An Inkjet-Printed Solar-Powered Wireless Beacon on Paper for Identification and Wireless Power Transmission Applications

Sangkil Kim*, Apostolos Georgiadis, Ana Collado, Manos M. Tentzeris

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the design of an 800-MHz solar-powered active wireless beacon composed of an antenna and an integrated oscillator on a low-cost paper substrate. Inkjet printing is used to fabricate the conductive circuit traces and the folded slot antenna, while the oscillator circuit is designed using off-the-shelf components mounted on the paper substrate. Flexible, low-cost, amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells are placed on top of the slot ground and provide autonomous operation of the active circuit eliminating the use of a battery. A prototype is built and characterized in terms of phase noise, radiation patterns, and the effect of solar irradiance. Such low-cost flexible circuits can find significant applications as beacon generator circuits for real-time identification and position purposes, wearable biomonitoring as well as solar-to-wireless power transfer topologies. The measured phase noise is 116 dBc Hz at 1-MHz offset, while drain current is 4 mA and supply voltage is 1.8 V.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4178-4186
Number of pages9
JournalIEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume60
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2012

Keywords

  • Active antennas
  • energy harvesting
  • flexible electronics
  • harmonic balance
  • inkjet printing
  • solar antenna
  • wireless beacon
  • wireless energy transfer
  • wireless identification
  • LOW-COST
  • ANTENNAS
  • SUBSTRATE
  • BAND

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