http://dx.doi.org/10.9728/jcc.2022.06.4.1.

401 401

RF energy harvesting system for charging

mobile phones

Nuhu Bello Kontagora1, Idris Aji Dauda1, Yahaya Zurmi1, Nanre Banwat
Sharon1, Sangwon Oh2, Ibrahim Aliyu2
1
Department of Computer Engineering, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
2
Department of ICT Convergence System Engineering, Chonnam National University,
Gwangju, 61186, South Korea
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. As mobile phone consumers demand mobility and convenience in

charging/recharging the batteries, there is a need to consider new recharging meth-
ods from the conventional method. This paper examines the levels of energy that
can be harnessed from the atmosphere and achieve power sufficient to charge a
mobile phone. This is achieved by collecting the ambient frequency signals in the
air using an antenna and sending the collected signal to a voltage multiplier circuit
that converts it into a DC signal. The DC signal is then stored in a super-capacitor
and used to charge a mobile phone. Unlike previous works, we proposed using a
voltage doubler and battery storage for a steady system. The proposed system
shows a significant efficiency in harness RF energy for mobile phone charging.

Keywords: RF energy harvesting system, DC signal, mobile phone charging

1 Introduction

Mobile phones have become an integrated part of our lives, with current users at
about 7.26 billion, accounting for about 91.54% of the population [1]. However, the
phone requires power energy recharging to perform its function. Existing tech-
niques of charging power mobile phones include directly plunging the mobile to a
power source, power banks, solar power phone charges or wireless power transfer.
However, the charging and recharging of mobile phones have become a key chal-
lenge as the demand for mobility and convenience is ever-increasing. With wireless

This is an Open Access article distrib-

Received 01 April 2022
uted under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-Commer- Revised 21 April 2022
cialLicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- Accepted 05 May 2022
nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the *Corresponding Author;
original work is properly cited. Nuhu Bello Kontagora
JCC ⓒ Journal of Contents Computing
Tel: ※ 개인정보 표시제한
Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 401-416, Jun. 2022 E-mail: [email protected]

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402 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

power transfer, there is mobility and convenience to some extent, but the major
limitation is power can only be transferred within a certain distance.
Energy harvesting is one of the best techniques for recharging mobile phones,
which logically results in increased autonomy of the device and guarantees conven-
ience. There are vast sources of energy that can be harnessed; examples are; human
movements (kinetic energy harvesting), body temperature (Seebeck and Peltier ef-
fects) as well as ambient energy such as solar and Radio Frequency (RF) waves. In
particular, RF is an electric energy that travels through the air by ionizing the me-
dium on its paths. The RF energy can be easily found in the surroundings as it is
used widely by many industries and devices like television broadcasting, telecom-
munication, microwave etc. It is always available, free and efficient.
The main purpose of this study is to examine the levels of energy that can be
harnessed from the atmosphere and to achieve power that is sufficient enough to
charge a mobile phone. This is achieved by collecting the ambient frequency signals
in the air using an antenna and sending the collected signal to a voltage multiplier
circuit that converts it into a DC signal. The DC signal is then stored in a super-
capacitor and used to charge a mobile phone. We proposed using a voltage doubler
and battery storage for a steady system. Thus, we set out to achieve the following
key objectives:
1. Design a Radio Frequency harnessing system for charging the mobile
phone
2. Simulate and implement the design in (1)
3. Evaluate and validate the implemented system's performance using per-
centage conversion and charging efficiency.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents related works,
section 3 discusses the methodology and system implementation, section 4 pre-
sents the results, and section 5 concludes the paper

2 Related Works

RF energy harvesting circuit is principally based on the voltage multiplier circuit,

which was invented by Heinrich Greinacher in 1919. There are two major arrange-
ments of RF energy harvesting circuit, Villard voltage doubler, sometimes also
called Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier and Dickson voltage multiplier. Ac-
cording to Yan, et al. [2], Both Villard and Dickson's topology reveals no significant
difference in performance. However, Villard topology is adopted in this study be-
cause it employs a parallel configuration of capacitors in each stage, reducing the
circuit impedance and simplifying the matching task. The review of related studies
is provided as follows

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Shinki, et al. [3], described the design of a high-efficiency radio frequency en-
ergy harvesting circuit system with an integrated microstrip antenna. The circuit
comprises a series of resonance and boost rectifier circuits for rectifying radio fre-
quency signals into enhanced direct current (DC) voltage. They obtained an output
DC voltage of 5.67 V for an input of 100 mV at 900 MHz. The antenna input im-
pedance matching was optimized for maximum power transfer. An efficiency of
about 60% was measured for 4.85 dBm input power and a load resistance of 20 kW
at 905 MHz using an antenna-integrated energy harvester. However, the radio fre-
quency source for this work is dedicated, and the power with which the frequency
is transmitted is predetermined. Adam, et al. [4], described the design and imple-
mentation of a 7-stage doubler for RF energy harvesting. A modified Dickson con-
figuration was used for this work, which consists of two HSMS 2850 Schottky di-
odes and two capacitors for each stage. Their aim was to analyze the performance
of a dickson configuration voltage doubler and matching network in RF energy har-
vesting. Simulation results show an advance for the doubler circuit with a matching
network compared to the doubler alone. They achieved a Maximum of 60% im-
provement in rectified output at low input power. However, this design was only
simulated and there was no implementation. Also, Krishnachaitanya and
Pushpalatha [5] proposed using a quarter-wave whip antenna to target the 915Mhz
frequency. The antenna is similar to that used on car radios-It was used because of
its fairly large operating frequency range. This was helpful because an antenna's
precise tuning is not required. A voltage multiplier was used to rectify the signal
gotten from the antenna. For proper operation of a quarter-wave whip antenna, a
relatively large ground plane is needed, affecting the system's compactness.
Furthermore, Schauwecker [6] introduced the incorporation of a band-pass filter
and a matching network along with other RF energy harvesting circuitry. The an-
tenna used to test the processing circuitry proposed in this study was fabricated to
target two frequency bands: the 2.4GHz WiFi band, which involves frequencies in
the range of 2.41GHz-2.46GHz, and the 5GHz WiFi band, which involves frequen-
cies in the range of 5.18GHz-5.82GHz. The design was performed with an emphasis
on channel 6 of the 2.4GHz WiFi band (2.426-2.448GHz), as this is the frequency
band on a majority of WiFi routers. However, the involvement of a band-pass filter
makes the design more complex and increases the overall cost of the system. Mean-
while, a rectifying antenna (rectenna) was also employed to harvest ambient RF
energy from cell phone towers at 900 MHz GSM band [7]. The proposed circuit
was a combination of rectifying circuits using Schottky diode and RMPA for mi-
crowave (RF) to DC conversion. The designed rectenna design has proved to be a
low-cost device for wireless power transfer and RF energy harvesting. GSM900
band was used as it is the most commonly used band for mobile communications.
This rectenna has a return loss of around 17 dB at a frequency of around 900 MHz.
This design can be improved by adding a matching network for maximum power
transfer. Narayana, et al. [8] proposed the use of a rectenna-based rectangular mi-
crostrip patch antenna and rectifier designed at 2.45GHz with a return loss of less
than -20dB. A microstrip patch antenna was chosen for this work because of its

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404 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

lightweight, planar structure, and low profile. The design of the Rectenna is
achieved using AWR for energy harvesting. Finally, the performance of the fabri-
cated system (Rectenna) was measured on the network analyzer which was closely
matched with a loss of around -20bB and an impedance of about 50Ω. However,
this system targets a single frequency band which is not always available in the
ambient environment.
In addition, Uzun [9] considered all the available parameters and designed a new
triple band RF energy harvester by using Advanced Design System (ADS) simula-
tion software. The proposed design is more efficient with its current form and pro-
vides broadband working frequencies. The output power and efficiencies of each
circuit have been obtained from the software by using different input RF power,
load resistance and the number of stages in voltage doubler at WiFi 2.45 GHz, DTV
575 MHz and GSM 900 MHz frequencies. This makes up a triple band RF energy
harvester. The system conversion efficiencies for various input power levels are
about 30% at 2.45 GHz, 55% at 575 MHz and 45% at 900 MHz,. The average con-
version efficiency is obtained to be 43% for the three systems. This conversion ef-
ficiency can be increased by integrating a matching network between the antenna
and the rectifying circuit for maximum power transfer. Sivaramakrishnan and
Jegadishkumar [10] proposed the use of an ideal power source offering an imped-
ance of 50Ω to deliver power ranging from -5dBm to 40dBm. This RF power range
was considered because the RF signals transmitted from the network towers travel
at a power ranging from -5dBm to 40dBm. A resonant circuit was also included,
which resonates in the frequency range of 0.9GHz to 1.8GHz. This is the frequency
range the mobile service providers are allowed to transmit, hence why they chose
this frequency range. The resonant circuit was obtained by adding an inductor to the
circuit. In order to cover a wide band, the inductor's quality factor is stepped down
by adding resistance to the inductor. This helps in boosting the output power for a
range of frequencies. The RF range can be modified by tuning the impedance
matching circuit, which also acts as a resonant circuit. However, this work does not
exploit the boosting ability of a voltage multiplier circuit. Also, Nintanavongsa [11]
proposed a dual-stage RF energy harvesting system composed of a seven-stage and
ten-stage design, the seven-stage being more receptive in the low input power re-
gions. In contrast, the ten-stage is more appropriate for a higher power range. Each
stage was made to be a modified voltage doubler. Secondly, the design was fabri-
cated on a printed circuit board to establish how such a circuit can run a commercial
Mica2 sensor mote. With a simple yet ideal dual-stage design, this experiment re-
vealed approximately 100% enhancement over other existing RF energy harvesting
systems in the power range of 20 to 7 dBm. However, this system can be improved
by adding a suitable matching network.

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3 Methodology

This section discusses the design and implementation of the RF energy harvest-
ing system. As shown in the block diagram in Figure 1, the system has an antenna
and three other functional blocks. The functional blocks include the matching net-
work, RF-DC converter, and charging circuit. Further details of the system design
and implementation are discussed in the next sections.

Fig. 1 System Block diagram

3.1 System Design

The architecture of the developed system is presented in Figure 2. The incident

RF power is converted into DC power by the voltage multiplier. The matching net-
work, composed of inductive and capacitive elements, ensures the maximum power
delivery from the antenna to the voltage multiplier. The energy storage ensures
smooth power delivery to the regulating circuit, which regulates the output voltage.
A power cable is attached to the output, which is used to charge the mobile phone.
The flow chart of the system is illustrated in Figure 3. The design considerations
are informed by considerations such as; increasing the number of multiplier stages,
giving higher voltage at the load and yet reducing the current through the final load
branch. This may result in unacceptable charging delays for the energy storage ca-
pacitor. Conversely, fewer stages of the multiplier will ensure quick charging of the
capacitor, but the voltage generated across it may be insufficient to charge a mobile
phone. Along similar lines, a slight change in the matching circuit parameters sig-
nificantly alters the frequency range in which the energy conversion efficiency is
maximum, often by several megahertz. Hence, RF harvesting circuits involve a
complex interplay of design choices, which must be considered together. We ad-
dress this problem by considering a multistage design of the voltage multiplier.

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406 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

Fig. 2 Architecture of the system

Fig. 3 System’s flow chart

3.2 System Implementation

The first stage in an RF energy harvesting circuit is a receiving antenna with the
ability to capture ambient RF signals. While this work does not involve the design
of an antenna, the basic characteristics of antennas will be discussed, as the anten-

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na's performance will impact the design and selection of components for the pro-
cessing circuitry. In the most basic sense, a receiving antenna converts an electro-
magnetic wave propagating in free space into an RF signal propagating on a trans-
mission line. Most antennas exhibit a property known as reciprocity, meaning the
antenna will have the same radiation pattern for transmission and reception. The
antenna used for this design is a 4G LTE antenna, which covers all mobile network
bands.
Matching network has a very crucial task to reduce losses which are known as
transmission losses resulting from signal loss between antenna and rectifier circuit.
Impedance matching is an important term associated with it. The antenna is said to
be perfectly matched or has impedance matching if the antenna's output impedance
and the load's input impedance are conjugates. For this study, a simple Series
lumped element inductor and quarter wavelength short circuit shunt stub is going to
be used to achieve 50 Ω impedance (see Figure 4).

Fig. 4 Matching Network Simulation

A voltage doubler was simulated on the Proteus simulation tool. A Villard volt-
age doubler approach was adopted for this work, and it is designed in five stages,
as shown in Figure 5. The number of stages in the system has the greatest effect on
the output voltage. The capacitance, both in the stages and at the end of the circuit,
affects the speed of the transient response and the stability of the output signal. The
number of stages is directly proportional to the amount of voltage obtained at the
system's output. Generally, the output voltage increases as the number of stages
increases. For this study, a five-stage voltage doubler is adopted.

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408 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

The voltage doubler was implemented on a dotted Vero-board. The components

that constitute the circuit are diodes and capacitors. After some design calculations,
it was ascertained that the capacitor values needed are 100uF and Schottky diodes
were selected for their very low forward voltage. Figure 6 shows the voltage doubler
implementation.

Fig. 5 Voltage Doubler Simulation

Fig. 6 Front-View of the Voltage Doubler implementation

As one can easily guess, the output DC voltage from the voltage multiplier is
going to vary depending on the amount of ambient RF available in the surrounding.
This varying voltage may sometimes be higher than the required voltage to charge
the mobile phone. For this reason, a regulating circuit is essential to make sure the
output to the load does not surpass the required voltage. Most phones require a volt-
age within a range of 4-5V, a 7805 voltage regulator was chosen for this study to
stabilize the voltage at 5V. It is also important to control the amount of current that
gets to the phone-a 3Ω resistor is used for this purpose.
The battery bank to be charged is a collection of four lithium batteries, each with
3.7V connected in series. As one can easily guess, the output of this battery bank is
above 4.5V (3.7V x 4 = 14.8V, to be exact), which is the energy requirement of a
mobile phone. A 7805 voltage regulator is used to step down the output of the bat-
tery bank to charge a mobile phone. For current control, a limiting resistor is also

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used. The battery bank is connected to the RF energy harvester's output to charge
it; when needed, these batteries can be used to charge mobile phones.

3.2.1 Stage Capacitance and Diode Selection

The stage capacitance is challenging to work with (see Figure 7) as the capaci-
tance parameter is very sensitive, leading significant impact on the output voltage.
The surface mount capacitors are used to make the board and overall system as
small as possible. Each stage uses two capacitors, which are kept the same, but the
change is made from one stage to the next. If the first stage uses 100pF capacitors,
then the next stage would use 50pF. To halve the previous stage capacitor seemed
reasonable mainly for ease of testing and the availability of parts. The charge in a
capacitor can be express as:

Q = C ∗ V(t) (1)

In equation (1), the voltage in a capacitor is inversely proportional to the capac-

itance in relation to the charge.

Fig. 7 Stage Capacitance

The variable that has the least effect on the overall system is the output capaci-
tance, as shown in Figure 8. Generally, the value of this capacitor only affects the
speed of the transient response. The bigger the value for the output capacitance, the
slower the voltage rise time. This does not mean, however, that the smallest capac-
itor will work the best or that no capacitor should be used. Without a capacitor there,
the output is not a good DC signal but more of an offset AC signal, meaning that it
will be DC with ripple.

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410 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

Fig. 8 Output Capacitance

One of the crucial requirements for the energy harvesting circuit is to operate
with weak input RF power. For a typical 50-Ω antenna, the 20dBm received RF
signal power means an amplitude of 32mW. As the peak voltage of the AC signal
obtained at the antenna is generally much smaller than the diode threshold, diodes
with the lowest possible turn-on voltage are preferable. Moreover, since the energy
harvesting circuit operates at high frequencies, diodes with a very fast switching
time need to be used. Schottky diodes use a metal-semiconductor junction instead
of a semiconductor–semiconductor junction. This allows the junction to operate
much faster, and gives a forward voltage drop of as low as 0.15 V. For this study,
the LN6810 Schottky diode was used, which has a forward voltage of around 0.15V
at 1mA.

4 Results and Discussion

Proteus simulation tool was used to simulate most parts of the system. The sys-
tem's performance is also tested and evaluated, and the problems encountered dur-
ing the system's development are presented. A digital multimeter was used to meas-
ure the components' individual performance and the system's overall output.
Given an input of 0.9V at a frequency of 900MHz, the doubler gave an output of
3.5V. When the input was increased to 1.2V, an output of 7-8V was obtained. These
simulation results are for an ideal situation, the drop-down voltage across the ten
diodes used is not considered, and maximum power transfer is assumed between
the antenna and the voltage doubler. The results obtained from the simulation with
variation at the input is shown in Table 1. The variations in output with change at
the input is shown in Figure 9.

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Table 1. Voltage Doubler Simulation Results

Input Voltage Output Volt-

S/N Frequency (f)
(Vo) age(Vout)
1 0.9V 900MHz 3.5V
2 1.2V 900MHz 7.5V
3 1.5V 900MHz 9.5V
4 1.8V 900MHz 12.3V
5 2.1V 900MHz 15.1V

1
6
1
4
1
2
1
0

Input Output
Voltage Voltage

Fig. 9 Graph Showing Variation in Output with Change at Doubler Input

For the system's conversion efficiency, the increase obtained in the output
(Pdc) given an input (Prf) is shown in Table 2.

Table 2. Percentage Conversion Efficiency of the Developed System

S/N PRF (volts) PDC (volts) Efficiency (%)

1 0.57 0.91 59.65
2 0.46 0.78 69.56
3 0.52 0.87 67.31
4 0.54 0.89 64.81
5 0.47 0.77 63.83
6 0.51 0.79 54.90
7 0.49 0.79 61.22

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412 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

Average conversion efficiency = 63.04%. This conversion efficiency is the in-

crease obtained at the output, that is, each efficiency is an increase to 100% of the
input. The variations in the harvested power and the DC output are as shown in

Fig. 10 Graph Showing Harvested Power and DC Power

For the charging efficiency of the system, the battery charging efficiency is de-
scribed in Table 3.

Table 3. System's Charging Efficiency

S/N Time (minutes) Battery Capacity

(volts)
1 0 2.17
2 30 2.85
3 60 3.51

Charging efficiency after 30mins of charging:

𝑉2 − 𝑉1 2.85 − 2.17
= = 0.0226𝑉/𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑡2 − 𝑡1 30 − 0

Charging efficiency after another 30mins of charging:

𝑉2 − 𝑉1 3.51 − 2.85
= = 0.0220𝑉/𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑡2 − 𝑡1 60 − 30

Average charging efficiency:

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0226 + 0.0220
= 0.0223𝑉/𝑚𝑖𝑛
2

The charging efficiency of the system is as shown in Figure 11.

Fig. 11 Charging Efficiency of the System

The voltage doubler was tested after fabrication with a 4G LTE antenna with a
power of 80dB. The doubler is a five-stage voltage doubler consisting of ten diodes
and ten capacitors. An output voltage of around 700-900mV was realized at the
output. The output voltage is relatively small because of the drop-down voltages
incurred by the diodes. Each diode has a forward voltage of 0.15V; by multiplying
this value by ten (number of diodes), it can be deduced that around 1.5V was lost
within the circuitry. The diode series intended for this study was the HSMS 282x
diodes, but because of their unavailability in the market, the LN6810 diode was
used.
This research study is primarily empirical. There are many variables in the sys-
tem that can change the voltage that is developed. The stage capacitors need to be
optimized. The number of stages needs to be determined that, combined with the
capacitor values for each stage, will result in a sufficiently high voltage level to turn
on the phone and charge the phone's battery. Also, a capacitor can be used across
the output as a filter to provide a flat DC signal and store charge. The value of that
capacitance also needs to be determined. There are no fixed parameters for any of
these values.
The major challenge encountered during this was the high efficiency of mobile
phone antennas. The mobile network frequency is transmitted with a very low
power compared to other frequency bands. This was a challenge because even
though there is a mobile network signal, the power with which it is transmitted is
low. Therefore, the energy that can be harnessed from it is relatively low.

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414 RF energy harvesting system for charging mobile phones

5 Conclusion

A Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting (RFEH) system for charging mobile

phones was successfully designed, developed, tested and evaluated. The presence
of ambient radio frequency in the environment was explored, converting it into us-
able energy that can be used to charge our mobile phones. Although several works
have been done on this subject, this work presented the use of a voltage doubler and
battery storage for a more steady system. The energy stored in the batteries can later
be used to charge a mobile phone. The system's conversion efficiency was evaluated
to be 163.04%, and the charging efficiency was found to be 0.0223V/min. This work
can be improved by the use of a more suitable diode and/or a dedicated RF source.
A major challenge encountered is the mobile network's low power frequency trans-
mission, resulting in a relatively low power harvest. For future works, a dedicated
RF source can be developed to ensure the availability of sufficient RF at all times.
Another issue to look at is the use of the HSMS 282x diode series, which has a very
low voltage drop tending towards zero at 1mA.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Institute of Information & communications Tech-

nology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government(MSIT)
(2021-0-02068, Artificial Intelligence Innovation Hub).

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