Ambient Wireless Power Harvesting Sensor Platforms (WPHSP)

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The goal of this research is to develop new, ambient, power-harvesting devices that along with capacitors can replace or augment batteries. Such power harvesters can be useful to supply power in environments that are either moist or exposed to extreme temperatures below freezing or over 60 degrees Celsius in which batteries cannot operate or can explode. Batteries also leach toxic heavy metals into the soil and water around it due to which they cannot be left outdoors or in the ground beyond its usable shelf-life. The immediate focus in the short term is to develop new types of power harvesters that can harvest, collect and use power present in ambient wireless digital-TV and cellular uplink signals that permeate the air in most cities and towns in Canada and the U.S. Such a pervasive power source can be useful in replacing or augmenting batteries in various applications that are spread out over large areas. Terrestrial TV signals can be used to power or augment batteries in strain and crack sensors for structural health-monitoring of buildings, bridges and power utility equipment. Wireless emissions from cell phones, part of which typically get absorbed by the body, can augment batteries in smart-watches and fitness bands thereby increasing standby time and battery-life. Development of these wireless harvesting sensor platforms (WPHSP) will involve designing and integrating the following components: conformal and self-tuning wave transducers such as flexible antennas, which can adjust its frequency resonance to line up with TV and cellular channels; active and tunable matching networks to lower reflection losses that are typical with radio frequency signals; new and digitally-controlled RF-DC power converters with high efficiencies at microwatt levels; energy-aware embedded software in ultra low-power 16-bit processors; ultra low-power charge supervisors to run strain sensors and wearable electronics from varying levels of harvested wireless power. These platforms will also be customized to harvest power from sources that resonate at different frequencies such as electrical noise and vibration in machinery, power lines and pipelines to replace or improve battery life in sensors and low-power M2M relays for event monitoring and control. Such harvesters can be useful to a number of industries such as consumer electronics, defense/security, healthcare, agriculture, logistics, power utilities and oil and gas. Power harvesting has been listed as one of IBM’s top five innovations with the potential to change the way people live, work and interact with the physical world in the coming decade. The proposed research hopes to establish the first of its type power-harvesting research initiative in the province of Alberta, which aligns with the provincial and University of Calgary’s strategic research plans to become a top Canadian research university.