Rectifier Circuits for RF Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer Applications: A Comprehensive Review Based on Operating Conditions

Low-power wireless sensors will play a big role in smart city applications. These sensors require a power supply to function. Batteries are not optimal for such numerous sensor networks because of their limited life and need for regular maintenance; hence, they are not a universal solution. RF energy harvesting (RFEH) and wireless power transfer (WPT) techniques have the potential to be a green and sustainable solution for supplying power to various low-power devices by capturing ambient RF energy. The ubiquitous nature of RF energy makes it available to exploit and reutilize in power wireless sensor nodes, wireless body area networks, wireless charging systems, RFID tags, and the Internet of Things [1], [2]. Figure 1(a) displays a conceptual diagram of an RFEH/WPT system. To capture power from free space that is transmitted by the base station, the harvesting node needs a receiving antenna and rectifier to convert the power into dc signals. This dc output is then further utilized to feed a low-power device. Figure 1(b) shows that at 10-m distance from the cellular tower, a digital batteryless watch was powered by a rectenna operating at 1.8 GHz. This LCD watch (low-power device) required 1.5 V to function and was successfully powered up using the RFEH system [3].