Published May 17, 2015 | Version v1
Conference paper Open

3DlInkjet-printed Origami Antennas for Multi-direction RF Harvesting

Creators

  • 1. Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 2. Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC)

Description

A system design is presented for radio frequency (RF) energy harvesting on wireless sensor network (WSN) nodes, where all electronics reside inside a 3D structure and the antennas lie on the surfaces of it. Additive manufacturing techniques are used for the packaging and antenna fabrication: A 3D-printed cross-shaped structure is built that folds to a cuboid in an “origami” fashion and retains its shape at room temperature. Inkjet printing is used to directly fabricate antennas on the surfaces of the 3D-printed plastic, enabling a fully additive manufacturing of the structure. Multiple antennas on the cube's surfaces can be used for RF energy harvesting of signals arriving from totally orthogonal directions, with the use of an appropriate harvester. The system modules (cube, antenna, harvester) are described and characterized, offering a proof-of-concept for the combination of fabrication techniques to build systems for demanding RF applications.

Notes

Grant numbers : This work was supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya under grant 2014 SGR 1551, and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds through the project TEC2012-39143 (SOSRAD). The authors would also like to acknowledge EU COST Action IC1301 "Wireless Power Transmission for Sustainable Electronics (WIPE).© 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.

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