Sensors Magazine recently published the article “RF Energy Harvesting Enables Wireless Sensor Networks” by Harry Ostaffe of Powercast. The article is a brief introduction to RF energy harvesting: what it is, what it does, and how it enables wireless sensor networking applications.
Powercast will be demonstrating RF energy harvesting at the IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage Conference in Denver (USA) on Nov 3-4, 2009. On display will be Powercast’s RF energy harvesting technology integrated with wireless sensors from Texas Instruments, Jennic, and EnOcean.
All of the demonstration modules are battery-free and are powered by RF energy that is converted to DC by Powercast’s P2100 Powerharvester module and stored in a supercapacitor. Harry Ostaffe of Powercast will also be giving a presentation on Practical Applications of RF Energy Harvesting.
Product Design & Development (PDD) magazine profiled energy harvesting in “The Brainstorm” section of their August 2009 issue. The questions asked of the contributors were:
“What is the future of energy harvesting? What markets will energy harvesting have the greatest impact upon?”
http://e-ditionsbyfry.com/olive/ODE/PDD/Default.aspx?href=PDD/2009/08/01
A new energy harvesting group has been created on LinkedIn - Energy Harvesting and MicroPower.
This group is for professionals and researchers focused on products, applications, and solutions based on Energy Harvesting and MicroPower systems. Typical applications will include wireless sensors for environmental controls, building automation, condition monitoring, and energy management. Sources for Energy Harvesting and MicroPower include solar, thermal, vibration, RF, and motion.
AutomationWorld has published an article on energy harvesting technologies demonstrated at the 2009 Sensors Expo, including information on Powercast.
Energy Harvesting Advances
http://www.automationworld.com/news-5664
“While vibration energy harvesting may be most common for industrial applications, a different approach was being shown by Pittsburgh-based Powercast Corp. (www.powercastco.com). At its Sensors Expo show booth, the company was demonstrating its Powercaster transmitter, which was beaming a radio frequency (RF) signal toward the company’s Powerharvester receivers mounted in other nearby booths. The receivers were harvesting energy from the RF field and converting it to DC power sufficient to operate low-power sensor devices. Harry Ostaffe, Powercast director of marketing, said the company has so far deployed the technology in custom projects for military and industrial clients, with typical transmission distances “in the 10s of feet” using a three-watt transmitter.”
Power was transmitted to booths for Esensors and Infinite Power Solutions and converted back to DC with the P2100 Powerharvester. The Esensors wireless sensor was located about 35 feet from the Powercast transmitter. It was connected to a Powercast Yagi antenna module and was activated about every 90 seconds. The IPS energy cell was connected to a Powercast sleeve dipole antenna module and was pulse charged at about 25 feet. Longer charge distances were possible for both devices, but they were mounted for display purposes.
At the Darnell nanoPower Forum on May 18th, Powercast and CAP-XX presented a battery-free wireless power module for wireless sensors. The module uses the Powercast P2100 Powerharvester receiver, a CAP-XX GZ 115 supercapacitor, and the Texas Instruments eZ430-RF2500 wireless board. The modules work by receiving radio waves and converting them into DC, which is then stored in the supercap. When a charge threshold is reached on the supercap, the output to the wireless sensor is turned on which activates the sensor. The sensor can have zero stand-by power instead of using a sleep mode, and power can be sent on demand, o na scheduled basis, or continuously.
The joint press release by Powercast and CAP-XX contains additional details.
The short video embedded below shows LEDs being powered from the RF energy harvested from an iPhone operating in 2G mode. When the phone is called it is emitting enough RF energy to power the LEDs driven by Powercast’s RF energy harvesting technology and a simple dipole antenna tuned for the 900MHz ISM band. We added the Powercast logo to the iPhone, but there is no Powercast technology inside. The sound is a litte low so you might have to turn up the volume a little bit.
LinkedIn Group