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Energies
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Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices
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Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "F: Electrical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2022) | Viewed by 10670

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Mohammad Alhawari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wayne State University, 5050 Anthony Dr., Detroit, MI 48202, USA
Interests: analog and mixed-signal circuit design; energy harvesting and power management circuit techniques; edge computing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent advances in semiconductor technologies and system-on-chips have enabled smart, low-power, multi-functional, connected Internet-of-Things (IoTs) in newly emerging technologies including automotive, healthcare, artificial intelligence edge computing, smart home, industrial IoT, and smart cities. The number of IoT devices is growing at an ever-increasing speed with a projection of over 70 billion devices and 1.5 trillion market size by the year 2025. The primary energy source for most IoT devices is the battery, which requires frequent replacement or recharging and, therefore, places tremendous strain on the lifetime, maintenance cost, and environmental impact of the devices.

Recently, there has been interest in finding solutions for extending the lifetime of IoT devices and achieving energy-autonomous operation. Energy harvesting from ambient energy sources (solar, thermal, vibration, and RF) is a possible solution to recharge batteries and extend the lifetime of IoT devices. In many applications, EH sources can be used solely to supply power to the IoT without using a battery to achieve self-powered operation, which could help to extend the lifetime of IoT devices and reduce the maintenance cost

The purpose of this Special Issue is to address the advances in energy harvesting circuits and systems to run low-power IoT devices. We welcome original manuscripts covering recent advances in energy harvesting circuits and systems including, but not limited to, the following topics: 

  • Circuits and systems for high efficiency power management/delivery for self-powered/battery-assisted low-power IoTs.
  • Efficient converters for low voltage energy harvesting sources.
  • Multi-input/-output energy harvesting systems, supporting multi-voltage domains in low-power IoTs.
  • Maximum power point transfer techniques and algorithms for various energy harvesting sources.
  • Voltage regulation techniques and the support for wide load current.
  • Algorithms to support various modes of operation in IoT (sleep mode, active mode, etc.) based on the available energy.
  • Other power management techniques, including startup circuits, zero current switching circuits, low voltage monitoring circuits, and power-on sequence.

Dr. Mohammad Alhawari
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy harvesting circuits
  • power management
  • DC–DC converters
  • regulation techniques
  • maximum power transfer
  • startup circuits

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 809 KiB  
Article
Switched Inductor DC–DC Boost Regulator Using Voltage-to-Time Controller for TEG Applications
by Dima Kilani, Baker Mohammad and Mohammad Alhawari
Energies 2022, 15(9), 3330; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15093330 - 03 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1711
Abstract
This paper presents a switched inductor (SI) DC–DC boost regulator designed for thermoelectric generator (TEG) applications. To boost and regulate the output voltage, two feedback loops are implemented which control the duty cycle of the SI clock. The first loop consists of a [...] Read more.
This paper presents a switched inductor (SI) DC–DC boost regulator designed for thermoelectric generator (TEG) applications. To boost and regulate the output voltage, two feedback loops are implemented which control the duty cycle of the SI clock. The first loop consists of a pulse skip modulation (PSM) controller that compares the load voltage and reference voltage. Based on the comparison output, the PSM will either pass or bypass the modulated pulse width signal generated from the second loop. The second loop replaces the conventional circuit design of the pulse width modulation (PWM) with a voltage-to-time converter (VTC). The VTC converts the difference between load and supply voltage to time delay resulting in a modulated pulse width. This work is the first to report on utilizing VTC circuit in the SI boost regulator. The proposed SI boost regulator is designed using 65 nm CMOS technology which converts the TEG voltage of 50 mV to support dynamic voltage scaling in the range of 0.6 V to 0.8 V. The PSM and PWM controller loops can tune the duty cycle of the clock in the range of 0 to 70%. It achieves a peak efficiency of 60.9% at 30 μW load power. Comparing the proposed single-stage SI boost regulator with the conventional two cascaded stages of switched-inductor boost converter followed by switched capacitor regulator, the area is reduced by 9.6× and power efficiency is increased by 1.35×. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices)
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11 pages, 2798 KiB  
Article
Simultaneous Lightwave and Power Transfer for Internet of Things Devices
by José Ilton De Oliveira Filho, Omar Alkhazragi, Abderrahmen Trichili, Boon S. Ooi, Mohamed-Slim Alouini and Khaled Nabil Salama
Energies 2022, 15(8), 2814; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15082814 - 12 Apr 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1944
Abstract
A laudable goal toward achieving autonomous internet of things (IoT) devices would be to use the same circuitry for communication and harvesting energy. One way to achieve it is through simultaneous lightwave and power transfer (SLIPT) that consists of using solar cells to [...] Read more.
A laudable goal toward achieving autonomous internet of things (IoT) devices would be to use the same circuitry for communication and harvesting energy. One way to achieve it is through simultaneous lightwave and power transfer (SLIPT) that consists of using solar cells to harvest energy and receive information signals. Here, a SLIPT-based system that uses a large area solar panel to harvest energy from light sources and decode data signals is designed. The designed system is equipped with an infrared sensor used to detect the movements of an unmanned aerial vehicle. We equally discuss the wide-scale deployment of IoT devices with SLIPT capability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices)
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14 pages, 2374 KiB  
Article
Scatterers in the Rx Near Field for RF Energy Harvesting Efficiency Enhancement
by Zahra Katbay, Dimitrios Sounas and Mohammed Ismail
Energies 2022, 15(6), 2109; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15062109 - 14 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1150
Abstract
In this paper, we investigate the enhancement of RF–RF energy harvesting efficiency (erf–rf) in multipath environments in the context of wireless power transfer (WPT). For this, we used a retrodirective transmitting (Tx) antenna array resonating at 2.4 GHz and a receiving [...] Read more.
In this paper, we investigate the enhancement of RF–RF energy harvesting efficiency (erf–rf) in multipath environments in the context of wireless power transfer (WPT). For this, we used a retrodirective transmitting (Tx) antenna array resonating at 2.4 GHz and a receiving (Rx) antenna surrounded by scatterers placed in the Rx near field. The Rx resides in the Tx far field. We showed that in a medium made of a random distribution of scatterers, a time-reversed wave field interacts with the random medium to regenerate not only the propagating waves but also the evanescent waves required to refocus the energy at the receiver location. The system was enclosed inside a 3 m3 cubical reverberating room to create a strong multipath environment. The study was done for homogeneous (free space) and heterogeneous (multipath environment) media. Different WPT scenarios were considered for different applications: 4 × 1, 4 × 2 and 4 × 4 multi input-multi output (MIMO) systems. The simulation results show that using near-field scattering generates signal focusing at the source location, which increases the RF–RF energy harvesting efficiency, especially in a multipath environment. The average received power in the frequency band 2.4–2.5 GHz was greatly enhanced in the presence of the scatterers. The investigated WPT approach showed encouraging results for charging/powering-up sensors, IoT and smart devices in indoor environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices)
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12 pages, 4308 KiB  
Article
Dual-Domain Maximum Power Tracking for Multi-Input RF Energy Harvesting with a Reconfigurable Rectifier Array
by Mu-Chun Chen, Tsung-Wen Sun and Tsung-Heng Tsai
Energies 2022, 15(6), 2068; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15062068 - 11 Mar 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1564
Abstract
This work proposes a dual-domain maximum power tracking (MPPT) technique for multiple-input RF energy harvesting systems. A differential rectifier array is used to implement 4-channel reconfigurable RF to DC power conversion, and an adjustable 4-bit capacitor array is designed to improve the impedance [...] Read more.
This work proposes a dual-domain maximum power tracking (MPPT) technique for multiple-input RF energy harvesting systems. A differential rectifier array is used to implement 4-channel reconfigurable RF to DC power conversion, and an adjustable 4-bit capacitor array is designed to improve the impedance matching between the antennas and the rectifiers. Using the perturbation and observation (P&O) method, both arrays are adaptively configured in the background with the variations of the input energy and output loading. Experimental results show that the proposed circuit successfully tracks the maximum power points while harvesting RF energy, with the peak conversion efficiency of 49.06% when the input energy is −6 dBm. With the proposed dual-domain MPPT, the high efficiency range of the energy harvesting system is greatly extended to 21 dB (−21–0 dBm). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices)
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23 pages, 1082 KiB  
Article
A Resistor-Network Model of Dickson Charge Pump Using Steady-State Analysis
by Abdullah S. Aloqlah and Mohammad Alhawari
Energies 2022, 15(5), 1899; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/en15051899 - 04 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2960
Abstract
This paper presents a new average behavioral model, named a resistor-network (RN) model, that accurately predicts the electrical characteristics of the Dickson charge pump (DCP) circuit in the slow-switching limit and the fast-switching limit regions based on steady-state analysis. The RN model describes [...] Read more.
This paper presents a new average behavioral model, named a resistor-network (RN) model, that accurately predicts the electrical characteristics of the Dickson charge pump (DCP) circuit in the slow-switching limit and the fast-switching limit regions based on steady-state analysis. The RN model describes the steady-state behavior of a single-stage DCP using a network of resistors, which can then be cascaded to model N-stage DCP, taking into account the top- and bottom-plate parasitic capacitances. The RN model provides a comprehensive insight into various design parameters of the DCP, including the input/output current, output voltage, load characteristics, losses caused by parasitics, and power efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed RN model accurately predicts the output voltage and power efficiency of the DCP over a wide range of switching frequencies, from 0.1 Hz to 1 GHz, with an error of less than 2% at the maximum power efficiency. The RN model provides designers with a simple and effective model to design DCP quickly and efficiently for a broad spectrum of applications, including energy harvesting and flash memory applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Harvesting Circuits and Systems for Low-Power IoT Devices)
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