Dynamically Reconfigurable UWB Antenna Using an FET Switch Powered by Wireless RF Harvested Energy

Abstract

A dynamically reconfigurable dual-layer UWB antenna integrated with an energy harvesting system for powering a GaAs FET switch is presented. The UWB antenna dynamically creates a notch-band in the presence of an interfering signal at 5.6 GHz and it goes back to normal UWB operation when the interferer is removed. For the switching operation, the FET switch is powered using only harvested energy carried by the interfering signals. The UWB antenna on the front layer is a microstrip-fed monopole with an embedded elliptical slot. Inside the slot a quarter wavelength linear stub acts as a resonator and it is connected and disconnected using the low-power FET switch. The UWB antenna shares the RF ground with a very compact energy harvesting system, that consists of a planar inverted-F antenna, a very compact voltage doubler rectifier and a passive DC-to-DC boost converter. The boost converter elevates the rectified voltage to above the 3.3 V threshold, which is the minimum voltage needed for the actuation of the FET switch. The dynamic notch-band reconfiguration of the UWB antenna without the need for any external DC power source is made possible when the collected power at the input of the rectifier is higher than -12 dBm.

Ultra-wide band energy harvesting for ultra-low power electronics applications

“…and an effective antenna area of = 1 2 , results in a theoretically estimated spatial power density of = 0.3 / 2 . The hypothesized antenna size is comparable to many of the state-of-the-art antenna designs published on UWB energy harvesting [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Moreover, it is clear that the theoretically expected value of = 0.3 / 2 is comparable to the values listed in Table 1 for RF EH techniques, which are based on much narrower frequency bands and much larger antenna dimensions, accordingly.…”

Hybrid organic–inorganic perovskites as microwave radiation switches

“…In highly integrated devices, which have to support multiple communication standards simultaneously, a reconfigurable filter can help reduce the total number of filters which would benefit the miniaturization of devices. Switching with smart materials is considered to be an efficient alternative to classical techniques for microwave switching, such as p-i-n diodes, 25,26 microelectromechanical systems, 27,28 field effect transistors, 29,30 etc. For example, successful switching has been shown by dielectric anisotropy control in liquid crystals.…”

A miniaturized microstrip antenna with tunable double band-notched characteristics for UWB applications

“…The notched band UWB antenna with reconfigurable and tunable characteristics have been implemented through using PIN diodes [35][36][39][40], varactor diodes [37][38][39][40][41] and other active components(i.e. capacitors [42], FETs [43] and MEMS switches [44]). In [35], the dual band-notched UWB slot antennas with switchable characteristics have been achieved by introducing two PIN diodes across the slot on the radiating patch.…”