in the license-free ISM frequency
bands, respecting the international and national legal
transmit power restrictions (see Table 1), the exposure
limits as stated in Table 2 will not be exceeded, except
perhaps in some situations wherein a person may get
The metabolic rate of a sleeping person is about 1 W/kg, increasing
to about 2.5 W/kg during moderate exercise.
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Table 2 ICNIRP Exposure Limit Recommendations
recognizing that the power density S, at a distance r from
the transmitter, is given by [29]
PT G T EIRP
S¼ ¼ (1)
4  r 2 4  r2
where PT is the transmitted power and GT is the transmit
antenna gain.
So, respecting (inter)national legal power restrictions
will, in general, prevent adverse heating effects of human
tissue by RF and microwave radiation. Furthermore, RF
and microwave radiation is nonionizing and, thus, cannot
directly cause cancer. Long-term effects are still a subject
of research [30], [31].
V. PROPAGATION CHANNEL
For a transmitter–receiver pair in free space, the pro-
pagation is described by the Friis transmission equa-
tion [29]
GT GR 2
P R ¼ PT
ð4rÞ2
where PR is the received power, PT is the transmitted
power, GT is the transmit antenna gain, GR is the receive
antenna gain,  is the wavelength used, and r is the dis-
tance between the transmit antenna and the receive an-
tenna. For the indoor situation, the path loss PL may be
described by (3) that is based on the Friis equation (2)
[32]–[35]
   
4r0 r
PL ðdBÞ ¼ 20 log þ 10n log
 r0
where r0 is a reference distance and where n equals 2 for
free space. Indoors, n is a constant, in general different
from 2, dependent on the propagation environment.
For line-of-sight (LOS) environments, n may vary
from 0.8 in a highly reflective environment like a module
of the International Space Station (ISS) [34] to 1.8 in a
common office building [32]–[35]. For non-LOS environ-
ments, n may get as high as 8.6 [35]. Also, the transmit
antenna plays a role in establishing a value for n in (3).
Fig. 3 shows two examples of measured dc power as a
function of distance from a transmitter in a LOS
situation. The measurements are performed in an office
corridor having a width varying between 1.2 and 2.3 m.
The ceiling height is 3 m. The ceiling is covered with
metal plates. The frequency used is 2.45 GHz. A 4-W
transmitter is being employed that is connected to a
vertically polarized fan-beam array antenna (GT ¼ 9 dB)
and to a vertically polarized broad-beam horn antenna
[GT ¼ 9 dB, matching efficiency, see (4), z ¼ 0:32];
see Fig. 4.
Both transmit and receive antennas were at a height of
50 cm from the ground. The RF power is rectified by a
Schottky diode voltage doubling circuit. The dc voltage is
boost converted to 3 V for charging a lithium–ion battery.
The specifics of the circuit, that is optimized for a 0-dBm
RF input power, will be discussed further in Section VI-B.
In Fig. 3, we show the curve-fitted lines which are ob-
tained through a least squares fit through the measure-
ment points. Although these trend lines are not directly
(2)
(3)
Fig. 3. DC power versus distance in an office corridor. Transmission by
EIRP ¼ 32 W fan-beam antenna and EIRP ¼ 10 W broad-beam antenna,
50 cm above the ground; receiver also 50 cm above ground. The
frequency used is 2.45 GHz.
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

Fig. 5. Equivalent electrical circuit of a packaged diode.

Fig. 4. Transmit antennas. (a) Four-element linear microstrip patch
array antenna: DT ¼ 11.6 dBi; radiation efficiency r ¼ 2.6 dB. (b) Horn
antenna: DT ¼ 9 dBi; r  0 dB; matching efficiency z ¼ 0:32.
representing the path loss,5 they do indicate that in an
office environment n G 2 in (3).
Furthermore, from Fig. 4, we may conclude that
through a stronger illumination of the walls (incorporating
metal door posts) we may obtain the same dc power level
at a certain distance from the transmitter while transmit-
ting a lower EIRP. Finding the optimum illumination of
the environment is part of an ongoing research at IMEC/
Holst Centre (Eindhoven, The Netherlands).
With the propagation channel being discussed, we now
have reached the core of the wireless RF power system of
Fig. 1, i.e., the rectenna.
VI . RECTENNA
When an impedance and filtering network is being applied
between the antenna and the rectifying circuit, as depicted
in Fig. 1, a standard (50 ) antenna may be applied. The
filtering function is for preventing higher harmonic fre-
quency components being reradiated by the antenna.
These frequency components are generated by the nonlin-
ear rectifier circuit.
As demonstrated in [36], designing an antenna
having an input impedance that is the complex conjugate
of the input impedance value of the rectifier circuit,
leads to an overall efficiency improvement of the rec-
tenna. Moreover, it leads to a compact design [36]. Har-
monic frequency rejection is automatically ensured
through the antenna impedance mismatch at these higher
harmonic frequencies.
By thus designing a rectenna, the dominant compo-
nent, determining the impedance level, is the diode used.
diodes. The equivalent circuit of a single, packaged
Schottky diode is shown in Fig. 5.
In this figure, d denotes an ideal diode, Cj is the (diode
voltage dependent) junction capacitance, Rs is the bulk
series resistance, and Lp and Cp are the packaging parasitic
inductance and capacitance, respectively. The values may
be found in the diode’s datasheet.
To determine the input impedance of this packaged
diode, we connect a voltage source Vg with internal resis-
tance Rg and terminate the packaged diode with the
parallel circuit of a capacitor CL and load resistor RL . For
CL  0.1 F, the load may be considered being a short
circuit for most commercially available Schottky diodes in
the range from 0.1 to 2.5 GHz [37]. Then, the input im-
pedance is obtained in a very time-efficient way, applying
a Runge–Kutta (RK) analysis [37]. Fig. 6 shows the
calculated real and imaginary values of the input impe-
dance as a function of available input power at 2.45 GHz
for a number of commercially available Schottky diodes.
Measurements have proven the correctness of the model
[37], [38].
Fig. 6 shows that for very low power levels the input
impedance remains constant as a function of available

A. Schottky Diode
The rectifying circuits we have been using in our de-
monstrators thus far consist of single or cascaded Schottky
5
In fact, the shown results are worse since they do not only represent Fig. 6. Calculated real (top) and imaginary (bottom) values of the input
the decrease of RF power with distance but also the decrease of antenna impedance of a short-circuited diode as a function of available input
impedance match efficiency with distance and the decrease of RF-to-dc power at f ¼ 2.45 GHz. Diodes analyzed: Avago types HSMS-2850,
and dc-to-dc power conversion efficiency with distance; see Section VI. HSMS-2860, HSMS-2820, and HBAT-5400.

6 Proceedings of the IEEE |

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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Fig. 7. Calculated impedance matching efficiency for an Avago
HSMS-2850 Schottky diode. 0 dBm indicates an antenna input
impedance ZR ¼ ð71 þ j84ÞV. 15 dBm indicates ZR ¼ ð11 þ j109ÞV.
input power. For our region of interest, i.e., 15 dBm 
Pinc  0 dBm, the input impedance changes rapidly as a
function of Pinc .
Choosing the ‘‘correct’’ antenna impedance will have a
great impact on the rectenna efficiency. To demonstrate
this, Fig. 7 shows the impedance matching efficiency as a
function of available input power for two chosen antenna
impedances. The impedance matching efficiency Z is
defined as
Z ¼ 1  jj2 :
Herein,  is the power wave reflection coefficient,
defined by [39]
ZL  ZR
¼
ZL þ ZR
where ZL is the input impedance of the rectifying
circuit and where ZR is the input impedance of the
antenna.
For analyzing the dc behavior of the diode, the RK
method fails. When the RC time of the load, which consists
of a resistor (R) in parallel with a capacitor (C), becomes
orders of magnitudes larger than the period of the source,
the time-domain circuit equations tend to become stiff.
This phenomenon, a numerical instability, occurs most
likely when dealing with more than one differential equa-
tion. The stiffness is due to the existence of two or more
very different scales of the independent variable on which
the dependant variables are changing [40]. Therefore, we
apply an approximate method for calculating the output
voltage of the rectifying circuit.
To increase the dc output voltage, several diodes may
be connected in cascade. Cascading two diodes in a voltage
doubling circuit is very convenient since most commer-
cially available Schottky diodes may have two diodes in a
single package.
The above approximation is therefore applied to a
voltage doubling circuit (see Fig. 8), and uses the implicit
expression developed in [41] for the output voltage V0 of
a diode
 q pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  V0
  R þR 
g s q
I0 8Rg Pinc ¼ 1 þ e 1þ RL nkTV0 : (6)
nkT RL Is
In this equation, I0 is the zero-order modified Bessel
function of the first kind, q is the electron charge, n is the
diode’s ideality factor, k is Boltzmann’s constant, T is the
temperature in Kelvin, and Is is the diode’s saturation
current. Pinc is the available power.
The voltage doubling circuit is shown in Fig. 8(a). For
an RF signal applied to the doubler, the capacitors will
act as short circuits leading to the equivalent electrical
circuit, as shown in Fig. 8(b). From this figure, it is clear
that the (RF) input impedance will halve with respect to
that of a single diode. For dc signals, the capacitors will
act as open circuits, and the two diodes will behave as
two voltage sources connected in series, as shown in
Fig. 8(c).
(4) To apply (6) to the voltage doubling circuit, the
transformation from a voltage doubler to a single diode
equivalent circuit as outlined in [42] is followed. For
the approximate analysis of the doubler, using (6), Rg is
doubled (to obtain the same current flowing into the cir-
cuit) and RL is halved (to obtain the same current flowing
out of the circuit). Results are shown in Fig. 9.
The calculated results appear to be adequate for design
(5) purposes in the range 15 dBm  Pinc  0 dBm.
The dc output voltage has been calculated for a
generator impedance of 50 . With the input impedance
of the parallel diodes of the doubler now known, we can
calculate the accepted power Pacc ¼ z Pinc ; see also Fig. 1
Fig. 8. Voltage doubler. (a) Electrical circuit. (b) RF equivalent circuit,
Zin :¼ Zin =2. (c) DC equivalent circuit, Vout :¼ 2Vout .
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Fig. 9. Approximately calculated and measured output voltage of a
voltage doubling circuit based on the Avago HSMS-2852 Schottky diode
as a function of available input power, for several load resistance
values. R g ¼ 50 V.
and calculate the RF-to-dc power conversion efficiency
con as
V02
con ¼ : (7)
RL Pacc
Fig. 10 shows the RF-to-dc power conversion efficiency
of the voltage doubling circuit as a function of the accepted
power for several values of the load resistor. For the
generator impedance, the value of the 0-dBm-matched
antenna has been used.
Fig. 10 shows that in our power region of interest, a
load resistance between 200 and 400  gives the best
Fig. 10. RF-to-dc power conversion efficiency of a voltage doubling
circuit based on the Avago HSMS-2852 Schottky diode as a function of
accepted input power, for several load resistance values.
8 Proceedings of the IEEE |
Fig. 11. Schematic of discrete dc-to-dc buck boost converter.
results. This value must correspond to the equivalent dc
source resistance of the two diodes, acting as dc sources,
connected in series, as shown in Fig. 8(c).
B. DC-to-DC Converter
The output voltage of the rectifying circuit will, in
general, be too low for directly driving an application.
Furthermore, the output voltage will change with a chang-
ing input power. Therefore, a dc-to-dc converter is used to
adapt the rectified voltage to the voltage of a rechargeable
battery. This converter should have an input impedance
that is equal to the optimal load impedance of the rectify-
ing circuit.
In [37], a discrete buck-boost converter is described;
see Fig. 11.
The unregulated buck-boost converter, operating in the
discontinuous conduction mode, is used to achieve a con-
stant input impedance Rdc equal to 300 . The reason for
this constant resistance is that the maximum power points
and related voltages of the rectenna result in a load resis-
tance of approximately this value for the incident power
range from 10 to 0 dBm [37]. The input impedance is
given by
2Lc
Rdc ¼ (8)
fs t2s
where fs is the switching frequency of the oscillator and
ts is the on-time of switch Sc . Rdc is constant only if
product fs t2s is constant, since Lc has a fixed value. Both
fs and ts are set by the oscillator, which is based on a
positive feedback (three times Rhys ) and a delayed negative
feedback (Rl , Rh , D, and COSC ). Assuming that the diode
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

In Fig. 12, the measured power efficiency is shown as a

function of input power Pin for three different batteries.
The undervoltage lockout makes that the converter
starts at a minimum accepted power level Pin ¼ 10.3 dBm.
The overvoltage lockout is set at 4.2 V and effects the
maximum value of Pinc at which the efficiency can be
measured. The measured efficiency for the 3.5-V battery at
Pin ¼ 8.9 dB is believed to be erroneous.
Now we can (roughly) estimate the RF power transfer
in an indoor LOS connection. We also have all the tools
necessary to determine the overall RF-to-dc power con-
version efficiency of the rectenna, To do that, we have to
start with the antenna and calculate the accepted power.
Using this value as input, we determine the power at the
output of the rectifier and the accepted power at the input
Fig. 12. Measured power efficiency of a discrete buck boost converter
of the boost converter. Then, we determine the power at
as a function of input power. the output of the boost converter and the power accepted
by the battery. From this value and the incident power,
we then calculate the overall power conversion effi-
forward voltage drop of D is negligible, both feedback paths ciency. This is shown in Table 3 for the 0-dBm-matched
scale with the oscillator’s supply voltage (Vsup ¼ Vdc þ Vbat ), rectenna.
which makes timing independent from Vsup . ts and fs are The 15-dBm-matched rectenna’s input impedance is
given by [37] too low to be used alone in combination with the HSMS-
2850-based voltage doubler rectifier. The RF-to-dc con-
version efficiency would be far below 1%.
ts ¼ Rh COSC The only component of the rectenna left to discuss is
1 the antenna.
fs ¼
ðRl þ Rh ÞCOSC
0 1 C. Antenna
2
Vsup  Vdc In Sections VI-A and VI-B, we assumed that we have an
B C
 ¼ ln@3 A: (9) antenna with the required complex input impedance. To
1
Vsup  Vdc design such an antenna, we start by selecting an antenna
3
type that will be small enough to fit into the application to
be powered (sensor). Furthermore, the antenna needs to
The converter may charge a battery within a voltage have enough geometrical features that can be used to tune
range of 2.1–4.5 V and needs a rectifier output voltage V0 the input impedance at the operational frequency. The
between 0.21 and 1 V. An input undervoltage lockout of antenna may then be designed through iteratively using a
0.21 V is used to prevent battery discharging due to in- commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) full-wave electromag-
efficient conversion. A battery overvoltage lockout is used netic simulation software suite, but employing a fast engi-
to protect the battery from overcharging. neering model may be more time efficient. When an
We define the power efficiency dcdc as approximate, dedicated analysis model is at hand, which
can calculate the antenna characteristics fast at a maybe
reduced accuracy, we may embed this model in an opti-
Pout mization shell and thus automatically generate a prede-
dcdc ¼ (10)
Pin sign. When necessary, this predesign may be fine tuned
with a limited set of iterations using a full-wave analysis
program. Thus, a pragmatic way to speed up the overall
where Pin ¼ con Pacc ; see Fig. 1. design time has been created.

Table 3 Power Transfer Through a Rectenna

| Proceedings of the IEEE 9

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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

A collection of approximate antenna analysis models

may be found in [38]. As an example, we will discuss the
design of a 2.45-GHz rectangular microstrip patch antenna
to be directly matched to an Avago HSMS-2850 Schottky
diode voltage doubling rectifying circuit.
In [36], we applied a cavity model [43], [44] for ana-
lysis and design of a rectangular microstrip antenna. The
accuracy of the model, however, appeared to be too limited
for obtaining a desired complex input impedance with a
sufficient accuracy [reflection coefficient, see (5),
 G 0:25]. Therefore, a combined use of the cavity model
and a COTS full-wave analysis program were employed
[36], [45]. In typically one full-wave iteration, the effective
width and length of the microstrip patch antenna are fine
tuned for a further use in the cavity model. This method
speeds up the design process by using a fast, dedicated,
microstrip patch antenna model for a multiple-iteration
design process and a slow, general purpose, full-wave ana-
lysis program for a single iteration. The drawback of the
method is that it relies on the availability of a full-wave
analysis program. We would rather have an all-analytical Fig. 13. Geometry of a probe-fed rectangular microstrip patch
model that can be used to obtain the desired input im- antenna.
pedance fast and with a sufficient accuracy. Such a model
is found in the transmission line model of [46].
Consider a rectangular microstrip patch antenna as
shown in Fig. 13. mission line of width W and  is the propagation con-
The length and the width of the antenna are, respec- stant [38]. Further [46]
tively, L and W. The probe feed is located at x ¼ xf , y ¼ yf ,
where the origin of the coordinate system is at the bottom
left corner of the patch. If the feed will be at the edge, one LW
Leq ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (14)
of the feed coordinates will be zero. m2 W 2 þ n2 L2
The input admittance of the microstrip patch antenna xoff yoff
is given by [46] eq ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (15)
m2 2yoff þ n2 2xoff
 

1 L 
1 1 1 1 1 xoff ¼   xf  (16)
Yin ¼ þ þ þ þ (11) 2
Y10 Y01 Y11 Y21 Y12  
W 
yoff ¼   yf : (17)
2
where Ymn , m, n ¼ 0; 1; 2, are the TMmn mode admit-
tances, given by (12), shown at the bottom of the page
[46], where We will demonstrate the modified cavity model (i.e.,
using a single full-wave analysis iteration to fine tune the
effective length and width in the classic cavity model) and
Yt2 ¼ Ys2  Ym2 (13) the transmission line model of [46]. Thereto, the real and
imaginary parts of the input impedance of a rectangular,
dual-resonant microstrip patch antenna have been calcu-
wherein Ys is the admittance of a radiating slot and Ym is lated as a function of frequency, using both models. The
the mutual admittance between two radiating slots [38]. classic cavity model will fail in accurately predicting the
Y0 is the characteristic impedance of a microstrip trans- input impedance for frequencies below and above the first

Y02 þ Yt2 þ 2Ys Y0 cothðLeq Þ  2Ym Y0 csc hðLeq Þ

Ymn ¼ 2Y0   2    : (12)
Y0 þ Yt2 cothðLeq Þ þ Y02  Yt2 coshð2 eq Þ csc hðLÞ þ 2Ys Y0

10 Proceedings of the IEEE |

 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Fig. 14. Real part of the input impedance of a rectangular micropstrip
patch antenna as a function of frequency as calculated with three
different models.
resonance frequency [47]. The parameters of the microstrip
antenna are (see Fig. 13) L ¼ 30.8 mm, W ¼ 27.7 mm,
h ¼ 1.6 mm, "r ¼ 4:28, tan ¼ 0:0016, xf ¼ 0, and yf ¼
0.4 mm. The copper thickness is 70 m.
Figs. 14 and 15 show the real and imaginary parts of the
input impedance as a function of frequency, respectively.
Also shown in the graph are the full-wave analysis results
obtained with a COTS Method of Moments (MoM)
analysis program.
Figs. 14 and 15 show that both the modified cavity
model and the transmission line model can predict the real
part of the input impedance around 2.45 Ghz within a few
percent. For this, we take the full-wave results as a
reference. The imaginary part of the input impedance as
calculated by both approximate models differs up to 50%
of the reference value at this frequency. However, if we
would have a front–end having an input impedance that is
the complex conjugate of the input impedance as
calculated by the full-wave method at this frequency, (5)
Fig. 15. Imaginary part of the input impedance of a rectangular
micropstrip patch antenna as a function of frequency as calculated
with three different models.
Fig. 16. Wirelessly RF powered wall clock. (a) Rectenna element.
(b) Front view of the clock with eight rectenna elements. (c) Back view
of the clock showing the separate rectenna element’s ground planes.
reveals that the power wave reflection coefficient will be
around 0.2, which we consider to be acceptable. We do see
that the modified cavity model is more accurate over the
frequency band shown but that around the frequency of
interest the accuracy of both approximate models is
comparable.
VI I. EXAMPLES
In this section, we will show some examples of wireless RF
energy transport. In some of the examples, the dc output
voltage of the rectenna’s rectifier is used immediately to
drive the application. In other examples, a dc boost
converter and rechargeable battery are being employed. As
a first example, a wirelessly RF powered wall clock is
shown in Fig. 16. The rectenna consists of an edge-fed
microstrip patch antenna on an FR4-substrate, directly
matched to an Avago HSMS-2852 Schottky diode voltage
doubler [36] optimized for an input power of 0 dBm at a
frequency of 2.45 GHz. The antenna input impedance as a
function of frequency was analyzed in Section VI; the
results are shown in Figs. 14 and 15. The voltage doubler
was also analyzed in Section VI. As can be concluded from
Figs. 6, 14, and 15, the antenna is directly matched to the
voltage doubler (half the impedance values at 0 dBm in
Fig. 6). Eight of these rectennas are connected in series to
power the clock.
Fig. 17 shows an array of strip folded dipole rectenna
elements, used to directly power a so-called ‘‘E-skin’’ [48].
This E-skin uses a low-power voltage supply to make it
optically transparent. For the application shown, about 9 V
is needed while the current is in the order of a few nA.
A constraint for powering the E-skin was that no
batteries were allowed. Therefore, the dc-to-dc voltage
boost converter, as discussed in Section VI, could not be
employed and a relatively large RF collecting aperture was
needed to deliver the required voltage. In the second
version, also the dedicated 2.45-GHz transmitter had to go
and was replaced by a GSM-900 cellphone. The RF
collecting aperture was replaced by an array of strip Yagi–
Uda antennas on foil. These antenna elements were also
used in the last example of directly, i.e., without a voltage
| Proceedings of the IEEE 11
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Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications
Fig. 17. E-skin. (a) No voltage supplied: E-skin panel is opaque.
(b) Voltage supplied: E-skin panel is optically transparent.
boost circuit, powering an application, as shown in Fig. 18.
The figure shows a transmitting GSM900 cellphone (1).
A part of the transmitted power is intercepted by a
rectenna array consisting of four Yagi–Uda rectennas (2)
and is powering the wireless temperature sensor (3). The
dc voltage delivered to the sensor is displayed on a volt
meter (3a). The 2.45-GHz radio of the wireless temper-
ature sensor (3) transmits the measured temperature
every 7 s to a remote wireless base station (4). This base
station relays the received data to a computer (5) for
storage and a convenient display [49]. The power con-
sumption of the sensor is 10 W on average. The maxi-
mum distance between the phone and the RF collecting
aperture in this feasibility demonstrator is about 1 m. The
maximum distance between the wireless temperature
sensor and the base station is about 30 m.
The 0-dBm-matched microstrip patch rectenna [see
Fig. 16(a)] has been combined with the voltage boost
converter (see Fig. 11) of which the power efficiency
curves are shown in Fig. 12. The output of this converter is
connected to a rechargeable 3-V lithium–ion battery. This
wireless RF battery charger has been used for obtaining the
Fig. 18. Array consisting of four Yagi–Uda rectennas, connected in
series, powering a wireless temperature sensor.
12 Proceedings of the IEEE |
Fig. 19. Measured supply current for a constant voltage of 3 V for the
COTS wireless temperature and humidity sensor.
propagation results shown in Fig. 3. The wireless RF bat-
tery is next used to power a 3-V COTS wireless sensor
node, measuring temperature and humidity and transmit-
ting the values every 45 s at a frequency of 433 MHz. The
power needed by the COTS wireless sensor has been
obtained by measuring the supply current as a function of
time for a constant voltage of 3 V; see Fig. 19 [50].
Based on these measurements, the average power
supply level is found to be 55 W. The voltage boost
converter uses 17.9 W [50].
Fig. 20 shows the packaged RF battery in front of the
COTS wireless sensor. Laying in front of both is an opened
RF battery showing the back (ground plane) of the micro-
strip patch antenna with attached to it the dc-to-dc voltage
boost converter PCB and the 3-V lithium–ion battery.
By employing an EIRP of 10 W, it has been possible to
power the wireless sensor indoors to a distance of 7 m from
the transmitter [50]. By carefully choosing the receiving
Fig. 20. Packaged 2.45-GHz remote RF battery charger and COTS
433-MHz temperature and humidity sensor. 433-MHz base
station not shown.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.

Visser et al.: RF Energy Harvesting and Transport for Wireless Sensor Network Applications

Fig. 21. Wireless energy transport measurement setup. By
optimizing the receiver location, a battery may be charged up
to 18 m from the source.
location, battery charging appears to be possible up to a
distance of 18 m, employing a source transmitting an EIRP
of 10 W; see Fig. 21. The distance is a maximum distance,
yielding a dc of 18 W, which would result in a battery
charging time going to infinity.
Although 10-W EIRP is far above (inter)national legal
restrictions, there is enough room to increase the overall
power transfer efficiency, especially in the dc-to-dc voltage
boost converter. Eventually, power transfer over a few
meters, delivering tens of microwatts dc will be feasible.
VI II . CONCLUSION
Low-power wireless sensors in a smart building environ-
ment may use rechargeable batteries that are remotely
charged by means of RF energy transfer. The transmit
power levels are restricted by international rules for
avoiding interference and recommendations concerning
health. Obeying these power limitations means that we
need to fully exploit the characteristics of the propagation
channel and the components that make up a rectenna. By
carefully illuminating the environment, next to establish-
ing a LOS, a power decay better than predicted by the Friis
transmission equation may be obtained. Smart illumina-
tion is one of the research topics ongoing at IMEC/Holst
Centre in the field of wireless energy transfer. A Schottky
diode may be chosen based on the calculated RF-to-dc
power conversion efficiency. Then, from the impedance
characteristics calculated for this Schottky diode, the
impedance matching efficiency of the antenna may be
optimized and an antenna may be designed accordingly.
Finally, a dc-to-dc boost converter may be designed for the
application at hand, also optimized for power conversion
efficiency. The efficiency graphs (Figs. 7, 10, and 12)
shown in this paper show that improvements in the order
of tens of percent are feasible, for example, by replacing the
0-dBm-matched antenna in the last shown example by a
15-dBm-matched antenna.
Thus, RF energy transfer is a powerful technology.
However, an optimum design of all the constituent parts is
essential. h

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Hubregt J. Visser (Senior Member, IEEE) was born
in Goes, The Netherlands, on October 26, 1964. He
received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Eindhoven University of Technology,
Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1989 and the Ph.D.
degree in applied sciences from the Eindhoven
University of Technology and Katholieke Univer-
siteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, in 2009.
In 1990, after fulfilling his military service at
TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory, The
Hague, The Netherlands, he joined the same laboratory as a civilian. He
has participated in several projects concerning near-field antenna
measurements, monolithic microwave integrated circuits design, and
phased-array antenna design. From mid-1996 to mid-1997, he was
stationed at the European Space Research and Technology Centre, RF
Systems Division, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, where he worked on
infinite waveguide array antenna modeling. In 2001, he joined TNO
Science and Industry, Eindhoven, The Netherlands where he has been
involved in antenna miniaturization projects. Since 2006, he has been
part-time connected to the Holst Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
and since 2009, he has been with the Holst Centre as an employee of
IMEC. Here he is working on wireless energy transfer. He is an Associate
Professor at the Eindhoven University of Technology, where he teaches
antenna theory. He is the author of the books Array and Phased Array
Antenna Basics (New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2005), Approximate Antenna
Analysis for CAD (New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2009), and Antenna Theory
and Applications (New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 2012).
Ruud J. M. Vullers (Senior Member, IEEE)
received the M.Sc. degree in physics from the
Radboud University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The
Netherlands, in 1994 and the Ph.D. degree from
the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven,
Belgium, in 2000, where the topic of his research
was lithography on nanometer dimensions, using
local oxidation of titanium thin films by atomic
force microscopy.
He has worked for Philips Research Laborato-
ries in the area of optical storage, on the fabrication and design of thin film
coils for use in magneto-optical storage, followed by recordable Blu-ray
Disc development. In 2006, he joined the IMEC/Holst Centre, Endhoven,
The Netherlands, where he is Principal Scientist. He has (co)authored
many papers in the field of wireless sensor nodes and energy harvesting
technologies. He holds six patents (of which two are U.S.).
Dr. Vullers is Area Chair of the Body Sensor Network (BSN)
Conference and member of the MEMS and PowerMEMS Technical
Program Committee.

14 Proceedings of the IEEE |