MREHS: Implementaion of MPPT-based RF Energy Harvesting System for Electrical Appliances

Power crisis is a major hurdle to the progress of the industrial world. Many new approaches for energy harvesting are under consideration, but their success in different environments is still to be seen. Among others, RF energy has gained tremendous attention as eco-friendly power source. In this work, we present a model of RF energy harvesting system based on RFID technology with maximum power point tracking (MPPT). Using the MPPT principle of Perturbation and Observation (P&O), an MPPT-based RF energy harvesting system (MREHS) was constructed for energy harvesting. In this approach, the controller adjusts the voltage by a small amount from the array and measures power; if the power increases, further adjustments in that direction are made until power no longer increases. This approach, also referred to as hill-climbing method, depends on the rise of the curve of power against voltage below the maximum power point and the fall above that point. This MPPT-based power model is remarkable because of its ease of implementation and improvement of top-level efficiency. Several functional units and circuitries are implemented to stimulate the system. An outstanding feature of this system is non-linear, scalable implementation with consistent operating conditions and improved output gained by optimized design. The performance of the model is evaluated by experimenting with light loads, whose results are very close to simulation results.