You’ve heard of wireless charging and the likes, but what about tapping into energy from thin air?

Believe it or not, electromagnetic energy surrounds us and comes from communication sources, such as radio and television transmitters, mobile phone networks, and satellite communications systems. Energy is transmitted in different frequency ranges and bands from these devices.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a device that is able to tap into this energy, and harvest power from the sources. This new way has been said to be able to power small electronic devices, such as wireless sensors, microprocessors, and communication chips.

The team from Georgia Institute of Technology has created these scavenging devices that use a combination of sensors, antennas, flexible polymers, and inkjet-printing technology.

“We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges,” Professor of Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Manos Tentzeris, said.

This gives them a better capability to gather power. The team’s current devices can capture a range of (100 MHz to 15 GHz, or higher) frequencies from FM radios to radars, and are able to generate hundreds of milliwatts from TV bands. They also capture and convert energy from AC (alternating current) to DC (direct current), and store them in capacitors and batteries.

Tentzeris and his team believe that in the future, self-powered wireless paper-based sensors could be used for many applications. They could be used to sense chemical-, biological-, heat- and stress-related issues. These include monitoring: security threats, temperature and humidity, structural integrity of buildings, food quality, and medical issues.

Through this, we could also look forward to saving costs on energy.





[via Georgia Institute of Technology]


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