Enhanced Indoor Light Energy Harvesting Exploiting Over-The-Air Pulse Shaping

This paper aims to enhance indoor light energy harvesting for Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in the context of simultaneous light and information power transfer (SLIPT). We use the time-delayed optical transmission from multiple sources to construct a near-constant waveform, which we term the waveform shaping method. Thanks to its perfect match with the response of the photovoltaic panel, the energy-converting efficiency can be boosted. We built a complete simulation procedure and real-world testbed to showcase the feasibility of the proposed approach. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the ability to improve light energy harvesting by up to 24% compared to synchronized optical transmission. These insights pave the way for investigating the trade-offs between data and energy transfer within SLIPT systems.