A 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz multiplier design for RF energy harvester in wireless sensor network

Abstract

Nowadays, RF energy harvesting has become increasingly popular in green technology due to the high rise of the television base stations, mobile phone base stations, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and others. Many works have been done on harvesting the RF energy. However, the RF energy available around is too small and the conversion efficiency at the multiplier part is very low. Thus in this work, the multiplier part of the RF energy harvesting circuit has been designed to change the low RF energy collected from the receiving antenna from AC to DC focusing on low RF input. Two different frequencies will be focused on 1.8 and 2.4 GHz. Dickson multipliers are designed, simulated and optimized using Advanced Design System. The final Dickson multiplier design for each frequency satisfied the requirement set to operate at a low input power with efficiency of 6.5 % (0.96 V) and 5 % (0.76 V) at 0 dBm for 1.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz respectively. This paper can be a reference for future design of 1.8 and 2.4 GHz RF energy harvesting circuit.