An thermoelectric and RF multi-source energy harvesting system

Abstract

A multiple-source energy harvesting system is proposed to harvest the thermal and RF energy sources efficiently. The proposed architecture combines a multi-input boost converter with an RF rectifier for DC and AC energy harvesting simultaneously. To achieve the maximum power extraction from an RF rectifier, an equivalent circuit model of the RF rectifier is developed for design consideration. The proposed system is implemented in a 40-nm CMOS technology, and simulated results demonstrate the proposed multiple-source energy harvesting system can deliver the maximum output power of 36 mW.