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Lifetime Enhancement of Wireless Sensor Node Based on RF Energy Harvesting using Ultra Wideband Substrate Integrated Waveguide Rectenna
Yathavi Thangavelu, Balakumaran Thangaraju and Maheswar Rajagopal
Abstract: Wireless sensors with low power consumption will play an important role in smart city applications. A power supply is required for the operation of these sensors. Considering the limited life of batteries and the need for regular maintenance, batteries are not an optimal solution for sensor networks with so many sensors. Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting (RFEH) and Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) are power supply methods that can easily supply power to low-power devices. Due to its ubiquitous nature, RF energy can be used as a source of power for wireless sensor nodes, wireless body area networks, wireless charging systems, RFID tags, and the Internet of Things. This paper presents the lifetime enhancement of the wireless sensor node based on the optimization of the SIW antenna for energy harvesting using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) method. Here, an antenna and rectifier called a rectenna, needed by the harvesting node to convert power from free space transmitted by the base station into dc signals is designed, tested, and fabricated and the Direct Current (DC) output is used to power a low-power device. Compact structures and large arrays are possible with millimeter wave rectennas by Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology is used since it has been advantageous to millimeter wave systems because it provides increased isolation and lower radiation leakage and losses. Also, we consider multi-objective multi-dimensional optimization for SIW antenna design, and geometric parameters are optimized to achieve better efficiency. The antenna is designed using HFSS, fabricated, and tested under ambient conditions and the results obtained show the percentage of lifetime of the sensor node improvement increases exponentially as the energy harvesting period increases.
Keywords: Energy, Harvesting, Lifetime, Rectenna, and Optimization