A Multi-band Solution for Interacting with Energy-Neutral Devices

Abstract: RF Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) emerges as a technology for charging autonomous devices, enabling simultaneous power and information transfer. However, with increasing distance, single-input, single-channel rectenna systems are not able to meet the power requirements of large scale IoT applications. In this paper, we tackle this problem on two levels. First, we minimize the energy consumption at the energy-constrained device on three levels. Second, we evolve to a dual-band solution increasing RF WPT. One frequency band is used to provide a base charge to many nodes in a shared transmission. Beam steering, on the other hand, allows for more power hungry operations while introducing as minimal interference as possible. We showcase this method for a hybrid RF-acoustic positioning system. Practical measurements conducted in a multi-antenna indoor testbed (Techtile) show the additional power gain and positioning rate.