Multi-source energy harvesting for lightweight applications

This thesis analyzes, designs and tests circuit topologies for simultaneous energy harvesting from solar and 915-MHz RF energy sources. An important design objective is to minimize system weight while maximizing output power and operating time for applications in the sub-170-mg and single-mW ranges. The resulting energy harvesting system uses a unique approach of categorizing the harvesters as primary and auxiliary harvesters due to the power levels of each in relation to the high load demand. This work results in a 162-mg supercapacitor-powered system capable of powering a 2-V load at up to approximately 2-3 mW and a 150-mg battery-powered system capable of powering a 2-V load at up to 6 mW. The auxiliary RF harvester uses a fully-integrated charge pump to impedance-match to a rectenna with greater than 94% matching. The parasitic models developed for the RF harvester show errors less than 1.4% in the measured system.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Oliva, Alexander

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jeffrey H. Lang and Paul A. Ward.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/119580